Pumpkin spice season is on the horizon! The sweater weather, the chilliness, the tea and coffee
scented with warming spices, and the delightful orange colours of the pumpkins are right around
the corner. And with it, the opportunity to sneak some bilingual education in for your little one.
Bilingualism is usually a dream parents have for their children, but it’s often met with hesitation.
Some parents worry about how a second language might confuse a kid, and others worry about
finding the right programme or missing the “window” to do this.
But guess what? Learning a second language is easier when kids are young, their brains are
wired for it and essentially function as a sponge. However, this doesn’t mean that language
learning stops at 5, or 8, or 12, or even 45. It just might take a little longer.
So here are some ideas to help you get started. Take what fits, what feels right, and see how it
goes.
Oh, and a friendly reminder: none of these activities require you to speak Spanish (or any target
language) yourself. Which brings me to something most parents worry about: their own lack of
fluency in the target language.
The easiest way to fit a new language “routine” into your already busy mum schedule is to add it
into things you already do, or are already planning to do. Think about autumn, this time of year
comes with its own little rituals and traditions that you might not do every day, but you do every
year. It’s already part of your routine. And then, of course, there are things you do every single
day. Both of these moments are perfect for sneaking in some Spanish to start your kid’s
bilingual journey.
So, for autumn-specific activities that may already be on your radar: think about conker walks,
where you can learn 5 to 6 nature words in Spanish before heading out. Think leaf, tree,
squirrel, acorn, and turn the walk into a “spot it, say it” game.
Not a fan of nature? No problem! Try adding a Spanish word of the week to the fridge. Choose
one word every Monday, say it together at meals throughout the week, then swap it for a new
one the following Monday. Keep it seasonal, think words like pumpkin: calabaza, ghost:
fantasma, sweets: dulces. You get the idea.
One of the sneakiest ways to add Spanish to your daily routine this autumn is during the school
run or any commute. Going from one place to another is already happening in your day-to-day
— you don’t have to add anything new. Just put on a Spanish playlist instead of your usual one.
You already know the power of a catchy song, and one thing that’s true across every language
is that we all have plenty of seasonal songs to dance to at school festivals.
Look up “Las Calaveras Salen de Su Tumba” — trust me.
Another sneaky and fun trick: take that one show your kid already has on repeat and knows by heart, and switch it to Spanish. Most streaming services have a language setting that lets you change the spoken audio, and when you do it with a story they’re already familiar with, they already know the context. They get to experience a story they understand in another language, and you get a break from hearing the same show for the hundredth time. Win-win. Movie night can get the same treatment too!
Learning a second (or even a third) language is a unique skill for your kid to have. Research shows it brings benefits well beyond better career opportunities:
- Better executive function — task-switching, filtering out distractions, and managing conflicting information
- Stronger working memory
- More flexible, creative thinking — they can approach the same problem from different angles because they have two systems of words and concepts to draw from
- Enhanced empathy — studies show bilingual kids tend to be better at understanding another person’s perspective
- Greater cultural openness — they find it easier to connect with other cultures and feel less “fear” of what’s different
And with any skill, the real secret ingredient to success is consistency. One week of intense, Spanish-filled activities that then stops completely (only to be picked up again months later) will do little to nothing. But choose two activities and stick with them, and you’ll start seeing results.
At TruFluency Kids Spanish, we always tell parents to guard the time they choose for their kid’s classes. All they have to do is show up, and our dedicated team of native Spanish-speaking teachers will do the rest. Consistency is the key.