Your kids are off for two to three months in the summer, and you wonder how much Spanish they are going to forget. There is definitely some loss, but you can keep many connections going with simple activities.
Here are five simple ways to keep Spanish connections going for your kids:
- Tape up 10 vocabulary flashcards on the wall with only a picture showing. Every day have your child say each one aloud in Spanish. Change the cards each week.
- From the 10 vocabulary flashcards, have your child choose 3 or more to say one sentence in Spanish for each. Do once a day.
- Put up a “Verb of the Week”. Every day your child says one sentence using that verb. For challenge, have him/her conjugate it “top/down”. This means they conjugate aloud from the “I” form down to the “they/you all” form only saying the Spanish. Example using comer = to eat. I added the English just for the example, but they should only say the Spanish.
- como = I eat
- comes = you eat
- come = he, she, you formal eat
- comemos = we eat
- coméis = you all eat
- comen = they eat, you all eat
- Dictate words or sentences to your child. Give your child a small dry erase board. Kids in my classes love to use these! Say some of the 10 vocabulary words aloud or a sentence from a lesson in their Spanish book aloud. They write and then check spelling.
- Have an end of the summer vocabulary challenge. Collect up all the vocabulary flashcards used over the summer, show them to your child, and see if he/she can say them all. If he/she does, then treat him/her to ice cream or something else!
Keep it short, sweet, and simple. Your kids won’t whine because it is so quick and easy!
Debbie