How to Teach a Foreign Language With a Game

I am Iranian-American and fluently speak, read and write Persian and it is very important that my daughter know my language and culture. When she was a baby I would begin every morning showing her Dino Lingo flashcards and saying the word out loud. I would use the same categories every day for a few days. As she has gotten older and is more surrounded by English, it has become more difficult to get her to speak it back to me. I have heard similar stories from other bilingual parents about their children understanding the language but responding in English. Here is a game Sarina has really gotten excited about called, "Is there a ______ in Sarina's (or Mommy's, Daddy's etc.) bag?" We wrote it out phonetically in English so she could "teach" her dad who is not a Persian speaker and listed out the articles of clothing. That extra teaching element made her more excited to practice and master her speaking skills.

The best part about this is that thanks to Google, we don't have to know a language to play this game. I recommend sticking with one category for 3-5 days. We practiced with clothing for three days and then moved on to items from our Haft Seen (our Persian New year set up). After we have a good hold on the Haft Seen words, we will transition into school items i.e. book, ruler, scissors, etc.

Some items we place on our Haft Seen.

Comments

Making Math Fun For Kids

"Marshmallow Math" is a game we created using some leftover and rather stale, extra large marshmallows that I felt my daughter would find exciting but not want to eat. It's been a hit and she has requested to play it everyday since. You can use anything your child would enjoy that won't create a health concern. Grapes are also a fave, just be careful if you have a dog! We work on addition and subtraction to find who ate more marshmallows. She has her stack of 10 and I have mine. I let her pick how many she "wants to eat" and we go back and forth like that until we see who has fewer left. "Who Ate More Marshmallows?" Example Sarina has 10 marshmallows and she eats 4 how many does she have left? 10 - 4 = 6. Mommy has 10 and eats 3. 10 - 3 = 7. Sarina now has 6 and eats 2. 6 - 2 = 4. Mommy now has 7 and eats 2. 7 - 2 = 5. Sarina now has 4 and eats 1 more. 4 - 1 = 3. Mommy now has 5 and has a tummy ache and is done. 5 - 0 = 5. Sa

Teaching Kids About the Coronavirus: Free Tools and Activities

Teaching Kids About the Coronavirus: There is a middle ground between oversharing with children and completely sheltering them. Chances are that this pandemic and quarantined lifestyle has been an adjustment and many questions and possible meltdowns have already happened! There are great age appropriate resources out there to help kids understand what is going on. Pick what you know would work best for your child and adjust accordingly. I have shared my two favorite resources. Educators Naomi O'Brien of @readlikearockstar and LaNesha Tabb of @Apron_Education have put together a fantastic e-book explaining the virus with three activities you can do: Create a poster, Share your feelings and Write out a 20-second hand washing song. The poster my daughter created is above and the song we sing is "Do You Know the Muffin Man." Ways Sarina is staying safe: hand washing, eating healthy, taking vitamins, reading, and exercising at home Mind Heart has shar

A Beautiful DIY Craft You Can Create Right Now!

Celebrate Spring With a DIY Wreath! It has been a tough few weeks celebrating Norooz (Persian New Year) in quarantine, and with Easter and Mother's Day coming up, many might be in the same boat. Thanks to Sarina's Persian school at Bahar Kids , we were able to put up a special and sentimental craft representing our holiday and spring. It is a wreath with mini versions of what we put on our Haftsin (7 S's) spread: colored eggs, Sombol (hyacinth) Sib (apple), Sabzeh (wheatgrass), Sekkeh (gold coins), Sir (garlic), Serkeh (vinegar), Samanu (wheat germ pudding), Somagh (sumaq). I did not get to create the memory of making this special wreath with herm but we are going to keep it up on our wall for the entire season and then make a summer one with items that represent summer including Sarina's birthday! You can create one too for Easter, a wedding anniversary, Mother's day, a birthday or just for fun! There are plenty of options on Amazon and even

The Momavist

Search This Blog