How to teach pre-school children?

All the things you can read below are based on my own experience.

I have started to teach my kids English as a second language when they were about 3 years of age. Surely, you can start earlier, it’s up to you. I just wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

We started with simple words: basic nouns and verbs, ie. jump, sleep, sit, eat, bed, room, dog, car, spider, cat, ice-cream etc. We were repeating these words almost every day.

After several weeks they have mastered basic 30-40 words, so we started to learn sentences: I have a teddy bear. I want an ice-cream. Fish swims in the river. Daddy is in the garden.

I realised that the more ridiculous or funny the phrase is, the more willingly they learn it. So we started with sentences like that: Pigs don’t fly. Don’t steal my chocolate! I see a pink cat. Baby stinks, change the diaper!

We were learning only 2-5 minutes a day, almost every day. I knew that they won’t focus for a longer period of time. To me personally, teaching little kids with a course book for 45 minutes is totally pointless. It would only discourage them.

Every time I was visiting foreign friends with whom we speak English, I was taking kids with me. I was taking them abroad (not only UK but also other countries where people speak English well) so that they could not only listen to and practise the foreign language but most of all they experienced on their own skin that knowing English is really necessary and helps a lot.

My kids no longer watch cartoons in their mother tongue. They are allowed to watch in English only. I play them: Martha speaks, Peppa Pig, Franklin, Max and Ruby, Winnie the Pooh, Yogi Bear or cartoons typically aimed at learning English like Lippy and Messy or Muzzy in Gondonland.

I have few books in English for children. We read them together. I read a sentence in English first, then I translate it to them. They catch new words and phrases unimaginably quickly. Oh, how I envy them! :)

I bought some materials which make our learning even more effective and attractive. Since the majority of people viewing this blog are from Czech Republic, I can recommend you this online shop: http://pomuzemesanglictinou.cz/

We often use these materials. They really do the job :)

As you can see, this is a holistic approach towards learning, multi-dimensional and conscious.

You don’t have to be a native speaker, nor even a teacher of English to help your kid to understand the language. You can learn together! The only thing you need is patience and 2-5 minutes of time a day.