Keeping up the pace in our bilingual journey
Mar 11, 2019 17:40:37 GMT 9
Post by Marta on Mar 11, 2019 17:40:37 GMT 9
Raquel, the easy and middle one are solved, we are still struggling with the hard one.
Last week went fine, we enjoyed our guests and we kept up our routines. It was very nice for me to see my kids interact with the guests without any language barriers at all. The girl that visited us was my older son's age and my son was even better than her in language based games (but he really amazes me often with the things he knows in Spanish)
One thing that's on my mind these days is how to find the balance between ML and ml. Of course life outside the home is in the ML but since my husband rarely reads to the kids and I do a lot, and we have very few books in German at home and tons in Spanish, the literacy world outside of school for my kids is in the ml. And then sometimes I wonder if I should promote more reading in the ML. But then right now my son is reading a ML book (until now he has read a lot of ml books and very few ML books) and then the next one he has on his list is also a book in the ML. And my daughter is now hooked on a series of audio books in the ML we borrow from the library. And then I start worrying again about the ml. Once school starts and the proficiency in the ML starts getting more important I find it harder to know how to promote the ML without damaging the ml.
For this week my goals are:
- Keep our routines (reading aloud, captive reading boards around the house, notes on the breakfast box, family movie night)
- For the younger one: load new content on his Spanish Tonies
- For my daughter: She is learning now how to read in the ML at school. They get a poem each week, which they have to read aloud every day (and they have a little box to check each day). I want her to do the same in Spanish.
- For my older one: I want to have him write back to his Spanish pen-pal. I want to start teaching him about accentuation rules in Spanish. I have to look on the internet for material for doing this.
- For me: I want to reread the thread of Captive Reading Challenge on the forum to see if I come up with new ideas.
And then just writing this I came up with a new idea. My son is on the newspaper of his school (and is now writing an article about Madrid
). He also writes about the things he does in school, like for example a swimming competition he participated in a few weeks ago. I was just thinking maybe I could organize a "family newspaper" and have him write this kind of article in Spanish, my daughter could maybe do some shorter things (for example she now loves to tell jokes she learns from her friends at school and some of those jokes can be translated). And then maybe the little one can draw some pictures. We can take it as a long-term project and then maybe give the newspapers as a present to the ml family for Christmas.
Last week went fine, we enjoyed our guests and we kept up our routines. It was very nice for me to see my kids interact with the guests without any language barriers at all. The girl that visited us was my older son's age and my son was even better than her in language based games (but he really amazes me often with the things he knows in Spanish)
One thing that's on my mind these days is how to find the balance between ML and ml. Of course life outside the home is in the ML but since my husband rarely reads to the kids and I do a lot, and we have very few books in German at home and tons in Spanish, the literacy world outside of school for my kids is in the ml. And then sometimes I wonder if I should promote more reading in the ML. But then right now my son is reading a ML book (until now he has read a lot of ml books and very few ML books) and then the next one he has on his list is also a book in the ML. And my daughter is now hooked on a series of audio books in the ML we borrow from the library. And then I start worrying again about the ml. Once school starts and the proficiency in the ML starts getting more important I find it harder to know how to promote the ML without damaging the ml.
For this week my goals are:
- Keep our routines (reading aloud, captive reading boards around the house, notes on the breakfast box, family movie night)
- For the younger one: load new content on his Spanish Tonies
- For my daughter: She is learning now how to read in the ML at school. They get a poem each week, which they have to read aloud every day (and they have a little box to check each day). I want her to do the same in Spanish.
- For my older one: I want to have him write back to his Spanish pen-pal. I want to start teaching him about accentuation rules in Spanish. I have to look on the internet for material for doing this.
- For me: I want to reread the thread of Captive Reading Challenge on the forum to see if I come up with new ideas.
And then just writing this I came up with a new idea. My son is on the newspaper of his school (and is now writing an article about Madrid
). He also writes about the things he does in school, like for example a swimming competition he participated in a few weeks ago. I was just thinking maybe I could organize a "family newspaper" and have him write this kind of article in Spanish, my daughter could maybe do some shorter things (for example she now loves to tell jokes she learns from her friends at school and some of those jokes can be translated). And then maybe the little one can draw some pictures. We can take it as a long-term project and then maybe give the newspapers as a present to the ml family for Christmas.
) Of course, I'm eager to support their Japanese, too, when this is needed (my daughter has received some tutoring in the past and will again this year, to prepare for high school entrance exams), but it's now clear to me (at least in our case) that my much stronger focus on supporting the development of their minority language has been the necessary approach in order to have achieved relatively well-balanced bilingual ability to this point.
I'm PMing you to find out what days you're in Madrid. 
It reminds me of my eldest when she was little and had so much resistance. It will get better though. Just hang in there, keep going. Kids often try to rebel about one thing or another.
