Eggcellent ways to keep kids engaged with their language learning over Easter
April 18, 2022 2023-07-15 13:04Eggcellent ways to keep kids engaged with their language learning over Easter
Eggcellent ways to keep kids engaged with their language learning over Easter
LEARN&CO | LANGUAGE AGENCY The Easter holidays are a great time for kids to have fun while keeping up with their learning. And this includes languages! Unlike the stresses that come with Christmas, the Easter break can be the ideal time to try new educational activities and add a refresher to children‘s learning.
There are different methods you could try, depending on your child’s needs. Whether you want to support your little ones‘ language lessons in school or encourage them to pick up a new language. From French to Mandarin, you can help your children make the best out of Easter and become fluent in the future!Â
- Game and learn
- Get reading
- Stay entertained
- Get creative
- Travel this Spring
- Conclusion
Game and learn
Do you find your child constantly glued to their iPad or games console? You‘re definitely not alone there. But did you know you can use their love for gaming to help them learn languages? You might be pleased to learn there are ways to make their screen time a lot more productive. There are plenty of educational games and apps online that are free and easy to access. Duolingo ABC, Gus on the Go and Droplets are popular language learning apps tailored for children.Â
They teach language in enjoyable, bite-sized activities that don't feel like lessons at all.Â
From mastering alphabets to picking up new vocabulary, you can help revise whatever your child‘s learned in school or help them discover a whole new language. They are also structured so can be sure your children are really learning in a way that doesn‘t overwhelm them. By gamifying learning, you can keep kids engaged with their languages over Easter – all while having fun, together as a family! Another simple hack is to change kids‘ computer games settings to their target language. This is sure to get them practising words in a new context.Â
You can also try other educational activities including quizzes, word games, crosswords, puzzles in different languages. A lot of these are widely available online, just a click away. If you‘d prefer to go old-school, you can find several books packed with fun language activities and games in any major bookshop. Collins‘ Easy Learning series are ideal for casual home learning and very appealing to young children. This can help children with spelling and revising language vocabulary – without much effort from you at all.
Get reading
It can be hard to tear kids away from their Tik-Toks to get stuck into a book. This is where languages can help revive reading for your children. And the Easter break can be a perfect time to pass away the spring days reading. It‘s likely that your children haven‘t had much experience reading foreign language books. So why not be the one to show them something new?Â
From picture books to short stories, you can practise languages together as a family.
Quality reading materials can be found both online and offline quite easily. One great online resource is World Stories, where you can find free translations of brilliant short stories, both old and new, in multiple languages! You can try reading translations of popular children‘s books that your child likes to read, practising pronunciations together out loud, and testing vocabulary. Books with repetitive language are a great place to start. One tip would be to choose materials that your children find interesting so as not to bore them. It is the holidays after all!
There‘s also the Dual Language Readers series, where children‘s stories are presented side-by-side with English text. There‘s lots of ways to keep your kids engaged with their language learning over the Easter holidays. For tips on how to make the best out of your Kindle, this article from our Learn&Co team has exactly what you need.
Stay entertained
Bored of the same old shows? Why not watch something different this Easter? There are tons of foreign language TV shows and movies out there waiting to be discovered. You can find many of these just on Netflix – from Peppa Pig to Spongebob, your kids can enjoy great TV in Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin and Arabic. Short and sweet, these shows should keep your children entertained while expanding on their language skills. It‘s especially useful to use shows they‘re already familiar with, so that it‘s easier to adjust to hearing foreign languages.
It‘s been found that immersing in foreign language content can really boost language learning. And luckily, children are believed to have an advantage there. They‘re skilled at picking up new sounds and their brains are dynamic, naturally equipped to pick up second languages. Immersing your kids in foreign languages can passively benefit them in the future.
From boosting income to increasing employability, a second or third language could really improve prospects. And what better time to start learning than now? If you‘re looking to introduce your kids to new languages, Mandarin and Arabic are particularly useful and learning these from an early age is a brilliant idea. For more, check out this article from our Learn&Co team.
Get creative
When it comes to learning languages, there‘s always room for creativity. And this coming Easter is a perfect time to inject fun into your kids‘ Â language learning. One idea is to incorporate languages into everyday life and family activities. A simple way to do this is by labelling things around the house, getting your children to learn loads of new words. Maybe you‘ll be busy baking this Easter too, getting your hands dirty making hot cross buns and Easter biscuits with your little ones.
Cooking
You can keep them engaged with languages while in the kitchen, simply by testing vocabulary – French for flour, Spanish for chocolate and so on. Easy but effective ways to get kids thinking in different languages!
Role play
Another idea is to encourage children to use what they’ve used independently. They can tell stories, act out role plays, draw pictures, make scrapbooks – there’s something for every child out there. Do tap into your kids’ creative interests and connect with what kind of learner they are. If your child enjoys writing, why not get them to write an Easter diary in a second language. Or perhaps they’re a sports enthusiast – so think about how you can teach some relevant words and phrases.
You may have heard them singing Encanto or Frozen songs one too many times – how about learning the Spanish or Arabic language versions of their favourite tunes? The idea is to open up your kids to the world of foreign languages – and for that, there‘s no rules! Read on for more specific tips to support your child‘s learning, according to their age and level.
Travel this Spring
If you‘e really looking to get your kids stuck into another language, what better way is there than to travel abroad. And the Easter holidays give you ample time to discover a new country together as a family. With travel more accessible than before, there‘s several options for all families. And here at Learn&Co, we‘ve got loads of recommendations and resources to give you a holiday to remember. If you‘re wondering where to go next, let our Learn&Co team point you in the right direction. If you‘re thinking of Europe, Italy‘s a great spring and summer destination.
Trips to Europe are a lot more budget-friendly and you can do a whole lot in those 2 weeks off!
 From France to Italy to Germany, there‘s definitely something for all members of the family. And no doubt kids will have fun discovering the wonders of a new country in the spring sunshine. We‘ve also got great tips on where to go in Spain.Â
Any trip abroad will be a brilliant opportunity to engage kids directly with languages. From hearing their target language being spoken everywhere, to chatting to bilingual children to reading their target languages on signs, public transport and shops. It won‘t feel like learning at all!
So there you have it, a different take on Easter from Learn&Co – we hope you have success keeping the kids entertained this spring. And if you‘re looking for even more tips on language learning at home, we‘ve got you covered. Looking for more structured lessons for back to school? Don‘t hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about our tailored language tutoring. Happy Easter!
