Foreign Language Resources for Toddlers

[lizbusby]

My 3yo (-1 month) DS, who loves to read and spell all day, has shown some interest in learning Spanish. (Playing with electronic toys in Spanish mode with me as translator, and picking up a few things now and then.) Now, I took Spanish in high school and passed the AP test, but my spoken Spanish is crap, although I can catch and correctly pronounce most words in a "let's learn spanish" picture book. And of course, DS not able to write much and doesn't have much patience for reading text-heavy pages. He loves to play computer games though.

 

So, what resources would you use to teach a language to a toddler? Is there anything out there that is written for this level, or that can be adapted to this level? I remember using the Muzzy videos in early elementary; I wonder if those would be good. Or maybe I should just make him watch his daily TV in Spanish. I'm looking for things that we can do on an ad hoc basis or that he can do independently, since that's how he like to learn.

 

(Obvious disclaimer: I don't want to push him or introduce too many formal lessons at a young age. I'm looking for resources that cater to his natural desire to learn all-the-day-long. He wants it, not me. :D)

[EthiopianFood]

Whistlefritz videos are good. Puertas Abiertas is for ages 3 and up. I would try hard to find full immersion resources, since they are able to learn that way at this age. There are a lot of Spanish music CDs out there (Jose Luis Orozco is good for kids) that could reinforce the accent.

[Dmmetler]

Ana Lomba's "Hop, Jump and Sing Spanish" was great-it's basically a children's music and movement class on CD, in Spanish. The directions are in English on a separate track, but the actual activity is done entirely in Spanish. I use it with my preschool music students.

 

Also, check with your TV and provider. Here, I can get a lot of children's programming in Spanish, and my DD does most of her screen-time in Spanish (and always has).

 

The other useful resource (until DD reached school age) was that I teach at a university program, and almost always had a couple of kids with Spanish-speaking Nannies. So, I'd schedule playdates with those kids at parks, and DD would get a chance to speak Spanish with a native speaking Nanny, as well as kids who were learning Spanish by immersion. Since kids who had a Spanish-speaking caregiver generally only spoke Spanish to that caregiver, something I never managed with DD because she KNEW good and well that I could speak English, when we went on those playdates, I explained that Nanny couldn't speak English, and therefore to be polite, we'd only speak Spanish while we were there. So DD HAD to use her Spanish. I haven't found a replacement for that now that the kids her age are in PS and extended daycare instead of hanging out with a Nanny from Guatemala or the Dominican Republic, though.

[Maus]

Barron's has a series of little books that have just one word per page. (Well, one Spanish word and one English word.) We have a couple, and my DD7 has been looking at them since she was about three.

 

They also like Muzzy and playing their favorite DVD's with the Spanish language track (DS8's idea, not mine).

 

They've learned the most Spanish from taking Spanish classes for young children taught only in Spanish. (We've done a couple at co-op, and my sister-in-law taught one at her home for a while.)

 

I don't know how good their Spanish is, since I don't speak it. I figure they are at least developing their ears for it, and will hopefully be able to pick it up easily if/when they begin to study it formally.

[Tracy]

Since you have a Spanish background, you might enjoy Play and Learn Spanish. It comes with an audio CD so that you can hear how one would speak to a young child about everyday things (like, for example, putting clothes on). I was thinking that I might give it a try but decided I had too many other things on my mind at the time.

[Parker Martin]

My sons particularly like the Hola Amigos DVDs. My four year old has learned a lot of Spanish from them.

[jenbrdsly]

I have some thoughts about what did NOT work with my DS3 on my blog. In a nutshell, he learned to speak Spanish but hated it so much that after two years he refused to speak anything at all. I'm trying to learn from my mistakes with my daughter. Good luck!

[beaners]

We do Little Pim movies from the library for French. They are geared for younger kids. Muzzy was not popular here. We don't do regular cartoons, so maybe that was why? We watch a few DVDs a week and no television. Almost everything we watch is in French. My 2 year old gets more of it than my 4 year old, but they understand what is going on. We use a few simple phrases. We also ask where objects or body parts are. My children are always asking how to say something in French. We borrow a few books from the library and I have some books in French. We like the Usborne dictionaries and First 1000 Words books. Our library has far more options for Spanish than for French.

 

It's all very fun and laid back. My goal is just exposure, not balanced bilingualism.

[daffodil]

We use Salsa videos, Jose Luis Orozco's CDs, and Spanish/bilingual picture books from the library.

[Jill]

We like Risas y Sonrisas: http://www.spanishforkids.com/products/homeschool-parents-tutors/individual-self-study-program-2

We would listen to these during playtime when ds was about 4 and then at 5 & 6 made more effort to truly learn the songs and play with the domino-type cards. All still come in very handy as we work on Spanish.