The Language Playground | Learning Apps for Kids | Language for Children

Memory Game in a Second Language

Jun

2013

It is easy to use games that you currently have in your house to teach your child your target second language. The games that you play do not have to be written in that second language in order for them to be effective as a teaching tool. Many games readily available in your local toy store are filled with great vocabulary opportunities.

Memory games are a wonderful way to increase the concentration power of your child’s brain. Memory games can be used not only to help your child to improve her memory by concentrating and focusing, but can also be great for second language learning. We have had this high quality memory game by Melissa and Doug for years and the other day I broke it out with my Mandarin-speaking babysitter as a great way to have fun and explore vocabulary for zoo animals, fruits, colors, farm animals, shapes, numbers and vehicles in Chinese. The wooden game has 25 windows that are coved by wooden shutters that you turn over to find the hidden pictures underneath. A player get to turn over two hidden squares to try to find the pairing. If the player does not make a match, it is the next person’s turn. If the player does make a match, she gets to go again.

Children can easily play this Memory Game by Melissa and Doug by themselves or with a friend. I often find my daughter, Lousha, playing the game by herself. It is easier to use this pre-set, immoveable game by herself rather than use the traditional memory games of this type where the cards are more like a deck of playing cards and she needs to find a space on the floor and lay them out in rows herself. Often, when we play the games where the game is more like a deck of cards, the rows get messed up and then it defeats the point of the game as the placement of the card moves if you accidentally brush against them. Also, in our family, we have a very curious and engaged toddler running around who likes to cause mayhem! Cards neatly placed in rows on the floor would not last long in our house!

Check out this video of my daughter and our helper playing this memory game in Mandarin:

How do you play the game in a second language?

Simple! Just ask your second language speaking caregiver to play the game in that second language. The game does not get played unless it is done in your target language! Don’t have a babysitter who speaks your target language? Look up the words for the game yourself and create a little cheat-sheet! Then you can learn vocabulary for your second language at the same time as your child!

What I Love about this Memory Game:

No Loose Pieces – everything is attached to the game itself and so there is no way to lose any of the pieces.
Easy to Manipulate – it is easy for my children (even my baby) to turn over the windows to reveal the picture below.
Mentally Demanding – the cards are double-sided and so your child will be challenged to try to find the matches if you switch around the cards each time you play.
High Quality – we have had this game for years and it still looks brand-new! It is made out of wood and elastic and so the game is built to last. The cards are made out of a hard tough-to-rip paper.
Easy to Play without Adult Help – unlike the playing card versions of memory that are so prevalent, this game is much easier for a child to just jump in and play by herself.
Competitive Option: If your child likes to keep score, there is a little score board at the bottom of the game to keep track of how many pairs each person has found.

What I Don’t Like about this Game:

Travel game? I don’t think so. It is too heavy to carry along with you on flights (along with all of the other stuff you have to lug along with you on trips with kids)
I wish that they had included more cards or had different categories on the other side of the card. I would have loved to have vegetables or professions or clothing items included as categories.

How You Can Improve the Game for More Second Language Learning:

Trace the board game on card stock paper and create your own game to add vocabulary. Get stickers with various themes for vocabulary enhancement and you can use the same game, but for literally thousands of different vocabulary words! Here are some ideas:
If you want your child to start recognizing words, cover up one of the pairs with the written word on a little piece of paper that you tape over the picture. Then your child will look for the written word in your target second language and match it with the picture.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments! I’d love to hear from you! Please post at the bottom of this blog entry or email me! Let’s stay in touch. If you liked the ideas in this post, please sign up for our newsletter so that you can hear from us!

Filed Under: Babysitter Help, Chinese, Chinese Characters, French, Games to Learn a Second Language, Posts with Videos, Product Reviews, Spanish

Lingo’s Market in the Making Part 3: Developer for your App

May

2013

If you have followed Part I: The Idea and Part II: Elements of an App, you are ready to engage with a developer. I learned the hard way (that seems to be the only way I figured out anything on this project), that you MUST have done everything from Part I (layout, thinking through the design and creating the exact flow of the app) and Park II (gathering your graphics, audio clips and sounds) first before you hire someone to code your app. Having everything ready to go before you start will save you a lot of time, money and frustration.

Step 1: How do you find a developer?

