Lately my son has shown an interest in art. I’m thrilled, I think it is great that he is interested in something that will help develop his fine motor skills and develop his creativity. Learning languages through art is a great way to kids excited about learning his heritage languages.
When raising a trilingual child, you always think about how to incorporate language learning into activities. It is especially important to make language learning fun, to keep the child engaged… so art seemed like a great way to make language learning fun!
Enzo’s daily exposure to art is in day care, and most of it is in English (though the teacher does speak Spanish.) Depending on who is working on the project with him at home, art can help develop his Spanish and French skills. If I am playing with him he builds his Spanish skills and if his Papa is, then it’s the French vocabulary he works on.
Today, I said “Let’s paint today” and then I found myself thinking hard for the word “paintbrush” in Spanish… turns out this art idea is not only flexing his language muscles, it is also flexing mine! Finally, I remembered it was “pincel.”
The Art Box
BUILD AN ART BOX!
I decided to put together an “art box” of things he could make collages with, paint and glue. What is an art box? Well, it is a simple box filled with different items that you can make collages with. We started with a simple plastic bin and added items found at discount stores:
- wooden sticks
You can also add things like:
- foam shapes
- magazine pages to glue/cut
- pipe cleaners
The sky is the limit! You can also use toilet paper rolls, tissue paper, crepe paper, aluminum foil… The possibilities are endless! The art box can help you practice colors, textures, art supplies and more, in many languages!
How do you use art to help your little one learn another language? Any other ideas on what to add to the art box?
Share your ideas below!