El tiempo es ahora

Virginia
New Keeper

Posts: 8
Country (residing now): United States
Country (originally from): Argentina
Children, Ages: 2 daughters, ages 7 1/2 and 1 1/2
Majority Language: English
Minority Language(s): Spanish

El tiempo es ahora May 11, 2020 21:33:38 GMT 9

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Post by Virginia on May 11, 2020 21:33:38 GMT 9

Hi all, it’s been a little over 2 weeks since I introduced myself to The Bilingual Zoo community and I have some good news to share from the Spanish front at home! I didn’t want to report back right away, wanted to give myself a few days to get a little more comfortable with the new approach, I’ve tried and given up so many times before...

The weekend after talking to you all, my husband and I did have our meeting, and he agreed (as I thought he would) to switching to speaking only Spanish with me when the girls are around (basically all the time during these quarantine days, which in a way gives us a unique opportunity to get this project started). I also committed myself to “teaching” Spanish to my girls for one hour a week on the weekends. I wanted this last commitment to be really easy and doable, almost too easy, so that there would be practically no chance of failure.

We started on a Monday, exactly 2 weeks ago, and it’s been incredible! No, my daughters are not speaking Spanish yet, but there has been a very significant change in the family. Switching to Spanish with my husband has been the best advice I’ve gotten. My 7.5-year-old is picking up A LOT, and, I did not expect this, but I am finding myself using a lot more Spanish with the girls now that I speak Spanish with my husband, my brain is just getting used to spending more time in Spanish mode, just like when we visit Argentina. So that has been amazing and I plan to keep that up. We are not perfect at it and we do find ourselves speaking in English here and there, but one of us usually realizes pretty soon and then we switch.

In terms of the more “formal” Spanish sessions with my daughters, I’ve only done 2, but they’ve been a huge success, my oldest really looks forward to them, she brings me books that she would like me to read to her, we’ve listened to and danced to songs (found some really nice recommendations for music following the Spanish Playground link I saw on this forum), and done some basic lessons on colors and numbers (most of them she already knows). At this time, my priority is to keep her interested in the language and to keep those one-on-one sessions light and as fun as possible.

I need to keep working on the plan ahead, things to consider are, among others:
- perhaps giving more structure to Spanish lessons (“Spanish time”) with the girls
- increasing frequency of said lessons
- perhaps at some point switch my reading nights (husband and I alternate bedtime reading every night) to Spanish books only
- schedule time to find materials online (order books and games, find songs and lyrics, maybe even small “lesson plans” or activities to talk and learn about different topics) - I find that it does take some time to sort through the web to find good quality materials

Lastly, I saw I had 2 new messages sitting in my Inbox that I had not seen, thank you Marisa and Adam for your tips, support, and encouragement.

My plan will be to post here on the Track Your Progress board every 2 weeks or so, just as a starting point. I am noticing especially with the Spanish time with the girls, that first couple of times it’s easy, you can do pretty much anything and an hour will go by, but soon I will be running out of books and materials so I will need to set up a routine for finding good quality materials. I’m actually going to add that to my list above, just to help me keep track.

That’s all for now. More in the coming weeks, one day at a time!

Thank you again for your support and for giving me the space to put all these thoughts in some kind of order.

Wishing you well,

Virginia

Amy
Star Keeper

***"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" - Oscar Wilde***

Posts: 1,682

Country (residing now): France
Country (originally from): France
Children, Ages: 10 and 6year old girls
Majority Language: French
Minority Language(s): Spanish (ml1) & English (ml2)

El tiempo es ahora May 12, 2020 1:45:34 GMT 9

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Post by Amy on May 12, 2020 1:45:34 GMT 9

Hi Virginia,

It is so nice to see that you have opened your own Track Your Progress thread! I am thrilled to read this wonderful update!

If it can be of any assistance, here are a few tips to tackle some of your difficulties:
-remembering to use Spanish: here is a post I wrote about the topic. Maybe you can find some ideas that could work for you: ourmlhome.wordpress.com/2018/07/01/4-tips-to-remember-to-use-the-minority-language/
- bilingual resources: you might want to consider
1) following websites that offer Spanish resources or blogs on bilingual education/inspirational bloggers raising bilingual in Spanish by signing up for their email alert/newsletters. I like that it is information that comes to you at no effort of yours.
2) opening an email address dedicated to your bilingual adventure. E.g: I use the one for my blog to receive newsletters from websites I follow with ml resources or other blogs on bilingualism. I like that my normal email address is not polluted with newsletters, and when I visit this email account I am fully concentrated on the topic of bilingual education and I am available in my head to read them. It also enables me to archive in an orderly fashion, with a file for each website I follow, which helps me to find things when I want to revert to them further down the line.
- switching to Spanish bedtime story - great idea! Just choose very simple books or translate books they already know very well so they can follow what you're saying and pick up the Spanish vocabulary. You can also help by using lots of funny voices and using a lot of hand gestures, or why not even a puppet...

