I wonder if there are many parents here who like celebrating typical festivals of their target language.
I have read that it is a good point to take into account when teaching a language.
All my thoughts on this are still quite theoretical because I don’t have any kids yet. However, I have thought about this a good bit, since I plan to raise a child in my non-native languages (Arabic and Spanish). Arabic will have religious significance to my children. They will use it daily in prayers and reading Quran, while Spanish has sentimental value to me for strictly personal reasons, my goal is for my children to be trilingual and triliterate.
I know a good deal of Arab culture and as Muslims, we have a few holidays and traditions that I am excited to share with my kids, but still I want a good grasp on the topic for them. I want the to know Islamic History and be familiar with Arab traditions, culture, etc…
I wouldn’t celebrate a holiday or festival with a very small baby, because I’m not a festive person and a baby tends not to care too much if they don’t get presents or do crafts on any particular day. I dislike hooplah and such, myself and like to make as little of a fuss as possible about holidays and events, but I want my kids to have a lot of enjoyment and excitement about special days so maybe when I have kids, I will feel differently.
As a child gets older, possibly around 2 or 3, then the celebration will have more meaning to them and they will have reason to appreciate the event (typically something fun is happening, even if they don’t fully understand why). I want them to celebrate Eid, observe holy days and know the stories associated with many Islamic practices so even though I was born and raised Muslim, I will be doing formal Islamic Studies with my kids from very early on.
I am trying to learn more Latin Culture and decide which types of practices I’d be willing and able to incorporate into my life so far I have: siesta, large family lunches, light dinners, delicious recipes made with fresh foods, an appreciation for art and literature, the role that Latin Americans have played in the US, the family centric life style in the early years and --all things that seem to be embedded in life for many Latin Americans. I also intend to get a respectable library of Spanish books written by Spanish speakers, in Spanish for Spanish speakers.
I am a long way from actually having to do these things, since I haven’t got a little one of my own just yet, but I am thinking about it a lot. I intend to be well armed with knowledge and ideas when I do have a child of my own. I’m alaready keeping my eye open for curriculum available in Spanish for grades PreK-12 as I would like to homeschool my kids in Spanish, Arabic and English.
Hi mon2bee,
Well, it is good that you are a member of this fantastic forum before the arrival of a future child. In this way, I will have much time to be aware of a large number of activities, resources to bear in mind before s/he is born. You are going to have a very good knowledge of everything and your teaching will more fruitful, it is undeniable.
Thank you for your comments; you say that you are going to raise your future kids in your non native languages. You are brave!! I admire people who does it!! Take advantage of your time now, that children are in your mind. I love being aware of traditional festivals. The cultures that you have named before must be very interesting. I am considering the possibility to collect the most typical festivals of those places with the English language such as Australia, the whole UK, America and so on and so forth. It would be very interesting. Well, in Spain we have always celebrated the Three Wise Men on 6th January. However, Santa Claus is also being more and more popular among Spanish citizens. What I want to begin to do is beginning with UK, especially with England. St Patricks Day, Thanksgiving,….
Yesterday I read a newsworthy article about the relevance of the total immersion of the future bilingual child in the target language. In another article, it was said that it is very fruitful dedicating a month for a different country. The thing would be that the future bilingual child was immersed in cultural aspects of a country for a month, for instance. The countries should be listed first. That idea is very good for older children; my daughter is only a toddler of 13 months.
It is a good idea to collect books of your target languages in order to create your own library.