Teach Your Kids German – The Parents Guide

German is an excellent language for kids to learn since English is a Germanic language, so some words are similar to English, which can make it one of the more accessible languages for kids to pick up. It is also a good language for kids because it is the most widely spoken first language in the EU and Germany has the fourth most robust economy (based on GDP) in the world, so having some knowledge of German may be a beneficial job skill for your kids later in life.

It might seem like a big undertaking to teach your kids a new language, but there are lots of products available that can help parents. We have found some amazing online videos, DVDs, books, apps, and online games that will help children learn to speak German in a fun way.

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The Best German Language Learning Programs and Websites for Kids

  • Petra Lingua is an online language course that is designed for children between the ages of 3 and 10 years that uses a multimedia approach of text, audio and video, pictures, and interactive exercises.
  • Blinde-kuh is a German search engine that only brings up kid-friendly information.
  • Kindernetz has a lot of German videos for kids.
  • Lingonetz is an interactive website that helps children from ages 6 to 12 learn the German language.
  • Tivi has German TV shows from a German children’s station.
  • Chillola is a free foreign language website for children. Kids learn German through games and activities.
  • Dino Lingo’s German for Kids is a DVD based learning system that includes CDs, books, posters, and flashcards for children who are learning German. It isn’t cheap ($100+), but it is generally very well-reviewed. You can see a preview of it here.
  • Zoom School Picture Dictionary is a useful online resource for helping kids learn German.
  • Duolingo is a newer site and app that is a lot of fun to use, especially for kids. The site uses a lot of the same ideas as video games to help kids learn a new language.

The Best DVDs to Teach Kids German

There are a few good DVDs for kids under 5, but not much for older kids. If you are looking for a DVD for an older child who would like to learn German, you could try Watch & Learn German with Professor Toto or German for Kids: Learn German Beginner by Language Tree. The reviews for both DVDs are a little mixed, so we don’t want to recommend them, but check them out to see if they are your kind of thing (they might be available at your local library). The DVDs that are a good option for kids ages 0-5 to help them learn German are:

  • Early Lingo Colors and Shapes at The Park DVD (Part 1 German) or a 6-DVD Box Set. If you are looking for a total immersion DVD, Early Lingo is a good choice. This DVD for children ages six months to 6 years has cartoon characters Jojo and Lulu learning all about colors and shapes and words for things found in the park in German. The single episode DVD is around 32 minutes of running time and has over 90 German words and phrases. You can watch a preview for it here.
  • German for Kids: Language Box Set (Vol. I) Another decent DVD for the under 5’s is the Little Pim German series. Each episode uses an animated panda bear and real kids and teaches simple words and phrases for everyday activities. This DVD set introduces over 180 words and phrases for daily activities. You can watch a preview of it here.
  • Bilingual Baby: Teach Baby German has over 60 words and phrases about everyday objects that children can recognize and are a part of their world, such as puppies, toys, etc.

Free Online Games to Help Teach German

An easy way to expose children to a new language in a fun way is through online games. There isn’t a vast selection of German -English games for kids, but one that is worth checking out is Digital Dialects. It has lots of simple games that will help kids learn German basics.

Best German Apps for Kids

  • Kinderapp is an app designed for toddlers to help them learn their first words. This app has a German language option on it, so it would be helpful for very young kids who are just beginning to speak. Kids get to know essential objects from their immediate environment at home, in an interactive and fun way.
  • Learn German – Baby FlashCards is a flashcard app for kids ages 1-4. It has over 450 images with text and voiceovers. There are additional real sounds where applicable to enhance visual and auditory learning and memory simultaneously. Parents have the option to turn voiceovers off during parent-child learning sessions and turn voiceovers on when the child is self-learning.
  • Learn German by MindSnacks has nine games designed to teach German vocabulary and conversation skills. You can download the first lesson for free, and if you like it, you can upgrade to access all 50 lessons and 40+ hours of content.
  • Smart Speller German Learning has 80 pictures in 7 categories (numbers and colors, fruit & veg, vehicles, farm animals, shapes, body parts). The game is played by tapping a moving object and then completing a word puzzle. The word selection features basic and most common words from each category.
  •  Learn German Kids helps kids learn essential German words in a child-friendly way. There are six categories, including the alphabet, colors, numbers, months, days, and fruits.