I searched out lots of different routes when I was looking for someone to make my app and honestly, you need a bit of luck to help you find the best person for your project. I found a wonderful coder using one of the many online freelance communities available. Some ideas where you can find someone:

use one of the many online freelance communities out there.Witmart is the largest community of the bunch and so your chances of finding someone who matches your needs both in talent, availability and price are great on this site.
post an ad on craigslist, especially if you want to work with someone local. You can specify that requirement in your ad
ask friends who have created apps for their recommendations
email people who have already created apps that you like and ask them if they can share their developer’s information
post an ad at a local college, especially if you want to save money. Many students might be willing to do a profit sharing option and so you would not have to put out any money up front. I found that a lot of students wanted an opportunity to get something professional on their resume and as a result, were willing to negotiate.

Step 2: Send your potential designer a detailed layout of your app

I discussed this idea extensively in Part I: The Idea, so please review that post first before you continue. I made a lot of mistakes with the first developer I hired to make Lingo’s Market. First, I did not have a clear idea of how I wanted the app to look. I assumed that my developer would create something magical. Don’t assume anything. You need to lay out exactly what you want before you send it off to a developer.

Second, pick a time when you will be able to devote a good two weeks or more to have enough bandwidth to handle all of the back and forth emails and specifications. I was leaving for our annual trip back to New Jersey when I sent my first developer a small paragraph with the description of what I wanted. By the time I packed up the kids’ suitcases, lugged the kids across the country and turned my computer back on, the developer had taken that little paragraph and turned it into a FULL APP! I missed a few emails over the course of those three days when I did not turn on my computer and voila! All of the sudden I was given an app without any discussion about what I wanted the character to look like and how I wanted the user to move throughout the store. Big mistake. As a result, we had to start from scratch.

Step 3: Get a final price quote from at least three developers

You should NOT pay by the month. You should know what the ALL IN cost of the app will be before you start. The developer should be able to give you an exact number because you have sent him your detailed layout. There should be no surprises.

Step 4: Vet out your developer before you start

Make sure that your developer is as “shiny” as he appears on his website. You would be surprised to realize how many people lie about the projects that they have done! When we were in the process of finding a developer for Lingo’s Market, I called up some of the folks who were on their list of customers. It took a little bit of time to get these numbers, I had to google search the name of the company or app, find their landing pages and then get their contact information. I would say about half of the “customers” listed on these developers sites, were never customers. These “customers” had never heard of the developer before – SCARY! It took a bit of time, but it was worth it in the end to really vet out the potential developers.

Step 5: Pay your developer based on objectives met

Create a contract with a detailed schedule of action items and pricing to be done for the app. Some elements of the app that you think are easy to do and would only take one day, might take longer than you think. Work with your developer to create a schedule of how long each aspect of your app should take and then payment structures in place for meeting those objectives.

When we were working with the first developer for Lingo’s Market, we paid month-by-month for the app to be made – meaning that we would send them cashola each month for him to continue to work for us. Big mistake (again!) They ended up not meeting their objectives and extending deadlines and yet we still paid. CRAZY!

Step 6: Break loose if things are not going well

If your developer is not meeting his objectives or the work that he has done so far is not coming together in the way that you had envisioned, RUN FOR THE HILLS! Ask your developer to send you the most recent code and start up with someone else. Keep in mind, that most developers are not crazy about working with someone else’s code, but you will find someone with time. It is painful to think about starting all over again with someone else, but TRUST ME, it is worth it in the end.

With our first developer, we knew that things were not going well. They had not met objectives, the app kept on crashing, they were not making any progress, and yet we stuck with them. Why? Fear mostly. We were scared to start the whole process all over again — looking for a developer, calling up their references, checking out their apps, setting up a contract, etc. It basically got to the point where the developer had not made ANY progress in the whole month for us to call it quits.

Most of the developers on Witmart were nervous to take on someone else’s code. When we had initially posted our ad for the project, we got about 50 responses. For this “fix up our broken app” project, we received only three responses. Developers prefer to start from scratch, but because we had so much done already (the graphics, the animation, the sound etc), our new developer. Trignodev, was willing to fix it up. Thank goodness.

Who did we use to fix up our broken app?

We were very impressed with our new developer Trignodev. If you are looking to make an app overseas, these guys are great. They are located in India, but seem to be available all of the time. They were extremely responsive and accommodating. Please let them know that I sent you. Send emails to Gautam Dhanda (sales@trignodev.com) and Ankur Garg (ankur.garg@trignodev.com) to get started.

STEP 7: Send detailed feedback

Take screen shots of your app in progress so that you can tell him exactly what needs to get changed. How do you take a screen shot of your app? On an iphone, you hold down the Home and Sleep buttons at the same time. On 2.0, the screen will flash white, while with 2.1, you’ll also get the camera shutter sound, and that screen will be captured in your photos on your phone. Then take those pictures and put them in a Word/Pages doc and use arrows and text to tell your developer exactly what needs to get changed so that there are no misunderstandings that would come from just an email alone.