Keep up the great work!

I look forward to reading your next update in two weeks' time.

Amy

My guest post at Bilingual Monkeys: bilingualmonkeys.com/bilingual-families-and-limiting-the-influence-of-the-majority-language/

My blog in English: www.ourmlhome.wordpress.com My blog in French: bilingue.home.blog

Amy Star Keeper *"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" - Oscar Wilde* Posts: 1,682 Country (residing now): France Country (originally from): France Children, Ages: 10 and 6year old girls Majority Language: French Minority Language(s): Spanish (ml1) & English (ml2)	El tiempo es ahora May 12, 2020 20:46:40 GMT 9 via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by Amy on May 12, 2020 20:46:40 GMT 9 Virginia, Saw this on Insta and thought it could interest you: http://instagr.am/p/CADqflfHqUh Take care!
	Amy My guest post at Bilingual Monkeys: bilingualmonkeys.com/bilingual-families-and-limiting-the-influence-of-the-majority-language/ My blog in English: www.ourmlhome.wordpress.com My blog in French: bilingue.home.blog

Adam Beck
Head Keeper

Author of "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability" and "Bilingual Success Stories Around the World"

Posts: 2,176
Country (residing now): Japan
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: Girl, 19 and Boy, 16
Majority Language: Japanese
Minority Language(s): English, Spanish

El tiempo es ahora May 14, 2020 20:07:01 GMT 9

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Post by Adam Beck on May 14, 2020 20:07:01 GMT 9

Virginia, this is a wonderful start! I'm so happy for you all!

You're now clearly on the path that leads to steady progress and rewarding success. You and your husband just need to keep going, day by day and year by year, no matter the doubts or difficulties that may arise along the way. Seriously, if the thought of giving up ever crosses your mind again, please promise that you'll quickly reach out to your new friends at The Bilingual Zoo! We'll offer whatever support and encouragement we can to keep you on this productive path toward realizing your heartfelt family dream.

Keep at it, Virginia! Persistence always pays off! And, yes, definitely load up on engaging Spanish resources! Resources are essential fuel for empowering effective efforts.

I look forward to your next update!

Bilingual SuperKids: Supercharge the success and joy of your family's bilingual or multilingual journey with powerful private coaching from Adam Beck, author of "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability" and "Bilingual Success Stories Around the World"
bilingualsuperkids.com

Virginia
New Keeper

Posts: 8
Country (residing now): United States
Country (originally from): Argentina
Children, Ages: 2 daughters, ages 7 1/2 and 1 1/2
Majority Language: English
Minority Language(s): Spanish

El tiempo es ahora May 26, 2020 11:34:16 GMT 9

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Post by Virginia on May 26, 2020 11:34:16 GMT 9

4 weeks in and here I am, still going at it! I really like this Track Your Progress board, definitely helps me with accountability. It's my bedtime but I made a commitment to updating my progress here at least every 2 weeks, so here I am. Things have been going well, my daughters are still very excited about our weekly Spanish lesson, and it's been nice, though I can see how I can quickly run out of ideas. I think the next thing for me is to schedule some time to organize some resources to draw from (and place an order on Amazon, which I haven't done yet). Amy, I like your idea of opening an email address (or at least a separate folder!) dedicated to our bilingual journey, as I think at least part of the reason I haven't really been looking much for stuff is because I don't have a good system to organize things. So in the next 2 weeks my commitment is to make time to select good quality resources and 1) place an order on Amazon and 2) start some kind of organization system to keep materials and resources organized. That's it for now. Thank you for keeping such a supportive community alive and thriving, you all are an inspiration.

Marisa
Senior Keeper

Posts: 133

Country (residing now): US
Country (originally from): Spain
Children, Ages: Girl, born in March 2016
Majority Language: English
Minority Language(s): Spanish, German, and hopefully French some day!

El tiempo es ahora May 26, 2020 12:22:18 GMT 9

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Post by Marisa on May 26, 2020 12:22:18 GMT 9

Hi Virginia!

Some suggestions that I hope can help!

(1) I got the Spanish course offered by SingALingo (http://singalingo.com/). It is more geared towards non-native speakers of the language, but I thought it was cute and helpful, not only for ideas to have 'fun time with Spanish' with my daughter, but to do something similar to teach her German (I used some of those resources to create activities in German, which took longer than I had anticipated, but oh well...

.

(2) I also check out materials from www.escuelaenlanube.com/. It's aimed at monolingual children, but you can definitely use some of their resources (I normally go to "recursos para el aula" and their "cuentos infantiles" section).

(3) My sister sent me this link to this YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCbDJr7JuJ01uL4NnW5xwFcQ They read pretty cute children's books with important messages for them. I've ordered several books that are featured in the channel already... (they speak with a Spanish accent from Spain, just so that you know).

(4) Scholastic (https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/featured-shops/spanish-books-libros-espanol.html) has a pretty decent selection of Spanish books. Some of those have an animated version on their YouTube channel. My daughter is currently in love with Kevin Henkes' "Crisantemo." Their books are translations from the English originals, but they're not bad at all. She also loves all the "how do dinosaurs..." series.