German Learning Books for Kids

  • Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary by Marlene Goodman introduces beginning language learners to more than 1,550 commonly taught essential German words displayed in 30 two-page spreads that illustrate the meanings of words. The images focus on scenes familiar to children aged three through eight, such as home life, the classroom, city life, sports, the zoo, etc.  This picture Dictionary also includes an index and glossary of all the illustrated words in the book.
  • German for Children with Two Audio CDs by Catherine Bruzzone has a full-color illustrated guidebook that features cartoons, characters, and fun facts. It also includes two audio CDs that guide your child through the course and teach language through a combination of German-language songs, games, and activities.
  • Lightning-Fast German for Kids and Families by Carolyn Woods is a good option for parents who want to teach their kids German but don’t speak German themselves. This book shows parents ways to incorporate German into everyday activities, so children can learn German while doing the things that are common at home.
  • 52 Weeks of Family German Eileen Mc Aree is a book that is similar to Lightning-Fast German for Kids and Families in that it is a family approach to getting kids speaking German. This book has 52 small, weekly lessons that will get you and your family speaking and understanding German right away. All of the weekly activities are integrated into modern family life. Games and fun activities are included to help you with your language learning journey.

Free Online German Lessons for Kids

If you have any fantastic resources that you have used to help your kids learn German, let us know in the comments below!

 

Teach Your Kids ESL English

There is certainly no shortage of material to help teach kids English as a second language.  There are so many resources that you can use, some parents and teachers might not know where to start. With that in mind, we have sorted through what we think are the best ESL DVDs, apps, books, websites and language learning systems for kids that help with the wonderful journey of learning a new language.

Learn ESL child

The Best DVDs to Teach Kids ESL

DVDs are an easy way to get kids familiar with English. Of the DVDs that we checked out, our top picks for the best DVDs to help teach kids English at home are Little Pim: Volume One English/ESL and the LeapFrog: Learning DVD Set.

If you are looking for a DVD, an excellent place to start is with the Little Pim: English  DVDs. Little Pim has lots of videos to choose from for ages 0-5. You can buy them individually or in sets. Each DVD is thirty-five minutes long and includes seven episodes that combine an animated portion with Little Pim the Panda and a bit narrated by Little Pim that shows real children demonstrating the word or phrase that is being learned. This series is generally pretty good quality and fun for kids to watch.

If you are looking for something a little more advanced, you can’t go wrong with any of the LeapFrog letter or number videos. They are very popular with anyone teaching kids letters, words, numbers, etc. They are entertaining for kids and very educational. These are highly recommended for kids learning English.

Another good resource is the Sesame English: ESL for Children series of DVDs (if you can get your hands on it!). It seems to be discontinued, so check your local library or check if they are selling it here.  YouTube also has a few clips of the Sesame Street ESL series.

ESL Language Learning Programs and Websites for Kids

There are so many excellent websites with ESL resources for kids you won’t have any trouble finding something that will help you teach your kids English online:

  • Duolingo is one of the best resources for kids to learn English, and it is free, easy, and fun.
  • Mingoville is an online-based course featuring fun English games, grammar, songs, and more. You can try the site for free, and if your kids like it, then you can upgrade to a paid membership for $24 for three months or $48 for a year.
  • ESL Kids Lab has ESL teaching materials for kids from k to 12. It also has video lessons.
  • Starfall is a free website to teach children to read with phonics. For preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. It has phonics games and online interactive books
  • DinoLingo English for Kids – Learning English for Children DVD Set is a language learning program for kids that uses DVDs, books, CDs, flashcards, and online lessons.
  • English 4 Kids has ESL teaching materials, resources for children, parents, and teachers of English. It also has games and activities for ESL kids.
  • Learn English Kids has lots of free online games, songs, stories, and activities for children to have fun and learn English too.
  •  Anglomaniacy is a great site for kids who are learning English. Includes picture dictionaries, basic English vocabulary, grammar for kids, online word games, tests, etc.
  • ESL Kids is a wonderful free ESL website for kids. It has flashcards, handwriting worksheets, classroom games, and children’s song lyrics.

