Make Learning Fun!

Once your child starts school (as in pre-k) the pressure is on! Children are learning their alphabet and colors at a much younger age. Whatever you do, don’t measure your child against his/her peers. Each child learns at a different rate and when it comes to reading children technically have until the end of second grade to master reading. Did you know that in some European countries children are taught to read in second grade and not Kindergarten like in the U.S.

It’s so important for our children to play and spend as much time outdoors as possible. Dramatic play and discovery is important in the elementary years.  Hands on learning is the best type of learning in my opinion.

My son is in K and his teacher gave me a list of words he should know. I looked at it and laughed. There is no way I am doing boring flash card drills with my kid.  He loves homework and wants to learn to read. He is always asking me to read labels and titles for him. I tell I’m he will read when his brain is ready. He is curious about letter sounds and learning words. I notice he loves to paint, so I gave him a few words and he painted the words on paper. He had a lot of fun and enjoyed figuring out the sounds. It seems like a better way to teach words rather then putting them on a flash card. I don’t know if we will do it everyday, but it is a great way to integrate art and literary. So before you run to the store and buy flash cards consider tapping into your child’s interests to teach them new things.

 

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El Chavo

Lil Libros is a publishing company I discovered when a family member gave Lucas his first board book. Since then, I am obsessed with the company. I love how relatable the books are for small children. Some books are about counting in Spanish, while others are about learning colors and shapes in Spanish. The illustrations are beautiful and the pages are easy to turn for little hands.

One of our parental goals is to make sure our son is bilingual. We always look for books that offer our son an authentic experience. Quality Spanish books are hard to find, they are poorly translated alot of the times. I think Lil Libros does a great job of providing quality Spanish books for babies and toddlers.

In El Chavo, the pages have short sentences with repetitive phrases on each page. This is a great book to teach children to read in Spanish. Children can use the pictures to help them figure out the words. After a few reads, children will catch on to the repetitive phrases and read the book in no time. He enjoys trying to read it and looking for El Chavez on each page.