(5) Julia Donaldson + Axel Scheffler's books. Of course, originally written in English. I didn't like "The Gruffalo" translation too much (it's difficult to keep the rhyme, I know), although "The Gruffalo's child" is better. "Zog" is pretty well translated.

(6) Andrea Beaty's book. Amazing, and the Spanish translation is EXCELLENT (I teach a course on translation, and I always use these books to show my students that however difficult it is, rhymes can actually be translated from one language to another). It does feel as if these books were originally written in Spanish! They're easy to find in the Spanish version here in the US (Amazon, of course).

(7) Mo Willems has also been translated to Spanish. My daughter adores the Piggy and Elephant series, those books are so funny! I think your daughters would add a lot of fun to their "Spanish fun time with mom and dad" reading these books. Actually, if I ever met Mo Willems, I don't know whether I should congratulate him for his awesome books, or yell at him because my daughter is obsessed with his characters, and after hear her recite "We are in a book" from beginning to end (jumping included) for the bizillion time while we have breakfast, it loses its charm

Just in case you didn't know what orders to place on Amazon

Marisa

Adam Beck
Head Keeper

Author of "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability" and "Bilingual Success Stories Around the World"

Posts: 2,176
Country (residing now): Japan
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: Girl, 19 and Boy, 16
Majority Language: Japanese
Minority Language(s): English, Spanish

El tiempo es ahora May 26, 2020 17:13:53 GMT 9

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Post by Adam Beck on May 26, 2020 17:13:53 GMT 9

May 26, 2020 11:34:16 GMT 9 Virginia said:

4 weeks in and here I am, still going at it! I really like this Track Your Progress board, definitely helps me with accountability. It's my bedtime but I made a commitment to updating my progress here at least every 2 weeks, so here I am. Things have been going well, my daughters are still very excited about our weekly Spanish lesson, and it's been nice, though I can see how I can quickly run out of ideas. I think the next thing for me is to schedule some time to organize some resources to draw from (and place an order on Amazon, which I haven't done yet). Amy, I like your idea of opening an email address (or at least a separate folder!) dedicated to our bilingual journey, as I think at least part of the reason I haven't really been looking much for stuff is because I don't have a good system to organize things. So in the next 2 weeks my commitment is to make time to select good quality resources and 1) place an order on Amazon and 2) start some kind of organization system to keep materials and resources organized. That's it for now. Thank you for keeping such a supportive community alive and thriving, you all are an inspiration.

Yay for you, Virginia! Please keep these updates coming! I'm already looking forward to the next one, with a list of your new resources! (Marisa pointed you in some very promising directions.)

Remember, the more resources you have, and more those resources can appeal to your kids, the more engagement there will be in Spanish and the more progress your family will experience. So I encourage you to place a GRANDE order and then continue making ongoing efforts to keep up a steady stream of fresh resources flowing into your home over the months and years ahead!

Bilingual SuperKids: Supercharge the success and joy of your family's bilingual or multilingual journey with powerful private coaching from Adam Beck, author of "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability" and "Bilingual Success Stories Around the World"
bilingualsuperkids.com

Amy
Star Keeper

***"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" - Oscar Wilde***

Posts: 1,682

Country (residing now): France
Country (originally from): France
Children, Ages: 10 and 6year old girls
Majority Language: French
Minority Language(s): Spanish (ml1) & English (ml2)

El tiempo es ahora May 27, 2020 5:36:32 GMT 9

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Post by Amy on May 27, 2020 5:36:32 GMT 9

The Track Your Progress thread is a wonderful tool on your bilingual journey.

If you don't know where to start with resources, here is my 5 cents:
- The Keepsake Stories edits great classics in bilingual Spanish and English version - great as the book can be read by both parents in their respective languages, and brilliant to help your child pick up the vocabulary in both languages.
- Invest in board/card games - they are a fantastic way to interact together and have great fun. Guess Who?, Mikado sticks, Happy Families, Memory games, Connect 4, Funny Bunny, Time's Up Kids etc... In our house we even usually play board games as a family on Saturday nights though lockdown has overthrown this (but that shan't be for much longer

).
- Have a monthly resources budget - I do that to keep in control of my expenses and it helps me be reasonable.

- To get book ideas I strongly recommend you follow an Instagram account that blogs about children's books. That really helps me a lot in finding inspiration in the jungle of children's books.
- I have heard many people talk positively of the DuoLingo app - Maybe that could be a little extra tool to make the most your eldest's new interest in Spanish. Obviously, the idea would be to use it as a treat (to supplement the Spanish learning), not for her to spend hours on end on the tablet.

