Children do not learn a language by studying it.
They learn it by understanding meaning (Krashen, 1985).

Understanding always comes before speaking. Children listen and watch first. They pay attention to what is happening and begin to understand what words mean in context.

Meaning attaches itself to new words they hear, see, or read. As their vocabulary grows, they start to understand more and more of what is being said.

Only after this stage do children begin using the language themselves.

Language grows through repeated exposure to meaningful input (Krashen, 2013).

Hearing Spanish words in context, such as in real-life situations, stories, movies, books, songs, or games, and hearing the same words many times, allows the brain to recognize patterns automatically.

Reading stories helps children grow their vocabulary, pick up spelling and grammar naturally, and develop an intuitive “feel” for the language (Pigada & Schmitt, 2006; Venkanna & Pavani).

Listening to stories, audiobooks, podcasts, movies, and songs supports both listening comprehension and speaking skills by exposing children to natural language patterns and pronunciation (Krashen, 2004).

When children are calmly exposed to meaningful Spanish content that they can understand, without stress or pressure, grammar, sentence structure, and vocabulary gradually fall into place on their own—without the need for formal explanation.

This is how children learned their first language, and it is also how second languages grow most naturally.

Any method for teaching kids Spanish that ignores this order tends to feel frustrating, slow, or stressful for both children and parents.