Need suggestions and encouragement

Hallo to everybody!!!

I really enjoy this forum, thank you so much Adam!!!

This is some background to give you the picture where I am standing right now. My daughter is now 11 years old. When she was born I talked to her exclusively in the ml and her first words were in the ml. At that time I was off from work and therefore for three years I was a full-time mom which obviously gave me a lot of time with my daughter. Moreover one of my best friends, a native English speaker, had a baby same age as mine and the 2 girls were always together. So at that time our ml (minority language) in reality was the ML (Majority language) for my daughter.

When she turned 3 years old many things happened: I found a full-time job again, she started kindergarten at an Italian school, and my friend moved back to the UK. I was not able to cope with all those changes all at once, and I totally forgot our bilingual project. It’s a shame there was no Bilingual Monkeys at that time!!!  So our project was completely forgotten until 2 years ago when I started speaking English to my daughter. However, I had many problems: first of all a lack of time (I leave home in the morning at 6:30 a.m. and get back at 7 p.m.) and secondly she was not accepting a second language.

Since then we have come a long way, but at the moment we are at a standstill. We need something that allows us to go on. At the moment she understands most of what I tell her but she does not speak. As for vocabulary it is important we play “word of the day”. She made a very fancy bottle all decorated and every morning I give her a new word to learn. She writes it on a piece of paper and puts it in the bottle. Today it is word number 140. She enjoys it.

Unfortunately, I have so little time that sometimes it is very tiring in the evening to read or do games in English with her. Moreover, I have a bit of difficulty finding the right resources in terms of difficulty/interest. Her English is still basic so finding resources with basic English but which interest an 11-year-old girl is not easy. Moreover, I am her only source of ml, unfortunately we live in a town on the Italian Riviera with no bilingual school or play groups.

This weekend we watched the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in English with English subtitles, and I was surprised how much she understood (and I think she was surprised too…and she really enjoyed it).

Sometimes I get so frustrated about this second language project and yet so determined about it.

Now to progress I need some “special” efforts as I feel we are at a turning point. Every evening we play 10 minutes at “4 Pics 1 Word” thanks to Jane's suggestion, and we started reading National Geographic Young Explorer. (Annamari, your article www.mommyplaysenglish.com/read-free-storybooks-little-language-learner/ is great!!! A lot of resources.) Last night I also found some do-it-yourself cards to play Taboo.

But I need more. I was thinking to take her to the UK in the summer (although it will be very difficult due to family problems) so she can attend a summer camp but maybe it is too much for her???

I really need some ideas and support…and a little encouragement.

Thanks to all…and apologies for the length of the post (I wrote it on the train while commuting to work).

Ciao!!!