Activity suggestions for your Spanish hour:
- A story time
- Colouring in around a topic you might choose for that week's lesson (e.g: the body parts).
- Board/card games
- Simple games - for example Simon Says, I spy with my little eye, Hot or cold treasure hunt, a colour sorting game for your youngest, ...
- Pretend games -e.g: playing doctor, shop, cooking, etc...
- Baking together

Websites of interest
- www.spanishplayground.net - loads of free resources you might want to browse for ideas, e.g: poems to learn the body parts: www.spanishplayground.net/poems-about-body-parts-in-spanish/

Hope this helps!

Amy

My guest post at Bilingual Monkeys: bilingualmonkeys.com/bilingual-families-and-limiting-the-influence-of-the-majority-language/

My blog in English: www.ourmlhome.wordpress.com My blog in French: bilingue.home.blog

Amy
Star Keeper

***"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" - Oscar Wilde***

Posts: 1,682

Country (residing now): France
Country (originally from): France
Children, Ages: 10 and 6year old girls
Majority Language: French
Minority Language(s): Spanish (ml1) & English (ml2)

El tiempo es ahora May 27, 2020 13:54:31 GMT 9

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Post by Amy on May 27, 2020 13:54:31 GMT 9

Virginia,

I just remembered another way to do the colour sorting that might suit both of your girls. I saw it yesterday on Instagram, unfortunately I can't remember the account.

The mum had put different sheets of coloured paper in the middle of the room (pink sheet, green sheet, etc...) and the kids had to go round the house looking for objects of each colour and bring them back and place each object on the sheet of paper of the matching colour.

If I remember the name of the Instagram account, I'll revert here to share it.

Hope this helps.

Amy

My guest post at Bilingual Monkeys: bilingualmonkeys.com/bilingual-families-and-limiting-the-influence-of-the-majority-language/

My blog in English: www.ourmlhome.wordpress.com My blog in French: bilingue.home.blog

Raquel
Star Keeper

Posts: 1,234

Country (residing now): Spain
Country (originally from): Spain
Children, Ages: daughter (10) & son (7)
Majority Language: Spanish
Minority Language(s): English

El tiempo es ahora May 29, 2020 17:51:07 GMT 9

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Post by Raquel on May 29, 2020 17:51:07 GMT 9

Welcome, Virginia!! Sometimes the simplest things, like switching languages with your partner, can make a big difference! I'm glad to hear you're so happy with the results the changes you've made had on your daughters' Spanish.

Everyone else gave you some great ideas, and all I can add is: make it fun. If in Spanish they get to do fun stuff with you, they'll want to do things in Spanish.

Virginia
New Keeper

Posts: 8
Country (residing now): United States
Country (originally from): Argentina
Children, Ages: 2 daughters, ages 7 1/2 and 1 1/2
Majority Language: English
Minority Language(s): Spanish

El tiempo es ahora Jun 9, 2020 12:36:23 GMT 9

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Post by Virginia on Jun 9, 2020 12:36:23 GMT 9

Hello again! I'm due for my biweekly update. Thanks SO much for making it easy to get my first "waves" of materials. I ordered some story books and one sort of exercise book (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1483826856/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) that my oldest actually LOVES.

One question I have for you all is when I read Spanish books to my oldest, she naturally wants to understand every word and she doesn't, so she asks me to translate, so I end up reading a paragraph in Spanish, then English translation, followed by next paragraph in Spanish followed by its English translation, and so on. Is this what you all do/recommend? It feels like with the English translation I'm "undoing" the exposure that I just provided to Spanish... Any suggestions there?

And then I also wanted to mention that my husband and I have been getting a lot of questions and requests for translation at dinner time. My husband actually told me a couple of weeks ago that my oldest had told him (I think she probably didn't want to tell me because she didn't want to disappoint me, which breaks my heart) that she was really enjoying her Spanish time with me, but she wished my husband and I wouldn't speak Spanish between us at dinner because she couldn't understand and be a part of the conversation. I am hesitant to give up dinner time in terms of exposure though, since it is the one meal that we consistently share as a family (though lately due to COVID we've been sharing 3 and sometimes all 4 meals, haha). Also, I notice that husband and I are slipping more into English than at the beginning, like we're losing our initial enthusiasm. I am aware of it and I think that's a step towards preventing us from continuing to slip further back into English.

I think I likely need more frequent involvement with this community, I'm beginning to think doing a short update every 2 weeks and then expecting this project to successfully run on autopilot the rest of the time might be a bit unrealistic? Those of you who've been here for a while have probably seen it all before... As always, I appreciate any and all suggestions.

I also haven't made the time to organize materials and resources, and honestly haven't even been able to check out all of your suggestions for materials. Maybe allocating some time, perhaps weekly, to spend on my own researching websites and doing the sort of backdrop work for this endeavor? If I can set time aside for it, then I won't feel like it's cutting into my other things (like right now, cutting into my sleep!) and I'll actually be able to enjoy reading through websites and finding cool materials to work with my girls.

To end on a positive note, my daughters LOVE our weekly Spanish time, even if we do very simple things. Last time we worked on a little picture book for my youngest one (a es para avión, b es para barco, and so on), then read one of our new books (El Dragón Zog, thanks Marisa!

