Do you feel like summer is a time to relax and take a break from the structure of the school year, yet you don’t want your children’s brains to forget all they have learned? If you are like most parents, you want them to engage their minds while doing something fun, so that it doesn’t feel like “learning!” Summer language activities are a great way to re-activate their imaginations and get those neurons firing!
Of course, we hope your child will join us for a Spanish immersion camp (ages 3-8) to make some new “amigos” and have a cultural experience. We offer camps with fun themes all summer long. But here are some other options for those “bored” times on road trips or during an afternoon break from the sun!
At Home…
- Check your local library for books, music CDs, software, and Spanish DVDs. Many English DVDs or streaming sources have a Spanish language setting. Switch to that as often as possible.
- There are lots of puzzles, quizzes, and games online, as well as many apps you can download for interactive learning. Some popular ones are listed on our website: https://spanishschoolhouse.com/weblinks
Around Town…
- Check bookstores and libraries in your area to see if they offer Spanish story time sessions. You might even find a Spanish-speaking friend to practice with!
- When you’re in the car, turn the dial past English radio stations and check out Spanish-language hits.
- Keep an eye out for local events with a Latin flare. Spanish cooking classes, Latin dance lessons, festivals, or musical performances are sometimes hosted by restaurants, specialty markets, and cultural organizations.
- Try Spanish and Latin American restaurants! In addition to many Mexican options, you’ll likely find Peruvian, Salvadorian, Colombian, Cuban, Argentinian, and Spanish restaurants where you can try authentic food and your kids can practice their Spanish with the owners and staff.
Live the Language!
If you’re really feeling adventurous, there are several international programs and foreign immersion programs for families. Council on Standards for International Educational Travel is an excellent resource – www.csiet.org. Organizations like “Spanish Abroad” arrange teen and family immersion programs in Spain and Latin America – www.spanishabroad.com.
We hope these tips help keep your children engaged in language learning ¡Hasta pronto amigos! See you soon, friends!
Do you have any recommendations for Spanish workbooks for a 1st grader who had completed Kinder at SSH? Something with some basic reading comprehension, phonics questions, math word problems, etc – all in Spanish? Thanks!!
Hola! Thanks for your question and sorry for the late reply! (We had a snag in our notification system.)
The link in the article has a lot of great resources, mainly online. For written work, we use a book called Descubre el español from Santillana in our After School Spanish classes. This publisher sells to educators, but you may find some resources on their website, or you can search for them on Amazon. Another option would be to look for Spanish homeschooling materials and downloadables. Here is one site: http://www.mommymaestra.com/.
Congrats for continuing to work with your first-grader on Spanish over the summer! I hope these resources are helpful. Don’t forget to register for our After School classes!