Activities for Kids’ Target Language Learning – Raising Bilingual Kids

Activities for Kids’ Target Language Learning

One of the most commonly asked questions about teaching children a new language is how to encourage kids to speak the target language, Chinese on a day to day basis.  When busy parents focus on the output, that is to speak the Chinese language, it is very important to look at the Chinese language input that children receive daily.  One of the most popular resource articles is:

15 Chinese Cartoons for Kids

Here I want to share a framework of the Chinese language routine.  This plan could help parents increase the target language,  Chinese input, and strength your family bilingual journey.

Activities for Kids’ Target Language Learning

1. Breakfast Energizer

Listen to Chinese nursery rhymes, music, or songs on a radio station from China, Singapore, Taiwan or even in the U.S using a smart speaker like Amazon Echo and Google Home.  If your family is new to the Chinese language you can consider to use a bilingual audio streaming album or a podcast program to start the day at breakfast.

2. Commute Booster

Your daily commute is an opportunity to increase Chinese language input.  You can continue listening to the album or the podcast.  You can listen to story-based playful teaching resources with audio.  You can also listen to children’s Chinese audio stories.  If your family has a video player in the car you can play Chinese shows.  For non-device activities, you can use topic-focused Chinese printables and let kids trace, copy, color, work on playful activities in the car with a clipboard.

3. Chinese Lunch notes

Pack a secret picture lunch note with one word or a couple of lovely sentences in your child’s lunch bag.  You can use pinyin and Chinese characters to write the notes.  You can use lunch notes printables and add your smiley face.  Even it there is only one word it is a way to build Chinese literacy skills.  This can be a wonderful surprise for your child and you can even add a special treat to go with the note from time to time to make it more fun.

4. Chinese Play Center

A play center is a designated area at home that is always fun to go to with Chinese language text rich materials such as Chinese playbooks, Chinese-English bilingual books, Chinese word wall, craft items, Chinese flashcards with pictures and words, toys and so on.   You can use a variety of topics for the center so you can introduce new concepts and words to the playtime.  Plan your topics with a printable calendar for ideas you can use in the coming weeks or months.

5. Chinese Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunt is for kids of all ages.  For young learners who are not reading yet, parents can use picture cards with printed Chinese characters. For children who have started reading some basic Chinese words, parents can use the words the kids have already learned to start with.  This can be done indoors and outdoors.  This can be done in the yard, at the park, or on a walk.  When the weather is too cold to be outside.  Parents can play Sock Scavenger Hunt.  You will need several pairs of socks to play this game.  I insert a note in each sock and the kids need to find the matching pairs of notes or matching pairs of socks.  The same can apply to mittens or gloves.

6. Chinese I Spy

I Spy is for kids with different Chinese proficiency.  Focus on listening or speaking with visual tools of word cards with pictures for young learners.  Use word cards and picture cards for early readers.  I Spy is a great way to practice describing words repeatedly and make them stick.

7. Chinese Reading Tent

This tent can be set up with a bedding sheet over a table or it can be a play tent you already have at home.  Be creative.  This is a cozy winter reading activity and it can also be a summer reading activity.

In the summer you can read by the pool, in the yard,  on the slide or in the park.  For younger kids, I read to them first.  Then we talk about the characters, pictures, and the story.

For older kids, we read together.  I do Reading Drama, a similar version of reader’s theater for my children and it works like a charm in my program for big kids as well.  It is a lot of fun when kids read with their acting voice.  I ask questions to check their comprehension.  Reading Drama is my reading version of radio drama.

Read, read and read more in the target language!  It is the best language input for children of all ages.  If you only have time for one activity a day reading is the best one for you and your child.  If the Chinese language is new to you and your child songs and rhymes are a great place to start.

8. Chinese Game Night

Game night is always a hit in my house.  A Chinese game night is a special event with treats and prizes.  You can have a game zone at home on a designated day to celebrate your child’s hard work and achievement.  You can use the games you already have to boost the bilingual spirit at home.

9. Using Technology as a Language Learning Tool and a Connecting Tool

Facetime, WeChat, Line alike video platforms can connect family and friends who know the target language or who are also learning the target language!

For parents whose heritage language is Mandarin Chinese.  These video tools can connect child with grandparents, relatives, and friends who speak Chinese.  They can be a part of your family’s bilingual journey.  Involve your extended family and have them celebrate your child’s progress on this adventure.

Parents can make this online connection a routine.  My kids talk to Grandma and Grandpa Panda every week.  It is a connection with the family, the target language, and the heritage culture.

Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.    -Stephen Krashen, linguist

10. Surprise Field Trips

This is a lot of fun.  It is a surprise so no one knows where they are going except the parent who is taking the kids on the trip.  This activity can generate questions and curiosity from kids.  Use the list of question words and provide short answers.  Use the field trip to practice the topic you have been working on with your child.

Some ideas for the field trips are Chinese/Asian supermarkets, Lion Dance school, Bubble Tea shop, art museums, Chinese restaurants, a store in the mall, Chinese medicine herb shop, a tea shop and so on.  The focus is to engage your child in learning outside of the house.  It is a  way to have a real conversation in Chinese with you, with the shopkeeper, or with the event performers.

11. Immersion Tour

Chinese immersion trip to China or Taiwan.

• Chinese immersion summer camps.  These camps are designed for children who are learning Chinese as a second language or as a heritage language.

• Chinese local summer camps.  For kids, who have been exposed to the Chinese language and have been actively using the Chinese language, a local summer camp for Chinese children will be my recommendation.

My children have attended both the Chinese immersion programs for Chinese language learners and local summer camps for Chinese kids.  You can pick a sports camp, a science camp, a cooking camp, an adventure camp or a nature camp that caters to the interest of your child.  It works best when your child attends a program that she is interested in.  The Chinese language is there naturally and they will have fun meeting local friends and learning about the subjects of their interest in Chinese.

Y0u can find a collection of Chinese summer camps in the U.S., China, and Taiwan here.

I hope you can pick and choose the activities that work for your family’s lifestyle.  Activities for Kids’ Target Language Learning might be able to spark some more ideas for you!  Raising a bilingual child is an adventure and you are going to make this a wonderful target language filled journey with consistency, smiles, and fun activities that fit your needs.

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Activities for Kids’ Target Language Learning