, then listened and sang along to a song (I printed the lyrics so we could follow). It was so great to see my oldest actually trying to sing some of the words of the chorus, even though they were not simple words, she was really enjoying it and just wanted to sing along!

The little one just hangs out with us as long as what we're doing is fun enough for her, and hopefully she soaks it all in. She would be an easy one to switch to Spanish books at bedtime, I'm just realizing, I need to start doing that right now before she gets any older. So much to do! I want to keep it fairly simple so I don't get overwhelmed, yet I want to make progress and that takes some commitment. It's a balancing act, like so many other things. Thanks for reading and for all your advice!

Stay safe,

Virginia

Carrie
Veteran Keeper

Posts: 286

Country (residing now): USA
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: 14, 11, 9, 6
Majority Language: English
Minority Language(s): Spanish

El tiempo es ahora Jun 10, 2020 11:16:55 GMT 9

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Post by Carrie on Jun 10, 2020 11:16:55 GMT 9

Hi Virginia!

It sounds like your language journey is going well.

Keep going, you will be amazed when you look back how far you've come.

I had a couple random thoughts for you that I hope are helpful!

I would start talking to your youngest daughter 100% in Spanish right away. She's young enough that this shouldn't be too hard, and the 2 year old age is so crucial for language development. It's when everything explodes! So as much as possible I would talk to her in Spanish. With my two year old I am trying to do Challenge #13: Talk Talk Talk with your child from the Take a Challenge board on this forum. I talk about anything and everything.

Jun 9, 2020 12:36:23 GMT 9 Virginia said:

One question I have for you all is when I read Spanish books to my oldest, she naturally wants to understand every word and she doesn't, so she asks me to translate, so I end up reading a paragraph in Spanish, then English translation, followed by next paragraph in Spanish followed by its English translation, and so on. Is this what you all do/recommend? It feels like with the English translation I'm "undoing" the exposure that I just provided to Spanish... Any suggestions there?

And then I also wanted to mention that my husband and I have been getting a lot of questions and requests for translation at dinner time. My husband actually told me a couple of weeks ago that my oldest had told him (I think she probably didn't want to tell me because she didn't want to disappoint me, which breaks my heart) that she was really enjoying her Spanish time with me, but she wished my husband and I wouldn't speak Spanish between us at dinner because she couldn't understand and be a part of the conversation.

I can give you my personal thoughts on these two questions, but you know the situation best so after reading my thoughts do whatever seems best to you.

First, I would translate/answer any questions your daughter has about the conversation at dinner time. If you can explain to her in a way that she can understand without having to revert to English that would be great, but if she just gets frustrated and can't understand, I would tell her in English, and then once she understands switch back to the conversation in Spanish. The main reason is because you want her to be motivated to learn, not frustrated. Also, this is a temporary problem. The longer you keep speaking Spanish, the more she will understand and the fewer explanations she will ask for. So looking at it long term, the more you are able to encourage her to keep going now and not give up, the better off she will be in the long run.

Second, as far as reading books, I would translate as little as possible (I know, this is the opposite of the advice I gave for dinner time!). I think there are lots of ways to work around having to translate books, and I would use as much creativity as I could to enable her to understand the book. If you repeat the entire page in English, she loses the need to listen to the Spanish. Here's a few ideas: point to the pictures, act it out with voices and gestures, learn the basic vocabulary before you read a new book, read the same book multiple times until it becomes familiar, etc.

I hope these thoughts help! I wish you all the best!

Carrie

Amy
Star Keeper

***"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" - Oscar Wilde***

Posts: 1,682

Country (residing now): France
Country (originally from): France
Children, Ages: 10 and 6year old girls
Majority Language: French
Minority Language(s): Spanish (ml1) & English (ml2)

El tiempo es ahora Jun 10, 2020 15:52:43 GMT 9

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Post by Amy on Jun 10, 2020 15:52:43 GMT 9

Hola Virginia!

Here are my suggestions to your queries:

Jun 9, 2020 12:36:23 GMT 9 Virginia said:

One question I have for you all is when I read Spanish books to my oldest, she naturally wants to understand every word and she doesn't, so she asks me to translate, so I end up reading a paragraph in Spanish, then English translation, followed by next paragraph in Spanish followed by its English translation, and so on. Is this what you all do/recommend? It feels like with the English translation I'm "undoing" the exposure that I just provided to Spanish... Any suggestions there?

I totally agree with Carrie 's advice! Go for it!

A little word of caution with kids (in case you didn't notice it for yourself): I think kids like having the answer given to them. They are pragmatic and go for the easy route. I say this because for the past couple of weeks my eldest has been set a certain maths exercise by her teacher and she kept saying she didn't know how to do it and dragged her feet. She never wanted to do it on her own and wanted Daddy to "help" her. In fact, she wanted Daddy to do it for her. Until Daddy was busy all last week and I clamped down, showing her the methodology again, giving her a leg-up when stuck by a mistake in her calculation, but letting her working it out for herself. When she eventually saw she had no choice but to try and use her brains, she did it and eventually did her homework (and got half of it right, but never mind: she got into the habit of trying to work it out

).

