Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Como se dice?

Posted by Tati:

When A was 2 years old, I felt like I was wasting my time speaking Spanish 3 days a week. She would take longer to figure out what I was saying and then she would always respond in English. I decided to stick with it and when she was about 3 1/2 it suddenly clicked. She started speaking in full sentences in Spanish. Now, A is 4 and I would say about 75% of the time she talks to me and responds to my questions in Spanish on the days we speak Spanish. Today at lunch, she said, "Quiero mas leche y macaronis y...como se dice beans en espanol?" It made me happy that she even asked me how to say a word using Spanish. She gets excited about speaking Spanish. If I mess up and switch into English on a Spanish day, she will remind me to speak in Spanish. She is at the perfect age and loves it so much. I have to take advantage of this time!

I have read in many books and spoken with so many people who say that their children refuse to speak the second language with them as they get older. Children figure out that the majority language is much more popular. Then, the majority language is also easiest for them to use since they go to school all day long. I am hoping with homeschooling, my children will continue to speak the Spanish language.

How do you get your children to keep speaking in Spanish (or another language)?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It may sound a little harsh, but I've made it a RULE that my boys ages 3 and 2, only speak to me in Spanish because I already can tell that if they had their way they would talk back to me in English. They already "favor" the English language. So if they respond in English, I say: "perdon, me lo tienes que decir en Espanol" or "porfavor, hablame en Espanol". It seems to be working so far, we'll see if there's risistense as they get older.

BTW - I am trying to decide wheather to homeschool or not, I don't know if I'm up for the challenge. What made you decide to do it, and how long do you plan to do it for?

Anonymous said...

I should write a post on why I am homeschooling. But basically, I love being a part of my kids' education! It is so exciting to watch them learn. I love the flexibility with it- they can go at their pace, speed through some things and take longer with certain concepts that are hard for them. We can study topics they are interested in at the moment.

I was homeschooled and only went to school for 8th grade, 11th and 12th grade before going to college. I had such a wonderful experience and hope to have the same for my children. I also loved how much time I could spend with my friends when I was homeschooled. They always had homework, so I would play with all my friends until they had to do homework and then play with another friend. I got done what kids get done in school so much faster.