Learning a language as a child is a great success. There is nothing like doing it when the brain is permeable and in full development. Concepts are incorporated quickly and naturally. The child is at a stage in which everything that happens around him is captured in his memory. That is why the importance of learning a language as a child. ¿How to teach my child English at home? If you know how to speak that language and you want to teach your child you can do it from the beginning.
The mother tongue is the one we speak to as soon as children are born, the one they learn as natural. The one that puts into words what they think, the one that enables them to verbally communicate. The mother tongue is never forgotten and that is why the younger we teach them a language, the more it will be fixed on their heads.
Teach English at Home
What if we talk about English? Undoubtedly, it is the universal language, the one that will allow them to connect with the world and expand borders. It is important to acquire English at an early age in order to assimilate it naturally and as part of the global learning that children have at that age and in their contact with the world. Well then, if you know English, nothing better than taking advantage of it. You may teach a child english at home just by starting to speak it.
You wonder if it is that simple, and the answer is yes. At least in a first stage and when they have not yet become literate in writing. Children are little sponges that incorporate language into their day-to-day lives, just by listening to it. It is enough that you speak to a baby in English every day so that it learns the language naturally. You can accompany yourself with gestures and point to objects, just as you do when you teach a word in Spanish.
There are no differences with English at an early age and when the baby is acquiring the language. Just as you would with Spanish, you can teach English to a child at home engaging in conversation with him, playing games or giving him directions. There is a disadvantage in relation to Spanish and that is that the child will not hear that everyone around him speaks the language but if you speak daily with the child he will incorporate it anyway, adding vocabulary day by day.
Perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks that can occur when it comes to teach a child english at home Either, if he is very young, he may confuse words with Spanish or else both languages are mixed. But this is not something serious, children do not take too long to be able to distinguish both languages, being able to resort to one or the other when they want to. I have seen children whose parents speak English or Spanish interchangeably at all times and they respond according to the language in which they are spoken. Or children who speak English at home and Spanish in kindergarten.
Strategies for teaching English to a child
For teach a child english at home You can also use the large number of applications and pedagogical tools that exist today. There are educational games of all styles that help the child become familiar with the language, thus adding learning and sharing times with the little ones.
The simplest and within reach are the english apps for kids. Today, you can download hundreds of them and they are very useful for children to learn while having fun. They are all entertaining and work through the game, from memotests, to crosswords, word searches and visual games. The options are multiple, some free and others paid. For more advanced children you can turn to the official books that are designed by large English publishers and that provide all the necessary material to train a child in the language.