Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Free Resources and Best Options for You
Being bilingual in modern society offers many benefits. Teaching your child a second language positively impacts their development by boosting cognitive abilities and communication skills, which sets them up for success in adulthood.
You’ve chosen Spanish, which is an incredibly popular second language for English speakers with plenty of tools available online. Plus, it’s phonetic! Once you learn how to sound out the letters, you can pronounce any word, making Spanish super easy and fun for children to read.
Teaching Spanish for kids is relatively simple if you speak the language, but if you don’t—where do you start? You’ll need to find the right resources. To start on the road to bilingualism, use the loads of helpful resources and tips in this post to hone your child’s Spanish language skills.
Ready to explore the best places on the internet to find songs, shows, lessons, books, audiobooks, apps, and games? ¡Vamos!
Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Songs
Music is a wonderful way to introduce kids to Spanish. A variety of familiar songs and nursery rhymes translated into Spanish provide both education and entertainment for kids. Check out these Spanish renditions of popular English songs for the littlest learners:
For lots more great songs and thematic learning resources, check out Learn Spanish with Music (Preschool and Elementary): Themes, Songs and Lesson Ideas!
Pandora also offers free Spanish lullabies online. Type “canción de cuna” (“lullaby” in Spanish) into Pandora’s search field, and a station will pop up in your search results containing dozens of child-friendly Spanish songs. (To access the entire list, you’ll need to sign up for a free Pandora account.)
Lastly, AprenderEspanol.org Canciones Infantiles showcases 40 Spanish children’s songs, along with videos and lyrics to follow along to.
Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Cartoons
Believe it or not, watching TV is actually a great way to learn Spanish, provided that you approach it the right way. Children’s cartoons appeal to young kids because they feature simple vocabulary that they can easily understand. Even without recognizing every word, you can still follow the story. Take these Spanish TV show options for children into consideration.
- Salsa: This PBS series teaches Spanish through 15 or 30-minute story segments. Tons of episodes are available on YouTube.
- Oh Noah!: Noah goes to live with his abuela in a neighborhood where most people only speak Spanish. This enjoyable PBS series features episodes with a mix of Spanish and English.
- El Perro y El Gato: This simple animated show in which the characters speak both Spanish and English is perfect for true beginners.
- Pocoyó: This cute show was originally created in Spanish and is wonderful for Spanish learners.
- Peppa Pig: Episodes in Spanish are available on YouTube. If your kids are familiar with the show in English, they’ll likely be able to understand quite a bit.
- La vaca hace mu: Each episode features a different animal and tells all about them.
- Fisher Price Vídeos Para Bebés: Designed for Spanish-speaking toddlers and preschoolers, each video tells a short, funny story, and introduces new vocabulary words, spelling them out on-screen.
- Dora the Explorer: The show airs around the world and was even made into a movie. Although most of the show is in English, throughout each episode, the characters teach Spanish words and phrases. This is a great show for preschool-aged children just starting to learn Spanish.
For older learners, here are a few interesting series for pre-teens:
- Buena Gente: This new series features clear and modern visuals
- ¿Eres tú, Maria? Created by Realidades for Spanish beginners, this is a (somewhat dated) mystery show.
- La Catrina: This captivating series is about a 17-year-old Hispanic-American who goes to Mexico for the summer.
- Los Simpson: The long-running cartoon comedy, The Simpsons, is available in Spanish (even the early seasons!).
Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Apps
Tons of Spanish-learning apps are available nowadays, many of which are completely free. These apps provide a great introduction to the language, and many of them have games that are fun for kids of all ages. Here are some of our favorites:
- Learn Spanish by MindSnacks
- Learn Spanish for Kids – Bilingual Child
- Gus on the Go Stories
- Endless Spanish
- Think Bilingual
- Peg and Pog
You’ll surely discover more great Spanish apps (or may have already). We’d love to know your favorites—let us know in the comments!
Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Books
Libros are one of the best resources for teaching your child Spanish. If you’re reading bilingual books (with side-by-side English and Spanish text), you may choose to read the story in English and identify key words in Spanish and in the illustrations. As your child’s Spanish skills progress, you can switch to reading the Spanish version of the story.
- Maguaré offers an expansive collection of online picture books and poems for kids, sponsored by the Colombian Ministry of Culture.
- International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) is a free database of hundreds of public-domain children’s books. Over 150 books are in Spanish, including some translated English classics such as Humpty Dumpty and Puss in Boots, as well as an assortment of original Spanish language stories.
- Fables in Simple Spanish includes 10 free illustrated fables for kids.
- Read Conmigo features an extensive library of bilingual children’s books. (You have to subscribe to view the whole collection, but you can read one sample story without subscribing.)
Be sure to check out these resources from HSA!
