When you are a parent, it’s normal to be concerned about your child’s level of English. Because learning English gives them plenty of opportunities for the future.
The good news? You can do a lot at home to help your child learn English. And you can start even before they start school. In this article, we share free resources and activities you can use at home. They make learning English part of your family life – and your whole family will enjoy doing them together.
And remember, you can find English classes for pre-school children, or primary school children here
Make English part of their daily routine
Children’s routines are full of structured activities – like having a bath before bed, or sitting down to dinner with your family. Many of these activities come with specific phrases we say when we want them to do things. You can add English words to many of these routines to help them remember the language they’ve learned.
For instance, getting kids to brush their teeth or wash their hands can be a chore. Why not turn it into a song or chant to encourage them? You teach them some important phrases in English and get the job done, without tears.
Try chanting your instructions:
Now it's time to wash our hands, wash our hands!
Now it's time to wash our hands and come to lunch!
Here are free songs from the British Council that also teach English vocabulary about brushing your teeth or tidying up .
Use fun English rhymes and tongue twisters
When it comes to English pronunciation, nothing’s better than speaking practice -- and lots of it.
We all grow up with rhymes and songs. They help us learn the individual sounds, intonation and stress in our language. When you also teach your child songs in English, you help them improve their English pronunciation.
Rhymes and tongue twisters are a fun and catchy way to help children learn English speaking skills. It’s even better if the songs include a physical activity to help the children remember the words. Here are some popular English tongue twisters to try out with your children:
You can watch the video to see and hear how these tongue twisters work. Encourage your children to start slowly, and then speak faster and faster.
Or try this popular rhyme, Pat-a-cake . Here are the words:
Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake
Baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Pat it and prick it and mark it with ‘B’
Put it in the oven for Baby and me.
Clap your hands as you sing the rhyme, first one clap, then two against your child’s hands. Your child will love this activity!
The pat-a-cake song has a lot of /b/ and /p/ consonants, which can be difficult to pronounce. So singing this song can help your children improve their English pronunciation. The song also contains the ‘bake’ and ‘cake’ rhyme, which can help children learn the silent ‘e’ grammar rule you see at the end of many English words.
Play family games and challenges in English
There are lots of fun ways to learn English phrases, rhymes and tongue twisters. Here are some you can try.
- Many young children love trying to beat Mum, Dad and their siblings in games and competitions. Why not turn tongue twisters into a weekly challenge or game after dinner? Your children will be practising their English without realising it!
- Get your children to draw pictures to accompany the tongue twisters, for example: draw a picture to illustrate ‘She sells sea shells’.
- Have a competition to see how quickly you can say the tongue twisters -- without making a mistake.
Use easy flashcards to teach English
You may feel you have no time to print and cut out flashcards… but they can be worth the effort, because they are useful for so many activities.
Find ready-made flashcard sets on LearnEnglish Kids .
Here are two of our favourite flashcard games to teach children English.
Memory flashcard game
- Make a pack of cards with pairs of images.
- Spread the cards across a table face down.
- Take turns picking up two cards and saying what you see in English.
- Keep the cards if you make a pair.
- Stop when all the cards are gone. The winner is the person with the most cards at the end.
Top tip:
You can increase the challenge by using picture/word combinations so your child is practising word recognition, which will also help spelling.
Board game
- Stick cards from different flashcard sets on the table, for example four animals, four weather cards, etc.
- Get a dice and some counters.
- Say what’s on the card.
- The winner is the first person to reach the end of the board.
- Have your children put the cards back into the correct topic sets.
Top Tip:
As your child progresses, you can add cards with instructions like ‘Miss a turn’, ‘Go back 2 spaces’, and so on. Apart from practising their English vocabulary, the children also learn phrases for playing games, like ‘It’s my turn’, ‘You’re next’ and ‘Can I have the dice, please?’
Learn English through story time
Stories, rhymes and chants are a great language-learning resource. They help you build a bank of easily accessible English vocabulary phrases for your children to learn and practise.
‘What’s the time, Mr Wolf? ’ is a chanting game where children learn how to ask the time in English. You can act out the story and have your kids ask the questions -- while you answer in your best growly wolf voice.
Discover free stories for young learners with videos and activities , from the British Council.
Build an English ‘treasure box’
Try collecting all these English language storybooks, flashcards and games together. You can keep them in a special ‘English treasure box’ – it can be a cardboard box or drawer decorated by your child. As your children gain confidence in using English, they will want to play with the pieces on their own.
Having the items in one special place encourages your child to play spontaneously, using the English they’ve learned with you and in class. You’ll be surprised at how much English they pick up from these play activities.
If you can find a little time to practise a few English teaching games at home, you will increase your child’s English skills. Your child starts to understand it can be fun learning new English words. Plus, these learning games and activities are something your entire family can enjoy doing, together.