I took 2 years of Spanish in high school, 2 semesters in college, and lived in Spain for 3 years (but worked primarily with Americans and spoke English the majority of the time). I am still not fluent but I know a decent amount of Spanish and am very driven to learn more ASAP for the sake of my kids. I am going to be starting the rosetta stone series and hope to do some of it while my kids are playing with the laptop hooked up to the big tv so they will have that exposure too. For my kids Spanish program-
-I download random LR lessons in Spanish
-I am going to add in Spanish words to convert some of the LR binders into Spanish lessons too
-They are currently allowed to watch Plaza Sesamo and Dora (full spanish versions only)
-They also watch the Little Pim dvd’s and I just ordered the flashcards
-I can get more Spanish dvds & flashcards/posters
-I also plan to get lots more books and some audio cd’s to play in the background
-I am hunting around to find a spanish speaking babysitter or family to meet with for playdates
-I am going to dual-label the house in english & spanish (word stickers on everything)
Am I missing anything, what else can I do to help them learn? I have been kicking around signing up for a Spanish or ASL (we want to teach both), we’ll see if time and finances allow.
I read about OPOL and tried it for the last day or two. My memory has been jogged and I remember more than I thought I did. It seems to flow pretty easy off the tongue but I KNOW I must sound like a gringa LOL. Plus, my grammar surely is not perfect, etc etc. Will I end up giving my kids my accent? Or will they be exposed to enough audio input from dvds, cd’s, and hopefully a “real live natuive speaker” that they develop a more natural accent? If I am not a “good enough” speaker, will OPOL hurt them more than help them?
Hurt them? I don’t think so if they like it and they have fun with it …Go ahead!! I don’t speak chinese at all…and we have 20 words so far in our dairy routine, my daughter is already spanish and english speaker now I going for the third language!!! She loves speaking chinese…if I ask her how to say milk en english she says MIlk…I ask her in spanish she says LECHE and then in chinese she replies in chinese…So she knows the difference and her brain has a good organization.
GO FOR IT!! Your plan looks great…give a try…!!
I just meant “hurt” in the sense of being more of a detriment than a benefit. I thought maybe it would be better to only let them hear the audio of professional speakers. I was reading in the “learning chinese” thread about letting your child soak up the words and accents and don’t interrupt them during a learning cd/dvd, and not to mispronounce if you can help it.
I feel a bit more confident, I will keep working on my language skills and give OPOL a try. Thanks.
LilyAndOwensMom,
I read somewhere that it is very important to hear the language in person. Even though you say that your accent is not good (I like your expression ‘sound like a gringa’) it will do more good than harm. Children are awesome and they will pick the accent from the CD or DVD (hoping they are native). On the other hand it is nice for them to realize that they can comunicate to you in spanish, i think that will give them more incentives to learn that language. It is like sharing a secret if you can speak that way.
Keep the good work.
Where do you live now and what language is spoken by their father.
…
BTW I did not know the acronym OPOL so had to read about it. I hope it help someone else.
There are basic patterns most families follow (unless they have no pattern at all) are:
OPOL: One person/parent one language. Each parent and any other person involved with the child (grandparents, nannies etc) uses one language when speaking to the children. For example, Mum speaks English to the kids, Dad Spanish.
ml@h: Minority language at home. Both Mum and Dad speak English with the kids.
BPBL: Both parents both languages. For example, the whole family speaks English during the week and Spanish at weekend, Spanish and English alternate weeks, English at home and Spanish on outings… many patterns are possible, the important thing being that it works for you.
We live on the east coast in Virginia Beach and my husband (their father) speaks only English.
Thanks for the input. I need to just jump in feet first and stop worrying about if I am doing it “right.” There is just so much information to wade through, you know?
I am hoping the kids Lango language center opening up in the fall won’t be too expensive, I’d like to enroll my daughter and I think that will help tremendously. They only take ages 18 months and up so my son will have to wait.
Oh, and I see there are many “Your Baby Can Read” spanish LR downloads, but do they make an actual YBCR in Spanish video series made by Robert Titzer? Anyone know?
A very good link with many DVD suggestions.
There it says what i mention before about interacting with a person and not only watchi a video. Very good indeed.
‘While DVDs cannot replace interactions with real life Spanish speakers, the sounds and images combine to help children experience the language in a fun and often dynamic way. When the whole family watches the DVDs together and interact in Spanish, the learning is even more fun and the child’s linguistic abilities will grow faster’
Thanks for this link, I see they have other languages too. Karma to you.
I believe it’s good to mix it up to maximize comprehension. You could flash words in Spanish (physical cards and LR), and with DVDs: Little Pim can teach individual words & sentences, with Whistlefritz, your child can actually see the speaker and read the lips
I know what works best for teaching my daughter English is Sign Language dvds.
I am glad to hear your son loves Whistlefritz. My daughter asks for “Fritzi” all the time! They have just released a new learning CD: http://www.whistlefritz.com/products
and their website also has free downloadable lesson plans and activities in Spanish to complement the DVD lessons: http://www.whistlefritz.com/homeschool.html
I am a professional language teacher. One of the most important things that you can do for your child is to teach them that Spanish, in your case, is not merely information, but language. It is to be used, not just heard.
I see too many parents afraid to speak non-native languages… They end up teaching their children to also be afraid to speak non-native languages. They teach it by only allowing machines/native speakers to do the speaking.
I highly suggest you do as much speaking as possible. Who cares if your grammar is wrong? They might learn a few things wrong, too, but for one thing, they’re smarter than you and quickly learn the correct grammar through friends/DVDs/etc., and for another thing, isn’t speaking something better than nothing?
I backup your comments DannyandAmy. If you need any doubt let me know if I can help you in any way. I am peruvian and live in Peru and am a grandma of a 3.5 yrs old wonderfull boy.
Amy- thank you for the reinforcement. I have been speaking to the kids as much as I possibly can in Spanish and practicing my rosetta stone. I took a bunch of spanish/english kids books out of the library this week and my daughter loves to watch Dora (the Spanish version). She was excited to see Dora books too. I don’t let her watch “junk” tv so it’s a real treat for her to watch cartoons, and she’s been asking for Little Pim.
While practicing my Spanish at a mexican restaurant tonight, I struck up a conversation with the hostess who speaks very little English. I think we are going to try and work out a language exchange although nothing has been finalized yet. I really hope we can make it work.
Thanks for the kind words 2010bebes, I will keep you in mind!
Today I received a newletter from Early Advantage and was guided to this link where they reinforce the idea of talking in spanish to your daughter even though t is not perfect.
At the end it says:
" A child imitates not just the words they hear, but also the habits and attitudes they see adults holding in relation to the language. If a parent is active and enthusiastic about language—playing word games with their child, reading aloud to them, singing songs, saying silly things—the child will soak up that enthusiasm and learn and play on their own. And this is as true of their first language as of their fifth.
As Drs. King and Mackey say, “So, is it critical to have a native language model who speaks in complete sentences? Children seem to be responsive to language that is tailored to their developmental levels, complete sentences or not. What is critical is not that children hear complete sentences but that they are directly engaged in conversation. Children have an amazing ability to learn language, and acquisition occurs even though adults do not always speak perfectly or do not actively teach them a language. Directing sophisticated language to the child from the outset is not crucial. Even parents with limited second language proficiency can interact with their child in the second language, providing important language input. The value lies in the interaction.”
Language is the perfect gift to give your child, but it doesn’t mean you have to be perfect to give it."
Just exactly what we where saying is declared by these doctors. I hope you have been doing a lot of spanish talking to her
