ml exclusive activities
Mar 9, 2022 8:43:15 GMT 9
Post by Ilyah on Mar 9, 2022 8:43:15 GMT 9
One thing I am trying is some activities that M is not exposed to in ML (English), and kick them off in target language (Russian). The criteria for choice of activities is basically, (1) something I’m at least somewhat qualified to do, (2) something tactile, (3) preferably something at least marginally useful. The fourth criterion is to avoid ML exposure, and to that end I decided to simply stick with things that are not generally taught at his age (currently two and a half).
Chess – I got this idea when he started showing interest in our foyer chess board and began pulling out pieces. Of course, we’re still a few years away from debating the relative merits of the Caro-Kann vs Cicilian defense. For now, I can teach him names of the pieces (which took all of 5 minutes), and start putting them into sentences to get basic grammar going: “this is a king”, “this is a rook”, “pawn moves forward”, “this is a black night”, “black knight jumps like this”. Very early stages; he mostly likes moving the pieces around – not necessarily in the squares – but also identifying colors and counting how many. We’ll see where it goes.
Piano – we recently went on vacation, and the cabin we rented had a piano. When I would play on occasion, M expressed interest in joining, and that’s where I got this idea. At home, we have a 30-year-old Casio keyboard that I got when we first moved to US, which I am not afraid to let him beat up or draw on (although this is strongly discouraged). Also, I’ve made coloring pages of a piano keyboard, and labeled one side with note names (Do-Re-Mi-Fa etc), and the other side with actual notes on a music staff. He learned to identify the notes very quickly, I think by looking at the keyboard. I am curious if he is able to read the syllables for the note names, or (more likely) just going from memory. Also, not sure if it’s because of the graphic, but he seems to understand that each note is an oval shape, and draws circles in the empty space above the graphic. Not sure where to go with it linguistically yet - beyond "this is Do", "where is Mi?" - but guessing it can't hurt.
Has anyone else tried something like this? What are some unique activities you’ve done with your kids?
Chess – I got this idea when he started showing interest in our foyer chess board and began pulling out pieces. Of course, we’re still a few years away from debating the relative merits of the Caro-Kann vs Cicilian defense. For now, I can teach him names of the pieces (which took all of 5 minutes), and start putting them into sentences to get basic grammar going: “this is a king”, “this is a rook”, “pawn moves forward”, “this is a black night”, “black knight jumps like this”. Very early stages; he mostly likes moving the pieces around – not necessarily in the squares – but also identifying colors and counting how many. We’ll see where it goes.
Piano – we recently went on vacation, and the cabin we rented had a piano. When I would play on occasion, M expressed interest in joining, and that’s where I got this idea. At home, we have a 30-year-old Casio keyboard that I got when we first moved to US, which I am not afraid to let him beat up or draw on (although this is strongly discouraged). Also, I’ve made coloring pages of a piano keyboard, and labeled one side with note names (Do-Re-Mi-Fa etc), and the other side with actual notes on a music staff. He learned to identify the notes very quickly, I think by looking at the keyboard. I am curious if he is able to read the syllables for the note names, or (more likely) just going from memory. Also, not sure if it’s because of the graphic, but he seems to understand that each note is an oval shape, and draws circles in the empty space above the graphic. Not sure where to go with it linguistically yet - beyond "this is Do", "where is Mi?" - but guessing it can't hurt.
Has anyone else tried something like this? What are some unique activities you’ve done with your kids?
Very positive podcast review of my book Bilingual Success Stories Around the World at Kletsheads 
