Continuous little efforts

As a result all, our awesome routines came to a sudden and complete halt. The kids have stopped reading in the car, they prefer to read in English or do their workbooks in the car now. They have also lost all interest in our Russian jars, which makes them try even less.

What’s worse, the current bedtime book the little one chose is not interesting to the big one, so she leaves the room when we read. Except for yesterday, when the evildoer in the book finally got revealed. I made a dramatic pause and let the little one read the name. As she’s trying to find the right line in the book suddenly we hear “who? WHO?!” from the other room. 😂

It’s amazing how fragile our habits are. A sickness can derail 5 months of effort. Wish it worked in reverse, where a sickness suddenly created a good solid ml habit.

Anyway, the kids and I are going on a cruise with my parents in a few days. Maybe I can work on re-orienting our ml efforts.

Sorry to hear you've been sick and it has impacted your recent achievements in the ml, Tatyana.

Hi Tatyana! It's good to have you back.

This may be a silly question, but in both cases, can't you do both?

Middle school issue: Would it be possible to enrol her in the school that's better and then get private Spanish classes? Most kids in Spain go to language academies after school. Instead of a language academy, I'd go with a private tutor, though.

Reading in the ML: I don't know how much time off you and your daughters get in the summer, but I'm guessing they get at least 2 months off. If you can spend a lot of that time with them, you could both strengthen your youngest's ml while working every day on reading in the ML with her for a set time. If she spends a lot of this time without you, then you can focus on the ml and have the person who's looking after them work on reading in the ML with her.

These may not work. I don't know your situation. But I think that if you look into it, you may be able to find a way to make it work so that you don't need to sacrifice anything entirely.

Thanks for the words of support Amy. It’s good to know that letting some ML in for a specific academic purpose is not the same as a full on failure of ml child-rearing. I think I will give the writing program a try. If it’s successful maybe I can create something similar in ml.

Middle school: I think I too have come to the conclusion that I will either have to supplement math/science in middle school, or Spanish. It’s a good thing I have a few months to decide. I think I’d feel more comfortable if she already was completely fluent in Spanish. I wonder if I should also figure out a way to get her to read more Spanish books this summer. She just got three new ones for her birthday. I love people who give my daughters ml books.

On the progress front there is still not much. We still have three weeks of school until the much more relaxed summer schedule. While a lot of our habits are not very successful at actually being a regular thing during this stressful spring time, I’m encouraged by the fact that the kids don’t forget that they exist. The little one asked me this week when we can get back to bedtime reading again. The fact that she loves this bedtime routine makes me happy, even if it’s on pause for 3 months out of the year. The kids have also decided to get back to ml reading in the car. All by themselves, spontaneously. The initiative from their side makes me hopeful about their continued success.

The 6 year old still speaks way too much English. I noticed though that when I ask her to switch, she does. So she knows how to say it, she just defaults to ML. That’s a new one for me because the older one truly couldn’t produce ml initially, and when she became able to do it she switched to it. Other than constant reminders I’m not sure what to do now to encourage her to start with ml.

Thanks Adam. That’s why your blog is needed. The younger years are tough, but at least you are your child’s whole world. The mid-years, 8-15 seem to present a whole different set of challenges. They’re young enough to not quite be capable of carrying the linguistic burden on their own, but old enough to have a million other things in their life that don’t include you or the ml.

If you are looking at ideas to remember to use the ml at home, I wrote a post with 
4 tips to remember to use the minority language

If the issue is to get your youngest to remember to use the ml, you could adapt the piggy bank one and ask her to do something every time she fails. It could be a fun/silly thing or a tiny house chore that wouldn't put her off too much (emptying the dishwasher or washing-machine or taking the dry clothes off the drying line). These are just ideas off the top of my head but I'll let you brainstorm from there as you know your daughter and habits better than I do.

It looks like you turned a bad day into an opportunity for change, Tatyana. Please let us know how this new approach works for you.