Learn languages for kids: 34 languages, one friendly Golu

Children are natural language learners. Between the ages of two and six they soak up sounds, rhythms and words faster than at any other time, and research on bilingual children shows that hearing two languages early does not confuse them. It gives them a richer map of how language works. CodingMarble Kids is built for exactly this age: every game speaks, every picture has a name in your language, and nothing needs reading or a sign-up.

How the language pages work

Each language has its own hub with eight free activities: the alphabet as children learn it in that country, numbers from 1 to 100, and picture words for animals, fruits, vegetables, colours and body parts. On these pages the game always speaks the chosen language first and English second, so a child in Chennai, São Paulo or Dubai hears their home language, and a child growing up abroad keeps a daily link to their heritage language.

You can also make any language your child's everyday language across the whole site: tap the language button in the header (it shows your current pair, such as अ+A) and pick a first and second language. Animals, fruits, colours, counting and the other games will then speak in that pair.

Which language should my child learn first?

Start with the language your family speaks at home, the mother tongue. India's NEP 2020 and early-years research from around the world agree that children learn best when early learning is in the language they understand. Add a second language through play, songs and short daily sessions. Five to ten minutes of listening together, then talking about real things in your home, works better than long screen time.

When the home language starts to fade

Most families abroad notice the same thing at around four or five: the child still understands the home language perfectly but answers in the school language. This is normal and it is not a sign that anything has gone wrong. The usual reason is simply that the home language has fewer hours and fewer people in it. What brings it back is not correction but more of it — a grandparent on a video call, a song at bath time, a picture book read three times instead of a new one once. Answer whatever your child says in the home language, in the home language, without asking them to repeat it.

Letters can wait

Speaking and listening come first in every script. A child who has a thousand spoken words will learn to read quickly; a child who is pushed into letters before the words are there will find reading hard for years. On this site the alphabet pages exist for the age and country that expect them, but the picture-and-sound games are the ones to use daily at two, three and four.

If only one grown-up speaks the language

It still works. Children build a language from whoever gives them the most of it, not from how many people speak it. Ten minutes of undivided attention in that language every day — the same story, the same song, naming what is on the plate — is worth more than a whole afternoon of background television in it. What a child cannot learn from is a language they only ever hear coming out of a speaker, which is why every page here ends by sending you off the screen to say the words to each other.

Tips for bilingual and heritage-language families

• Use one language per person or per place (for example Tamil at home, English at school), but don't worry about mixing; children sort it out.
• Play the same game in both languages on different days.
• Name real objects after the game: the mango in your kitchen, the colour of a car on the street.
• Praise effort, not perfection: "You remembered the word!"

A note on accuracy: our words and alphabet charts are prepared carefully with the help of language research, and each language is being reviewed by native speakers. If you notice a word that your family says differently, that is normal: languages vary by region.

Now do it for real

When the screen goes off, do something with your hands. Try 🌱 Grow a bean in a glass — an easy science experiment for ages 2-6, with every step read aloud in your language. You will need two or three chana or rajma seeds, a glass and a piece of cotton or tissue, water; nothing that needs a trip to a shop.

There are 56 more on the things to do at home page, and free printable worksheets if you would rather have something on paper. Ten minutes on a screen and twenty minutes off it is a good shape for a day at this age.

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Every page, language by language

Each language has its own alphabet, numbers and picture-word pages. Open a language to see all of them.