Free Online Games to Help Teach ESL

Best ESL Apps for Kids

There are lots of great apps to help teach kids English. Here is a small sample of some of the best:

  • Intro to Letters is a very highly rated app that covers the basic foundations of language, how to read, write and understand letters from a-z, lowercase letter symbols and their sounds (phonics) phonograms – writing and pronunciation capital letters – letter names, writing and pronunciation, and consonants and vowels.
  • Kids learn English with Busuu helps kids learn 150 words, taught across 30 learning units full of educational games. Each lesson follows a 5 step methodology to gradually help your child learn vocabulary, spelling, and phonetics.
  • Adventures for Kids helps kids develop an English vocabulary by following characters on adventures through space, the zoo, the farm, the city, etc.
  • Simplex Spelling Phonics 1  is a very highly rated app that teaches English spelling and reading skills by using a combination of phonics lessons, spelling/word patterns, and contextually relevant spelling rules.
  • Word BINGO  helps kids learn sight words (sight words are words that are recognized immediately (onsight) without phonetically decoding or sounding out parts).
  • Sight Words Hangman uses 300 sight words in a hangman game to help increase kids’ vocabulary, spelling, and reading levels.
  • SentenceBuilder is designed to help elementary-aged children learn how to build grammatically correct sentences.

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  • Flashcards for Kids has 1,500 picture flashcards to help boost kid’s English vocabulary.
  • Duolingo is a free language learning app. It’s designed for adults but can be good for kids as well.

ESL Books for Kids

  • Let’s Learn English Picture Dictionary (for ages 3-8) contains more than 1,550 commonly taught basic words that are displayed on pictures scenes such as home life, the classroom, city life, sports, the zoo, outer space, etc. This picture dictionary also includes an index and glossary of all the individually illustrated words.
  • ESL Activities and Mini-Books for Every Classroom is a quick and easy guide that is designed for teachers with kids who can’t speak English, but it can also be helpful for parents of ESL kids with tips and activities for kids in Grades 1-4.

ESL Songs for Kids

  • ESL Kids has over 40 popular children’s songs and nursery rhymes in this section, many of which can be found on YouTube if you don’t know the melody of need ideas for gestures.
  • Anglomaniacy has a list and some audio clips and lyrics of some of the most popular English songs for kids.

ESL Learning Toys for Kids

Here are some fun toys that we found that are helpful to young ESL learners.

  • ThinkFun Bingo is a fun game for younger players to practice their word recognition and spelling skills. Players slide the “Letter Getter” forward to reveal two letter tiles, and then use them to create three-letter words by filling in the blanks on their Word-Starter cards. The player who spells the greatest number of words wins.
  • Sentence Building helps develop early grammar and reading skills with sturdy, interlocking cards that cover parts of speech, capital letters, punctuation, building sentences, etc. Tailor activities to different learning levels with this set that includes grammatically color-coded cards (55 word, four punctuation, and 27 photo cards), game ideas, sample sentences, and teaching suggestions.
  • DK Games: Silly Sentences (for ages 4-7) is a game that has puzzle pieces for making sentences. The sentence structure is enforced by the way the puzzle pieces fit together. ESL teachers seem to like this game for their students, although there are lots of complaints that there aren’t enough verbs in it.
  • Zingo Sight Words uses the game of bingo to help kids learn to recognize sight words. Kids will learn to read common sight words.

