Hello from Argentina
Jan 3, 2020 0:56:21 GMT 9
Post by Paul on Jan 3, 2020 0:56:21 GMT 9
Hello,
Just over a year ago, my wife, my 5-year-old daughter and myself moved to Argentina from the UK. My wife is from Argentina and I am from the UK. Fortunately both my wife and I speak each other's languages and at home from day one my wife has always spoken to my daughter in Spanish and I have always spoken to my daughter in English. This meant when we moved over here there was no change in pattern. Now that we live here, English has changed to being the minority language for her although my daughter has continued to always speak to me in English and bedtime stories are usually in English.
In 3 years time (roughly) we plan to move back to the UK, so she will then have to continue her primary education in English having started it in Spanish. While the speaking part is going well I am wondering how to deal with the reading and writing side because when we move back to England her reading/writing will be behind her classmates and I want to smooth that transition as much as possible. I want to teach her to read/write in English at the same time she learns to read and write in Spanish at school. (She does not go to a bilingual school.) I purchased a phonics course which is used in schools back in the UK and we have done a few lessons with letters and making simple words. Sometimes it is hard to maintain her interest and I would like to do it more regularly maybe half an hour a day or so. I think I need to work on the reading journey in English being fun for her and not overly structured. I am also curious how this will work in parallel with the journey she'll have at school learning to read and write in Spanish. As they both have the same character sets I wonder where the 2 languages will help each other or confuse each other.
I'd be really interested to hear people's of experiences of teaching your children to read and write at home in the minority language.
Paul
Just over a year ago, my wife, my 5-year-old daughter and myself moved to Argentina from the UK. My wife is from Argentina and I am from the UK. Fortunately both my wife and I speak each other's languages and at home from day one my wife has always spoken to my daughter in Spanish and I have always spoken to my daughter in English. This meant when we moved over here there was no change in pattern. Now that we live here, English has changed to being the minority language for her although my daughter has continued to always speak to me in English and bedtime stories are usually in English.
In 3 years time (roughly) we plan to move back to the UK, so she will then have to continue her primary education in English having started it in Spanish. While the speaking part is going well I am wondering how to deal with the reading and writing side because when we move back to England her reading/writing will be behind her classmates and I want to smooth that transition as much as possible. I want to teach her to read/write in English at the same time she learns to read and write in Spanish at school. (She does not go to a bilingual school.) I purchased a phonics course which is used in schools back in the UK and we have done a few lessons with letters and making simple words. Sometimes it is hard to maintain her interest and I would like to do it more regularly maybe half an hour a day or so. I think I need to work on the reading journey in English being fun for her and not overly structured. I am also curious how this will work in parallel with the journey she'll have at school learning to read and write in Spanish. As they both have the same character sets I wonder where the 2 languages will help each other or confuse each other.
I'd be really interested to hear people's of experiences of teaching your children to read and write at home in the minority language.
Paul
