Practicing Your Child’s Second Language in the Summer

Are you looking for ways to help you child practice their second language over the summer? Don’t want your child to lose their language skills come fall? A little nervous about your child returning to their dual language program? We feel the same way and are going to share our tips for practicing Spanish over the summer.

We began in the dual language program seven years ago with our daughter. She was accepted in for kindergarten and continues to thrive in both English and Spanish. Our children have the extra experience of learning Spanish as a second language during their school day. So they spend 1/2 their day learning in English and 1/2 their day learning in Spanish. It is an amazing opportunity to learn another language at a young age. We are so appreciative of their dual language program. But what about the summer?

Our family encourages learning during the summer mixed in with our wonderful family experiences. We try to balance this learning by incorporating both English and Spanish into our day. In this post we explore the different ways we include Spanish into our summer learning, but you could use these same activities with any language.

Dual Language TV

First, we encourage at least 1/2 of their TV time to be in Spanish. You decide how much screen time your children are allowed during the day. Then simply inform them that every other show or the first half of their TV watching will be in their second language. Yes, they may miss things, yes, they might not understand some things, but it’s TV, that’s okay. The more they hear their second language, the more they will understand.

It is quite easy to change the audio into another language. Most TV providers and streaming apps have a language section where you can change the language. While not all languages are supported, Spanish definitely is. Plus, you can add the closed captioning on in either English or Spanish. We sometimes like to watch with the closed captioning on in English if it is new or something they haven’t watched in awhile so that they have the English support.

We use closed captioning in Spanish when it is a show they have watched before or a program/movie they have seen many times. This helps to support their Spanish language by not only hearing the language but being able to read it as well. We love this as it allows our children to read the spoken language when the Spanish is too fast for them to comprehend. Either way, you child is practicing a new language and working on reading too!

Not Just TV

We enjoy a good movie with our family about once a week. We like to watch at least one movie a month in Spanish. This encourages your children to hear their second language for an extended period of time. We try to pick movies that have a tie to the language we are practicing, this means we look for movies about Spanish culture or which take place in a Spanish speaking country. However, you really could watch any movie in which you can change the language.

We also like to change the language of video games too. This is pretty easy on the Nintendo Switch and as long as the individual video game supports the language, it will use this language during game place. This means that you child may hear and read in their second language. We find that our children tend to be very motivated during video game time and are willing to struggle with the language just to play.

Dual Language Reading

Second, we continue our daily reading in both languages. Summer gives us more time to read in Spanish at home. While reading, we encourage them to look for vocabulary that they don’t know in Spanish and celebrate those words. My kids love to write them on a notecard, decorate them, and hang them on the refrigerator. Then we try to use the word for the next few days. This really helps their Spanish vocabulary but also keeps them engaged in their reading.

Also, keep utilizing the different Spanish language programs your district keeps available during the summer: RazKids, dreambox, istation, imagineespanol, duolingo, etc. We try to use at least one of these every day with our children, even if just for a few minutes. Children love to have screen time, so you might as well build in a little academic screen time where you can. While most of these apps aren’t books, they do involve reading and hearing Spanish. Even just listening to a book in Spanish in RazKids keeps your child hearing the Spanish language and growing their language skills.

Listening to Spanish Stories

We also love YouTube for stories read in Spanish. There are so many stories read in Spanish available and many of these are turned into videos. Most of these stories are English translations so we can take a trip to the library to find the book in English to share before or after the Spanish story.

You can also find fingerplays, songs, and animations in Spanish linked to books or nursery rhymes. We love the nursery rhyme books by Alma Flor Ada. She searched out Spanish songs, poems and nursery rhymes from a variety of Spanish speaking countries and compiled them with English translations. While these translations are not word for word, they are meant to keep the feeling of the song, poem, or nursery rhyme. Pio Peep and Muu Muu are two of our favorites. We also love De Colores and Diez Deditos for folk songs and action songs in Spanish.

If your child is just beginning their reading journey in Spanish, be sure to view our Ultimate Parent’s Guide to reading in Spanish and our tips for How to Begin Reading in Spanish.

Dual Language Conversations

Third, we try to have some conversations in Spanish at home. This can be a little tricky, especially if you don’t speak Spanish. But let me assure you it is possible, even if only your child responds in Spanish. In this case, focus on some very simple naming activities. Not only will they practice speaking Spanish but they will be helping their vocabulary grow too. And remember, you always have google translate available if you are stuck.

