ByGrace3 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 background: I have a BA in Spanish and have spent a good amount of time overseas and am basically "fluent". We visit South American 1-2 times a year and plan to start spending at least 2-3 weeks minimum there in the summers. When my odd was born, my plan was to spend mornings speaking to her in Spanish and the rest of the day in English. It worked. When we moved to Ecuador when she was 1 the transition was painless and she understood everything in both languages. Fast forward a year when we moved back to the States, her spanish comprehension was fabulous, her English not so much, so we overcompensated and lost everything :( Niether of my other two know anything. :glare: I am super frustrated with myself for allowing this, but at 5,3, and 1 I know it is not too late. However, teaching Spanish always seems to take a back seat, to learning to read, discipline issues, etc. . . but I WANT to do this, for them. So, where do I start? I need some practical suggestions. At one point I thought, English for the mornings for school etc, afternoon play time in Spanish? dh is not fluent but is conversational and would love the practice at night, so maybe afternoon through dinner in Spanish? ugh thoughts, programs? I am not necessarily looking for curriculum although I am not opposed. I am mostly looking for them to be conversational right now. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I think your plan sounds good, I'd set aside a part of the day to speak in Spanish only! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jld Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Could you just go for Spanish only for a while? I couldn't do it, lol, but I bet it would be the most effective approach. Dh is French, and has always spoken only French to the kids. Even so, it took living in France to really get the older kids fluent. Now the four oldest spend about 3 mos. in France a year, which always improves their French. I have a BA in Spanish, too, but from what feels like a long time ago (1992). :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 Could you just go for Spanish only for a while? I couldn't do it, lol, but I bet it would be the most effective approach. Dh is French, and has always spoken only French to the kids. Even so, it took living in France to really get the older kids fluent. Now the four oldest spend about 3 mos. in France a year, which always improves their French. I have a BA in Spanish, too, but from what feels like a long time ago (1992). :D Well, I "could", but at what sacrifice? It would be rather frustrating for my kids, and I can only imagine the discipline problems that would stem from that frustration. I definitely agree that immersion is the best, and we hope to spend as much time as we can overseas to aid in this process, but while living here, I would like to immerse them just enough to not disrupt their whole worlds, while still giving them the benefits of at least semi "immersion." easy enough?:001_huh: :lol: I was thinking afternoons in Spanish, maybe Spanish story time once a week at the library, spanish videos a few times a week, games in Spanish, and maybe some Spanish playdates. Would that be enough to get anywhere??? Not sure it will work without being drastic, but I would like to figure out a way to . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurad1125 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 What about saying things twice? First in Spanish and then in English. They wouldn't be frustrated by not understanding you but might start to make the connections. I might be off track.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jld Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Sorry, I understood that you had only been back in the U.S. this last year. You know, whatever you can do is better than what you can't do. Any exposure is better than none. I didn't speak Spanish to my kids because they already have a second language in their lives, and I wanted to speak my language to my kids, you know? Try to get into a Spanish-speaking playgroup, if possible. We were in a German one through Goethe Haus when our olders were little. The AF usually has something like this for French. For Spanish, we were in one for a little while (a mom from Peru had just posted a notice on the board at the library, and a few moms, latina and angla, showed up). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jld Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 What about saying things twice? First in Spanish and then in English. They wouldn't be frustrated by not understanding you but might start to make the connections. I might be off track.... This idea, sandwiching, (Spanish-English-Spanish) is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jld Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Another thing we did when the kids were little was to keep all music and most books in French. We didn't have a TV then, but I could have kept most viewing to French, too. But really, there is just nothing like living in the country where the language is spoken for developing fluency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2bee Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 You need to come up with a list of 20+ things you say all the time and begin saying them in Spanish. Use the Sandwich approach. Say something in SPN - ENG- SPN rapidly, normally, and after about 5 days, stop using the English equivalent, use a gesture or something, but odds are they will understand. Begin doing Spanish time with your 2 older ones to help them understand some key vocabulary, you might focus on 15+ objects from a room of the house for a week. Use, use, use the vocabulary as it is learned. For example, The week your working on Kitchen vocab, you might say Hand me los platos por la ensalada, por favor. Graciasthank you, por los platos, m'ija Have Spanish time every day, learn colors, and any words the kids want to know, play skits and use phrases. Start watching cartoons in Spanish, either online or on TV, watch DVD's in Spanish, Play simple games like Candy Land and such in Spanish. Get either Play and Learn Spanish by Ana Lomba or Kids Stuff Spanish by Therese Slevin Pirz. Start out small and remain consistent. No! Para! No! Stop! No, para... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 thanks everyone! I am eager to get started! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enviromommy Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 I'm in the same situation (other than with the baby, whom I'm speaking French to), trying to get the others up to speed. I've tried dinner time in French, bath time in French, etc. It's never stuck. The first time we tried dinner time (did I tell this story already?) my dd started crying, saying I seemed like a different person, not her Mommy, when I spoke French to her. Now, all of a sudden, Wham, she's had a change of heart and is BEGGING me to speak French to her. She doesn't even want me to translate, she wants to figure it out. But if I switch to French, my 6 year old DS starts yelling, "No, I hate French, never speak French!" LOL. I think I'm going to try to use just French with her (translating when absolutely necessary) and the sandwich method with the others. Also, I'm so excited because we might get to go to France for 3 months next year. I know that's not very much time, but it will help, and also I'm thinking the olders will want to work hard on their French before we go, in anticipation of the trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jld Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 You need to come up with a list of 20+ things you say all the time and begin saying them in Spanish. Use the Sandwich approach. Say something in SPN - ENG- SPN rapidly, normally, and after about 5 days, stop using the English equivalent, use a gesture or something, but odds are they will understand. Begin doing Spanish time with your 2 older ones to help them understand some key vocabulary, you might focus on 15+ objects from a room of the house for a week. Use, use, use the vocabulary as it is learned. For example, The week your working on Kitchen vocab, you might say Hand me los platos por la ensalada, por favor. Graciasthank you, por los platos, m'ija Have Spanish time every day, learn colors, and any words the kids want to know, play skits and use phrases. Start watching cartoons in Spanish, either online or on TV, watch DVD's in Spanish, Play simple games like Candy Land and such in Spanish. Get either Play and Learn Spanish by Ana Lomba or Kids Stuff Spanish by Therese Slevin Pirz. Start out small and remain consistent. No! Para! No! Stop! No, para... Great ideas! Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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