Flashcards and Workbooks

  • First Words Flash Cards (Brighter Child Flash Cards)  is a set that features 54 cards that help reinforce phonics, letter recognition, and reading readiness skills with full-color illustrations. A special card also offers creative game ideas designed to reinforce learning.
  • Picture Words Flash Cards can help your child learn basic words. Each card presents a word, plus a colorful picture representing that word. There is also a Parent Card that suggests many games to help your child learn letters and words.
  • Trend Enterprises Sight Words Bingo Flash Cards( for ages 5-9) is a set that includes 36 playing cards, 264 playing chips, caller’s mat and cards, and a storage box. Kids will practice reading 46 words from common vocabulary lists
  • Cut & Paste Sight Words Sentences helps beginning readers master over 100 sight words using the unique, hands-on approach in this resource. Step-by-step directions tell how to use the sight words on each reproducible to teach an entire lesson, reinforcing sight word recognition, sentence structure, vocabulary development, and higher-level comprehension skills.

 

photo credit: hira3 via photopin cc

 

Teach Your Kids Hindi – The Parents Guide

If you would like to teach your children how to speak Hindi, we have found lots of wonderful DVDs, apps, books, toys, worksheets, and much more that you can use to help your kids learn Hindi at home.

As you may or may not know, Hindi is a form of Hindustani. It is an official language of India, and the most common language spoken in most of Northern India, although obviously it is also spoken in many other parts of the world.  There are varying opinions on how hard it is to learn Hindi, so start when your kids are young and expose them to as much Hindi as you can and they will pick it up quickly.

Learn Hindi Child

The Best DVDs to Teach Kids Hindi

DVDs are an easy way to begin to introduce your kids to a new language. Here are some great DVDs that cover basic Hindi for kids:

  • Hindi for Kids DVD Set: Simple Words & Number and Colours  (ages 3+) +) is a 2 DVD collection that teaches Hindi in a fun and interactive way. Both ‘Simple Words’ and ‘Numbers and Colours’ use colorful animation, as well as songs, stories, and games to encourage and motivate children to learn. It is similar to the Baby Einstein videos.
  • Exploring Hindi – Kids Learn Hindi is another DVD that is along the same lines as Baby Einstein. Exploring Hindi introduces the basic vocabulary and sounds of Hindi through children, everyday objects, colors, and numbers.
  • Kids Learn Hindi with Bollywood Baby mixes dancing, colors, music, and introduces the native Indian language of Hindi with a Bollywood Theme.
  • Hindi Kids helps teach kids’ shapes, numbers, colors, directions, taste, common words associated with food and sports in Hindi.

The Best Hindi Language Learning Programs and Websites for Kids

  • Learning Hindi for Children DVD Set (5 DVDs)(ages 2-7) is a Hindi language learning set where cartoon dinosaur characters introduce the most common 200 words and phrases in Hindi. The Hindi learning DVD set includes 5 DVDs and 150 Hindi flash cards.
  • Hindi By Reena is a website dedicated to teaching kids Hindi. They have free worksheets and materials, as well as online courses, blog posts, and fun lists to help parents teach their children Hindi.
  • Akhlesh’s Homepage of Preschool Hindi is a wonderful resource for parents to help teach their kids Hindi. Topics include the alphabet, writing, pronunciation, grammar, poems, songs, etc.
  • Cheeni for Tots has lots of really good resources for parents who are teaching their kids Hindi at home.
  • Hindi Gym has free resources like ready-to-print materials to teach Hindi along with the products that they sell.
  • Galli Galli Sim Sim is a Hindi version of Sesame Street. It has games, videos, and rhymes
  • Indif is another great site that offers simple lessons on basic Hindi including the alphabet, nursery rhymes, learning charts, numbers, and coloring sheets.

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Free Online Games to Help Teach Hindi

Since kids love playing online games, we have included a few free educational games that can be helpful for kids who are learning Hindi

  • Duolingo is one of the best places to teach almost any language to kids online
  • Digital Dialects is a free site that has lots of online games to learn Hindi grammar, vocabulary, numbers, and the alphabet.
  •  Matrubhasha offers a couple of online games that cover beginning sounds and colors.

Best Hindi Apps for Kids

Another easy way to introduce a new language to kids is through apps. Here are some of the top reviewed apps that cover everything from the Hindi alphabet, Matra, to swar/vyanjan.

