I just started using First Language Lessons with my 12 year-old. He's a bit old for it I suppose, but he's had no formal English language instruction before this year (lived abroad), so I figured the last book in the series would be a good way to form a basic foundation for further studies. I'm curious if this method is based on the idea of Direct Instruction/Mastery Learning. I find the scripted lessons a bit unfamiliar. What is the pedagogical idea behind it, does anyone know? Anyone who's chosen a different approach to teaching grammar and such? I'm also curious how a curriculum in English would look like that, quote, 'didn't include language arts'. I didn't grow up with this concept (partly because I grew up with another language--we just called the subject 'Swedish'), but when I look up the definition, yeah, that's what we were doing. Was there a time in the past when the English taught in schools did not entail the various aspects that are covered in a modern curriculum? Does anyone know how to find examples of past public school curricula?

Interesting how that works, Rita. It probably would have helped me keep up with two languages without neglecting one over the other. Live and learn. Maybe there'll be a third child! I wish SVT had Filofix! My son used to love that show. We sometimes are able to find one or two shows online somewhere, but the they magically disappear. So few shows are available abroad. The ones that are, are those he hated when we lived in Sweden. Great idea Deanna. I'd love to play movies for them easily, but after all these years I still haven't figured out how to play Swedish movies here. We can switch back to Swedish on my laptop, but having them in front of a computer is not ideal as they will want to browse other things, and I tend to use the computer myself during times my kids are busy watching something. For my oldest (12) I want to get language arts books in Swedish, but again, don't know where to look, or what's solid and good. Maybe you would know Rita?

I grew up in Sweden and after I turned four, my parents divorced and my mom went on welfare. My dad moved back to southern Europe where he's from, or rather my mom woke up us one night after we had recently moved there and said we we're leaving. So we quietly left my grandma's apartment, got into a taxi and somehow convinced the Swedish Embassy that we needed to get on the first flight home without passports. Thanks to an abusive marriage and union restrictions, my mom never got a job again working as a midwife. Yeah, we were poor in some sense, but for the majority of my childhood years, welfare was quite generous. We even went on vacations. But when that changed, we had to learn to live with less which meant that at the end of each month, the cupboards were getting bare. True poverty in Sweden at that time was probably non-existent, so being at the bottom of the ladder, we felt poor. Most of my friends were from more well-to-do families with working parents.

Wow, these are great suggestions!! I can't wait to get started. Today was an improvement when after watching a little youtube Swedish programming from the 80s, what I grew up with, he said 'wow, Swedish movies are really cool'. Yay! We started out a little while ago with speaking Swedish for an hour a day, mostly for my older son's benefit, but that was not very popular with the little one. Instead I've discovered that just throwing in some phrases and words here and there everyday doesn't allow him enough time to develop a full on resistance. I focus mostly on action-based stuff and short phrases. I think the one-language-one-parent approach is too late for us, but out of curiosity, how does this play out in a family conversation? Do you switch back and forth between the two languages depending on whether you're directly talking to your spouse vs your child? I've asked my family to send whatever material they can afford. I think an illustrated song book would be highly appreciated. We intend to make more use of the Swedish-American Institute nearby where they have classes for kids, and holiday celebrations. Rita, what a beautiful story! I'm already thinking about ways I can replicate this brilliant idea!! :D Most likely *not* a live kitten shipped from Sweden. ;)

I'm sorry to hear about your experience--it's unbelievable that this can happen anywhere. I don't think you should worry about the stand your ground laws in your state however as they have been implemented to protect citizens. Standing your ground simply means that you don't have to prove you were able to run away; it never means you're given a pass to 'fight it out' if there was another way to resolve a violent confrontation or dispute. It's hard to imagine a true life or death situation but experts on self-defense know that a person rarely has the option available to him to run--turning your back on an assailant will put your life at risk. Obama was instrumental in the implementation of SYG laws in Illinois back in 2004, and did so for the protection of his fellow community, since blacks are also over represented in the victim category. SYG laws simply give you the right to self-defense without having to be rich enough to afford a trial (if a situation is clearly self-defense according to investigations, there's no reason for a full trial). In non-SYG states, innocent people are often punished harshly for having used self-defense because of how often these cases go to trial with the immense financial losses that come with it. It should not be that one has to loose his job, house and all belongings just because he happened to protect himself from an assault. The principle of the reasonable person still applies here and ensures that the police/jury can make a sound judgment on the character of the defendant as well as the circumstances surrounding the incident.

I'm curious with the low cost of living, are wages low as well or similar to northern ones? We're in MN and I often think of moving to the south.

So, I would love to know if there are others with similarly challenging children who have managed to overcome this little obstacle to learning his parent's native tongue. We even lived in my country for three years before moving back to the US last year. I think I've gotten past the slightly hurt feelings, but it remains quite difficult to set a stage for learning to happen. He mostly says he hates Swedish when I start speaking it with his older brother. Granted we don't speak it very often, but at least a few times a week. He says he hates it because he doesn't understand, and this I understand. He's a late bloomer and didn't actually start speaking fluently (in English, which we've always spoken at home) until he was 4 1/2, at which time he stopped attending day care while we waited for my green card to process. He did have a friend or two there with whom he spoke Swedish, but some kids were mean to him about his lack of fluency; perhaps this haunts him a little. He's more accepting of learning in the form of singing or movie watching. He loves Pippi movies and it helps that they speak clearly. He loves when I sing songs too. No, I've not been consistent with speaking only Swedish from birth, for either of my kids ;). I honestly forgot a lot of it (or lost the fluency is more like it) after just a short time of living in the States, which is weird. Would love any ideas.