Raising bilingual children- Where we're at

We have been trying the OPOL (one person one language) approach with Owen since his birth in June 2009. Dad speaks English and the goal was for me to speak to him only in Spanish. This has proven difficult not only because Spanish is my second language and there are holes in my vocabulary but also because there are many words, phrases, songs, and books I wish to share with him in English. Over the past few months he is hitting a peak language development time and about a month ago my husband and family said, "Now's the time." If I really wanted my son to learn both English and Spanish I needed to buckle down.
That day I started and for a solid week I spoke only in Spanish 100% of the time when speaking directly to Owen. He already has a lot of vocabulary in Spanish, using some words exclusively like "agua", "jugo" and "venga". He identifies body parts in Spanish and seems to understand me when I speak to him. From Monday to Friday I went strong, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling when on playdates with non-Spanish speakers. Friday at five o'clock, like a laborer going off the Friday shift, I stopped and switched to English. I want Owen to know spanish. The question is, do I want him to be fluent or would I be happy if he has a solid vocabulary background and some conversational skills?

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Berry Smoothies (with kryptonite)

the ingredients

adding the ingredients





berry-licious

YUM!


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A December Tradition

Our family celebrates Christmas and it has been fun keeping up some old traditions and starting new ones with our 18 month old this year. One new one is the "Book-A-Day" Advent calendar. Basically you wrap up 24 books and one is unwrapped each night. We plan to use the same collection of holiday books each year. This year we only had 21 books, so we started Dec. 4. We plan to add a book every year or two until we get to 24. Another option would be to wrap up library holiday books instead of buying them, since most library systems check out for 2-3 weeks and can be renewed online. I kept the book for Christmas Eve out of the basket; it was my husband's copy of The Night Before Christmas from his childhood. We let Owen pick any book from a basket after dinner each night. We missed a night or two due to scheduling so we ended up not opening all the books anyway. Next year we plan on numbering the first 10 and then letting the kids (!) pick the rest. Yes, I said kids! We are due in a month with our second child, a little girl. Hence the lack of posts this year. I've been a busy working pregnant momma to a toddler. It was funny how Owen ended up picking most of the board books toward the beginning of the month, and the longer picture books toward the end. The first few days he was more into the unwrapping the the reading, but by the end he would sit through the whole book. My hope was that he would go back and reread the books during the month, but that didn't happen this year. Here are some of the books from our collection.










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Pumpkin Playdough

I have been looking forward to making homemade playdough with Owen and this week we finally did it! I used an easy recipe and we were playing with it within 15 minutes! I added Tang drink mix to the recipe for a light orange color and orange smell. Then I used a black Food Writer marker by Wilton to draw jack-o-lantern faces on the small balls. O played with some and I packaged the rest up as treat bag favors for his parent-tot class Halloween party. My first mommy project!

First mix up a batch!
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup hot water
2 T oil
add Tang or Kool-aid for desired color/smell

Roll into balls and use a Food coloring marker to create designs. This way, playdough is edible just in case. (I am lucky O. doesn't put everything in his mouth, but always nice to know he could.)

bag it up and add a cute ribbon. You can also attach the recipe if giving as a gift or favor.

Having fun with the results!



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Owen's spanish language development

Owen now says agua and ojos for water and eyes. I end up speaking in Spanish about 80% of the time to him. He loves paging through books and one current favorite is an alphabet board book with realistic pictures on each page. He spends a long time turning through and pointing to two or three pictures on each page asking "uh?" or "di" or some other syllabic question meaning "What is this called?" So I name them repeatedly in Spanish. He does the same with other family members who answer in English. It seems like it might be confusing to him. I hope not.

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Zapatos

Our plan with Owen is to expose him to both English and Spanish at home, using the OPOL (One parent, one language) method. Before his birth, I read up on the idea (mostly on blogs of others trying the same or a different method) and at first it was pretty fun and easy. But I found myself wanting to use my mother tongue a lot. Reading to him, singing to him, naming things. Spanish was fun too, but I felt a little trapped. So I use it when I can, often translating something I just said in English to Spanish. He knows several spanish words, (especially for things he loves), like zapatos, perro, and "mira mama". He responds by finding his shoes, barking like a dog, or looking at me, so it's fun to know he is picking up the meaning. I've decided not to stress about trying to use Spanish with him 100% of the time, and to simply continue to expose him to the language and the culture. We are planning on an extended visit to South America next summer, and I know that will make a huge difference. In the meantime, we are having fun reading Spanish books, singing songs, and playing word games just for fun, like counting his bath toys in Spanish and naming the colors of things.

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How to Relax

Friday my Kindergarten class had an Introduction to Relaxation during P.E. time, with some unexpected but delightful results.
Earlier in the week, I had the students copy a rectangle onto their writing papers, and then proceed to guess what it could be. They were used to doing this with circles and squares, but I wasn't sure what they would come up with for rectangles. One said "wagon", another said "door". I went to the cupboard and pulled out a purple rolled up yoga mat. As I unfurled it I saw the eyes around the classroom grow wide. They were hooked. I knew that just saying "It's a mat." in a room half full of English Language Learners I would not get my point across. But walking around with a life size rectangle made of squishy purple stuff? Oh, yeah.
Soon everyone was digging for their purple crayons and furiously copying the letters m-a-t onto their writing papers. There was no question about what a mat was in my room that day. A few lucky kids even got to touch it. Then I engaged them further. "Later this week, we are going to learn how to relax with these." With that I rolled it up and put it away.

Friday near the end of the morning, (it is a half-day program.) I instructed the students to sit in a circle and pulled out the mat again. I laid it out in the center of the circle and showed the children how to line up the heels of their shoes at the end of the mat so they wouldn't step on it while lying down. I modeled how to lie on your back and relax your arms and legs outward, palms facing up. How to close your eyes, and how to breathe. "Watch my stomach move up and down," I said. "Imagine there is a toy boat on it and it's floating on the waves of the ocean." (My toy boat yoga props have become bath toys for my one year old at home.) "Would anyone like to try it?" Flurries of waving fingers filled the room. As the kids each took their turn, an interesting thing began to happen. The kids began to sit cross legged around the circle and chant "mmmmm". Now granted it wasn't exactly "aum", but hey, close enough. The kicker? It was the boys who were doing this. And loving it. Can't wait to see what happens when we all get to relax at the same time next Friday.
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