Language learning at home with your kids

This week Rosetta Stone has been giving away free access to schoolchildren to help them with learning at home. All schoolchildren can get access to Rosetta Stone for 3 months, without any obligations.

We know that learning at home can be challenging for children and parents alike, so we asked one of our Rosetta Stone online tutors, Zakariah Hall, to share his thoughts and ideas for keeping children engaged with their study and entertained. Here’s some of the questions he’s been asked and his answers:

Many parents will be tackling learning at home for the first time – what’s the main thing to get right?

First of all and most importantly, don’t stress! You know more than you think and the things that you don’t know are available online from reliable institutions (like Rosetta Stone). You are not alone, reach out to other parents to share techniques and be sure not to overcomplicate the learning process.

How to stay motivated learning at home?

Routine is great, the most productive classrooms I’ve experienced had a clear set of rules as well as a clear schedule for the day. When children don’t have that structure they can act in ways that are not conducive to learning at home.

Schedule the lessons for a strict time and give children a structure so that they have a deadline to work to. These sessions don’t have to be long, but they should be consistent. Rosetta Stone provides its lessons in bite-sized chunks that your child can tackle in 10 or 15 minute slots.

When is the best time to learn at home?

Of course, this varies a lot for different people, but breakfast is perhaps the best. At breakfast time people are fresh and ready to absorb new learnings. It is also a time-slot that is very constant for most people. Whereas delays and prevarications may affect the rest of the day, breakfast is set in stone.

Saying this, not everyone is a morning person and teens may be more alert and willing later in the afternoon or evening.

Is it harder to learn a language at home?

Not at all. Languages are well suited to learning in the home. Unlike history or geography, languages are totally relevant to our day to day activities and best learnt with direct links to our real lives. While we are all stuck at home, we can learn all the names of the things in our homes, for example.

Also, while we can’t travel much at the moment, we can still take an interest in the cultural aspects of the language we are learning. This often more motivating for children, helping them make a connection with what they are learning and retain the information better.

How can Rosetta Stone help parents and pupils with home learning during this unprecedented time?

At Rosetta Stone, we are currently offering our homeschooling services free for three months. You can sign your children up at our website. It is a safe and fun way for kids to remain active during this hiatus. We have no idea how long this will last and it is imperative that children’s brains don’t stagnate in this period of time. Just follow the link at the bottom of this article to access Rosetta Stone for your child

Can families sign up for more than one free account?

Yes, you can sign each child up for 3 months of free learning. We want to make sure that families can help all of their children in this unprecedented time of school closures.