Kids Can Learn Spanish

by: Frank Gerace

Kids Can Learn Spanish! Spanish for Children

I just got a call from my two year old granddaughter. She wanted to sing "Los Pollitos" to me. You can find this children's classic in most of the collections of songs that we are recommending.

It is perfect for hand gestures. These gestures are ideal for language learning because they imprint the sense of the words as the child recites.

The text is: (translation follows)

Los pollitos dicen pío, pío, pío
cuando tienen hambre,
y cuando tienen frío.

(the kids make gesture of shivering)

La gallina busca el maíz y el trigo;
Le da su comida,
Y le presta abrigo

(the kids make the gesture of Mom hugging her kids.)

Pío, pío, pío

(the kids should ham it up, making a little chick face!)

Translation:

The little chicks say peep, peep, peep
when they are hungry
and when they are cold.

The chicken looks for corn and wheat;
she feeds them,
and she keeps them warmn

There are many reasons for wanting your children to learn Spanish. We want to help you find resources that will help you with Spanish for Kids.

Some parents are interested in preparing their children for life in today's world where it is important to know more than one language. This is even more important in our hemisphere where it becomes increasingly valuable to know Spanish.

Other people think of the intellectual stimulation that learning a language provides. They think that they can give their children a an additional intellectual challenge in a painless way. Researcher in London, England have determined that learning a second language boosts brain power which remains throughout life.

Learning a language can be a source of pride and self esteem for the child who is fortunate enough to be exposed to learning outside of the classroom.

There are some parents who are concerned that their children grow up respecting the different heritages that surround them. Concerned that the nativist tradition of United States history is always present, many parents, not of a Spanish Speaking background, choose to prepare their children to accept and embrace the Hispanic culture they live alongside of.

Their reason to encourage their children to speak Spanish is based in part on the history of a previous group of Latin immigrants to the United States, the Italians.

"Some social critics were aware of the consequences of sudden assimilation. Mary McDowell, a social worker, wrote en 1904:

'The contempt for the experiences and languages of their parents which foreign children sometimes exhibit... is doubtless due in part to the overestimation which the school places upon speaking English. This cutting into his family loyalty takes away one of the most conspicuous and valuable traits of the Italian child.' She attributed the lawlessness of some of the immigrant children to their disrespect for their parents and therefore for all authority."

(La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience, Mangione and Morreale, p. 222)

Reflection on this same national history, and often more importantly personal experience, moves many Hispanic parents to keep their language alive in their children. They want to preserve their heritage for their children by giving them its most evocative and powerful manifestation, the language of their forebears.