What is the best way of teaching kids Italian?
1. Collect some resources and make a plan
Gather some age appropriate resources and make a note of the topics they cover. Next, make a plan of what topics you will teach your child. It will be easier for your child to learn Italian vocabulary if you teach them using topics.
Activity books
Activity books which offer a variety of fun activities and are topic based are a good starting point for children learning Italian. Two good books are:
Young Cool Kids Learn Italian - ideal for 5 to 7 year olds
Cool Kids Speak Italian Book 1 - ideal for 7 to 11 year olds
Inspire little minds to love learning Italian by using their toys to teach them new words and phrases. Amongst your child's toys you may find useful things to teach them colours, various animals, types of transport, food and drink. And to teach the clothes topic, the clothes your child has in their wardrobe would be ideal to use as visual clues!
Some parents choose to buy a new puppet or toy and say to their child that this puppet / toy only speaks Italian. You could of course use puppets or toys you already have at home when you want to have a little Italian dialogue, either with your child or with yourself. The choice is yours!
To teach Italian well, it is important to help develop your child's ability to listen, speak, read and write in Italian.
It is therefore advisable to plan for learning activities which help build solid foundations in all four skills. You can plan to develop their listening and speaking skills by talking and listening to you or by playing an Italian vocabulary building game together. With activity books your child has the opportunity to both read and write Italian words. And an Italian story can help develop various skills depending on how it is used.
2. Start by Keeping it simple
Now you have decided you want your child to learn Italian and you have collected some resources, you may be wondering how to start. You could start by using a puppet or a soft toy to teach Italian greeting words and how to introduce yourself in Italian. You could either buy a new puppet or toy and tell your child that this puppet / toy only speaks Italian, or you could use something you already have at home.
One fun way of teaching children the numbers 1 to 10 is to pretend to do gymn exercises or to pretend to swim as you count. Initially teach the numbers uno, due, tre and once children are confident with those numbers move on to teach quattro, cinque, sei and then finally sette, otto, nove, dieci.
When your child knows some greeting words and the numbers 1 to 10 it's nice to then teach some nouns. Nouns are words for people, animals, places or things. Begin with the topics that will be the most useful and the topics that will interest your child the most. For each topic you teach, remember to provide opportunities which help your child develop reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
When your child is familiar with the Italian vocabulary for a particular topic you can start to model how to build simple sentences or questions, and encourage them to have a go at saying the odd short sentence in Italian.
Slow and steady wins the race. It takes time to develop proficiency.
3. Play games
An effective way of teaching your child Italian is to combine learning and games. After all, play is a favourite pastime for many children! Two books which are packed full of games like snakes and ladders and other games in the style of a board game are Italian Word Games and Photocopiable Games For Teaching Italian.
Guess the word game - to play this game with your child make a list of Italian words or find an Italian vocabulary page in a book. Next, choose a word each. If you want to, you can both secretly write your word down. After that, take turns to guess each other's words. Whoever guesses the word first gets a point, and you both then choose another word. To win, be the first to get 5 points.
Games create a fun and meaningful environment and will ensure that it doesn't feel like homework or a chore when you teach your child Italian.
4. Incorporate Italian into your daily routine
Some parents find that if they speak Italian regularly with their child this helps to develop the child’s listening ability and at first they may be able to understand more than they can say. However if you continue to teach your child Italian they will learn how to respond in full sentences as their knowledge deepens. If you think for a moment about a very young child who is starting to speak their native language - they naturally pick up vocabulary by listening to others speak. So incorporate Italian into mealtimes, when you go shopping and other daily activities too.
Cook with your kids in Italian - Get creative to spark your child’s interest in Italian! You could make your own pizzas, either by using plain pizza bases or pitta bread. Most children really enjoy putting their own toppings on pizzas, and you could teach them the Italian words for different pizza toppings. You could also make your own pasta sauces. Kitchen knives can be sharp and dangerous for children to use, so remember to help your child in the kitchen by cutting anything that needs cutting. Or how about a baking session to make some cakes or cookies!
If you grow vegetables with your child, you can teach them the Italian words for the things you decide to plant and it is fun watching them grow! The outside space you have doesn’t need to be big - you can even grow vegetables on your balcony! In addition to the name of the fruit or vegetable you are growing, you can revise colours, sizes, numbers etc. Gardening can also encourage healthy eating, because learning to grow vegetables can encourage children to eat what they grow!