SOME TIPS:

get thexcode sent to you often (perhaps once every few days) so that in case you want to take the project to someone else, you have the files that you have already paid for.
our first developer kept on sending us the xcode to load ourselves in order to check out the app. Super frustrating! It would take forever to download it and often times there would be some break in the code and it would not load. We did not realize that a developer can send you the app right to your to check out the status.

GOOD LUCK!

For more posts about how to make an app, check out

Part 1: The Idea

PART 2: Elements of an App

Email me, Michelle Gannon, if you have any questions! Sign up for our newsletter! We’d love to stay in touch

Filed Under: How to make an app

Lingo’s Market in the Making Part 2: Elements of an app

May

2013

You have a fantastic app idea and you want to get it made — where do you start? First, make sure that you have finished mapping out all of your ideas and extensively thinking through the design (read Lingo’s Market in the Making: The Idea PART 1 for tips).

I was surprised to realize that there are so many elements to an app (audio, sound effects, voices, the background music, graphics, settings, user interface, etc.) When a person plays an app, all of the elements come (or should) come together seamlessly. You may think that your app idea is simple, but really think through all of the features you need before you start. Will you need background music? Will you need audio? Whose voice will you use? What sort of images do you need?

Let’s get started….

GRAPHICS: What kind of graphics do you need? Do you need a character? Will you need someone to create images, icons or pictures in your app?

READY-MADE GRAPHICS: If you want to save money, buy your ready-made graphics from one of the clipart sites. I like iClipart because they have the largest quantity of any clipart site with over 7.8 million images. The vast majority of their images are in vector file formats (.EPS & .AI) which are great for apps.

CUSTOM GRAPHICS: However, if you want to make some specific images — like a funny character in your app — you will need to find a graphic designer. For example, in our Lingo’s Market app,we needed someone to create our character, Lingo, as well as 103 food graphics. At first, I thought that I would be able to find all of the food items from iClipart, but I wanted all of the images to be seamless and look as if they came from the same designer. For example, I could not find an image of salt that had the same sort of look and feel as garbage bags or a bag of flour.

How do you find a graphic designer? I found a wonderful designer using one of the many online freelance communities out there. Witmart is the largest community of the bunch and so your chances of finding someone who matches your needs both in talent, availability and price are great on this site.

MUSIC: Do you want background music in your app? Music moves the app forward and makes people feel as if they have “arrived” in the world that you have created. At first, I did not have music in my app, but when we changed developers (long story to discuss in another post), we decided to add it. I love our happy little tune and the app would not be the same without it!

CUSTOM TUNE: If you know of a band or a musician, ask them to create a little ditty for you! The whole tune can be just 10-20 seconds long and you can loop it in the app so that it keeps on playing. If you don’t know of someone and want a custom tune, you can always post a request as a “gig” on craigslist or post your request on the freelance website I mentioned earlier, Witmart.

READY-MADE TUNE: If you want to save a little money, probably the best way to go is to buy a tune that has already been made. Don’t worry that someone else could be using the same tune for their project. There are so many great royalty-free tunes out there that the chances of one of your direct competitors using the exact same tune in their app is small. The site Videoblocks is great because instead of charging by the download, they allow members to download as much as they want–no limits! In order to limit your search, go to the left side navigation drop down arrows under the heading “Select an Audio Category” and pick what sort of theme you want to covey. Do you want something “playful and comedic” or “uplifting and epic”?

SOUND EFFECTS: What kind of noises do you want the app to make? Do you want some sort of sound effect to happen when a user touches something or moves an object around? Play with some popular apps to see what folks in your space are doing. I was shocked to realize that there are so many sound effects that go into a good app to make the user feel as if he is engaging in the app. For example, sound effects play a major role in the popular children’s app, Toca Tea Party, where children can host a virtual tea party on the iPad. A child is rewarded with some sort of audio component with every single touch on the screen, whether it is the sound of placing a plate on the table or sipping from a cup of hot chocolate. The audio elements drive the game forward and compel the child to continue to play.

Again, Videoblocks is a great site for searching for all sorts of audio clips from airplane to bathroom sounds. Look on the left navigation and click on the drop down arrow to explore all of the different sound elements available. Have fun with this part of the app creation process! One of my favorite
memories in creating our app is sitting on my deck, glass of wine in hand, listening with my cousin to all of the different kinds of fart sounds for Lingo’s Market. Who knew that there were so many different kinds of farts out there! Did we want “wet fart”? “nervous fart”? “skid marks fart”? I think we ended up with “cute fart” in the end!

