5 Easy Tips to Teach your Kids Spanish for Free

Many places like day care centers boast how they can offer your children Spanish instruction. They charge you good money and you happily pay because you are a good parent. Giving your child every opportunity you can is your mission.

Save your money! Who needs or wants to spend extra money in this economy? Below are 5 easy tips to teach your kids some Spanish for free; without paying other places to do it! Later when your young ones are older, you can invest in a good language studio- Spanish in Atlanta! 🙂

Here are the 5 easy tips to teach your kids Spanish for FREE

1. Get your children’s favorite cartoons in Spanish!

Tip 1. Teach your kids Spanish by changing their environment. Let your kids watch their favorite show in a foreign language. Barney, Dora the explorer, Sesame Street, Sponge Bob and more are all available in Spanish. Try shopping online for used DVDs to get a great deal. Use YouTube or streaming services like Netflix. Most of these services offer foreign language programming & also the option to watch popular English movies & programming with Spanish audio free!

Check to see if your television provider offers SAP, Spanish audio for the program cartoon or t.v. show you want your children to watch. As a matter of fact, I am watching Popeye on Cartoon network in Spanish right now. Use the services you already pay for to help you learn a new language!

Lol I have Direct TV, so I just pressed the green button on my remote to change language audio. For those of you that use Roku or any service like it, you can download foreign language channels for free.

You can make them available on your list of channels on Roku. Do some research and of course be careful what content you download. Make sure the channel is appropriate for children.

• Here are a few great suggestions that may work out well for you on YouTube. **I have not watched all the videos from beginning to end so I highly recommend you do further research.

• Sesame Street episode in Spanish 1 hr
• Sesame Street Channel on YouTube more Spanish episodes
• Popular Fairy Tales compilation 2 hours

Plugging in new Spanish words into your home environment or any place you feel comfortable in is a strategic move because you can turn your environment into a “Spanish learning lab” The things you see everyday are so familiar to you that when you tag it with the correct Spanish word, you will instantly create a strong association! This is very much like creating your own “Spanish Immersion program” for free!

2. Put post it notes around the house with the Spanish words for the items you have in your house!

Teach your kids Spanish by using color stickies and put them in the kitchen, bathroom, living room etc. with the Spanish equivalent of the item you are putting the sticky on. 

Ex: put a sticky on the bathroom door and label it “baño” put a sticky on the refrigerator and label it “refrigerador” . Make it colorful and one word per sticky! No English on the post it notes! 🙂

Use a marker or sharpie to make it very easy to read & visually appealing. You want to engage as many senses as you can to your learning sessions; multi-sensory learning, as I like to call it, is what will make your brain absorb and permanently keep the material you learn! For Spanish pronunciation help, you can use our complete guide to Spanish pronunciation.

There are some decent websites out there that have free audio files in Spanish. Post it notes are genius because these words will be seen everyday. Your brain will associate the Spanish words you are learning to the item you post it on!

**TIP: don’t over do it with the post it notes! Pick a place in your house ( kitchen, bathroom etc.. then when you feel you have memorized those words well, you can now do new post it notes. ( take down the ones you feel you know already)

3. Make dinner time an opportunity to learn new Spanish vocabulary!

Teach your kids Spanish by stimulating their senses. Cook dinner and teach your child the Spanish word for the food you prepare. Ex: If you cook chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots, put a sticky near each food item and before feeding your child, go over the pronunciation of each food item in Spanish.

Say “pollo,” and then feed your child a small portion of that pollo so the brain learns to associate the Spanish word “pollo”. The brain will register the Spanish word via the taste, the sight, the smell and the feel of the word “pollo”. (chicken). This is what I like to call, multi-sensory learning. You are using most of your senses and you are attaching your senses to that new vocabulary word.

This significantly increasing retention! Have your child ask for the food item in Spanish. If they successfully say the word, give them the food item. Both kids & adults learn so much more, when there is a practice exercise that involves the use of motor skills & positive reinforcement via rewards!

You can look up Spanish vocabulary words for free online! Use our free Spanish videos, use a search engine or picture dictionary! In my language studio, I use some of these suggestions for my adult students and they get great results!

**TIP: Don’t force your child to do the exercise. Be patient but persistent. If their attention span diminishes, take a break and reintroduce the exercise again later that day or the following day. In order for this exercise to work, be prepared to do it multiple times.

4. Get the Spanish version of common songs!

Teach your kids Spanish with music. This is a powerful exercise. Get common songs that everyone knows, like “Happy Birthday,” “Jingle Bells, popular Christmas carols “. Any common children’s songs but get the Spanish version that way your child hears a known song but now in Spanish .

The brain focuses more on the musical aspect of this exercise thus creating a “back door” for the brain. Memorization and processing of the Spanish words will happen via music.

Your brain will eventually start to pick up the meaning. For now, music will be the glue to connect the song’s English lyrics to the new Spanish lyrics!

You can also just teach your child common children’s songs in Spanish. You can research this on any search engine. On YouTube or ask your Spanish speaking friends for popular Spanish songs for children.

If there is a music video to go with the song, even better! This is a fun and light exercise to get your children curious about the language!

• Here are some popular kids songs in Spanish

• La Vaca canciones populares- it even has old Mcdonald 38 minutes
• Mariposita Canciones cute catchy songs in Spanish 32 minutes
• Soy una Taza Canciones cute common Spanish songs 32 minutes
• Un Elefante se Balanceaba canciones 28 minutes

5. Join a Spanish meetup group and/or go to Spanish community events

Many churches have Spanish ministries so you can check your local church community events calendar for fun get togethers; help your children make Spanish speaking friends! Meetup.com has been a valuable source for me; it can be for you too!

You can join a Spanish group for free or cheap. Meet other people that wish to learn beginner Spanish and meet native speakers that just want to help others practice Spanish!

You can search for family friendly events or even create your own group! Go to a Spanish store and get Spanish newsletters & local newspapers so you can check for family fun events. These are usually at the front of the store.

Need more than just 5 easy tips to teach your kids Spanish for free? Contact Spanish in Atlanta

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