My 5 y/o daughter has been doing great in both languages. Both parents are native Spanish speakers so it hasn’t been ‘so’ hard to keep her Spanish active: we only speak Spanish at home.
Last year, in PreK, she had Spanish class once a week and complained of getting bored during that class. Now in Kindergarten, she is dreading going to Spanish class even more. I spoke with the Spanish teacher and expressed my concern, but her response was that 95% of her class is monolingual (English) so she can’t really do much for my daughter. I understand the teacher’s situation, but I don’t want my daughter to associate Spanish with an ‘uncool’ or boring experience. I will talk to the principal but feel I have to offer suggestions for other activities my daughter can do during Spanish class, or strategies to motivate her.
I need your help ¡por favor! Any suggestions?
–Andrea
Hola/Hi Andrea ~
These challenges of getting bored during class occur often with children, and as a classroom teacher I hope my suggestions and real-life experiences will provide you, your daughter’s teacher and your daughter with some fun and practical solutions. Five is such a fun year, full of exploring and learning and sharing! The ideas below will take into account various learning styles:
1. Ask your daughter’s teacher to allow your daughter to be a co-teacher on a particular finger play, song or activity that she is doing each class. The communication for the co-teaching can take place via e-mail between you and the teacher so that excuses of missed phone calls do not interrupt accomplishing this goal. Allowing your daughter to become part of the teaching will make her cool to the other kids, boost her self-esteem while speaking her native language, and allow the other children to learn right along with a peer. Stress that you are asking for only one song or one activity – not for your daughter to co-teach the entire time!
2. Encourage the use of music during the Spanish teacher’s class without telling her what or how to teach. At this age of 5 (and through the early elementary school years) children love learning with music, and the retention of concepts introduced through music is for the long term. Perhaps even pull some things off the internet prior to speaking with her that incorporate teaching math with music and both languages or weather with a song in Spanish. Kindergarten students LOVE learning with music, and your daughter will find herself more engaged with movement as part of a class where before she had been bored.
3. Offer to volunteer in your daughter’s Spanish class once a month (or if you are unable, your husband or friend who speaks Spanish could volunteer). The goal here is to incorporate other styles of introducing Spanish as a second language – be it a new visual approach with an engaging bilingual big book, a cool puppet show with two of you introducing Spanish through the characters, or even a finger play that you grew up enjoying with your Spanish-speaking family. When parents offer to volunteer to help in a class where their child is challenged with a situation it shows the teacher and your child that you have a vested interest in making things terrific.
On a side note, I would suggest not going to the Principal of the school until you have approached the teacher with a willingness to help. Make certain you express your need for help from her to maintain your daughter’s love of her native language (which could easily be diminished should she continue dreading going to Spanish class). Again, it’s all about the way in which you approach the teacher. Try to keep her on the offensive by asking her for help and offering the above suggestions in a non-threatening manner.
Parents and teachers working together can do wonderful things for the future of our children and our world!
Happy Educating! ¡Sea feliz educando!
Beth Butler.-Bilingual educator of young children and strives to create better communication within our increasingly diverse society. She is the founder of the internationally acclaimed 
I had a native Spanish speaker (I’ll call her Rosita) in the weekly Spanish class I taught the past two years at my son’s Montessori school. The situation was a bit different, because Rosita loved the chance to be the “star” of the class, and it never seemed to bore her, but I’ll chime in with a few things I did to include her.
I think Beth has given some great suggestions about how to approach the teacher in a non-confrontational way, and how your daughter could be included. In general, my classes involved a lot of games and activities that kids enjoy in any language, and we use Spanish as the medium, so the kids learn the language they need to play the game or do the activity. Rosita already knew the language, but since she enjoys singing, dancing, playing hide-and-seek, guessing games, etc., in Spanish, she was able to participate and not be bored. My class is almost exclusively in Spanish, so another thing I would do is to use Rosita as the first “volunteer” for any new activity or game. I would explain the activity to all the kids in Spanish, using lots of gestures and props, and then Rosita would “model” the activity for the kids by being the first to play the game. Another thing we do frequently is write simple stories together using vocabulary we’ve been working on. I start the story, and then ask all of the kids for suggestions (what kind of animal to use, where the animal should go in the car, what the animal sees once he arrives, etc.). I take all of the suggestions and then choose which to write into the story. Rosita’s suggestions were, of course, far more elaborate than her classmates’, but all of the students were able to participate at their own level.
One other thought I have, is that if the Spanish teacher isn’t very receptive to your involvement, would the classroom teacher be someone you could speak with? If you could lend/donate Spanish cds or simple books to the regular classroom, maybe you could sneak some change in through the backdoor! Or, if the Spanish teacher is resistant to your participation, maybe you could volunteer to go into the regular classroom now and then to introduce cultural topics/holidays/etc. If you approached it from a cultural perspective (instead of a purely language perspective), you might be able to participate that way without offending the Spanish teacher. In any case, I hope the teachers are receptive to your input and suggestions! Spanish class should never be boring for any of the kids, in my opinion!
Thanks Tricia for chiming in! I love when teachers give to willingly to others – parents and fellow educators! It’s all about the children, and when we share our ideas freely they are the winners in the long run! I love your ideas and comments amiga.
We had kids who spoke fluent Spanish look bored in the Spanish immersion class not because they were bored but because they were not listening. The teacher was teaching Spanish with a different dialect or something they were use to so a lot of it they just did not understand. They just sat there not listening. Why should they learn a different Spanish than what Mom and Dad speak? It was not until they heard the TA’s and the teacher discussing which way they were gonna teach something and see them learning there own language from one another did the kids realize there was more than one Spanish and it seemed to change things for them. I would ask them how do YOU say this and they would get excited and tell me otherwise they got embarrassed and did not participate afraid the Spanish they were comfortable with was wrong.
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