3 Fun Family Activities to Help Kids Learn English Naturally

Want to help your kids learn English? You don’t need send them to expensive elocution classes or tuition classes. Try some of these fun family activities at home and see how fast your kids can absorb English!

Have an English-speaking Day!

Choose a day in the week when you can only speak English with your family at home, or with your closest friends. When you designate a day to speak English, you force yourself to practice the language in the context of a regular day. Kids learn English naturally when they absorb the language in a casual setting like this.

For example, you can plan a fun home improvement project with the help of your kids and make it an English-Only activity. Kids will learn to say simple sentences like “dad, the nails are here” or “I mixed the paint”. Or you can ask kids to help you prepare dinner and make it an English-Only activity.

All of these tips point to one thing: Practice your English speaking in new and different ways! Practice hearing English words and sentences; practice speaking them; and practice researching what you don’t know so you learn. Soon, English speaking will become a habit for you on your designated English-speaking days – and on any day!

Watch English TV/Internet videos as a family

Watch as many English speaking TV shows and films as you can as a family. Watching TV is a fun way for your kids to learn English. Watch with subtitles first, in your language and then eventually challenge yourself to turn them off.

When you hear words you don’t understand write them down and look them up. By doing this, you will be exposed to many different types of English speaking and many different subjects. Television and movie are full of slang and people speak the REAL way people speak in day to day situations. Kids learn English naturally and effortlessly when you watch TV.

Watching YouTube videos (makeup tutorials, reviews, short gag clips) can also help as it familiarizes you with everyday ‘street English’ that is spoken in nonofficial circumstances. Listening to the news in English is another great way of learning proper grammar and diction: newscasters often use the most proper English you can find

If you have you children you can start with cartoons like Pippa Pig or Tayo Bus. Sesame Street is another great program for kids to learn English. Comedies are especially popular with older kids who are learning English. There are many TV series with simple plots that you can learn from, like ‘Friends’ or ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ Watch what you like and the new vocabulary will come quickly. Then practice your new words in real life. These real life scenarios you see on TV will really come in handy when you speak aloud

Listen to music in English

Another fun activity to help kids learn English naturally is to play English music at home. This is an easy way to learn new words and improve listening skills that can be done almost anytime as long as you are not disturbing neighbors! You can find new artists they enjoy and pick up different phrases from the lyrics.

Since people often find it easy to remember lyrics, committing these new phrases to memory probably won’t require much active memorization. Listening to music in English is an entertaining, passive activity that will help students get accustomed to the rhythm of the language.