Top 10 Free Online Resources for Teaching Spanish to Kids
We're living today in an international society, and that tendency is only likely to increase in the years to come. The more languages your kids speak, the easier it will be for them to get on in their careers. Spanish is, after English, one of the most widely spoken world languages, making it an ideal choice for your kids to learn. So what resources are available online for you to help them? Here are ten of the best.
Bilingual Child: Learn Spanish
There are many apps for learning Spanish, but Bilingual Child has the advantage of being specifically designed for very young children. They can follow animated stories featuring English-speaking and Spanish-speaking children learning from one another.
Child-friendly but also good for adults, MindSnacks provide a range of tools to learn Spanish, ranging from formal lessons to games, along with spoken audio clips and an image library to help in learning vocabulary.
One of the best-known language apps, Duolingo covers Spanish along with many other major languages. Though not specifically designed for kids, Duolingo makes learning Spanish fun, with games and characters to help learn.
Another of the leading language apps, Memrise is perhaps best for slightly older children who can cope with more formal learning. Having said that, Memrise does provide learning with games, as well as the opportunity to listen to native speakers.
If you're looking for a website rather than an app to help your child learn Spanish, FluentU provides a wide range of Spanish-language videos with English subtitles — including music videos. You can access a good deal free, or pay a small subscription for more content.
Spanish Playground is a website specifically dedicated to helping kids learn Spanish. Content ranges from videos and games to worksheets that can be printed out — and even jokes in Spanish.
This website focuses more on learning vocabulary and grammar, with flashcards and video pronunciation guides, along with what they claim to be the world's largest Spanish dictionary.
If you prefer a more traditional way to help your child to learn Spanish, you don't have to pay out for text books. Wikibooks provides an open-source Spanish text book, with themed chapters and appendices covering a variety of issues of vocabulary and grammar.
Digital Dialects: Spanish Language Games
Even adults tend to learn better by including some games, and that's certainly true of children. Digital Dialects provides a wide range of Spanish language games that your kids can play either on their own or competitively.
For a slightly later stage in your child's progress, ¡Hola Viajeros! provides audio books in Spanish read slowly, along with transcripts the student can follow. It should be noted, though, that this site focuses mainly on Spanish as spoken in Central and South America, rather than in Spain itself. These are ten ways to help your child with Spanish online, but for a full Spanish course, you'll need a tutor. Register with TutorExtra to explore the wide range of Spanish tutors we have available.
