9 Fun Summer Activities for Kids That Incorporate Language Learning

For most kids (and some adults) summer means one thing: fun! Whether your family is going on a road trip or making sandcastles on the beach, summer offers some great opportunities for family time — and you may be able to sneak some language learning into your activities with the kiddos!

Here are 9 fun summer activities that you can do with your kids that incorporate language learning. Feel free to add your own spin to each one!

Road Trip Games

1. Name the Color/Object

Road trips can be a lot of fun, but even the most patient of children will get bored after several hours in the car. Keep your kids engaged by playing some simple games! One easy game is "Name the Color." Ask your kids what color a passing car is, or ask which colors are on a road sign. Give them a point for each color in the target language they get right! Then, mix it up by playing "Name the Object," and ask them to name things that they see along the road.

2. Made-up Lyrics

Are your kids musical? Do they like to sing? If so, help them to make up lyrics in the target language to one of their favorite children's songs. Pick simple songs, and make the translation as simple as possible. For instance, change the English words in "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to French or Spanish words. Then, once you have the lyrics, sing out together!

3. Scavenger Hunt

Every kid loves a scavenger hunt! Keep your children engaged by giving them a list of objects in the target language to look for. Then, when they spot one they have to say the word out loud. It's super easy and will make your road trip that much more fun. Best of all, your kids will learn a bunch of new words!

Outdoor Activities

4. Playing Catch

When people think of summer, they may think of playing ball. If you want to enjoy the outdoors with your kids, play a game of catch with them. Here's how you can incorporate language learning into this pastime:

• Pick a logical sequence of words in the target language (such as numbers, the days of the week, and so forth).

• Say the first word in the sequence out loud, and then toss the ball to your child.

• Have him or her repeat the word, and toss the ball back to you.

• If he says the word correctly, go to the next word in the sequence. If not, repeat the first word until he nails down the pronunciation.

• If you are playing with more than one child, have the first child toss the ball to the second, and then have him toss the ball back to you. Or have each child toss the ball back to you, and alternate between them.

Scientists believe that incorporating language learning into physical activity can aid memory and increase the speed of comprehension. This is a great way to entertain your kids and get in some language learning at the same time.

5. Name that Animal!

If you are on a hike with your kids, point out any animal that you see and ask them to name it. This activity will make your walk more exciting for the kids. It will also teach them common animal names, like bird, butterfly, goose, or other animals that live in your area.

6. Charades

Kids love charades! If you're relaxing in your backyard, then spend some time playing charades with your children. Tell them that if they guess what you're pretending to be, they have to say the word in the target language. This is another great way to teach your children animal names. Depending on the age and knowledge of your child, you can also pretend to be historical figures, or even re-enact well-known events in your family's culture.

Fun at the Beach

7. Counting with Seashells

For many people, the beach is the ultimate summer destination. If your family is soaking up the sun and strolling on the sand, use this opportunity to teach your kids how to count in the target language. As you walk along the beach, ask your kids to count how many seashells they see on the shore. Count out loud, and keep counting until your child gets the next number wrong. Then you can correct him or her, and start over. It's simple, relaxing, and fun!

8. Comparisons with Sand Castles

Building sandcastles is a time-honored beach tradition for families. Work with your children to build a sandcastle. Then, once the sandcastle is done, use it to teach them some concepts in the target language. For example, you can teach your child the difference between "over" and "under," "on top" and "below," "through" and "around," and so on. This is a great way to give your child a jump on more abstract language concepts, like directions.

9. Speed Writing in the Sand

One other fun activity with your kids that you can do on the beach involves sand, the tide, and teaching them how to write. Show your child how to write certain words in the target language (you may need to do this beforehand). Then, have your child practice his writing skills in the sand. When you think he's ready, tell him that it's time to race against the water! Go out to the tideline, and when the wave recedes have him trace out a word in the sand before the next wave comes in. Give him a point for each word he completes before the water washes it away. It's a fun and pain-free way to develop your child's writing skills!