For this, we might try to name the different things on our table at dinner using a complete sentence. Este es un tenedor (This is a fork) or La cuchara está sobre la mesa (The spoon is on the table). Pause a TV show and name the different things they see or saw in the TV show. For example, Yo veo un hombre (I see a man). Go outside and name the things they see in the wonderful outdoors.

If your children are struggling, let them all use the same sentence stem (Yo veo … I see). But if they are doing well, challenge them to all start their sentences differently or at least different than the sentence before them. This encourages them to practice different sentences and grammar.

Ask Questions in Spanish

If you are comfortable speaking a little or at least trying to speak in Spanish, brainstorm a few questions to ask your children. The best part is that once you have 5 – 10 open-ended questions, you can use the same questions each day and week. An open-ended question is a great way to start a conversation. These questions expect more than a yes or no answer and usually children will answer in complete sentences.

Some of our favorite questions:

1. Qué quieres hacer hoy? What do you want to do today? Is a great question to ask in the mornings or ask Qué quieres hacer mañana? in the evenings. These can help you to plan out your day with activities your kids might love. If they can encourage a responds in Spanish, but even just hearing the question will help them practice.
2. Qué quieres comer? What do you want to eat? You can also ask specifically about breakfast (desayuno), lunch (almuerzo), or dinner (cena) too. Qué quieres para desayunar? What do you want to eat for breakfast? This is a great way to practice foods in Spanish and even encourage your kids to use more than one word to answer.
3. De qué trata tu libro? What is your book about? This is a great question to ask your child after they read in English or Spanish. You open the conversation and get to hear about their reading. By describing their book to you, you are helping them to develop their reading comprehension too.
4. Con quién quieres jugar? With whom do you want to play? This is a wonderful question to ask if your child is interested in play dates. Our children always want us to set these up for them. You can go a set further by asking where they want to have a play date. A dónde quieres ir?
5. Cuáles son tus metas para hoy? What are your goals for today? You can even ask this weekly, so instead of hoy use esta semana. This helps your child to set realistic goals and even make a plan to meet them. In addition, it helps to keep your child off of the TV since most of their goals will be active and not watching a TV program.

Spanish Music

Next, we try to play music in Spanish daily. During chores or clean up time, play Spanish music through the TV, radio or even your phone. There are many different kid friendly Spanish YouTube music videos and Pandora has a few Spanish radio stations that my kids love. The music is just another way for them to hear the Spanish language during the summer. Plus it helps make cleaning just a little more fun.

We love to use a combination of pop, or current, Spanish music and kids music. We love YouTube for finding Spanish songs for kids. So many of these songs come with videos to support your children’s vocabulary and understanding of the song. Plus, the songs introduce your child to concepts and ideas they need to learn. Then we love to use more pop Spanish songs when we are cleaning or driving. With new technology, it’s so easy to play your Pandora through your phone in the car. And since you really can’t do too much else, why not listen to Spanish.

It’s always great fun when my kids start dancing along to the Spanish music. We’ve even found a few songs that we love to sing in Spanish. And while your child might not know the words they will hopefully be able to enjoy the language. You might even be surprised at how much they do understand. Moreover, my children have been motivated to learn more words because they want to better understand the songs.

Categories in Spanish

Lastly, we love to explore categories in our children’s second language. We pick a category (foods, clothes, places, things we see, etc). Then we try to name as many different Spanish words as we can that fit the topic. It’s often surprising what words they know and don’t know in Spanish. We then google translate the words that would fit the topic but no one knows in Spanish.

What a great way to keep building their vocabulary in both languages and it’s such an easy game to play anywhere you are. We especially love this on longer car rides or when waiting in the car for an activity to start or end. Looking for categories to try, try our Grouping Vocabulary for Language Learners post. If your child seems to struggle with the dual language program, be sure to read our post Dual Language – Why is my Child Struggling?

Take a moment and let us know in the comments what works for your family to practice language over the summer. And if you are just beginning in your dual language journey, don’t miss our Preparing your child to Start in a Dual Language Program and Dual Language – Just Beginning. For more easy to implement ideas and freebies, subscribe to our newsletter below.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.