VOICES: What kind of voices will there be in your app? Will you give directions using a child’s voice? How do you find someone who matches the kind of voice you need?

For Lingo’s Market, we needed four children between the ages of 6-9 who spoke either English, Spanish, French or Mandarin. I put out a request on my local online mother’s groups for recommendations for well-behaved, patient children with clear pronunciation in these languages. We then called all of the names that we received to get an idea of the child’s voice. We wanted to find four “happy sounding” kids with crisp voices. I then recorded the children individually in my clothes-lined closet (see, there is a reason why I have yet to clean out my closet of my college outfits – they make great sound proofing!) with a Yeti Blue Microphone. This inexpensive microphone worked great for me — my audio sounds professional and I did not have to spend money to rent out a recording studio. I have used the microphone many times to make all sorts of voice recordings!

If you can’t find someone in your network, try using craigslist to help you find someone in your area or posting a job on Witmart.

Good luck! Post any questions below! I’d love to hear from you!

For more posts about how to make an app, check out

Part 1: The Idea

Part 3: Hiring a Developer

Filed Under: How to make an app

Bilingual School, will we be excluded if we don’t speak the language?

May

2013

Michelle Gannon – Founder

The other day. I received a question from one of our readers, “We are thinking of enrolling our daughter in a bilingual preschool. Neither my husband nor I can speak the second language. I am concerned that the other parents will be fluent in the language and I wonder if we may feel left out of the community?”

Great question!

My husband and I asked ourselves the same question when we first moved to the Bay Area. I did not know anyone here and I wanted to make friends! I was apprehensive of enrolling my son (3 at the time) in a Chinese immersion preschool, not just because I feared that he would not be accepted with his blue eyes and blond hair, but I wanted to make friends as well! Certainly, if I had enrolled him in a parent nursery school or one of the popular preschools in the area, I would have a built-in friendship network. But for us, learning a second language was extremely important and I wanted a jump start in Mandarin immersion from a school environment.

While it is true that many of the parents did not speak English very well at our preschool, there were a bunch who did and I remain good friends with them today (my son is now 8). I never felt left out. In fact, most of the Chinese parents were impressed and honored that we had chosen their language, Mandarin, as our second language.

Additionally, there are so many other outlets for children to build friendship circles and feel as if they are part of a group (meetup groups, parent groups, classes, sports). School is not the only venue where they will make friends.

A funny side-note: Lucas, my blonde, blue-eyed kid only figured out last year when he was 7 that he looked different from the other kids in his Chinese school. He never even noticed that all of the other kids had black hair and dark eyes. His oversight means a lot to me — he was not ostracized for being different, nor did he feel like an outsider. He was there just to have fun!

If you are considering a second language for your child, a fear that your child won’t be accepted into the school community — remember one thing — the other children there probably care more about how well your kid can kick a soccer ball, rather than his/her appearance or language ability.

SOME IDEAS TO MAKE THE TRANSITION EASIER:

1. Host a playdate at your house with your child’s whole class

2. Don’t get offended if people speak in that second language around you even if you don’t speak it. In fact, I encourage it!

3. Host one-on-one playdates with another child in the class and encourage them to speak only that second language. I offer a treat if they speak in our target language for the whole playdate!

4. Amp up your child’s vocabulary and speaking ability in that second language as much as you can before school starts! Check out our top 10 list of Get Started tips.

5. Learn a few introductory phrases in your target second language just to get the ball rolling when it comes to playdates and greetings. “How are you?” “My name is–”, “My child’s name is …”, “Hello”

6. Enroll your child in activities outside of the school that the other children are also attending. For example, we enroll our older two children in a Chinese culture summer camp where they will see many of the children from their immersion school.

Filed Under: Chinese Characters

Getting Started …

Feb

2013

Lisa Sarafidis – Guest Blogger

I have a confession to make. My kids don’t speak French. Not that they should, since we don’t live in France (“Hello, Captain Obvious”, as my daughter would say). However, I had assumed that we would have made more progress in French by now, since it is a goal of mine to have multilingual children. And my kids really want to learn French. And I speak French myself. And, and, and…

Apparently, just wishing it were true does not a multilingual family make. And my efforts so far have not been very rigorous. We work hard on the Greek, since that is my husband’s native language, but the French lessons have been few and far between. So, I am issuing a challenge to myself, and to any of you out there that have been thinking, “Gee, I really want my kid to speak French” (or Chinese, or whatever language you choose): let just get started! I’ll share what I am doing, and we’d love to hear what you are up to.