The above 9 activities are great ways to have fun with your children — and sneak in language learning at the same time. Of course, you don't have to go "low-tech" with all of your games and activities. Try out Little Pim's award-winning foreign language program with our free 3-day trial offer. It's specially designed for kids aged 0-6, and is perfect for traveling and road trips. You can download Little Pim on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV. Check us out today!

(Featured image via Unsplash - Leo Rivas)

6 Fun Earth Day 2020 Activities for Kids

Staying home with kids can be fun.  We bet after a few weeks of unplanned confinement, you have doubts. 

You are stuck at home with your active and inquisitive two (three, four, five, six, take your pick)-year-old or  (oh, no!) a few of them. The ideas of fun things to do are running out at the speed of light.  Is it time to panic?

Not at all! With Earth Day coming up, we've created a list of fun activities to help you take the mandatory isolation in stride. Your kids will love every minute, helping you relax along the way.

1. Fighting Plastic Waste: Sewing a Tote Bag

• Good for kids: 4 -6 years old

• Time: 2 – 3 hours

Bright and colorful tote bags are always in demand. Your kids will love making something on their own and using it to save the planet. Thankfully, the process is fairly easy. All you need is fabric, canvas straps, and some patience.

While it's nice to have a sewing machine to complete this project, you can do it by hand. Uneven stitches made by little hands will make your new tote bag sweet and unique.

Does your 5-year-old have younger brothers and sisters? They can pitch in by taking a couple of markers and drawing exclusive patterns on the bag.

We loved this bag-sewing tutorial.

An interesting fact to share: Every second 160,000 plastic bags are used around the planet.

2. Saving the Birds: Building a Bird Feeder

• Good for kids: 2 -12 years old

• Time: 1 – 2 hours

Building a bird feeder is always fun. While the activity can give your children new and exciting skills, it also has hidden potential. Your children will love putting food into the feeder and watching birds take full advantage of their creation.

Depending on how old your kid is, you can choose the type of bird feeder to build. While wooden birdhouses are the best, not all parents possess the skills (maybe it's time to learn?) or tools to build them. So we suggest taking an easy way out.

Since it's Earth Day, consider creating feeders out of recycled materials. Plastic bottles or empty milk cartons work just fine.

An interesting fact to share: When it comes to bird feeders, squirrels are birds' worst enemies. So you should squirrel-proof the feeder by placing it at least five feet away from the tree.

3. Exploring Ocean Contamination: Oil Spill Cleanup

• Good for kids: 3 - 12 years old

• Time: 1 – 2 hours

Earth Day is an excellent opportunity to teach your kids about oil spills. While you are explaining the dangers of oil spills, you can create a little cleanup experiment. You'll need:

• Vegetable oil

• Detergent

• Water

• Spoon

• Cloth pads

• Pan

• Rock

• Bird feathers (if you don't have any, you can just use a piece of cloth shaped like a feather)

We've found an excellent video experiment to help teach your kids all about oil spills and how hard they are to clean up.

An interesting fact to share: The largest oil spill to date occurred in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.

4. Being Waste Conscious: Making Recycling Bins

• Good for kids: 1 - 7 years old

• Time: 1 – 2 hours

Waste sorting is one of the easiest ways children of all ages can help take care of our planet. Even if you already have different bins for paper, plastic, glass, and organic waste, your children can make a couple of them for their rooms.

While organic waste should stay in the kitchen, your kids can create personal bins for paper and plastic. All you need is a couple of old cardboard boxes and crayons. Let them decorate the boxes and write "paper" or "plastic" on them. If you don't have the boxes, you can make them!

An interesting fact to share: Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water!

5. Breathing Easier: Planting Seeds

• Good for kids: 1 - 12 years old

• Time: 1 - 3 hours

Planting seeds is always a fun activity. It's an excellent opportunity to tell your children why we should take care of plants and trees. It doesn't matter what kind of seeds you plant, kids will love the process.

