When in Rome, Teach Your Child to Read…

Traveling and living abroad and immersing yourself in the local culture, language, and cuisine is a great adventure. Add kids, and it’s an opportunity of a lifetime! While other kids may learn about Paris from Madeline, or India from The Jungle Book, the child abroad gets to see, hear, taste, smell, and thoroughly experience other places and cultures. In some families, traveling becomes the rule, not the exception. Others choose to lay down roots in faraway lands. When that happens most people raising a family start to think about how they can mix their own native language and culture (which now might be coming from Dr. Seuss and other books!) with the vibrant, living culture around them.

Of course, some people live in established expat communities with easy and affordable access to English-language schools. Yet, for people who have moved abroad for a long-term work commitment or because they have married someone from another country, gaining access to engaging English-language resources and teaching materials has traditionally been more challenging.

While your children probably begin formal schooling in the language of your new country and easily pick up spoken English from you at home, reading and writing are another story. We know that all parents are teachers of sorts, but some (for whom phonics lessons are ancient history) may not feel comfortable doing more formal lessons. For example, as a Dane raising a child in America, I often bought children’s books, workbooks and games whenever I went to Denmark, to help my child build Danish language reading and comprehension skills. Now in the age of the Internet, we can much more easily get that piece of home delivered directly to our portable devices. With the popularity of smart phones and tablets and the availability of all manner of educational apps, including learn-to-read, spelling, and writing apps, it certainly becomes a whole lot easier to complement workbooks and online learning materials with a more interactive approach no matter where you live. Now it’s not so daunting to think about being an English teacher!

The great advantage of apps as supplemental tools for teaching your children to read, at home or abroad, is that well-designed apps fully engage children with multi-sensory learning activities. This ability to grab and hold kids’ attention is especially helpful while traveling, providing educational entertainment during long plane or train trips. And, of course, the ability to carry games, books, lessons, media, and music, all in one light-weight electronic device, is invaluable when trying to pack your life into a suitcase or two. No need to bring all those workbooks!

Where do you find good apps for children? Sites abound, with some entirely dedicated to evaluating educational apps for young children. We think the following are a good place to start: Children’s Technology Review, Common Sense Media and Kindertown.

So, when in Rome, do as the Romans, and rest assured that you can still find plenty of educational resources that help your children learn to read English, while being immersed in other languages and cultures.