After 7 years of high school and college Spanish, you'd think that Mommy could teach everyone how to speak, read and write fluently! Well, it's funny how little one retains when a language is not used regularly.
So, we are taking this step-by-step....
Learning colors as we play indoors and outdoors.
Basic conversation with Jose, the iguana puppet (Wilson loves this! The puppet makes him crack up).
Chanting months, days, letters, and numbers while throwing bean bags during circle time by 1's and 10's.
Number games with our watercolor number board and shells. (the kids like to challenge each other...cousins, too!)
Number games with our watercolor number board and shells. (the kids like to challenge each other...cousins, too!)
Singing songs from Cante, Cante Elefante. (Hoy es lunes -- Hoy es lunes -- Como esta? -- Como esta? -- Muy Bien, Gracias -- Muy Bien, Gracias -- Y, tu? -- Como esta?)
Borrowing ideas from Senderos.
Plus, Mommy spends a little time on LiveMocha.com each week to brush up on vocabulary. The goal right now is repetition through conversation and song, then we will write words, poems and more in our main lesson books.
Anyone out there have ideas about incorporating a foreign language in the home? -- Please share!
18 comments:
Oh wow...I took 2 years of Spanish in high school and was Pres of the Spanish club and can remember very little Spanish now. It's true that you have to use it to retain it.
I love the iguana puppet! What a marvelous idea, Jennifer! The girls love the bean bags with counting in other languages, as well - for some reason, though, it turned into them wanting me to throw the bean bags at their feet while they would jump out of the way - ha ha! While they shouted out the next number in Italian, of course - ha ha! But one other thing we used to do (we need to start again) was to group words - like fruits and vegetables and only refer to them in Italian whenever we'd eat them. It was nice to hold something up and say the word and then delve right into it - mmmmmmm...It also helps with learning through the senses (tasting, smelling, touch, sight). HTH and it sounds like you are doing a marvelous job (yet again)!
Thanks, Jen! It's always good to learn through the senses. Thanks for the advice! (BTW, we do our numbers in Italian, too! Also French and Tagalog. Kids love it.)
Buena suerte!!!
try to watch your favorite movies in spanish, almost all american DVD has Spanish choice too.
And of course the best way is you meet with Hispanic people try to speak.
see you around
Amor-Abundancia-Paz-Salud-Felicidad
That rocked I love Live Mocha. Thank you. I have been looking for something to use to brush up on my German. Thank you.
Jen
How nice Wilson is learning Spanish so young, the perfect age. I remember one of your sibling's Spanish teacher saying a good way to learn the spoken language of Spanish is to watch a Spanish speaking television program, especially with the closed captions on for extra help.
Jimena and Grandma, thanks for the ideas! :)
Mommy is so smart! Every repetition deepens the furrow in your brain. More use, deeper paths, you're on the way to thinking in Espanol.
To learn through senses.....Jennifer, You teach me a lot too through your blog!!!!! The German Steiner School does exactly the same thing as you, combining knowledge and body. Great. Just love it and would like to start over again with my kids.
Thank you!
Gabriele
Thanks for the link to Live Mocha- I didn't know about that! At our house we are learning Portuguese (my husband is Brazilian). We thought it would be easier to be a bilingual family but discovered that until Mommy speaks it, not much is happening for the kids. We are now using Rosetta Stone and one of our favorite ways to incorporate Portuguese into our days is through our meal time blessings and through food! Somehow, it was easy for me to learn the words for food...hmmmm...go figure. :)
Wonderful! This is something that I wish to incorporate as well, a foreign language. I love how you are taking it step by step. I need to brush up on my french!
Thanks for the Live Mocha tip! I hadn't heard about that site before. It's now bookmarked. :-) Our kids are taking language lessons, but we're getting some resistance from them. My new tactic is to try to do a better job of learning along with them - if they can do it, I can do it, right?! At least that's the plan...
Juli, that's a great idea about the food blessings! Truffula, my oldest said that he didn't want to learn Spanish. When I stopped doing "lessons" (like the way were taught in school, and instead incorporated games, singing and the puppet, he started to enjoy it!
wonderful ideas! it is spanish i should be working on with the kids, but they know bits of italian instead!
nicola
http://whichname.blogspot.com
Wow, I love all of these ideas! My parents speak Tagalog to our boys, but sadly the only word they know and use *ahem* quite frequently is "puit" (sp?)... it means butt.
Maybe I can help them expand their vocabulary with a few of your fun tips!
Marina, that's too funny! It's amazing what words the kids pick up when surrounded by a second language. I think we got used to "'esus Marios" and "ma init", "wala", "ba kit" and "kain na" when we lived with my in-laws! Not sure if I spelled these right. After knowing them for 21 years, I feel like I understand the language a bit, but for some reason, cannot translate from English to Tagalog fluently. I think that the key is for children to not only hear it, but be expected to answer back in the second language, as well.
Jennifer, I really, really laughed when I read your response! I was bron in the Phil. but came here as a baby so I don't speak any Tagalog, but knew EXACTLY the phrases you were saying! Jesus Mariosip (sp?) is my favorite "gosh darn it!" phrases... You and the fmaily will have to meet us at one of the Mabuhay Club gatherings in Modesto someday!
Jennifer, this is an old post, but very much real today! Love your ideas...I need an iguana puppet! Foreign languages are my speciality, yet I am looking for fresh ideas as I start a new year of Spanish with 4 kidos. What I try to do; find native speakers to hang out with, to hear a real person speaking their own language, to ask cultural questions, and, if you are lucky, they have children of a similar age as yours with whom they can exchange conversation, or at least vocabulary. This year, my program (ages: 7,9,10 and 12) will include art and history in both Spanish and Latin American cultures with a story from each, to be read aloud over a few weeks. I've found a child's version of Don Quixote that has me back in college, discovering giants for the first time! We will visit friends from both continents, the Haitian art exhibit at the local art museum, cook, then serve it at our own tapas bar. Music is always a part of language learning for us; even the 12-year-olds like to play "promenons-nous dans les bois." I am going to look at "Cante, Cante..." Now if I could just find an iguana puppet...
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