How To Teach Your Child A Foreign Language At Home
You don’t have to be fluent or even know a word in foreign language in order to teach your child at home, although that definitely helps, of course. You DO need to be engaged with them and integrate it into your lifestyle.
I’m going to share my tips below on what works for me and my family. I have two daughters who are 3 and 5. Their first language was Russian (because it’s my mother tongue); their second was/is English because their daddy only speaks English; and their 3rd Foreign language is French because I’m teaching them French and I love it!
For me, French is my fourth language (I speak Russian and English, some Spanish and I used to speak German, but it’s all forgotten now) and I taught it myself entirely. No classes, no one to practice with, nothing. I learned it at home all by myself through books, CD’s, music, TV and audiobooks. I’m about 80% fluent. For the other 20% I really need someone to practice with, but I’m fine with my current fluency.
So, enough of the background story. Here are the tips for those who barely know a word in the language they want to teach their kids. Let’s take French as example, but this applies to any language.
1. Start them young, before they can even speak! I started speaking French to both of my girls once I started to getting some sleeping while in the babyhood. It was around the time they were both 3 months old. Yes, that early! In fact, it’s never too early!
If your children are older, no worries. Their brains are still sponges and absorb everything at the speed of light.
2. Start with one word at a time. Look up everyday common words in the online dictionary and start naming the objects in foreign language. Table, chair, carrot, milk, bed, book, pants….Build your vocab.
I recommend buying books with pictures and words written in foreign language beside each picture. See the picture below on the left. Bonus points if that is also an audio book. A child can just touch each word and hear the book say it.
You can also print one word per one post-it-note and attach it to the words you want to learn and teach them. That’s assuming your child can read or if you yourself need a reminder.
3. Listen to French children’s songs and nursery rhymes. Our favourite children’s French artists Alain Le Lait and Carmen Campagne. I found them on Spotify app. We listen to so many French songs every day. My kids can sing them, dance to them and ask questions about them. Amazing resource. If you don’t have Spotify, try YouTube.
4. Speaking of YouTube. It’s another great resource to learn a language. There are so many learn-a-language songs that it’s a shame not to put some on for your child. You can learn numbers, colours, body parts, clothes and pretty much everything. Your children will understand French in no time.
5. Cartoons. Another great way to learn. You can find these on YouTube or Netflix. Netflix kids’ shows often offer several language selections, so just chose what you want. I “practiced” my French by watching cartoons. It was easier to understand what was going on as opposed to watching adult movies/shows.
6. Move on to phrases. Once you got some good vocab, or even as you are still building it, start introducing simple, everyday phrases. “Good morning.” “It’s breakfast time.” “What would you like to eat?” “Let’s go outside to the park” … you are probably saying these every day so why not say it in French?
You can look these up online. You can also buy a book, such as below that would give you the phrases, vocab and ideas. It also come with a CD so that you can hear the pronunciation. There are tons of books like these out there.
7. Make it a lifestyle, not a task. There is no point of doing this for a few weeks or months. You have to commit to this becoming your every day thing. I say at least a few things in French to my children every day. The rest is all in English. But it makes a HUGE difference in their French! If you are in a rush, had a bad day, or need to explain something complicated, don’t worry, do it in English. But you will see – any given day, presents so many little opportunities to practice your foreign language with your children. Your biggest obstacle will probably be forgetting to switch. But remember all you need is a few phrases and a few words per day and those French neurons will keep firing in your and your child’s brains.
8. Finally, start reading Duo-Lingo books and online stories. In the second picture above, on the right I’m showing you an example of duo-language book – Jojo’s Playful Day. How convenient is that? You don’t even have to reach for a dictionary! The translation is right in front of your eyes!
Another great resources for duo-lingo stores are: albalearning.com and newsinslowspanish.com/newsinslowfrench.com. The news in slow language are for you if you want to practice and learn while albalearning.com has all sorts of stories for kids and adults alike. You just have to dig a little.
9. If you can, find someone else in your area who speaks that language and try to set up a playdate. If you can’t, try skype (assuming you know that person or willing to pay them).
10. Once your children find a show that they like to watch in French, such as Peppa Pig, Caillou, Paw Patrol etc… find short stories books of these shows. My daughters love Peppa Pig so I got them Peppa Cochon story books in French and we love reading them. They know exactly what’s going on.
11. Take your language for a “walk”. Now incorporate words and phrases into your every day routines. “Il est l’heure a se réveiller” (time to wake up) … or “Regarde, un tamia!” (look a chipmunk!) … you get the idea. Do this as often as you can throughout the day! And if you don’t know how to say something, chances are, wherever you are, you have your iphone with you and can easily look it up! 😉
12. Help them read. Struggling to motivate your child to read in French? Try playing theater in French. Pick a play (story to act out) that your child already knows, such as Three Little Piggies. Find a play transcript for it online (see Resources below for more info) and your child will be reading (and acting it out) in no time. For more info check out:
13. Be creative and make it fun! There are so many other ways to learn and teach a language, but the above work really well for my family. Please share your tips with me and I can share them with the world. Bonne chance!
Note: When I first started introducing 3rd language into my child’s vocab, I was worried that she would be confused. She was only three months. I already was speaking Russian to her and my husband was speaking English, but rest assured, I observed none of the confusion. Sometimes, my daughters could mix up a word or two here and there but they know what language is being spoken to them no problem. It’s amazing!
Additional Resources For Learning French Language (for Kids)
I’ve been searching for good materials such as worksheets, books and audio books and I have come to love these resources the most so far:
ALBALEARNING.COM (see point #8 above). It’s FREE and offers duo-lingo text (i.e. you read something with parallel transaltion)
BOUKILI.CA: Boukili.ca This is an amazing resource for reading and listening to books. And the best part, it’s FREE! Children can select any book on this site and listen to it being read in perfect French, or they can read the book themselves. Amazing.
WORKSHEETS: The following worksheet-type series: Je Lis (encourages literacy), Par ecrit (encourages writing), Pas de Probleme (logic/math). You can find these on Amazon.ca for many Grade Levels (starting Grade 1)
READING COMPREHENSION: Cahier d’exercises comprehension a la lecture. These are also very good to encourage reading and understanding. Available on Amazon.ca.
MONDE DES TITOUNIS. www.mondedestitounis.fr – a great resources for learning French through songs (with lyrics) and stories (through cartoons and written text). Explore it. It’s FREE.
TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ So many excellent resources and materials in French here for just a few bucks. I got my theater play transcripts and reading comprehension materials here. Amazing!
Resources for Adults
Try newsinslowfrench.com. I’m currently listening to News In Slow Spanish and I’m loving it! You get current international news updates in foreign language and there is a lot of translation (by hovering over words) and everything is narrated as well, so you can read and listen at the same time. Love it!
I’ll be updating this page as I find more amazing resources! Come back and visit 🙂