So you'll have a fine balancing exercise between encouraging her to work it out for herself and not frustrating her either.

And then I also wanted to mention that my husband and I have been getting a lot of questions and requests for translation at dinner time. My husband actually told me a couple of weeks ago that my oldest had told him (I think she probably didn't want to tell me because she didn't want to disappoint me, which breaks my heart) that she was really enjoying her Spanish time with me, but she wished my husband and I wouldn't speak Spanish between us at dinner because she couldn't understand and be a part of the conversation. I am hesitant to give up dinner time in terms of exposure though, since it is the one meal that we consistently share as a family (though lately due to COVID we've been sharing 3 and sometimes all 4 meals, haha). Also, I notice that husband and I are slipping more into English than at the beginning, like we're losing our initial enthusiasm. I am aware of it and I think that's a step towards preventing us from continuing to slip further back into English.

As regards dinners, I would suggest the following:

- slowing down your speech - I know it's tough but what I notice is that we are confident and speak fast and do not adapt to our "audience". My husband is a notoriously fast Spanish speaker and I regularly have to ask him to repeat what he said to me. I even once had to tell him to slow down when speaking to our eldest because she stared at him completely lost!

- adapt your speech - to start with, try to make sure you have family discussions (leave work and grown up talks out to start with). Talk about things your daughter can relate to and hence understand better. She already has to work out the language, so if you add the difficulty of unfamiliar topics on top, she'll feel lost and blame the language when it is not the sole cause of her not understanding!

- make her part of the conversation - with very simple articulated questions that she can answer with si and no, and whatever else you know she's able to say. Make it a bit like if you played "pretend" dinner with her with her tea set.

Also talk about her day, ask her questions about it, and describe it for her. Talk about your day but in very simple terms that a child could understand.
It might be a bit heavy going at first, but as her comprehension expands you'll be able to expand the conversations and progressively let go of these restrictions.

If your daughter gets a little frustrated, remind her that when she began walking and running, she did not manage and fell many times and was unable to do it fast but that over time, she got better and better and now can do that effortlessly and very well. I always use this analogy when my eldest gets discouraged at something and I think it helps her. I also give the example of her little sister whom she has seen crawling before trying to walk and run. The fact she witnessed it (as opposed to her example that she cannot remember as she was so small back then) also helps her realise I'm right.

I think I likely need more frequent involvement with this community, I'm beginning to think doing a short update every 2 weeks and then expecting this project to successfully run on autopilot the rest of the time might be a bit unrealistic? Those of you who've been here for a while have probably seen it all before... As always, I appreciate any and all suggestions.

It will never run on autopilot, that's for sure. The bilingual journey is a very bumpy road...you couldn't possibly trust the autopilot to make it all the way to your destination! You have to keep your eyes on the road.

I always say that raising bilingual is a lifestyle, not a hobby. You have to make it part of your life. And you are at this stage in your journey when it is the most trying because you are integrating these changes into your life. You are changing habits in order to do that. And as the saying goes, there is nothing harder to break than habits! Be patient and persistent but never stir from your path.

The update's frequency is your personal choice. No one can tell you what is best for you. I would suggest you stick to the bi-monthly and then to reach out any other time you feel you might need advice or need to vent out a frustration.

I also haven't made the time to organize materials and resources, and honestly haven't even been able to check out all of your suggestions for materials. Maybe allocating some time, perhaps weekly, to spend on my own researching websites and doing the sort of backdrop work for this endeavor? If I can set time aside for it, then I won't feel like it's cutting into my other things (like right now, cutting into my sleep!) and I'll actually be able to enjoy reading through websites and finding cool materials to work with my girls.

That is normal; how could you check a list full of suggestions in a couple of days? My suggestion would be set yourself mini-goals such as checking out 1 resource every 2 days or whatever mini-goal that is viable with your life. Allocating a set weekly time is also a good idea. e.g: on Saturdays during your youngest's nap time or every Thursday evening after the girls have gone to bed. Whatever works out best with your life.

To end on a positive note, my daughters LOVE our weekly Spanish time, even if we do very simple things. Last time we worked on a little picture book for my youngest one (a es para avión, b es para barco, and so on), then read one of our new books (El Dragón Zog, thanks Marisa!

, then listened and sang along to a song (I printed the lyrics so we could follow). It was so great to see my oldest actually trying to sing some of the words of the chorus, even though they were not simple words, she was really enjoying it and just wanted to sing along!

The little one just hangs out with us as long as what we're doing is fun enough for her, and hopefully she soaks it all in. She would be an easy one to switch to Spanish books at bedtime, I'm just realizing, I need to start doing that right now before she gets any older. So much to do! I want to keep it fairly simple so I don't get overwhelmed, yet I want to make progress and that takes some commitment. It's a balancing act, like so many other things.