  • Hindi Kids Writing helps kids learn to trace on Hindi swar, Matra, vayanjan, words, akshar gyan. This App has three modes: Writing Practice, Listening Practice, and Exercise. Writing Practice lets you study each letter at a time, Listening Practice gives you for each (audible) letter its pronunciation, Exercise gives you a word which you are to write.
  • The Kids school (Hindi)  has categories like directions, birds, days and months, and animals. There are over a hundred words to teach your kids.
  • Trace Hindi Alphabets Kids Activity helps kids write Hindi and English letters. You can trace any letter in Vowels (Swar), Consonants (Vyanjan) in Hindi alphabet and Upper, lowercase letters in the English alphabet.
  • Kids Hindi Words has over 400 Hindi Flashcards containing commonly used Hindi words (colors, numbers, food drink, and animals, etc.)

Hindi Learning Books for Kids

If you have come across any products or learning tools that you have found useful in teaching your own kids Hindi, please let us know by leaving a comment. We would love to share it with other parents.

 

photo credit: Philippe Put via photopin cc
photo credit: Philippe Put via photopin cc

Teach Your Kids Arabic – The Parents Guide

It is a tremendous gift to a child to teach them a new language. It can help them connect with family and their heritage, and it can also open up incredible job opportunities when they are older.

Teaching a child something new isn’t always the easiest thing, but luckily if you are looking to teach your child Arabic, there is a large selection of products that parents can use at home that can make language learning much more accessible. So to help keep parents motivated in this rewarding task, we have found the best DVDs, websites, free online games, apps, books, worksheets, and toys that will help your kids learn to speak Arabic (in a fun way).

Arabic Lessons for children

The Best DVDs to Teach Kids Arabic

Luckily there are several DVDs available to help kids learn. Here are some of the most popular:

The Best Arabic Language Learning Programs and Websites for Kids

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  • Dino Lingo is a language learning program for kids that uses DVDs, books, CDs, flashcards, and online lessons.
  • Languagenut is primarily designed for schools, but you can get a paid home subscription for $30 a year. It has 24 units, with songs, stories, and games.
  • Araboh is a fantastic resource for parents and kids with lots of information to help teach and learn at home.
  • Bareem is the first pre-school Arabic television for children between the age of 3 and 6 years old, offering a range of programs specifically tailored for them.
  • I Like Arabic is a free online site to help people learn the language. They have online lessons and games.
  • Omar & Mariam have interactive online books and quizzes.

Free Online Games

  • Digital Dialects has some basic games to help kids learn numbers, animals, and colors.
  • Learning Games a great list of learning games from Yemen Links.
  • Alef-Ba-Ta helps teach the language to children using educational games.

Best Apps

Apps are an easy way to help reinforce a new language with young children in a fun way. There are lots of great apps that parents can choose from here are a few to have a look at:

  • Learn Arabic for Kids has over Flashcards (over 400) that show the most commonly used words in topics like colors, numbers, food, drink, and animals.
  • Arabic for Kids has hundreds of language vocabulary and children’s songs to help teach children the language and pre-school fundamentals.
  • ABC Arabic for kids 2 Free teaches kids the language using a letters game, a counting game, and animal name game.
  • Arabic Baby Flash Cards has over 450 high-quality images in categories, including food items, animals, transportation, numbers, colors & shapes, clothing, household items, etc.
  • Iqraa Ma’a Momo helps teach your kids (Age 3-8 years old)  spelling. It includes 75 different words, in three categories: things, food, and animals.

If you have any resources that you have used to teach your children and would like to share with other parents, please let us know in the comments below.

 

photo credit: Evgeni Zotov via photopin cc

photo credit: Espen Faugstad via photopin cc

Teach Your Children Japanese – The Parents Guide

If you have been looking for a few different ways to help your kids learn to speak Japanese, we have found lots of great stuff that will get your kids speaking it in no time at all!

Since Japanese is generally considered to be one of the more challenging languages to learn because of the need to memorize thousands of characters, the more exposure you can give your kids to it, the better, so we have listed the very best DVDs, books, apps, sites, and free online games to help your children learn.