You can either plant something in the backyard or extend the fun by making DIY flowerpots or decorating existing ones.

It's possible to make flowerpots out of recycled materials. You can use plastic bottles, old paint cans, tires, and even old shoes. What an excellent way to recycle the little shoes your children grew out of!

An interesting fact to share: Trees don't just help us breathe. They cut energy bills. The shade produced by trees can save up to 30% of the energy we use for air conditioning.

6. Saving Energy: Using Candles

• Good for kids: 1 - 99 years old

• Time: 1 - ∞

Earth Day is an excellent opportunity to teach your children about saving energy. Turn off all the lights in your home, light candles, and tell stories.

To make candles for the energy-saving evening, you can use the old and boring candles you have at home and give them a new life.  

You can also use this opportunity to teach children about fire safety.

An interesting fact to share: The custom of putting lit candles on the cake and making a wish dates back to ancient Greeks. They thought that smoke from a blown-out candle carried their thoughts to Gods.

Have Fun While Learning a New Language

Earth Day isn't just about saving our planet. It's also aimed at bringing people together. Closing the distance doesn't always have to be physical. You can do it by learning a new language.

At Little Pim, we focus on making learning fun. Contact us to find out about engaging, easy, and accessible programs for your children. Being stuck at home is an excellent opportunity to beef up your language skills!

Little Pim Beach Day Kids Coloring Page

With the heatwave we're experiencing here in the northeast, there's nothing like cooling off at the beach or pool. In this coloring page, Little Pim is at the beach ready to enjoy the hot summer day. When it feels like over 100 degrees outside, cool off indoors in the A/C while your little ones color with Little Pim!

Print your FREE "Little Pim Beach Day" coloring page here or by clicking the image below:

If you're subscribed to Little Pim's new subscription product, in addition to all of our videos, you'll receive new episodes introducing your child to new words and phrases describing the weather, seasons, and greetings. Here's a sneak peek at some of the vocabulary covered in our "Sunny Day" episode in English & Spanish that you can teach your little ones while they're coloring:

summer / el verano
it's sunny / está soleado
beach / la playa
sand / la arena
swimming pool / la piscina
swim / nadar

Stay cool, stay hydrated, and enjoy the last few weeks of Summer! - The Little Pim team

Little Pim Autumn Coloring Page

Happy Fall! What fun activities do you have planned this weekend? Celebrate the start of the beautiful season by printing out your free Autumn Coloring Page of Little Pim picking apples! While you're coloring, teach your little ones how to say "apple" in the 12 different languages we offer on our website: English - Apple

Spanish - Manzana

French - Pomme

Mandarin Chinese - Píngguǒ

Italian - Mela

German - Apfel

Russian - Yabloko

Korean - Sagwa

Portuguese - Maçã

Arabic - Tafaha

Japanese - Ringo

Hebrew - תפוח עץ (tah-POO-ahkh)

Share your child's finished work of art with us by using #littlepim on Instagram or Twitter and we'll send you a FREE Little Pim Panda Plush.

Click here to download your free coloring page.

Brush Strokes of Genius

A child’s grip on a pencil starts out loose, like their understanding of cultures and worlds beyond their own. As they master holding the pencil, drawing basic shapes, and later letters, more and more of the unknown comes into focus. They begin to recognize the semi-circular shape of an Iranian mosque’s dome. They are familiarized with the square shape of mosaic tiles in Roman churches. The muscles in their hands know what it’s like to write out characters, the same ones that Shakespeare used to assemble his sonnets. Via these examples, we see how motor skills underlie art, which is a vehicle of cultural exchange. While we at Little Pim often emphasize learning languages as a means of cultural exposure, we want to use this post to highlight learning motor skills as a perfect time to introduce your children to different cultures through art. Accordingly, below is a list of artists from around the world who can inspire activities that will reinforce your children’s motor skills, cultural awareness, and familiarity with art as a tool of self and cultural expression.

