Select text and workbooks or computer programs to provide the foundation for teaching Spanish lessons at home. Look for materials that break the language down into lessons, provide a workbook or worksheets and provide a way to hear the language to help learn the proper pronunciations (tapes, CDs, DVDs, movies or a website). Used texts can be found at local universities and colleges. Some libraries may have texts as well. Brick-and-mortar and online bookstores and learning-resource websites also sell resources to teach Spanish.
Create groups of flash cards to teach each Spanish lesson. Write a single Spanish word and include a picture of the word and its pronunciation on the card. Create sets of stickers or identifying cards that can be taped around the house, for instance on the refrigerator, sink, table and chair. Review the flash cards and labels regularly with your students, saying the words and having the students repeat them aloud.
Use free resources on the web like Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go to learn and review basics. Free flash cards, coloring books and worksheets can be found on www.noggin.com. These cards feature a picture, the word in Spanish and English, and the pronunciation.
Teach Spanish lessons 15 to 30 minutes daily to learn the language over several months to a year, or two to three hours per day for several weeks to prepare for a trip. Commit to a regular time to teach Spanish as well as to practice and review.
Create index cards with groupings of important words like food items, names of sports and place names. Each line of the index card will have a Spanish word; a very small picture of the word; and its pronunciation, definition and gender. Require students to study these cards in between lessons. Once the lessons are complete, have students continue to review the index cards on a weekly basis.
Have students practice speaking. Instruct them to repeat Spanish words and sentences from the lessons as well as from video or Internet audio during each teaching session. Invite a native Spanish speaker to the home if possible. Teach songs in Spanish and have students sing them out loud. Supply students with Spanish magazines and books from the local library, bookstore or online to add variety to the materials they are reading aloud.
Practice writing in Spanish. Start with short sentences or dialogue, such as a conversation when two people meet, and move up to writing short paragraphs and simple stories and finally to longer stories.
Have students listen to music and watch movies in Spanish. Select movies that have a simple plot or are already well understood by the learner in his native language.
View Spanish holidays, celebrations, festivals and church services from home through live broadcasts or recordings online. For instance, there is a Spanish service available for free on Sunday afternoons on joelosteen.com that displays the words in Spanish to all the songs. This allows the viewer to hear, sing and read Spanish at the same time.