My SIL ( Japanese ) ‘s son will be 2y old soon and I asked what she wants and she said toys for learning English. I already gave her 1yr of Disney+ when the kid turned 1y but she said she barely had time to use it
I’m also open to purchase from Amazon USA.
Unrelated…. But SIL graduated from a 4y university focused on English and she lived 1yr of her studies in Canada and she doesn’t speak any English…. Is this common? 😱😱
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Get her some books to read.
Not sure how common it is, but yes, the study English but can’t speak English is a thing. Can she read English?Since Japanese English education is not really focused on speaking, but reading and grammar, it’s possible she like so many others just never tried to speak in.
Pay for a one year subscription of Reading Eggs.
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>Unrelated…. But SIL graduated from a 4y university focused on English and she lived 1yr of her studies in Canada and she doesn’t speak any English…. Is this common? 😱😱
Probably can speak a little, but shy to speak in front of a native speaker. I’ve seen it a lot.
Also yeah, “focused on English” could be a lot of different things. Maybe she studied English literature.
VTech has toys that make sounds or sing songs.
My son is going to be two in November and I have been reading about language development. The best way for babies and toddlers to learn languages is through conversations with adults and order children. It’s really simple as just talking to them and narrating daily life like a sports caster, even for learning their native language.
Is there an English playgroup, toddler class, or program you could register for? That’d be my best bet.
After that is screen time which is considered the candy of entertainment by a lot of pediatricians. It’s fun and distracting but like kids aren’t always able to get the social context of language for something like a Disney movie. The next best options are sesame street and Ms. Rachel which we watch on YouTube. These programs are slower paced, and have characters that engage with children by asking questions and encourage following examples like gestures in songs.
Beyond that picture books, especially if you can find some bilingual ones with English and Japanese. Reading to kids is another huge boost to language development. But I can’t think of any independent play toys that do the same thing.
See ‘n’ Say is a classic! It’s on Amazon, by Fisher Price. We had a very cool one that showed different countries, had songs, greetings, etc. But the Farmer Says gives you several farm animals and a random coyote!
We also had a Fisher Price phone that used coins or a phone call and would talk at you. Both these toys still work, 20 years later.
A wooden ABC puzzle may be slightly early, but definitely good by age two. Lets the kid get tactile with the shapes of the 26 letters.
Puppets, if you’ll be around to play puppet show.
Board books are great, too, if someone will read them.
Sesame Street DVDs with dolls from the show.
Don’t get Tickle Me Elmo if you value your SIL’s sanity.
Tell her that almost any toy at that age can be used for “learning English”, but the parent has to put in the effort to speak and interact with the child in English whilst playing with the toy.
Agree that books are great. My library’s selection of English kid books actually isn’t too bad, so maybe hers isn’t either, but two-year-olds can be hard on books. Having more of her own at home is nice.
Also, however, we have the Anpanman ことばずかんpremium book and it gets a ton of use by our youngest. We got it at Bic, but it’s also available on Amazon. It’s a toy book that says the word of an object or character when the kid touches the picture. It has a mode for both English and Japanese.
It won’t matter if the kid doesn’t regularly get English interaction from a real human being.