Top 5 to get your child onboard to learning a new language.

Want to know a few of the many advantages that come with teaching your child a foreign language?

It helps grow their multi tasking skills, improves their problem solving skills and sets them up for more possibilities in the future. ?

Along with travel it also deepens their empathy and cross-cultural understanding and gives them tools to unlock a lifetime of greater connections and richer experiences.

That said, teaching your child a new language because they are about to move, may not be the easiest thing to enrol them in.

I don’t know about you, but I have yet to meet a child that asks to spend more time studying.

Not only that, but you have just informed them that they will soon be leaving their school, friends, teams…now you want them to do extra work and learn another language?! ?

If you thought you experienced disappointment when you made the announcement, get ready because the volume may be turned up for this protest.

So how do you get your child onboard to learn a new language?

I say, make it fun!?

As soon as he has fun learning, it will not be considered a chore and he will not only enjoy learning but learn quicker and remember better.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Keep in mind that things may feel out of their control at the moment so it’s important to incorporate choices into lessons as often as possible.?

2. You can turn any lesson into a game and this will always make learning fun.

This can be done in a variety of different ways.? You can play a game you already play in English and now play it in the target language, use a language app and one of my favourite ways to review new vocabulary is a homemade game of Taboo. ?

You really get to be creative here.

3. Nobody knows your child’s attention span better than you, so try to structure your lessons accordingly.? Consider how you can break down lessons to keep your child engaged. ?

Just because they can learn for an hour straight by playing on an app, does not mean they will sit still for an hour to learn grammar.? If you want them to sit and learn for an hour straight, be ready to take plenty of breaks to let them move.?

4. Once they have the basics make sure they are learning something that they are interested in and can practice.?

If he is passionate about football then start learning and practicing around this subject.? You want them to learn something that will be practiced as much as possible.

After all, the more they practice, the faster the confidence will build and with confidence comes pleasure in using the language thus guaranteeing even more practice.

You see where this is going.

5. Watching their favourite show on Netflix in the target language is also an easy way to get them to practice without much effort on your part.

That is my top 5 for getting started, hope it helps