In this post: How to develop bedtime routines in Spanish with your child including tidying up, bath time and story time.
Have you ever considered that bedtime is the perfect opportunity for increasing Spanish input with your child?
Children thrive on routines! Completing daily bedtime routines in Spanish is a great way to practice the language while bonding with your child.
A guardar ~ Clean Up
Before the bedtime process can begin, there’s usually some tidying up to tackle!
Spend 5 minutes picking up while singing these songs:
A guardar, ordenar,
cada cosa en su lugar.
Sin tirar, sin romper,
que mañana hay que volver.
Start the video at 46 seconds and finish at 57 seconds to hear the stanza.
This version is tailored more to basic Spanish, using the high frequency verb limpiar and encourages team work:
Limpia limpia,
guarda todo en su lugar.
Limpia, limpia,
todos deben cooperar.
A bañarse~ Bath Time
Next is bath time! This is one of my favorite parts of the day with the kids. When not too tired, bath time can be an opportunity for more play and Spanish language acquisition.
- You could play I spy/ ‘Veo veo’. If your child is too young to spell, you can use colors: For example, ‘Veo algo amarillo’ ( I see something yellow).
- Use this time of washing to practice parts of the body in Spanish!
This is another fun and repetitive song to sing with your child during bath time:
Enjabónate.
Enjabónate.
Pies a cabeza.
Enjabónate.
Cuentos/ Stories
Research shows that reading aloud has a huge impact on your child’s brain development and also family bonding.
Rotating your children’s books is fun, but reading the same stories over and over again is great vocabulary consolidation too!
If you haven’t started collecting Spanish children’s books yet, browsing our favorites from the PaperPie bilingual bookshop is a great starting point!
Be sure to also read this related post: >> Best Children’s Spanish Books for Beginners
Canciones de cuna
Learning Spanish lullabies is the perfect way to soothe and prepare your child for sleeping.
One popular Spanish ‘canción de cuna’ is ‘La lechuza‘ because it’s so easy to memorize:
La lechuza, la lechuza
Hace shhh, hace shhh,
Todos calladitos, como la lechuza
Hacen shhh, hacen shhh.
Be sure to visit our Freebie Library for fun printables, songs, games and more to use Spanish in your daily routines!
Founder of the Llamitas Spanish® Curriculum and former Spanish teacher. Corrie holds a Masters in Spanish and Education and is raising bilingual children in San Diego, CA.