If you want to learn Spanish for kids at home, the best start is small, spoken and playful. This hub gathers eight free games in Spanish and English: the abecedario, numbers from uno to cien, and picture words for animals, fruits, vegetables, colours and body parts. Every word is read aloud in clear audio, so a three-year-old who cannot read yet can still tap, listen and play.
Why start Spanish early
Spanish is spoken as a first language by more than 480 million people, across Spain, Mexico, most of Central and South America and in large communities in the United States. For children, it is also one of the friendliest languages to hear first. Spanish has only five vowel sounds, a, e, i, o, u, and they almost never change. A word is usually said the way it is written, so the sounds your child learns from pato (duck) or mesa (table) stay reliable later, when they learn to read.
Young children are not tidy grammar learners. They pick up Spanish the way they picked up their first language: by hearing the same useful words many times in a happy setting, and then trying them out. That is why the games here repeat words in short rounds and never mark a tap as "wrong". A missed tap simply gets a gentle hint and another try.
Spanish games on this site
- Spanish alphabet for kids: 27 letter cards from A de abeja to Z de zapato, including the special letter Ñ.
- Numbers in Spanish 1 to 100: a tap-to-hear chart with a "Count with me" button.
- Animals in Spanish: 60 animals from vaca to caballito de mar.
- Fruits in Spanish and vegetables in Spanish: 30 each, ideal for the kitchen and the market.
- Colours in Spanish: 12 colours, rojo, azul, amarillo and more.
- Body parts in Spanish: 30 words from cabeza to rodilla.
Each game has three modes. Listen lets your child tap a picture and hear it. Find it has Golu, our glass-marble mascot, ask for a picture in Spanish. Memory is a pairs game. Every finished round drops a marble in the Goli Jar, and you can tap the jar to count the marbles together, in Spanish if you like: uno, dos, tres.
Spain Spanish or Latin American Spanish?
These pages use the Spanish of Spain, recorded with a Spain voice. Some everyday words differ across the Atlantic: a potato is patata in Spain but papa in Latin America, a peach is melocotón in Spain and durazno in much of the Americas, and green beans are judías verdes in Spain but ejotes in Mexico. Spain also says the z and soft c with a "th" sound, while Latin America says them as "s".
If your family is Mexican, Colombian, Peruvian or from anywhere in Latin America, use our Latin American Spanish pack instead. It has the same games with Latin American words and a Latin American voice. Both are correct Spanish, and children understand both easily. It helps to pick the one your family and your child's teachers use.
How to teach Spanish at home in ten minutes a day
- Pick one small set. Five colours or five animals is plenty for a week at age 3.
- Play one short round. Two or three minutes of Listen, then one round of Find it.
- Take it off the screen. Point to a red cup and say rojo. Pass the banana and say el plátano.
- Add a routine phrase. ¡Buenos días! at breakfast, ¡Vamos! at the door, Buenas noches at bedtime.
- Sing. Traditional songs like "Los pollitos dicen" and "Cabeza, hombros, rodillas y pies" make words stick.
Play the game "Veo, veo" (I spy) in the car or on a walk: Veo, veo una cosa de color verde ("I spy something green"). It practises colours and listening with no screen at all.
What to expect at each age
| Age | Realistic Spanish goals |
|---|---|
| 2-3 | Understands 10-30 words from pictures and routines; may say agua, más, hola. Counts along to 3 or 5. |
| 3-4 | Names common animals, fruits and main colours; counts objects to 10; joins in songs. |
| 4-5 | Recognises some letters and the vowel sounds; counts to 20; uses short phrases like quiero agua. |
| 5-6 | Sounds out simple words like mamá, sol, pato; counts to 100 with help; knows body parts. |
Use the grown-up settings to set your child's age. The games then show fewer or more choices, which keeps the challenge right.
Tips for bilingual and heritage Spanish homes
Many families use these pages to keep Spanish alive abroad: grandparents in Madrid or Mexico City, a child growing up in London, Dubai, Toronto or Bengaluru. If Spanish is your heritage language, speak it naturally and often, even when your child answers in English. Understanding comes first; speaking follows. Some families use "one parent, one language", where one adult always speaks Spanish. Others use Spanish at home and English outside. Both work if the Spanish is warm and regular.
If nobody at home speaks Spanish, you can still help. Learn alongside your child, repeat the audio, and let your child correct you. Children love being the teacher. Mixing two languages in one sentence is normal for bilingual children and is not a sign of confusion.
Screen time: keep sessions short and play together. Children under two learn more from a grown-up talking about real things than from any screen.
Para las familias hispanohablantes
Estos juegos gratuitos ayudan a los niños de 2 a 6 años a aprender español jugando. Cada palabra se escucha en español y en inglés, con una imagen grande y un audio claro. No hace falta registrarse, no hay anuncios y funciona en el móvil, la tableta o el ordenador.
Empiece con el abecedario, los números del 1 al 100 o los nombres de animales para niños. Jueguen juntos unos minutos al día y después busquen las mismas cosas en casa: una manzana en la cocina, un gato en la calle, el color azul en el cielo. Lo importante es hablar mucho, cantar y celebrar cada intento.
Si su familia habla el español de México o de otro país de América Latina, pruebe también nuestra versión latinoamericana, con palabras como papa, durazno y jugo.
How to use this page at home
Say it, then find it
Play for a few minutes, then look for the same thing away from the screen: spanish words on the shelf, in the kitchen, on the way to school. A child learns a word properly when they meet it twice, once on the screen and once in their hand.
Ten minutes is enough
Short and happy beats long and tired. Stop while your child still wants more, and come back tomorrow: the same page on five short days teaches far more than one long sitting. Nothing here is scored, so there is no reason to push.
Use both languages
Tap the language button at the top to hear the words in your home language first and the second language after. Hearing the same picture named in two languages is one of the few things research agrees builds attention as well as vocabulary.
