Post by Juliana on Sept 10, 2021 9:35:54 GMT 9
Hello all,
Some of you gave me some great advice about this time last year, unfortunately due to so many different factors, I just can't get traction in my language journey with my kids. I'll try to sum up my background and then give the situation I'm really struggling with.
Background:
Mom - native English speaker, fluent Spanish speaker (not heritage language, so no family speaks it; just a lover of the language and culture)
Dad - monolingual English speaker
Live in USA, semi rural area
4 kids (all boys) ages 7.5, 5.5, 3.5, and newborn
I managed to raise my oldest with almost primarily OPOL. I spoke less Spanish with my second because I needed to focus on some relationship issues with both my oldest and my husband, and we needed the English family time. However, they were both bilingual when my third was born. At this point, I was quite overwhelmed, and my oldest had many behavior issues - I was probably only speaking Spanish about 50% of the time. Then COVID and my husband started working from home, which has ended up being great for our family, but terrible for our bilingual efforts. I had pretty much given up all conversational Spanish outside of dedicated screen and story time. We homeschool, so I was able to add Spanish coursework for all my kids, but we barely use any conversationally around the house. I now have baby number 4 and have one last chance to make some progress!
The challenge - hubby still works from home and probably will for the foreseeable future. He is tolerant of my efforts, but not really invested, so I'm constantly surrounded by English myself and I can't quite get in the groove. What can I do in my limited alone time with my kids to boost my own Spanish speaking? I feel so rusty, I can barely get going and it feels so artificial to just switch in the middle of the day when I finally remember. Do I just stick to school time and hope for the best? Is there any other way to maximize my results?
Some of you gave me some great advice about this time last year, unfortunately due to so many different factors, I just can't get traction in my language journey with my kids. I'll try to sum up my background and then give the situation I'm really struggling with.
Background:
Mom - native English speaker, fluent Spanish speaker (not heritage language, so no family speaks it; just a lover of the language and culture)
Dad - monolingual English speaker
Live in USA, semi rural area
4 kids (all boys) ages 7.5, 5.5, 3.5, and newborn
I managed to raise my oldest with almost primarily OPOL. I spoke less Spanish with my second because I needed to focus on some relationship issues with both my oldest and my husband, and we needed the English family time. However, they were both bilingual when my third was born. At this point, I was quite overwhelmed, and my oldest had many behavior issues - I was probably only speaking Spanish about 50% of the time. Then COVID and my husband started working from home, which has ended up being great for our family, but terrible for our bilingual efforts. I had pretty much given up all conversational Spanish outside of dedicated screen and story time. We homeschool, so I was able to add Spanish coursework for all my kids, but we barely use any conversationally around the house. I now have baby number 4 and have one last chance to make some progress!
The challenge - hubby still works from home and probably will for the foreseeable future. He is tolerant of my efforts, but not really invested, so I'm constantly surrounded by English myself and I can't quite get in the groove. What can I do in my limited alone time with my kids to boost my own Spanish speaking? I feel so rusty, I can barely get going and it feels so artificial to just switch in the middle of the day when I finally remember. Do I just stick to school time and hope for the best? Is there any other way to maximize my results?