I’ll document for you (and myself) the steps I take with them, and share what works, and what doesn’t. The one overriding principal will be “Keep it fun!”. This isn’t about lesson plans, but ways of introducing them to French and French culture (or which ever language you choose) so that they think it’s a game. I am going to try something new each week, whether it’s a theme, or a book, or a website. So, without further ado, here we go!

Snack Time!

Since I love to eat, and my kids love to eat, I decided food would be a great place for us to begin. I recently read this wonderful book called “French Kids Eat Everything“, which documents how a Canadian mother, married to a Frenchman, was able to transform her picky, snack-obsessed children into fabuous eaters. Sign me up! In a nutshell, the book describes how French kids are trained from a young age to eat very well during their meals (lunch and dinner are usually 4 courses), and they are only allowed one snack a day, called the gouter (pronounced goo-TAY), which is generally served to them around 4:30. While they only get one snack a day (so as to not spoil their appetites), it is an awesome snack. Think pain au chocolate, croissants, or other yummy pastries. At all other times, they are served what the adults are eating, with the theory that if they are hungry, they will eat it. I’m going to write more about this book at a later date, because there are lots of other ideas in it I want to share, but for now, I’ll just say that so far, it really does seem to be working.

I explained to my kids that in the spirit of learning French, they were going to start eating like French kids. We were going to be making the table fancy for every meal, including using a….wait for it…tablecloth (gasps from the kids…looks of puzzlement as they try to figure out the purpose of the strange blanket I am putting on the table). They would be having no snacks, except for the gouter, but I would let them pick the gouter, and they could help me make it every Sunday. For all other meals in the house, they would have to eat exactly what I made for myself and my husband. I had expected a full-scale revolt, but much to my surprise, they are 100% on board. And I think it is due to the gouter. Above is a picture of the first gouter we have made, Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes, from one of my favorite food blogs, The Smitten Kitchen.

Shameless Self-Promotion

While we were sitting at the table on Monday evening, all civilized with our table cloth, glass cups and fancy plates, my son asked me how to say “Please pass the milk” in French. And for the life of me, I couldn’t remember the French word for milk. I told him to wait a second, and I would look it up on google on my phone. To which he responded, “Why don’t you just look it up on Lingo’s Market?”. Oh. Right. The grocery shopping app that has 100 food items in French, Spanish, English and Chinese that we spent 2 years of our lives making.

My kids often play with the app- sometimes to mess around in one of the languages, but frequently just to watch him burp or fart (to those of you who have bought the app, you are welcome!) I hadn’t yet purposely used it for language-learning…and not to toot our own horn, but it totally works! As we were sitting at the table, whenever there was a food item they wanted to know, they would use the app as a dictionary, and scroll through the store to find the word. Or to watch Lingo eat garbage bags, which is apparently hysterical. So this is now part of our evening routine, if only for a few minutes at the beginning of dinner.

Sight Words

The last thing I am adding this week is actually one of the first things we put up on this website a few years ago…sight words for around the house. These are a series of images that describe things in different parts of the house, written in French, Spanish, English and Chinese. You print them out, and tape them to the item they describe, so kids can easily absorb the word. We have them for the kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom so far, and they are free! Just download here, print, and tape up! For this week, I am only putting up the kitchen words, but you could do all of them at one time if you want.

So that’s what we are doing this week. It was actually pretty easy and took minimal time to set up. We’d love to hear from you guys- any tips to share? Post it on our facebook page, leave it in a comment below, or drop us an email at learn@thelanguageplayground.com.

Let’s stay in touch! Please sign up for our newsletter!

Filed Under: App Reviews, Cultural Experiences, French, Games to Learn a Second Language

Lingo’s Market in the Making: The Idea (Part 1)

Feb

2013

The idea of creating an app seems easy at first — why there are hundreds of thousands out there! It can’t be that hard, right? That’s what I thought at first, but learned very quickly that there is a lot more involved to creating an app than simply implementing an idea. You may have a fantastic idea for an app, but before you start, read on and maybe my experience can save you some headaches (and money) in the future!

Why do you want to make an app?

You need to have passion for your idea because you will spend more time than you ever imagined on it. The enthusiasm for the idea needs to be there for you to continue throughout the bumps in the road (and there will be bumps… and potholes and cliffs… I promise you!)

For me, I was inspired one day while I was out shopping with my daughter who was 3 at the time. As we rolled through the aisles in a grocery store, she started yelling out all of the names of the food items that she saw along the way in Chinese. She had just done a lesson at preschool on different fruits and vegetables and was thrilled to see them “in person”. I asked her the name for cucumber and pepper which she did not know (and neither did I) and the idea dawned on me. Why not create an app that is ABOUT shopping!

