ESL Resources for Mothers

It's frustrating how difficult ESL resources for mothers can be to come by. The mothers of my students are always asking what they can do to help their children learn to speak English at home. Many of them feel frustrated because they are not fluent in English themselves.

You don't have to be fluent in English to help your child learn to speak English!

The truth is...most mothers already have the level of English needed to help their young children. Young children aren't speaking very complex English yet. Mothers can get by using just a tiny bit of English. And even if this is beyond their current English speaking level, they can always purchase videos and CDs to help their children speak English.

The Mother's Vocabulary List and The Mother's Phrase List are great ESL resources for mothers who are just starting out. The vocabulary words are not too difficult (in fact, some might even be the same in your native language!), and the phrases can help mothers to gain confidence as they learn to speak English.

Want some things that can be done at home? The article 10 Ways to Help Children Learn English at Home has 10 of my very best ideas for working with children at home.

Of course, you'll want your child to attend school as well...but how do you know that you are sending your child to the best school? Check out my Tips for Choosing an ESL School. There, you'll find lots of ideas of things that you should be looking for in an ESL school.

Books are a great resource to have around. In fact, the book "Freakonomics" suggests that simply having a lot of books in your house is one way to ensure your child's scholastic success!! Here are my favorite books for young ESL learners.

Hope that these ESL resources for mothers are helpful to you!

Love,
Shannon Sensei

ps--I would love to translate these pages into many different languages to help out any mothers who don't speak English. My husband is going to help with a Japanese translation, but if you speak any other languages, and have some time to help out, I would greatly appreciate it!

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