Spanish lessons for Children

How do you teach your child Spanish if you are not bilingual yourself?

Raising bilingual children is a hot topic in the news nowadays. More and more Latino families are recognizing the value of raising their kids to speak both English and Spanish. But what happens if you are English dominant and don’t speak the language at home? What if you don’t have the luxury of sending your child to a dual language immersion school because there’s either not one in your area, or you didn’t win the “admission lottery?”

Luckily more resources are hitting the market as more parents seek online programs and Spanish learning curricula that they can use at home with their kids. Listed below are five Spanish programs for home use.

Sonrisas is a complete preschool and elementary Spanish curriculum created by two Spanish teachers with 30 collective years of experience. There is a strong literature component to this comprehensive, research- and standards-based program that teaches cultural traditions in addition to the language. It is influenced by three particular methodologies: the Total Physical Response (TPR), the Natural Approach (NA), and the Waldorf foreign language approach. Both the TPR and NA methods are based on ESL techniques and incorporate movement to improve learning. The Waldorf approach places heavy emphasis on learning the culture associated with the language, making the learning process very personal and authentic. This program includes art activities, story time, singing, and more. It’s perfect for kids ages 9 and under.

PetraLingua is an online language course for kids ages 3 to 12. The courses cover the curriculum of the first two to three years of foreign language learning at schools, and are a great choice for homeschoolers, as well as for classroom use. The program works on Windows, MAC, iPad, iPhone, as well as on Android tablets and phones. For parents who would prefer materials they can use at home instead of an online program, PetraLingua has recently launched complete multimedia language learning sets that include DVDs, CDs, an activity book, playing cards, and hand puppets. This company offers many different language choices, including Spanish.

Calico Spanish is a full-immersion program that provides parents with all the tools they could possibly need to help their children learn a second language. Each lesson contains songs, calendar time, a specific number, letter, and color, games, “zoo” time/animal introduction, activities and a final closing that may be taught over a one- to two-week period.