A quick search on iTunes proved that there were no apps out there at the time that were geared towards entertaining kids while they sit in the grocery cart — and yet every mother deals with the task of shopping with kids at least once a week! Voila! A product that provides a solution for a problem!

How do you get started?

1. PLAY: Play with a BUNCH of apps that are similar to yours before you get started laying out the design for yours.

2. SCREEN SHOTS: Take screen shots of pages within apps that you like. How do you take a screen shot of a page that you like? On an iphone you hold down the Home and Sleep buttons at the same time. On 2.0, the screen will flash white, while with 2.1, you’ll also get the camera shutter sound, and your screen will be captured in your photos on your phone. Keep all of those images in one place so that you can easily access them and send them to your developer with specific instructions about what elements you would like to mimic. Refer to these images often while you layout your app so that you don’t forget any elements. Here is a quick video to show you how to take screen shots from your phone.

3. MAP IT OUT: You need to map out your idea down to the very last detail! I can’t stress this point enough. Everything you change or add after you have already sent it to your developer wastes time and money. Think through it ALL now in the design phase before you send it off to a developer.

While software programs are great for laying out your ideas and sending it off to your developer, first try just writing it out with pencil and paper. Here is a simple PDF to layout your ideas: Blank Templates for App Design. Print out a bunch of these and draw out your ideas. Use the one with just one screen in the middle if the page requires a lot of detail and explanations and use the one with four screens if you simply want to show where things would go on a page without a lot of details.

In creating this post, I could not find my initial designs for Lingo’s Market — probably because once it was launched I wanted to forget about how long it took me to get a finished product! Instead, I have included the drawings that I made for an app that we have since scrapped. It was a Mandarin phrase app. The first page shows you how I created a main map of how the app would work (Map of App). I numbered each page of the application on this main map and it correlates to a single numbered page detailing how that specific screen would work. Here I show details about how number 3 on the map of the app would work: layout of app page.

4. DIGITIZE YOUR IDEAS: In order to make it easily understood by a developer and to ensure that there are no communication issues between what you want and what the developer perceives that you want, I suggest mocking it up using one of the many free website wireframe software sites out there.

Wireframe? That sounds scary! It’s not! Wireframing is basically just the layout of the website or app. Where do users go when they click on this button? What happens when users click on that one? I personally like mockingbird and moqups the best. I was able to just jump right on on both platforms and start designing without having to watch any tutorials or spend a lot of time learning the software. Both of them run very much like Pages or Word.

A new free app called POP allows you to turn your paper and pencil drawings into a storyboard that you can actually test out on your phone to ensure that it “works” and make sure that your users don’t get stuck anywhere. You take pictures using your phone of your paper and pencil designs and then create links between the different pages that you have created. The result gets turned into an actual “app” using your drawings. It is pretty cool.

5. INVITE FRIENDS TO PLAY: Have friends “play” and with your app and watch where they get stuck. Ask your testers to “click” throughout the app and see where it takes them — even if right now it is just on paper. You would be surprised that some of the most basic elements of the app you may forget because you think it is intuitive, but when you send it to a developer they will probably just create exactly what you have indicated. It is a lot easier to change it on paper than to rearrage the coding later. Ask as many of your friends as possible to test out the “app” on paper and watch them while they do it.

Do they get stuck somewhere and they don’t know where to go next?
Do they pause too long on one page?
Do they not go to where you want them to go?
Do they know what to do first?
Do they understand the point of the app? Don’t tell them anything about it beforehand and see if they “get it” based on your design.

Good luck! Please post your comments about this post below. I’d love to hear from you!

For more posts about how to make an app, check out

PART 2: Elements of an App

Part 3: Hiring a Developer

Sign up for our newsletter so that you can stay in touch with us!

Filed Under: How to make an app

Inspirational Letters: Using Cookies for Language Development

Feb

2013

I don’t know about you, but my kids just LOVE treats. My kids would probably jump through hoops of fire for an Oreo cookie. Why not use treats to inspire language acquisition and reading skills? If your children get a little treat after dinner, why not turn that ritual into an educational activity? Typically, my kids have to “earn” their treats by doing chores around the house, but this week we tried out something new. They “earned” their treat by coming up with words inspired by letter cookies. They had such a good time and loved brainstorming words that started with the letter of the cookie that they picked out of the box!

If you are teaching your children a second language, have them earn their cookie by brainstorming words in that target language. If you are working on literacy skills with your children, have them come up with words in your native language to earn it.

