Activities Geared Towards Kids Using Spanish At Home

Some of the best ways to reinforce Spanish language at home with your kids is to encourage a continued immersion even after being out of the classroom.

Share in Their Enthusiasm with Community Events

Young kids derive the importance and excitement of learning Spanish from their parents and adults around them. One way to impart and share in their enthusiasm for learning Spanish is to attend cultural and bilingual community events together. Great community events could be bilingual theater shows or concerts – and they’re fun for the whole family.

Try Your Child’s Favorite Movies in Spanish

You want to keep your kids immersed in the language at home, and the easiest thing for non-native speaking parents to do for their children is to put on their favorite movies in Spanish, which will allow kids to become familiar with the Spanish accents. Popular movie choices are the Disney princesses, The Lion King, and even Inside Out.

Other Spanish Activities for Children – Enjoy Spanish Music

Playing Spanish music around the house has a similar effect to watching Spanish movies. Both of these instances can result in the kids mimicking words, phrases, and accents. These methods will help the kids remember the language quickly when presented with their favorite songs, movies, or even characters. And just as important is that listening to the language in either music or in movies helps children learn the sounds and the phonetics of Spanish. Maybe the kids will like to listen to their favorite movie soundtrack, such as The Lion King, or try more educational songs, like those by 123Andrés, which will help them learn a range of vocabulary.

Read a Favorite Book in Spanish

Reading is another simple way for kids to be immersed in Spanish at home. Unlike English words, most Spanish ones are easy to sound out because they only have one sound per letter. Audiobooks are a great way to hear the actual Spanish pronunciations of the words in a child’s favorite book. It is helpful, when kids are learning to read, to have them read both Spanish and English books, and to read them aloud to you. Some favorite translated books for younger children are Goodnight Moon (Buenas Noche Luna) and The Very Hungry Caterpillar (La Oruga Muy Hambrienta). You can find many bilingual books through Scholastic’s Club Leo.

Practice Speaking Together

If you want some more interactive Spanish activities for children for the whole family to participate in, a good idea may be to set time during the day where the whole family tries to use only Spanish words. It will be a fun challenge for families to communicate with each other using only the Spanish words that they know and can remember. The practice will help solidify words in each of your memories and the lightheartedness of the activity will help kids have the right attitude about learning and using the language as a fun challenge.