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I’ve dreamed of raising bilingual kids since I was pregnant with my first. I knew of the benefits of immersing children in a second language from a young age and wanted to set them up for life! The only problem was… I wasn’t bilingual myself! Now I was regretting not having paid more attention during Spanish class at school.
However, luckily for me, it’s never too late to learn a new language! So after my first was born I began teaching myself Spanish (very slowly).
Now my kids are a little older, we’ve upped the anti a bit and I’m doing my best to provide an immersive home for them. The goal is to create as much exposure to the new language as possible, on a regular basis. Below I’ve outlined some of my favourite ways that encourage us to speak more Spanish day to day.
Songs and Music:
YouTube and Spotify are incredible for finding songs to help learn your Spanish. Before a child can read, language learning is done primarily audibly, so provide them with opportunities to HEAR the language as much as possible.
My kids learned their body parts in Spanish thanks (in part) to singing ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ so many times. The same is true for their days of the week, greetings and colours. Even my 2 year old sings along! You can play these songs whilst getting chores done at home, in the car on longer journeys or through a Yoto player if you have one (the make your own cards are great!). I’ve linked a few favourites below. Be sure to explore the rest of the Spanish songs on these channels too.
Cabeza, hombros, rodillas, pies (Head, shoulders knees and feet) in Spanish
Red is rojo – (The colours song) in Spanish
Buenos días – Good morning song in Spanish
Los días de la semana (Days of the week) song in Spanish
Bilingual Books:
We are a BIG book family. I think providing good quality books to your kids is so important. When we decided to learn Spanish I knew books would play a huge role in aiding that learning process.
Beginner Spanish vocabulary flipbook/ posters – Available on my TPT store, I wanted a place to hold all of our common, everyday vocabulary and I was struggling to find anything suitable. There is 19 pages each with a different everyday topic and I provide them in A5 size (for making a flipbook) and A4 size (for displaying as posters). I have the flipbook upstairs where we can review it before bed and the poster up on our kitchen wall as we spend a lot of time in there, so they make for easy reference.
Board books:
Mis primeras palabras – This book has been amazing for us! Simple enough for the kids to flip through on their own and even sound out (they’re not reading fluently yet) the Spanish words themselves.
Hide and Speak – Spanish words – I stumbled across this book at TK Maxx and it’s been a perfect fit. With lift the flaps and hundreds of simple, everyday Spanish words, its engaging for children and teaches them language they can use often.
Home-School Languages Spanish fairy tale books – We have been using the home-school languages Spanish level 1 curriculum. To go alongside it, I also purchased their fairy tale pack and I’m so glad I did. Spanish words are seamlessly worked into the otherwise English text, allowing you to gain context and learn the meanings of these words easily. Every paragraph has a glossary too. I read these aloud and have the kids tell me the English equivalent every time we come across a Spanish word, a system that has worked wonders.
My big barefoot book of Spanish and English words – I love the layout of this book, with different scenes and tonnes of words on each page and a loose story to follow, I thought it’d be a great book to add to our Spanish collection.
Stella Blackstone’s Spanish Bear books – There are a whole collection of bilingual bear books in this series, we have several of them. They are simple, fun and make for a great way to learn and practice new Spanish vocabulary!
Family Quizzes:
Every day we do mini quizzes to reinforce new words or phrases. Generally whilst out on a family walk, during bath time, dinner or even right before bed. But, I have found this consistency to be really helpful not just for the kids, but for us adults too. Alternatively, you can flip this idea on it’s head and get the kids to play quiz master to you, teaching a skill is a great way to practice.
When learning our Spanish colours we would often play I-Spy ‘I spy something coloured azul/ rojo etc…’ this really helped to cement them in the kids heads.
I also use these Spanish Colour by code worksheets for my oldest. She loves anything arty so they’ve been perfect to review/ test her retention of common Spanish vocabulary.
The colour by code worksheets are also available as part of my Spanish review worksheet pack. Topics include locations, body parts, colours, numbers, shapes, clothes, emotions, animals, foods and much more.
Using a puppet:
This is Alberto, our Spanish puppet. Admittedly, this idea was from our home-school languages curriculum where they recommend using a puppet. The key is to have the puppet ONLY speak the language you are trying to learn. I was apprehensive at first, thinking he would just be seen as a toy BUT the kids have gone wild for it. They love Alberto and try really hard to only speak to him in Spanish!
We use this gorilla puppet for our Alberto, but you can use any puppet you wish.
Labels around the house:
This idea was recently suggested to me by a friend and I loved it! She said they have stickers on furniture and other objects all around the home with their names in Spanish. I haven’t got around to doing this myself yet, but it’s on my list!
Consistency:
We try to integrate Spanish words and phrases into our routine as much as possible. Our morning and bed time routines involve both greeting and wishing each other ‘buenas noches y dulces sueños’ (good night and sweet dreams) in Spanish every single day. This structure has really helped to solidify their Spanish rather quickly. We also practice saying ‘!adiós! Hasta luego/pronto/mañana’ (goodbye, see you later/soon/tomorrow) when leaving friends and family too.
Teaching your children phrases they can use regularly and encouraging them to ask questions in Spanish is super helpful. A favourite of my kids is ‘tengo hambre’ (I am hungry) or ‘quiero comida, por favor’ (I want food, please). Make a point of learning the words for your favourite foods and drink and encourage their use as much as possible. Alternatively, bath time can be a fantastic opportunity to practice saying body parts in Spanish. For example, instructing your kids to ‘Lávate las manos’ (wash your hands) or ‘Lávate la cara’ (wash your face) in the bath.
Lastly, NEVER be afraid to mix languages. If you only know a few words out of the sentence in your second language, say it anyway! Fill in the words you don’t know in English. Children are far more resilient than we give them credit for and it rarely confuses them to hear 2 languages used side by side. If we are out and about and we see a brown cat, black dog, white sheep etc… we often say ‘Look! un perro negro’ or ‘Look! un gato marrón’. It may not seem like much, only knowing odd words here and there BUT this repeated exposure really makes a difference.