How do I do this activity?

1. Pick up some alphabet letter cookies. I was surprised to realize how difficult it was to get these at my regular shops. I ended up buying a bunch online and saving myself the hassle of searching each store for them. I also bought alphabet cookie cutters so in case I run out of cookies in the box, I can just make my own! Here are some yummy options:

2. Put the cookie letter on the top of a page and write out a numbered list of how many words you want your child to brainstorm. For my daughter who is 5, I only put down 5 words and we brainstormed the list together as she is an emergent reader. She ended up coming up with a lot more once she got the hang of it, but we started off small. For my son who is 7, I put down 5 words in Chinese for him to brainstorm and 10 words in English.

3. You can do this activity either in your target second language (i.e. brainstorm 10 words in Spanish that start with this letter to earn the cookie) or in your native language (i.e. for our family, brainstorm 10 words in English that start with this letter)

4. Once your child comes up with the list, he/she gets to eat up that cookie! My son loved the activity so much he ended up at 10 cookies before mom put the kaibosh on it until the next day!

Happy Learning!

Let’s stay in touch! Please sign up for our newsletter!

Amazon.com Widgets

Filed Under: Chinese Characters, English Literacy, Games to Learn a Second Language

How To Choose A Foreign Language for Your Child

Feb

2013

How did you decide which foreign language to teach your child? I was just reading this article on Parents.com about the best foreign languages for kids to learn, which, to be honest, seemed like a silly premise for an article: how can one foreign language be inherently better than another? What fundamental qualities of a language were they going to use to make such a judgement call? But, since I’ll read anything that promises to reinforce decisions I’ve made for how I raise my kids (or that attempts to invalidate them, in which case I can have a good 5 minutes of fuming about the ridiculousness of the article!), I decided to give it a go.

Foreign Languages 101

Of course, the article was much less sensational than the title suggested (isn’t that always the case). It covered many of the basics that I have read a lot about recently (the earlier you start your kids on a second language, the better; the links between learning a foreign language and higher scores on all levels of testing, improved cognitive skills, etc…) And rather than placing some sort of ranking on which languages children should learn, it actually provides some ideas on how to choose a foreign language for your child, which can be difficult decision if you don’t have a cultural or family reason for choosing a second (or third) language. For example, they suggest starting kids on a language that the parent themselves have already learned, even if you only took high school Spanish; being able to learn alongside a parent, even if the parent isn’t fluent, can greatly enhance a child’s interest and speed in learning a language.

How to Choose

Here are some of the more concrete tips the article mentioned for choosing a language (these are from an American perspective, so it would be different if you are coming at this concept from a non-US perspective):

-If you are looking for a language that might help your child’s future career the most, the article suggests Spanish (the second most common language in the US), Chinese (given its huge population and growing economy), or German (a bit of a surprise, but it is the world’s fourth largest economy).

-If you are looking for the languages that might be easiest to learn, they suggest Spanish, French or Italian, since so many parents have already been exposed to one of these languages, and they are, like English, Romance languages (based on Latin), so there will be many similarities.

-They also recommend French as the language of choice for the arts, or travel, since there are so many French-speaking countries that are also fun travel destinations.

-A final suggestion is American Sign Language (ASL); while not technically a foreign language, it is a much needed skill, that can either have future career applications, or just be useful in medical emergencies or disasters.

Lisa Sarafidis’s Story – Guest Blogger

Of course, at the end of the day, it is a very personal choice, and there is no “wrong” language. In our house, we do Greek because of my husband, and French. Why French? Well, I had originally started out teaching them Spanish, because that was my major in college, and they are getting a bit of Spanish in their school. But about a year ago, I asked them if they could choose, what language would they pick? Surprisingly, both my 7 and 5 year old chose French. My daughter was born in Paris (she only lived there the first 8 weeks of her life, but she believes she is half American, half Greek and half French…we are working on the math), and so it is something that really inspires her…and what better reason is there to learn another language…inspiration. And if I can get a field trip to Paris out of it someday….bonus!

Please sign up for our newsletter to get up-to-date information about happenings at
The Language Playground!

Filed Under: Research and Trends

Love Tree for Literacy and Language!

Feb

2013

For children, Valentine’s Day can often just mean yet another holiday where they get tons of treats and the spirit of the holiday is lost. Why not make Valentine’s Day mean more than the heart-shaped lollipops and chocolate cupids? We started a tradition a few years ago where the children brainstorm with me who they love in their lives and we commemorate them on our little love tree. I bought this tree years ago for Easter and since it takes up a bit of room in the garage, I now use it for a lot of things — Valentine’s Day being one!