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DVDs and Videos

An easy way to give your little one a bit of exposure to a new language is by having them watch a DVD or an online video. Here are a few that we had a look at:

  • Little Pim is an excellent option if you are looking for a video for kids ages 0-5. These videos begin each lesson with a short animated cartoon featuring a panda followed by live-action footage of children doing everyday activities. The box set it introduces over 180 words and phrases for everyday activities. DVDs are themed on “eating and drinking, “wake up smiling,” and “playtime.”
  • Dino Lingo for Kids is a DVD based learning system that also includes CDs, Books, Posters, and Flashcards for Children who are learning a new language. It isn’t cheap ($100+), but it is generally very well-reviewed.
  • Japanese for Children: Go! Go! Nihongo!  I can’t find any reviews of this DVD anywhere (not generally a good sign), but you can view a preview of it here to see if it might be your kind of thing.
  • International Baby is another DVD that doesn’t have much in the way of reviews and seems to be available only as an import. If you are looking for a DVD for a baby, you could also try Bilingual Baby. They both seem to be pretty similar.
  • Japanese for Kids doesn’t have the greatest reviews, a lot of reviewers mentioned that the narrator mispronounces words and the main boy mumbles his lines (not the best thing for a language DVD), but if you are interested in this DVD check out this preview here before buying.

Read More: 19 Fun Resources to Help Kids Learn World Geography

Apps

When you are teaching children a new language, they learn the most when they are having fun.  A good place to start is with some of the great apps that are available for kids; apps are an easy, cheap, and fun way to expose children to a new language. There are quite a few apps to choose from; here are a few that we checked out:

  • Learn Japanese Mindsnack’s language apps are a bit of a favorite around here; they look great, have great content, and work well. This app has eight games designed to build essential vocabulary & conversation skills, and you are also able to switch between three Japanese writing systems: kana, kanji, and romaji. To help with memorization, each lesson contains up to 20  words & phrases along with matching audio clips from a professional native speaker. You can download the first lesson for free and then upgrade to access all fifty lessons if you like what you see.
  • Kids Japanese is designed for ages 3 to 9 years old. This app helps kids learn the language through interactive flashcards and matching games. Children will learn Hiragana (平仮名), which is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet. They will also learn basic daily vocabulary in categories such as animals, body parts, colors, food, fruits, insects, vegetables, wild animals, and weather.
  • Children’s book with stickers:Momotaro This iPad app is the new version of the old tale “Momotaro” which includes elements like playing with stickers and also incorporates the original characters.
  • LET’S START LEARNING JAPANESE HIRAGANA! is designed for beginners and young ones to begin to learn Hiragana.
  • HIRAGANA KARUTA CARDS is an iPad app that has a simple card game designed to learn Hiragana characters. All you need to do is listen to the card reading, and pick its correct pair from the batch of picture cards. This app is designed specifically for toddlers and kids who just started learning elementary words and phrases.
  • Kanji Workbook for 1st Grade is an app that helps students learn 80 kanji that are taught in the 1st grade of Japan’s elementary schools. In this app, kids learn correct stroke order and it has many illustrations and examples to help students discover the meaning of characters.

Language Learning Programs/Websites/Games

Here are our favorite learning website and programs for children:

  • Duolingo is one of the best websites for kids to learn a lot of different languages.
  • Nickelodeon Japan has all your favorite Nick shows in Japanese.
  • Digital Dialects is a Flash-based animation site that has games for learning 60 different languages. These games help the learning of phrases, numbers, spelling, verb conjugation, and alphabets.
  • My Japanese Coach for Nintendo DS lets you compare your pronunciation of the sounds unique with native speakers. It also teaches you how to write Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji characters using the DS stylus. There are twelve different mini-games that test your grasp of the structured lessons.

