Jill A. Chafin
Inspire your child to learn a new language by gamifying the experience. These apps incorporate bright imagery, stimulating games, and real-life examples to introduce your child to foreign languages.
With many travel restrictions still in place, going virtual is the best way to keep up with your child’s foreign studies. Plus, it’s never too early to start learning a second (or third, or fourth) language. Those little brains are like sponges, ready to soak up new words, phrases, and conversation skills.
The goal is to inspire a love for language and learning. Then, your child will readily ask (or beg!) to do the exercises—no nagging required. That leaves more time for you to focus on work or take a much-needed break.
Of course, you might want to jump on the language train, too, with an app for adults.
Then, just think: when international travel is back on, the whole fam will be prepped for whatever worldly adventure awaits. You can even make planning a trip part of the process!
Duolingo
Duolingo is the top language app in the world, and we highly recommend using it as a key component of your child’s language-learning mission. Currently, it offers 38 languages, so your child is bound to find one (or 10) he’s interested in.
The plentiful benefits of Duolingo include:
- Increases motivation: With an app as stimulating as this one, you’ll never have to nudge your child to do his practice—he’ll be right on it!
- Incites natural curiosity: A new language should be exciting, fresh, and slightly mysterious. That’s all part of the fun!
- Real-world practice: The games, exercises, and activities are all geared toward preparing your youngster for real-world situations.
- Rewards and incentives: Experience points (XP) are awarded for finished lessons, along with crowns for completing advanced skills. These incentives can work wonders when it comes to motivating kids to keep progressing.
The regular Duolingo app is for ages 13 and up, while Duolingo Kids is for ages 4-12.
Endless Spanish
This Endless Spanish app was created by the team at Originator. Known for its popular Endless Reader and Endless Numbers apps, the company has now added the perfect intro to Spanish to its roster.
Your child will learn a variety of words and sentence structures by completing fun, stimulating puzzles. They’ll also love the adorable, cuddly monsters!
There are no scores, failures, or pressure—it’s just pure fun! The app will also cater to your child’s individual pace. You can choose either the all Spanish or Spanish with English translation version.
You can get Endless Spanish for free from the App Store or Google Play.
Gus on the Go
Gus is a friendly little owl, who (get it?) teaches your child a language through fun and familiar stories, brightly illustrated pictures, and stimulating games. With such exciting lessons, your child won’t even know she’s learning!
She’ll also collect a nice display of trophies for completing the fun vocabulary games. Gus on the Go offers 30 languages, and each costs $3.99. When your child starts speaking to you in Mandarin, though, it’ll be more than worth the money.
Pacca Alpaca
You gotta love the colorful, endearing Pacca Alpaca! He’s just too darn cute! Plus, there’s so much to explore here, with seven languages at your fingertips: Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, and Welsh.
The words are also spoken by native children, which really makes this app stand out. Talk about authenticity!
Your child will practice shapes, colors, numbers, and more in a series of concise games, which are perfect for those short attention spans.
Set in Australia, Pacca will also teach your child about cultural differences, as well, and he can even collect local souvenirs along the way.
Pacca Alpaca is free on Amazon.
Fun Easy Learn
The Fun Easy Learn app is free and offers three levels to challenge your child to keep growing and learning. The fun, interactive games encourage listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills.
There are 34 language courses, with 6,000 words per course. The illustrations are bright and vivid to capture and hold your child’s attention. The app also features real human pronunciations—no robotics here!
You can easily track your child’s progress, as he or she earns flowers and bees for every success, and can use them for a free subscription! The best part is this app doesn’t even require an internet connection! This makes it perfect for long road trips, plane rides, or even at the park.
You can get Fun Easy Learn for free on the App Store or Google Play.
Remove the headache, pressure, and hard work of learning a new language with these easy, playful, and engaging apps. Turning the process into a game is an ingenious way to motivate and pique your child’s interest.
Feel free to join in, too! Soon, you and your kid will be having full-on conversations in a second language.