Glad the Spanish time is being such a hit. Here is an activity suggestion based on what we recently did with my girls and that they loved:

I bought a huge Kraft paper roll and some hand-paints, and printed some leaves shapes (could be any picture you want really) and had them paint the leaves' shape on the Kraft paper with their hands and brushes. They even ended up painting and decorating the leaves. They had a blast of a time.

¡Ánimo!

Amy

My guest post at Bilingual Monkeys: bilingualmonkeys.com/bilingual-families-and-limiting-the-influence-of-the-majority-language/

My blog in English: www.ourmlhome.wordpress.com My blog in French: bilingue.home.blog

Carrie
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El tiempo es ahora Jun 11, 2020 2:47:40 GMT 9

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Post by Carrie on Jun 11, 2020 2:47:40 GMT 9

Great dinner time ideas, Amy !

Just wanted to pop back in with another story idea. Spanishplayground.net has tons of great resources, and one of the ways she maximizes the benefit of a story is by providing printables of the story characters so you can retell it. That way you can review the story multiple times to familiarize your kids with the vocabulary and ensure comprehension. She provides lots of activity ideas to do with your kids and also questions to ask. Here's a couple links. The first two links she provides a printable of the story to read, and the last link is printable characters for common books that you can purchase yourself in Spanish or get from the library.

www.spanishplayground.net/printable-spanish-story-oso-amigos/

www.spanishplayground.net/spanish-story-pdf-el-oso-y-las-abejas/

www.spanishplayground.net/printable-story-sticks-books-teach-kids-spanish/

Carrie

Adam Beck
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Author of "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability" and "Bilingual Success Stories Around the World"

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El tiempo es ahora Jun 27, 2020 16:56:14 GMT 9

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Post by Adam Beck on Jun 27, 2020 16:56:14 GMT 9

Virginia, how are you guys doing? Was June a good month, on balance? Remember, you don't have to do any of this perfectly, you just have to keep doing it as best you're able, day after day. So keep emphasizing Spanish, as much as you realistically can, while "de-emphasizing" English. The more you can do both, the more ongoing progress you'll generate.

I look forward to your next update (the more regularly you share your experience, the more mindful and proactive I suspect you'll continue to be) and I wish you another month of playful persistence in July!

Bilingual SuperKids: Supercharge the success and joy of your family's bilingual or multilingual journey with powerful private coaching from Adam Beck, author of "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability" and "Bilingual Success Stories Around the World"
bilingualsuperkids.com

Virginia
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El tiempo es ahora Jun 27, 2020 20:23:53 GMT 9

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Post by Virginia on Jun 27, 2020 20:23:53 GMT 9

Hi all, a quick update from New Orleans, missed my previous one, I'll probably move my updates to Sundays, as I have more time than Mondays, I don't know why I didn't think of that before. I went through a mini period of feeling very overwhelmed and frustrated and almost resentful ("just because I was born in Argentina I automatically come into my children's lives with this huge task/expectation to teach them Spanish!"), not very helpful at all. Fortunately it didn't last long and my better, more sensible self took over.

The fact that I am remembering how hard it can be to teach a language to a 7-year-old has made me more willing to put more effort into speaking Spanish to my 1-year-old. So that's something I've been doing a lot more this past week. I really want to talk to her in Spanish all the time, she's just beginning to talk herself, so she doesn't complain when I speak Spanish to her, and she understands a lot because our communication is so simple (around food, diaper changing, very simple questions about her day at daycare, who did she play with, and so on). So that's been a huge plus, thank you Carrie for the reminder, sometimes we need to hear even the pretty obvious advice multiple times.

In terms of "Spanish hour" we're in the process of making it more about games and fun, but at the same time I'd like my oldest one to start doing a little homework during the week, so we can focus on reinforcing what she learned during our time together. Now, my oldest is a Montessori child, and the mere mention on the word *homework* makes her little muscles tense up. I know Adam you're big on homework and I remember there was a whole chapter if not more in your book that was dedicated to it, so I'll go and review that in terms of ways to make homework into a healthy (and maybe even enjoyable?) habit.

Another thing I'm doing is I'm trying to read only Spanish books to my little one, and need to get more baby/toddler books for her. One tiny issue is that we like to let her choose which books she wants us to read to her, and some of her favorite ones are in English, so my husband suggested we divide the bookshelf in 2, one section with "mama books" and the other with "dada books" for her to chose from depending on who is reading on any particular night.

I also bought a pretty folder to start putting materials together, like printouts of some of these posts and other stuff I find useful to have printed and handy. This is a little silly but it makes it more appealing for me to work on (seeing the pretty, organized folder, as opposed to a bunch of papers stacked somewhere in my office collecting dust).

That's all for now, I'll be back soon with more updates. This board is really helping me with accountability!