Books

  • Let’s Learn Japanese Picture Dictionary by Marlene Goodman. If you are looking for a picture dictionary, this one is probably your best bet. It has 1,550 commonly taught essential words.
  • My First Hiragana Activity Book by Yuko Green is an easy to follow guide, with lots of vocabulary and cute pictures supporting each hiragana. Unlike most hiragana workbooks, which you use once and throw away, this book can be used to practice vocabulary words long after the hiragana has been mastered.
  • Jimi’s Book of Japanese by Peter X. Takahashi and David Voggenthaler is another book with really strong reviews that is great for a child who is learning the language. I don’t think I can top this description of the book by the publisher:  “Put your kutsu on, grab your keitai denwa, and join Jimi, Akiko, and Robotto-san on an exciting insider’s journey to learning basic Japanese. Along the way, you’ll discover the secrets of using (o)hashi, how to find a unagi shop-even how to practice ojigi through eye-popping illustrations, and simple explanations. Designed to appeal to a wide age range and a variety of attention spans, Jimi’s Book of Japanese is for everyone who is learning and for anyone who has an inquisitive brain. Read, write, pronounce. Trace, fliplaugh! This friendly book’s Triple Bubble Learning System(TM) makes the 46 most important hiragana stick in your brain. Prepare your brain!”

Books with Audio CD

  • Teach Me Japanese & More Japanese by Judy Mahoney for ages 2 to 12 years has a book & CD that introduces the language to children through songs and stories. There are 36 songs to sing-along and learn.
  • Japanese Celebrations: Cherry Blossoms, Festivals and Flying Carp (Sing and Learn) by Tazuko Inui and Selina Yoon is a collection of favorite songs that bring to mind images of seasons, festivals, holidays, and the spirit of the people of Japan. Each of 22 traditional and contemporary melodies and songs is written in Kana (Hiragana and Katakana), the romaji, and the English translation. The book includes a pronunciation guide, English-Japanese glossary, and instructional and cultural notes.

Free Online Sites with Games

I couldn’t find any sites with fun games for kids, but you can try the sites listed below.  The games are not specifically designed for young students but beginners in general, so I think that could be useful for slightly older children.

So that’s it for now, hope you found something useful. If you have any great resources to help kids learn this kind of tricky language, we’d love to hear from you.

Read More: 10 Takeaways from the book The Smartest Kids in the World

 

photo credit: ajari via photopin cc

 

Teach Your Kids Mandarin Chinese

Guess which language many people consider the hardest to learn and yet has more native speakers than any other language? That’s right, it’s Mandarin! Mandarin is the umbrella term used for dialects spoken in the north and south-west of China.

It has been predicted that China will become the world’s most powerful economy by 2027, making workers who can speak China’s most popular language highly valuable (i.e., your kids). Don’t worry, though; there are A LOT of fun and educational resources to help your kids learn to speak Mandarin Chinese – even if you don’t happen to know your Ni hao from your Zai jian.

Mandarin lessons for child

Language DVDs for Children

Teaching children a new language is a big undertaking so if you are teaching your kids at home and aren’t quite sure where to begin to start with the essential words in the same way that you would teach a baby your mother tongue: colors, the alphabet, family, animals, items around the house. In the beginning, it is all about the repetition of words. Videos and DVDs are a great re-enforcer of basic vocabulary at this stage.

Most of the DVD’s that we checked out combine English and Mandarin. The standouts for the DVDs based on user reviews are Journeys to the East: The River Dragon King. Both of these DVD’s have great reviews for the educational value of the content, and they both have engaging storylines that help keep kids entertained. There are a few negative comments about the production value compared to Nick Jr.’s Ni Hao Kai-lan, but overall they are the best choice if you are looking for a Mandarin-English DVD.

If you are looking for a total immersion DVD Smart Tiger is a great choice or Bin Bin’s Magical Bubble Adventures: Learning Mandarin Through Stories (Colors, Foods and Sleepy Time) also has excellent reviews.

If you are looking for something free, you can try Sesame Street’s Mandarin Learning Program.

Language Learning Programs/Websites

There are quite a few options for language learning programs for children to learn Chinese. If you don’t mind spending some money, Muzzy is one way to go ($200 plus). It’s a very popular program, but the negative reviews seem to outweigh the positive for this program. One of the big complaints with Muzzy is that some people find the animation to be a  little primitive.  If you are looking for something to expose a baby to a new language, you can try Baby Learns Chinese. This program generally has positive reviews.