What is a Love Tree?

It is a little tree that sits on our dining room table where we hang hearts (love leaves) describing the people we love and why we love them.

When can you start this tradition with children?

We started the tradition when my son was just 2. Over dinner, we would talk about each person that we loved and make a little heart for him/her. I have saved the hearts from each year and it is great to look over last year’s love leaves and see how much his handwriting and written expression have improved over the year.

How can I utilize my target second language with this activity?

Depending on your child’s fluency and written level in your target language, you can incorporate as many elements as you want!

For younger children, you may want him/her to just write one word in your target language or just one phrase, “I love you” each time on the leaf at the bottom or at the top and the rest in English. Or perhaps you have your child list off why he loves each person and then incorporate words from your second target language into that list.

For my family, since we are learning Chinese, my children write the love notes to the Chinese-speaking people we love in Chinese characters. For example, my son wrote 你是我的好朋友 (You are my good friend) for his Chinese tutor and 我愛你 (I love you) for his Chinese babysitter who both play big roles in his life.

How can I make this activity educational ?

Easy! The activity itself enables children to put feelings and emotions to paper. The love tree gives children a sense of print motivation — they get great pride in realizing that their words are going to be celebrated and enjoyed by the whole family. Words matter! This activity checks off each of the Six Early Literacy Skills detailed in this article.

Considerations:

1. It is easy for younger children to want to put everyone down. At first my son wanted to put down “the kid with the brown hair in school who wears the green shirt” as one of his love leaves. This activity is a great opportunity to talk about the people who are important to them and why they deserve a leaf on our tree.

2. If you have a tutor or babysitter who speaks your second language of choice, ask him/her to help you teach your child a few of these love phrases. Brainstorm with your child what kinds of thoughts he wants to say. Perhaps your child wants to say “I love you because you play soccer with me” and currently he does not know how to write that yet — what a great opportunity to learn!

3. Save your hearts each year in an envelope with the year printed on it. It is fun to bring them out after you have finished this activity to see how much your child’s literacy has improved. A word of advice: DON’T bring out the hearts until AFTER you have done the activity. I find that my children just repeat the same love messages as last year because it is fresh in their minds.

How To Do The Activity:

1. Cut out hearts. For younger children, trace the heart for your child to cut out.

2. Paste the hearts onto a different colored paper

3. Cut around the hearts

4. Brainstorm the people who are important in your child’s life and why you love them. Write love leaves for each person.

5. Use a hole puncher at the top of the heart and tie a string around it. (This is Lucas’ note from last year to Daddy)

6. Hang up your hearts

7. Take out hearts from previous years and enjoy discovering how much your child has improved in vocabulary, expression and handwriting. Your child will love making comparisons about his/her writing as well!

Please sign up for our newsletter to get up-to-date information about happenings at
The Language Playground!

Amazon.com Widgets

Filed Under: Chinese Characters, Games to Learn a Second Language

Love Notes for Literacy and Language Development

Feb

2013

Love, Literacy and Language Learning all go together this Valentine’s Day!

One of our family traditions is to write “love notes” to our family members and tuck them underneath the chocolate morsels found in the traditional heart-shaped boxes. This year, my son Lucas has started to learn Chinese characters so we jumped at the chance to incorporate his new words into our Valentine’s ritual this year! In addition to the love notes written in English to promote his literacy skills, we added one or two Chinese ones to the mix! You can do this activity in any language!

Though this activity, my children realize that what they are learning at school (both in their Chinese class and in elementary school) have real-life implications. What they learn matters!

What is this tradition?

1. Pick up small heart-shaped boxes to distribute to family, friends, and/or teachers. Don’t get ones that have too many spots for chocolate as your child might get bored of the activity if there are too many spots to fill. I like to pick up the small ones that only have 5 spots for the chocolate – which means 5 love notes per person. One thing to be aware of, some of the cheaper boxes do not have actual slots for the chocolate and instead just have a jumble of candy inside. Beware of those as this activity does not work for those kind of boxes.

2. Cut up paper into 1/2 inch strips — big enough for your child to write on them but small enough to be folded and hidden under each chocolate piece.

3. Brainstorm with your child what you love about the person who will receive the Valentine’s box. My first grader tends to prefer a set statement to work with for this activity, “I love you because..” Whereas my 5 year old daughter prefers to have me write out the phrase that she wants to say on a separate piece of paper and copy it herself on the slivers of paper.

4. My son wanted to have a mixture of Chinese characters and English words for this year’s love notes. We gave each person one love note in Chinese and four notes in English.