Hello! I have scoured the internet looking for cling type stickers that we can put around the house for my children to learn some Italian and French words before our trip. I thought I would see if any of you had a resource before I resorted to the label maker and the rick steve's travel dictionary. Doable yet labor intensive.
Thanks!
They used to have those little containers of words to put on your fridge and I do remember seeing something in Spanish... but not for a few years. Instead of the label maker, they do have printable sheets of magnets which you can put through your digital printer. You then cut it to the appropriate size and each one becomes its own fridge magnet. Depending on how good you are on the computer and the ages of your children you could add pictures, etc. (maybe a saleable product idea in there:))
How about getting post it notes and have them make their own? They could also do it with short sentences.
The book "French in 10 Minutes a Day" has about 150 stickers you can use to label things around the house. Probably about $12 on Amazon. I assume the Italian version also has stickers but I've never looked at that one.
Post it notes are easiest. Maybe download some childrens' dictionary pages or books and just cut out the words you want. Sounds less labor intensive and cheaper.
You might want to consider children's books that have two languages (English and French or English and Italian in your case). I've used these with ESL adult learners before with a lot of success to help augment lessons (English & Spanish) and just purchased a couple of English/Korean children's books. The stories are simple, so it's very easy to learn. I'm certainly not ashamed to learn this way, even as an adult. And it can be fun, too.
You could try Magnetic Poetry kits in Italian and French. They come with a translation brochure.
These are all great ideas thank you!
I don't think they make them anymore, but there used to be a "Stick It in XX" series that produced books that were just full of full-color post-it notes with pictures and words in different languages. I purchased the "Stick It in French" book to use with my kids. Honestly, it didn't help at all. (Plus the adhesive was weak and they just fell off). Learning the basics (hello, goodbye, please & thank you) would be way more useful anyways. For French, I'd suggest the Berlitz Kids books + CD (hearing the words pronounced correctly is very important) and the "Lyric Language French" CD (with the book if you can find it - our library in the US had it) or DVD if they make it. The kids can learn the days of the week, grocery store items, and other words through bi-lingual songs. They're catchy, and fun to listen to in the car. I'm not sure if these same resources are available in Italian, but hopefully you'll find something.
I just purchased a magnetic set of French words on one side and English on the other, also magnetized. We used the with our grand daughters on an 8 hour road trip at Christmas time, California is a very long state... They were a big success and the girls took them home with them to keep up the practice around their house. It helped that they had a little cousin coming from Montreal and that we want to take them to France next summer. I've seen the silver boxed magnetic word kits available at unexpected places like gift shops. They used to be sold at book stores but unfortunately there aren't many of those around any more. You'll need to most likely look online. They were very durable and a lot of fun.