Post by Tatyana L on May 27, 2020 8:05:35 GMT 9
Reading what I wrote last update is like seeing an old black and white show in a world that has color television. Or maybe the other way around. The world sure was different back then.
This week is the last week of the school year for the kids. They’ve been at home since the middle of March. Our routine is completely different now.
I took advantage of home schooling to insert some Russian into the mix. Every morning we start with a Zoom call to my mother for morning exercise and family meeting, all in Russian. Then each child does writing practice for 15 minutes and then reading for another 15. Then it’s time to do their English school work. Right now we work around the school schedule because one of the kids has daily zoom meetings in the morning. So we try to work around it.
After lunch it’s time for math and Spanish. I’ll admit Spanish is a lot less structured than English. Mostly it’s whatever they feel like doing from what school assigns plus Spanish cartoons.
The first few weeks have been a disaster with crying and screaming all around. But then we all adjusted to this new world and it seems to work ok.
I definitely see the improvement in their Russian. Especially in the little one who was always mixed more. They also read much better now, the 7 year old is in the middle of a chapter book. The 10 year old has finished 3 or 4 of them during the lockdown. It’s still not quite reading for please but I catch them giggling or enjoying the book once in a while.
Another neat development is that my little one has started texting me whenever she’s too lazy to go to a different room. She does it in Russian! I really should force the older one to do that as well. Texting in Russian would definitely improve their writing skills since they would get immediate feedback if they misspelled a word.
Spanish is another matter. Their literacy has dropped I think. However daily exposure to way too much cartoons has my little one running through the house while screaming “super velocidad.” I know that cartoons are not the greatest source of exposure, but hopefully it will start to increase their vocabulary so it’s not just related to school.
What will happen next I don’t know. The summer will bring more scheduling flexibility with no competition from school work. I want to be able to read more to them, and to start to transition to writing as a means of conveying information, as opposed to learning how to write.
I wanted to spend a summer home with them to focus on their Russian. However this is not quite how I pictured it happening.
This week is the last week of the school year for the kids. They’ve been at home since the middle of March. Our routine is completely different now.
I took advantage of home schooling to insert some Russian into the mix. Every morning we start with a Zoom call to my mother for morning exercise and family meeting, all in Russian. Then each child does writing practice for 15 minutes and then reading for another 15. Then it’s time to do their English school work. Right now we work around the school schedule because one of the kids has daily zoom meetings in the morning. So we try to work around it.
After lunch it’s time for math and Spanish. I’ll admit Spanish is a lot less structured than English. Mostly it’s whatever they feel like doing from what school assigns plus Spanish cartoons.
The first few weeks have been a disaster with crying and screaming all around. But then we all adjusted to this new world and it seems to work ok.
I definitely see the improvement in their Russian. Especially in the little one who was always mixed more. They also read much better now, the 7 year old is in the middle of a chapter book. The 10 year old has finished 3 or 4 of them during the lockdown. It’s still not quite reading for please but I catch them giggling or enjoying the book once in a while.
Another neat development is that my little one has started texting me whenever she’s too lazy to go to a different room. She does it in Russian! I really should force the older one to do that as well. Texting in Russian would definitely improve their writing skills since they would get immediate feedback if they misspelled a word.
Spanish is another matter. Their literacy has dropped I think. However daily exposure to way too much cartoons has my little one running through the house while screaming “super velocidad.” I know that cartoons are not the greatest source of exposure, but hopefully it will start to increase their vocabulary so it’s not just related to school.
What will happen next I don’t know. The summer will bring more scheduling flexibility with no competition from school work. I want to be able to read more to them, and to start to transition to writing as a means of conveying information, as opposed to learning how to write.
I wanted to spend a summer home with them to focus on their Russian. However this is not quite how I pictured it happening.