Here are some things that may work for adults, but they’re flops with children. Don’t make your children do these things because they will be unhappy, they will learn to dislike the language, and they won’t learn much using these methods anyway.
Self-Study Courses Designed for Adults
Duolingo will flop eventually. The Made Simple book series is out-of-the-question . Even Madrigal’s Magic Key will not work out.
Why? Why can’t children go to college when they are 9? They aren’t ready for that kind of study.
Antimoon, AJATT and MIA use sentence mining. To sentence mine, you pick sentences from subtitles and books and make flashcards out of them. You must make sure the sentences are not too hard for you, and the sentences must be entered into your flash card system correctly. If you do it wrong, you will waste time studying things which are incomprehensible or have errors. Children are not mature enough to sentence mine competently. They don’t want to do it, either.
Kids rarely choose to look up words they see in books or subtitles. If you require them to look up unfamiliar words, they will dislike it, and possibly start to dislike the language. They won’t remember the definitions either.
Any Media They Wouldn’t Like in English
If they don’t want to watch Sesame Street in English, they won’t want to watch Plaza Sesamo (the Spanish version). The fact that it is in another language does not make it acceptable to kids. If they really dislike it, they will tune it out.
Not a hit with 12 year old boys.
If you avoid the dictionary, TV shows your kids baulk at, adult courses, and sentence mining (making flash cards) you’re off to a good start. Do you know of any other flops? Leave a comment about your flops below.