Do a scavenger hunt around your home or garden - just write a list in Italian of things for them to find.
5. Read stories together
Another great way to teach your child Italian is by reading some short stories together. It's useful to read a story in a foreign language several times. First of all, when you read a story just look for your child to have a general idea about what the story is about. Then move on to look for useful words or phrases that they may want to learn. At the end of each of the stories by Joanne Leyland there is a vocabulary list of some of the useful everyday words that appear in the story. After learning some of these words it is then nice to read the story for a third time. At the end of the stories in Italian by Joanne Leyland you will find an Italian - English translation, to refer to if you want to.
As a follow on activity why don't you try singing a song or creating a rap using some of the words from the story you have just read. The stories by Joanne Leyland all have lyrics at the back of the book that can be sung or made into a rap. Many children enjoy songs and raps. Melodies and rhythms with repetitive words can help children memorise new Italian vocabulary and phrases. Songs and raps can also help develop good pronunciation. You can invent your own tunes, or tap a table to create a beat as you say the words. This type of activity gives you a great opportunity to spend some time together, be creative and have fun! Before you know it, your child will know the songs or raps by heart and you may hear them singing / saying them as they play.
6. Introduce word gender
In Italian some words are feminine, and some words are masculine. Gender of words can seem a difficult concept to grasp as people get older, but there is a very simple way of explaining it to children.
There's a simple way of remembering which gender most nouns or adjectives are when they end in the letter o or a:
The "a" ending of words is usually feminine, and the letter a could look like a face of a girl with a ponytail.
So a ending words are girl words (feminine).
The "o" ending of words is usually masculine, and the letter o could look like a face of a boy.
So o ending words are boy words (masculine).
Here are three useful nouns you could give as an example to your child:
una pizza = a pizza
un panino = a sandwich
un gelato = an ice cream
You could point out that una pizza is a feminine word (a girl word) and that un panino and un gelato are masculine words (boy words). You may also have to explain that it doesn't mean that the masculine things are only for boys, and vice versa. It is only the gender of the word and has nothing to do with who the thing is for.
At an early age you could introduce the gender of words through an activity of separating flashcards into two piles: masculine words which end in o and feminine words which end in a.
7. Introduce your child to Italian culture
Children are more motivated to learn Italian if they are having fun and feel like they are making progress. It may also help if you instil in them the love of the culture by introducing them to typical music (both traditional and modern pop music), typical food, football teams / players etc.
Italian restaurants are a popular choice for a meal out with the family. Children may find it fascinating that Italians often eat pasta as a starter and that both pasta and pizza are eaten very often in Italy. If you go to an Italian restaurant with your child you could see if there are any Italian waiters or waitresses that you could speak a little Italian with. Italian ice cream has a reputation for being delicious, so if you have somewhere nearby that sells Italian ice cream you could treat yourselves to an Italian ice cream!
A lovely Italian holiday may also encourage your child to learn Italian. Motivation can be encouraged and improved. It helps to have real reasons for using Italian, rather than just studying words or grammar. And there are so many lovely places to visit in Italy from the Italian lakes, to an Italian seaside town to the beautiful cities of Rome or Florence.... the choice is yours!
8. Lay the foundations for success
Encouraging your child with Italian can help prepare them well for school and for life. Build your child’s confidence by being optimistic yourself and showing interest in what your child is learning. Many parents find it incredible to see how far their child has come in a short period of time, so praise them often for both effort and little triumphs.
When children learn a language they are less afraid of making mistakes, so it is advantageous to start young. Whether it’s a little Italian you do with your kids or a lot, any Italian you do is a fantastic gift.
It’s worth bearing in mind that people (both adults and children) find it difficult to concentrate if they are either hungry or thirsty. If it has been a while since your child has eaten or drank something you could use Italian to check if they are hungry or thirsty either before or whilst you teach them.
Don't worry if you don't know much Italian yourself as it is possible to learn a part of a language first and then teach it to your child. Or you could both learn Italian together.
It’s much easier to get started teaching your kids Italian than you think! The best Italian lessons often include a mixture of activities: For example, you could start with a recap on previous learning, and then move on to introduce something new and practise it with a game. Finally there could be individual / quiet activities such as an activity book / worksheets, word searches or a poster/menu design. You could also build a lesson around an Italian story you are reading with your child.
Just remember to make it fun by using a variety of materials, such as activity books, games, colouring pages, word searches and read stories.