How to teach your child using flashcards

Flash cards are an excellent teaching aid to use when teaching a language, especially to children. Flash cards are small and easy to carry around and since they are almost always made of cardboard, they are pretty hardy and tough so last longer. Flash cards can be used to teach all kinds of words. Very often, flash cards are grouped into themes like “Alphabet”, “Animals”, “Numbers”, “Shapes and Colors”, or “Fruits” so that parents have a variety of content to choose from. You can purchase Sets of flash cards through our store.

Here is a list of tips to keep in mind when using flashcards to teach your children!

How To Use Flash Cards When Teaching

1. Teach some words, then watch a video about those words.
Like adults, many children love to watch videos. Of course, we want to avoid cultivating a television or video addiction in children, so leaving them in a corner of the house with a mobile device is really not a good idea. However, with some careful planning, there can be a lot of benefits from using videos for teaching. For example, after teaching a child a new Swahili word, you can watch a related episode of ‘Ubongo Kids’ or ‘Akili and Me’ on YouTube with your child. This multimedia experience will further enhance the learning experience for your child and will tremendously increase the efficiency of teaching. It will also give the child a sense of perspective that is lacking in most children.

2. Flash the card and ask the child to guess the word.
As your child starts to learn the alphabet and phonics, covering the image or flashing the card to let the child guess the word, encourages the development of word recognition.

3. Give the child a blank piece of card board cut to flash card size then ask the child to copy the flash card to the best of his /her ability.
You can prolong the teaching session for maximum benefits by altering the teaching format. Take advantage of a child’s natural love for a piece of paper and pencil, by setting out tasks to copy flash card content, including redrawing the images. This helps to develop fine motor skills and word recognition. Reading out to the child each syllable that he/she has copied also helps to teach the child phonics and word formation.

Ask them because they matter too!
Sometimes let your child tell you how he/she would like the lesson to be on any particular day. Like adults, children are more likely to stay committed and pay attention when empowered to make some decisions on their own.

Do not over simplify content!
Do not water down or over simplify content. If you teach your child about colors and shapes, and your child asks you how they are formed, give some basic information about the subject instead of fairy tale responses. While it is important to foster creativity, learning facts about the world is also just as important.