- 20+ Free Online Spanish Books for Self-Motivated Beginners
- No More Boring Textbooks! Top 5 Spanish Books for Beginners
Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Audiobooks
By listening to the audiobooks while reading along with the text or transcript, your children will quickly learn Spanish pronunciations, inflections, and rhythm. Check out this gold mine of free online audiobooks in Spanish for kids:
- Unite for Literacy: colorful books with Spanish text (some are simple and some involve more advanced language)
- The Spanish Experiment: five free fairy tales beautifully recorded (with scripts!) for children
- Spotify has some good storytelling playlists that kids can listen to in Spanish. Try “Stories for Kids in Spanish” and “Kids Learn Spanish Stories Vol. 2”
- Librivox: audiobooks from in the public domain, including several classic Spanish works (ideal for older learners)
- Storybooks Canada: highlights African stories and provides books with audio in dozens of languages
- ¡Hola Viajeros!: provides a series of free audiobooks in slow Spanish along with transcripts; the content describes Spanish-speaking countries, customs, and literature, empowering your kids to learn about Spanish and Latin American cultures as they learn the language
Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Educational Websites
If you don’t have the money for Spanish textbooks and flashcards, no te preocupes. All of the same instructional benefits are available for free from these learning websites.
Wikibooks is a free, open-source Wikimedia project. The website’s Spanish section starts off with basic conversation and grammar lessons, which gradually increase in complexity over time. Spend an hour a day on Wikibooks lessons and you and your child will master basic Spanish conversations quickly.
SpanishDict is another great website for teaching Spanish to kids, with a focus on vocabulary and grammar. The interactive flashcards make it fun to learn the words for colors, clothing, numbers, and more!
BBC Languages’ Spanish page offers a wealth of useful and free resources, including a 12-week course of interactive videos, games, and more for your little one! Sit down with them for just 30 minutes a day on this website and you’ll see them progress in leaps and bounds.
Last but not least, Spanish Town features 29 video-based lessons for kids on elementary Spanish vocabulary and grammar.
Spanish For Kids Starter Kit: Games
Everybody loves games! And educational games and activities are marvelous for reiterating and reviewing what your kids are learning.
If your kids love short, addictive games, Juegos Arcoiris is the ideal site. Full of puzzle games, short stories, and coloring activities, this website will entertain your child for hours. Juegos Arcoiris is less of a Spanish teacher and more of an immersive device. Your kids will learn important words and phrases through direct exposure to Spanish while playing the various games. The coloring games display the Spanish names for the objects to be colored, and the puzzle game instructions are in Spanish.
Spanish-Games.net features a variety of free tutorials and games for kids to learn the essentials of Spanish. Simply select the topic you want to study, and choose a tutorial, game, or test. Choose between Spain Spanish and Latin American Spanish, so your kids can study the dialect that’s most appropriate for them.
Online Free Spanish
Online Free Spanish emphasizes listening skills. Nearly every game includes an audio clip, which allows kids to practice listening to the words they’re learning in the game. The site also includes fun songs in Spanish, and a mini-books section with an assortment of short bilingual stories.
Digital Dialects is full of fun, easy-to-play games that teach Spanish grammar, vocabulary, and conversation skills. The games cover a wide range of topics like greetings, colors, numbers, foods, units of time, animals, and clothing. The website also offers vocab lists and conjugation charts to support children who lack prior Spanish experience.
Check out some of Homeschool Spanish Academy’s curated lists of Spanish games:
- 40+ Online Spanish Games for Kids That Are Educational and Fun
- 10 Fun Spanish Conjugation Games Guaranteed to Boost Your Fluency
- Top 5 Video Games in Spanish to Powerlevel Your Fluency
Scheduling & Routine Ideas
Here’s a sample week of Spanish learning activities. Make adjustments to it based on your family’s needs and goals.
Daily (ideally in the morning, but find the best time for your schedule 4 to 5 days per week) spend about 30 minutes on an educational Spanish website with your child and then 15-20 minutes reading a Spanish or bilingual book together. In addition, you can add the following activities each day:
Monday: Listen to 15-20 minutes of Spanish songs (and sing along!)
Tuesday: Watch 20-30 minutes of a Spanish cartoon show
Wednesday: Use a Spanish learning app for 15-20 minutes
Thursday: Listen to a Spanish audiobook for 15-30 minutes
Friday: Free Day!
Saturday/Sunday: Play Spanish games for 30-45 minutes
For more tips and tricks to make learning Spanish for kids a step-by-step, enjoyable experience, check out these posts:
- 10 Amazing Activities to Teach Your Toddler Spanish
- Homeschool in Spanish: How to Teach Your Child Spanish at Home
- How to Add Spanish to Your Homeschool Co-Op
- The Parent’s Ultimate Guide to Start Homeschooling Today
- The Brilliant Way to Homeschool Your Preschool (Pre-K) Child, Ages 2-5
Let HSA Help You!
As effective as these resources can be, there’s no substitute for working one-on-one with a teacher who can cater lessons to your child’s specific learning style and needs. If you’re motivated to guide your child toward bilingualism, personalized classes will help them get there. Why not give it a try? Sign up for a free trial class with Homeschool Spanish Academy! In between your lessons, take advantage of the free Spanish for kids resources we’ve shared in this post.
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