Piet Mondrian

tate-museum

• Dutch
• 1872-1944
• Was initially a teacher who painted on the side
• Started out as a landscape painter
• Was heavily influenced by the geometric shapes and simplicity of the cubist movement in Paris, where he moved
• Met Bart van der Leck and Theo van Doesberg, who helped him develop his most famous artistic style, which highlights the beauty underlying simple shapes and primary colors

A child just learning motor skills requires a great deal of concentration just to bring these simple shapes to life. Resultantly, they have a heightened appreciation for them, an appreciation that Mondrian relearned. Your child might thereby be able to relate to an important figure in Dutch culture.

Activity

Ask your children to draw 10 dots at random locations on a piece of paper. Then, have them connect one dot to each of the others on the paper with straight lines. (Use a ruler if straight lines are difficult for them.) Repeat for the other 9 dots. The result is a very cool geometric pattern. Take out primary color markers, colored pencils, or crayons and have them fill in the shapes as they see fit. With that, you have a Mondrian inspired piece ready to be hung on the fridge.

Niki de Saint Phalle

• French
• 1930-2002
• Was a sculptor, painter, and film maker, most widely revered for her monumental sculpture work
• Had no formal art training
• Was first recognized for angry, battered works that mirrored emotions associated with a troubled childhood
• Developed a whimsical, joyous artistic style, child-like in its bright color palette

The fun, quirky nature of these pieces will appeal to your child’s innate happiness and creativity. Let their curiosity take over upon asking what the sculpture below on the left represents.

art-for-kids

Activity

Break out the colorful Playdough for this activity! Show your child images of Niki de Saint Phalle’s sculptures and let the fun ensue. You can suggest rolling out small segments of different colored dough and connecting them to make a multi-colored snake, which is what I see in the sculpture on the left.

Joan Miró

Joan Miró

• Spanish
• 1893-1983
• Painter, sculptor, ceramicist
• Was classically trained in art school but rejected traditional methods and styles later in life, claiming they were created to appease the rich, who commissioned the works
• Was also inspired by cubism and moved to its epicenter, Paris
• Classified as a surrealist, who allowed his subconscious mind to take control of his hands

The abstraction of Miró’s pieces reinforce to your children that there is no such thing as perfection, especially in art. It is all about personal perspective and emotions. Encourage them to make “mistakes” and try something wacky in their own pieces.

Activity

Grab a few hangers from the closet, thread/yarn from the sewing kit, scissors, and construction paper. You now have all the tools necessary to make your very own mobile, like the one above on the right, perfect for a younger sibling’s room. Snip the hook off of a hanger; that is how you will be able to hang the mobile. Then, cut a few straight pieces of wire from several hangers. Twist them to attach them to the hook. Splay them out in different directions. Afterwards, cut some pieces of thread/yarn and knot them onto the end of the wires. Go crazy cutting out awesome shapes from the colorful construction paper. Pierce a hole and knot the other ends of the threads into the construction paper cutouts. Boom! Your very own Miró inspired mobile!

wang-guangyi

Wang Guangyi

• Chinese
• Born 1957
• Still alive today
• Went to art school after many failed attempts at college entrance
• Heavily inspired by the Chinese Cultural Revolution
• Internationally acclaimed for the “Great Criticism,” which were paintings on top of traditional propaganda
  • Ended the series in fear that its fame undermined its very message, which was that political and commercial advertising is manipulative
  • Continued with political criticism of VISA’s

While less child-like in its appearance than the works of the aforementioned artists, Guangyi is unfiltered and unapologetic for his opinions in his art, just as a child is before he or she is molded to fit into a society that values conformity.

Activity

Let your children make a statement with this next piece of art.  Suggest to your children that they draw how they feel about their least favorite food. See how their emotions translate into art.