Posted on July 29, 2022 by Rosario Arán
Summertime is an excellent opportunity to practice a language using fun tools such as playing board games or discovering new favorite tv shows available at Oznoz.
Do you remember the excitement that filled you as a child, knowing that school was over and Summer vacations were just around the corner? Certainly, I do! It meant spending time on the ocean or the swimming pool, endless hours of fun with my family, time to read, and watching all the TV shows I wasn’t able to watch because I was at school. Yes, back in the day, we didn’t have streaming services and sometimes I couldn’t watch my favorite cartoons because I was at school. Bummer!
Since I was a curious kid, I have loved reading and learning new things, including foreign language learning. Since I was little, I have wanted to learn English, and I was encouraged by my grandmother to do so through activity books and songs. Since it didn’t seem like a chore, I practiced English so I was learning a language during summer vacation. Probably, that was the key: I had fun while learning it! I sang songs, read about great characters such as Aunt Petunia. She taught me about house vocabulary and even to this day, I can remember my Whizz Kids English activity book that I kept working on during the summer holidays.
The summertime can be seen as an opportunity to remove the weight of language learning as a task. They don’t need to do it as homework as part of their school curricula. They can practice it because they have fun or because they spend more time with their parents. Once they dedicate at least one hour per day to immerse in the language through fun alternatives, they will practice it for inertia.
So if you want to take advantage of the Summer holidays, you might think about combining learning a language for kids’ techniques and fun times.
Read books in different languages
Although reading might be an all-year-round activity for your little ones, the truth is that reading in a different language takes more time and concentration. It can probably feel more like a chore than something to enjoy during school. Encourage your children to pick up a book -it doesn’t need to be very long- in the language they are learning for the summertime, taking the time to search for words they don’t know and understand the story. You can even suggest finding their favorite book in another language! Nowadays, with ebooks and audiobooks, finding the translation can be more manageable.
Play your favorite word games in a different language!
Probably you have played the word game Categories -a classic that in my country is known as Tutti Frutti while in other countries is known as ¡Basta!- in your language. However, if you are looking to play a board game with your children, take a chance and offer them to complete the categories in a foreign language! (I must confess that, as adults, we still play Categories in a different language, so we practice, and it is more challenging!).
Choose a country and “visit it” virtually
Of course, traveling to a foreign country would be awesome! However, you can take advantage of technology and create a fun afternoon of “virtual tours” with your kids. Choose a country and search for information in that country’s language. For example, if your children are learning French, ask them to explore the Louvre Museum and read information about it in French. Take a look at the paintings, the history of the museum and its importance to France. Invite them to investigate landmarks and any elements you would pay attention to if you were visiting the place. Of course, they have to do the research in the language they are learning so they can identify new words!
Tv Shows to Learn a new language
Kids want to enjoy their time during summer! TV shows are a must because they identify them with fun times. So spending time watching TV could become an opportunity for language learning for kids. Oznoz has TV shows in over 10 languages, so you will probably find the one your children are learning. From Spanish to Mandarin, there are plenty of options that are safe for your kid to watch since Oznoz has +2000 hours of curated content for children aged between 2-12. If you are struggling to figure out what to do with your kids in your summer vacation, then perhaps you want to take advantage of the two weeks free trial and sign up for Oznoz to start watching fun cartoons and practice a language.
Some suggestions we have for you are:
- Kitty is not a cat
- 16 Hudson (the new season just premiered!)
- Heidi
- Maya the Bee
- Thomas & Friends
Talk!
If you are visiting a sea town to spend a few days as a family vacation, take the time to maintain conversations in a different language. Choose moments like dinner or while out on the beach to talk about what you see around you so they learn summer-related words.
Cook foreign meals!
With a lot of time on their hands, you might have to find new ways to keep things amusing around your house. Cooking will not only entertain them, but it will also provide you with food to feed them, and it can be an excuse to search for recipes from a different country, using a foreignlanguage to do so! It doesn’t need to be the most complex dish ever, but if your children are learning Japanese, they can learn how to do sushi the way they cook it in Japan.
The experience of learning a language for kids can be fun and extended beyond the school grounds. If you are thinking about raising them bilingual, then summer is an appropriate moment to spark conversations in a different language and have fun finding new shows at Oznoz if they are asking to watch TV.
Summer will always take me back to all those years when I had the day ahead of me to do all my favorite activities, including learning new words in a different language. If I look at how the world has changed since I was little, I feel jealous of all the kids that today can watch the TV shows they want on demand, rather than learning what time and the channel they were on. Furthermore, practicing my English would have been easier. However, I am grateful to see that nowadays it has become easier for parents to expose children to new experiences, new cultures, and yes, to new languages.