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The importance of teaching foreign languages at an early age

Young children have the unique ability to quickly learn languages, whether they are their native language or foreign languages, because they are able to listen to and then make the new sounds they hear. Experts who study children learning foreign languages believe that by the time a child reaches the age of 8 they will start having difficulty learning a new language, and will speak with a foreign accent. It would be wise to include language study to children in your homeschooling curriculum, starting at a very young age. There are free online educational games that you can use, and kids software programs that are specifically designed for children learning new languages and there difficulty is appropriate for the age group they target. With the use of online educational games, children can listen to the languages and play interactive games designed to help them retain the information.

The Wall Street Journal published an article that stated that toddlers who learn a second language at the same time as they are learning their native language will end up speaking both as if each language was their native tongue, but attempting to learn a second language later on in life, such as when students take foreign languages in high school, is much harder as our brain separates the two languages and how they are processed. So if you are homeschooling your children, spend some time evaluating the online educational games, and the available kids software that is dedicated to teaching languages. If you have toddlers, you can give them an advantage by giving them interactive games to encourage their absorption of a second language.