Thank you all,

Virginia

Carrie
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El tiempo es ahora Jun 27, 2020 22:50:54 GMT 9

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Post by Carrie on Jun 27, 2020 22:50:54 GMT 9

Sounds like you're doing great, Virginia ! Keep it up

Jun 27, 2020 20:23:53 GMT 9 Virginia said:

I went through a mini period of feeling very overwhelmed and frustrated and almost resentful ("just because I was born in Argentina I automatically come into my children's lives with this huge task/expectation to teach them Spanish!"), not very helpful at all.

There are a ton of us at the zoo who are non-native speakers who have chosen to raise our children with our non-native language. There are also lots of native speakers in general who do not pass on their language to their children. So I would not see it as an expectation imposed on you, but rather as a choice that you are making. You can say, "I am choosing to raise my children to speak Spanish, and I have the enormous advantage that I was born in Argentina!" Hopefully this will be more motivating for you.

Jun 27, 2020 20:23:53 GMT 9 Virginia said:

So that's been a huge plus, thank you Carrie for the reminder, sometimes we need to hear even the pretty obvious advice multiple times.

You're welcome! The age from 1-2 years is great, because there is very little resistance to learning another language, and it's such a fun time to watch their language skills start to explode.

Jun 27, 2020 20:23:53 GMT 9 Virginia said:

In terms of "Spanish hour" we're in the process of making it more about games and fun, but at the same time I'd like my oldest one to start doing a little homework during the week, so we can focus on reinforcing what she learned during our time together. Now, my oldest is a Montessori child, and the mere mention on the word *homework* makes her little muscles tense up. I know Adam you're big on homework and I remember there was a whole chapter if not more in your book that was dedicated to it, so I'll go and review that in terms of ways to make homework into a healthy (and maybe even enjoyable?) habit.

Can you call it something other than "homework"? We call our time "tiempo de espanol" (Spanish Time) and we also have a "club de libros" (Book Club). When I started the book club I printed out on cardstock a fun Spanish bookmark that I created for each of them. If you start it as something fun, it makes it a little easier to introduce activities later on that might be a little less fun.

Jun 27, 2020 20:23:53 GMT 9 Virginia said:

Another thing I'm doing is I'm trying to read only Spanish books to my little one, and need to get more baby/toddler books for her. One tiny issue is that we like to let her choose which books she wants us to read to her, and some of her favorite ones are in English, so my husband suggested we divide the bookshelf in 2, one section with "mama books" and the other with "dada books" for her to chose from depending on who is reading on any particular night.

When I read books to my youngest, I bring 3-4 to the couch and let her choose from those. That might be something you can try.

Here's a board book we are enjoying right now: Eres mi mama

I wish you all the best! Keep at it and you will see progress!

Carrie

Marisa
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El tiempo es ahora Jun 28, 2020 8:41:36 GMT 9

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Post by Marisa on Jun 28, 2020 8:41:36 GMT 9

Virginia, if it makes you feel any better, I'm also a native speaker of Spanish who makes a living as a college professor, teaching Spanish to those 'great minds' (

who either need to complete the language requirement, or those who are majoring in Spanish; you'd think that, because of that, I have this "Spanish teaching" thing under control, right??? I do...for college students. I had zero idea about how to proceed to teach an infant/toddler/'big girl' now. I've also felt frustrated, overwhelmed, and without much of a clue about how to proceed to teach Spanish as a heritage language to my daughter...and yet, with patience, support, and good ideas from this forum, I'm doing it! There's always room for improvement (I'm currently worried about whether I should begin teaching my daughter how to read in Spanish, and most importantly, how to do it!), but it's a little bit like being a parent: sometimes we don't have a clue about how to raise these creatures that call us 'mom' or 'dad,' but we do it nonetheless...and they grow up to be fine.

Not saying it's going to be easy...but it's not going to be frustrating the whole time either!

Marisa

Carrie
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El tiempo es ahora Jun 28, 2020 9:55:14 GMT 9

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Post by Carrie on Jun 28, 2020 9:55:14 GMT 9

Jun 28, 2020 8:41:36 GMT 9 Marisa said:

(I'm currently worried about whether I should begin teaching my daughter how to read in Spanish, and most importantly, how to do it!)

Go for it Marisa ! I've taught my two oldest children how to read in Spanish (my non-native language) and it's gone great. It's not as intimidating as it seems! I'm teaching my third now (who is half a year or so older than your daughter). Start slow, but I would definitely start teaching how to read in Spanish before she learns to read in English. Just my (unprofessional) opinion! It definitely provides a boost for the ml.

Carrie

Marisa Senior Keeper Posts: 133 Country (residing now): US Country (originally from): Spain Children, Ages: Girl, born in March 2016 Majority Language: English Minority Language(s): Spanish, German, and hopefully French some day!	El tiempo es ahora Jun 28, 2020 10:58:30 GMT 9 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by Marisa on Jun 28, 2020 10:58:30 GMT 9 Thanks for the encouragement! I do have all those Peppa Pig books that I bought in Spain to teach kids how to read, so this is definitely the boost that I needed to begin using them.