Here are 10 fun, practical, and culturally engaging ideas for helping bilingual kids practice their language skills over the summer — whether they’re maintaining two languages or strengthening a heritage language.

🎭 1. Language-Immersion Theme Weeks

Choose a theme based on children’s interests for the week (e.g., Dinosaurs, Outer Space, Cooking, Travel) and do everything around that theme in the target language:

• Watch shows/movies in the language
• Do crafts and science experiments
• Read themed picture books or comics
• Make a themed word wall

👪 These are great for siblings or friends learning the same language!

📚 2. Summer Reading Challenge (in the Target Language)

Set up a bilingual reading log with rewards for:

• Number of books read
• Minutes read per day
• Retelling the story in their own words
• Finding new words and drawing them
• Engaging in online activities after the readings

Check out our collection of picture books in English and Spanish and the online interactive activities for each picture book

🛍️ You may reward kids by taking them out for ice cream, making book-themed stickers, enjoying special playdate, or watching their favorite program on TV.

🎮 3. Turn Favorite Games into Language Practice

Adapt everyday games to include the target language:

• Charades (guess the word in the target language)
• Simon Says (use target language only)
• Scavenger Hunt with clues in the language
• Guess Who / 20 Questions (focus on adjectives, descriptions)

🎤 4. Create special Family Videos

Let your child make recordings in the target language:

• Storytime
• Interviewing grandparents or friends
• Cooking tutorials
• Singing songs

🎧 Share these videos with family members or pen pals who speak the language!

🌍 5. Culture Days

Choose a country or region that speaks the language and have a full-on cultural immersion day:

• Encourage kids to cook with you traditional foods
• Learn a folk song or dance
• Watch travel videos or take a virtual museum tour
• Create a craft or map from that culture
• For English and Spanish songs you can also try our Youtube Channel

📝 6. Summer Journal or Comic Book

Provide a bilingual summer journal (half-page in each language, or language of choice per day):

• Write about daily adventures
• Draw scenes with speech bubbles
• Use stickers or washi tape to decorate

🖍️ Younger kids can dictate stories and draw; older kids can write paragraphs or comics.

🎲 7. Bilingual Board Game Night

Play games that naturally lend themselves to language use:

• Bingo with vocabulary words
• Uno with custom rules (say the color or number in the language)
• Story Cubes (build a story in the language)
• Pictionary with vocabulary from the week

📱 8. Connect with Grandparents, Cousins and other family members and friends

• Write weekly, emails or video messages
• Exchange voice notes on WhatsApp or Messenger Kids
• Have video calls

💡Use technology to keep children connected to family and friends

🎨 9. Art + Language Mashup

• Label all their artwork in the target language
• Do “describe what you drew” presentations
• Make bilingual flashcards for art materials
• Do origami or step-by-step drawing in the target language

Make albums with their creations

🏕️ 10. Nature Walk & Tal

Go on local hikes or walks and:

• Label things in both languages (“tree,” “squirrel,” “sunshine”)
• Collect nature things (rocks, leaves, flowers) and make a bilingual nature journal in the target language

These are just some activities that you can do with your kids but the important thing is to have fun and enjoy time with them.