Children are very receptive to learning when they are having fun. This is why toddlers and preschoolers are encouraged to play and learn at the same time. Early childhood is a good period for learning a new language, which explains why the children of most immigrant families have no trouble learning the language of their new country and absorbing its culture and way of life. Even if you do not immigrate, you can teach your kids a new language in a fun way now that you have more time at home. Here, we’ll share 4 ways to make language learning fun for kids.
1. Use a Digital Approach
Most children today are exposed to modern technology and they know how to use gadgets and mobile devices at an early age. To make good use of this modern lifestyle in children, you can search for a quality English learning app for kids, as some of these are available online for free to make learning more interactive and interesting for kids. However, the better ones might cost you a few bucks - which won’t go in vain. Online sites and apps offering foreign language learning also incorporate digital technologies that make their teaching classes attractive and engaging. This is a constructive way of making your children utilize their time using tech gadgets.
2. Take the Learning Outdoors
Utilize your lawn or front yard for playing and learning language skills by incorporating your imagination and creativity. Make improvised outdoor games and add certain words or phrases for the children to read and understand. Start with simple words and easy games to keep the interest of the kids and retain their attention on what you are trying to teach. Introduce short pauses for reading and checking for retention then quickly resume the fun stuff. You can gradually progress to more complex lessons according to how easily they can grasp the key learning concepts.
3. Have Fun with Books
Don’t just let your kids read the books in your home. Let them have some fun activities with books other than reading. Depending on their age and reading capacity, make certain adjustments and create age-appropriate activities. For one, provide them with picture books with short and simple stories to attract their visual interest. Children love colorful books so start with storybooks that are more image-oriented and have short and interesting stories.
Also, you can let them play “book detectives” by encouraging them to guess what the story is about by looking at the cover or reading the title. If the story is well-known, let them guess the title by showing the cover image or some pictures in the pages. Another fun game is to let them be little “authors” by giving them colorful blank books and encourage them to share basic information and some fun facts about themselves. Give them the freedom to write about anything interesting they have experience or would like to share through their book.
4. Improvise Your Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts are fun games to play with kids. You can incorporate language learning ideas to teach them using this game. Again, the learning materials should match the age and learning capacity of the players (i.e., toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarten, elementary). Your scavenger hunt activities can be as simple as finding letters, identifying objects, finding items that they can make simple sentences with, and many other great ideas.
When it comes to teaching language skills to children, fun and learning should be side by side. Ideas, concepts, and principles are better conveyed to children when they are having fun. Thus, many learning facilities and resources incorporate fun and engaging methods, whether they are teaching kids face to face or online. Children have vast untapped learning potentials at an early age and this is a good way to develop their capacity for language learning