As far as what might be the best bet for a language program, the choices we narrowed our search down to were Chinese for Smart Kids and Language Nut. If we were going to purchase a language program for our children, we would probably go with Language Nut. Language Nut was primarily designed as a teacher resource to be used in schools, but they do offer a home user, single computer license for $29.50. It has 24 units, with songs, stories, and games. The graphics are super cute, modern, and child friendly.

If you are looking for a DVD based learning system, you could try Dino Lingo’s Chinese for Kids or Little Pim Chinese. Both systems generally get good reviews and are suitable for younger kids who are just starting to learn a new language.

As far as the best free sites, we like Poisson Rouge School and  Kid Chinese they both have lots of free and fun lessons.

Five Free Online Games

Games are a fantastic way to help children memorize vocabulary and keep things fun, so children will want to continue learning. No big surprise, but there are lots of online games to help with language practice. The following are our top five favorite games. See our more extensive list of games in our resource guide.

  1. Zon is a multiplayer, online learning environment designed to teach language and culture through gameplay. Kids can practice their language skills and learn about the culture.
  2. Kid Chinese is an excellent free resource for helping you teach your kids. The ‘Fun World’ section of the site has very good games.
  3. Chinese iLab has games and quizzes that use audio, so you need to have headphones or speakers. With these games, you listen to the words and match up to the items in the game.
  4. Digital Dialects gives you a list of words to learn, and then it tests your knowledge of the words with a game.
  5. Chinese Staff Room is another excellent resource that has games that help kids learn greeting emotions, colors, clothes, verbs, etc.

Apps

Apps also help keep the learning process fun for children as well as reinforcing vocabulary with pictures and sounds. There are too many great apps for helping kids learn to pick just one, so we are highlighting the top five apps that we found:

  1. Animal Fun: Chinese for Kids generally has excellent reviews. The highlight of this app includes flashcards and games that have great animation and fun background scenes, including the sea, insects, the jungle, and the farm.
  2. Learn Chinese by MindSnacks has five games and a polished interface. One of the language apps for this company was named as “One of the best education apps of the year” on the App Store Rewind 2011.
  3. Learn Mandarin Vocabulary from Penyo Pal is another excellent app to help teach kids. This app has super cute graphics that uses a combination of story, games, and language learning to help children learn to identify new words.
  4. Check out Speak Mandarin with Private Eye also from Penyo Pal that can help kids start to learn this new language by playing a mystery game.
  5. LinguPinguin – English / 汉语 英语 has nine different visual worlds: e.g., animals, transportation, body, and toys. A total of ninety objects are made available to explore. When tapped, each item comes to life with sounds revealing the spoken word for the object.

Mandarin Kids Books

If you are looking for some websites to buy books, try Chinese Child Book or Read with me Mommy. Both sites have a good selection of books to choose from. Another interesting place to find language books is Language Lizard; this site offers dual language books for popular titles like Dear Zoo or The Wheels on the Bus, which just means that each page of the book includes Chinese and English text on the page.

For those people who are just looking for some good language titles for kids, a good one to start with is Mandy and Pandy. These books use easy words to teach kids up to grade 3. The books have topics that include greetings, counting, traveling, sports, colors, and animals. Each book has an audio CD which consists of both English and Chinese text. Another great title to look for is Taoshu Learn Chinese, if you are looking for a book that includes an audio CD.

An excellent workbook that you might want to have a look for is Chinese Made Easy for Kids, although you might need to have some knowledge of Mandarin to get the most out of this book.

If you are looking for books for very young kids, you can try the board book series Gordon & Li Li. There are three books in the series: Words for Everyday, Animals, and Count.

If you are looking for a reading system that is like the LeapFrog Tag Reading System or Vtech Bugsby Reading System, you should have a look at Touch Reading Pen with Chinese Books, and this could be very helpful for non-Chinese speaking parents.

And Finally …

Since the more exposure kids get to a language, the more likely, they will pick it up. Remember to check your local library for more free resources to help kids learn, also YouTube has a lot of great quick lessons that you can show to your kids that will help them learn in a fun way.

photo credit: GlobalCitizen01 via photopin cc
photo credit: BC Gov Photos via photopincc