You might think that you need to rush out and get the latest app or buy Rosetta Stone to learn as an adult – not so! There are lots of great FREE apps PLUS there are lots of great books that you can read – just DON’T look in the adult section.
I have learned more Spanish by taking my babies current books and translating them. Now, I love books and I feel writing in a book is a sin. However, when it comes to the board books my twins read, I swallow my horror and write in it.
There are a couple of things I look for before I go to the work of translating them.
1.Repetition. (Again, this is how we all learn.) Does the book repeat words over and over? Then it’s a good one to translate. Here is an example of a what I translated and wrote in:
We got this board book from our local library for free. It repeats “God loves little….” and then it changes words. I know there are probably lots of different ways to translate each sentence, but I wanted to focus on the repetition of the words. So, I used “pequeño/pequeña” every time to signify “little”. Also, we are learning that God is “Dios” and to love is “amor”. I used good old Google Translate for everything. I wrote it on the bottom of every page. (See it? It’s really small.)
2. Is it simple or short? If yes, go for it.
3. Are there words I can use on a daily basis? Books that talk about colors are a huge help. I can go over the color again and again using the items in the book. I’m learning as I go and so are they. Here is one I did:
This is a Baby Einstein board book that talks about colors. I repeat the word for red “rojo” and then talk about each item with that word. Sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish. I wrote out the full thought so I would know I was doing the gender of each noun correctly. (The gender stuff totally throws me – I took French, so I get the concept, but I can NEVER guess correctly – I always have to look it up!)
Check out the “Amazon Finds” tab on the drop down menu of “Incredible Ideas for Teaching Spanish at Home” for books that I think are simple and helpful.
Learning Spanish as a Family 