5 ways to learn English with a child using drawing

Learning English with a child can be an exciting and fun process if you approach it creatively. Children perceive new information more easily through play, drawing and other creative methods. If you want to make learning English with your child not only effective, but also interesting, this article will offer you some useful ideas. We will share practical advice on how to use art, games and other activities to develop your child's language skills.

Many children like to draw, so why not use a hobby to learn English? Methodist teacher Bohdana Nosenok talks about five effective ways to instill in a child a love of the English language and at the same time improve his creative abilities.

The latest trend, which educators around the world are literally shouting about, is interdisciplinarity. This is when you teach a child mathematics, explaining how a spiral staircase and a shell are arranged; learn English using games, pictures, music. The key point: find a field that interests your child and teach English with its help.

Nosenok Bohdana Eduardovna

Methodist teacher, teacher of foreign languages, cultural history, philosophy. Post-graduate student of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University (cultural studies, philosophy faculty). Professional translator from English, French and Italian languages.

We draw cards with animals

I will tell you an example from my own experience. More precisely, from childhood. English was not taught everywhere at school, so grandparents and mothers enrolled their children to private tutors. The question immediately arose: how to make a seven-year-old child learn English words? A scratch? Inefficient method. Tests? Too early for this age. The way out was found to be very creative: if the topic of the lesson was about animals, we drew cards with them. You can do the same with any other topics: family, countries, travel.

In addition, quizzes are held: the teacher calls out a word, and whoever shows the correct card the fastest gets a prize. In my childhood, the prize was chocolate candies for first place, jelly candies for second place, and lollipops for third place.

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We sign the drawings with quotes

This is a good way not only to train your memory, but also to expand your horizons, raise the level of erudition and... of course, learn a foreign language!

The main problem that children face when learning the language is the difficulty in constructing sentences. Learning words is only the first stage of learning a foreign language. Next, you need to learn to assemble these words into sentences.

First, choose interesting and understandable quotes for your child: from "Alice in Wonderland", "Harry Potter", "The Little Prince" and other books. Print them on bright sheets of paper together with pictures of heroes - it is best to do this together with a child. And then offer him to independently sign each picture with such a symbolic quote. Be sure to ask how he understands this phrase, what it means to him.

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The second stage of working with quotes is to come up with your own phrases and stories. It will be enough for the youngest to say a few words, older children can already build more complex sentences.

We are compiling family tree

Family or genealogical tree is another interesting and informative way of learning a foreign language in synthesis with the study of one's own roots and family history. What is needed for this? I would recommend focusing on the long-term perspective. Attach a large piece of cork paper to the wall (you can use a cork board), stock up on stickers (preferably multi-colored) and stationery buttons. And don't forget to prepare small photos of all members of your family! Place stickers and portraits on the board in the form of a family tree.

The next stage is signatures. First, the child must write in English the names of all family members, then - designations of who is responsible for him (mother, father, uncle, aunt, granny, etc.). Finally, when the child gets a little used to the English language, offer him to write a signature under each photo about his first impression or first memory of this person.

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We use resources Paint

I will again turn to my own experience - already pedagogical. One of the difficulties in learning English for children is tenses. More precisely, there is a lack of understanding of what this is, what distinguishes grammatical time from general time, as well as a problem with the systematization of knowledge. As a rule, knowledge is chaotic, and therefore unstable. No matter how much you force the child to do exercises, he will not learn to understand time better. He will learn to solve tasks mechanically, automatically. But such a simple program as Paint will help you show your child the regularities of English grammar once and for all! In the literal sense, put it on the shelves. Use different colors, fills, schemes, arrows! And don't forget to save your drawings.

As an illustrative example, I will show a drawing that we made with a student at one of the online lessons. I usually use Paint specifically to explain grammatical tenses. But this technique perfectly develops the analytical and strategic thinking of children. The ability to systematize knowledge will also be useful for your child when he receives higher education. This is a universal skill! And with interactive, distance learning, it is absolutely indispensable.

We learn to speak English and draw

I remember that McDonald's used to offer various entertainment for children in children's rooms. One of the games was to draw a mysterious little man. For example, one child is blindfolded, and the second shows parts of his body and asks to name their number.

Naturally, the first child does not know which parts of the body his friend is pointing to. As a result, funny monsters are obtained: little men with five arms, three legs, two heads, etc. d. If you adapt this game for learning English, the rules will be as follows: name the quantity in English (one, two, three, etc.), and ask questions in English (how many of this… or this my creature has?). The ideal option is to ask the child to describe the resulting monster.