Viviana
Posted 1254163601
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#1
I know that time it’s very important when learning a second language, but when you’re a single working mom, time it’s quite difficult to find, you DO have time but you have so much to do that time flies away…
30% of the time he/she is awake, for my 5 years old that would be 4.2 hours daily.
Erik K
Posted 1254367826
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#2
What if you say each sentence twice, first in English and then in Spanish? This way, she can compare the English words with a language she knows.
Eugenia
Posted 1254415222
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#3
You said that she’s 5 years old and I wonder, have you been speaking to her in English since she was born? Because if you have, I’m sure she understands!
Daira
Posted 1254572533
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#4
Greetings, Viviana! Well, I’m not a single mother, but often it feels that I could be. My hat is off to you, for the job you are doing. I think you have assessed your situation well and the hour of uninterrupted total English sounds like a practical and well-thought out solution. I agree, this will give you also the ability to monitor your daughter’s progress, and perhaps in time, the hour will grow. But I think you will have to really stick to that hour being ALL English. It sounds as if your daughter has a strong character, and though she may not “understand” your English pleads to stop cutting her dolls hair, she understands enough to know you are saying something, but is preferring not to hear. My brothers and I were raised bilingually, no English in the home allowed (though in later years… it crept in some, due to our American environment). We also were raised in a bilingual community, we had our own schools and churches supporting and reinforcing our culture and language, but we also had to attend the sanctioned American schools, of course. All of my family members are bilingual, as our parents all escaped the homeland (to live) and so, all of my cousins, too, were raised bilingually (though we are scattered some about the globe). I now am (so far successfully) raising my daughter, who is four, bilingually, (Latvian, English) though she is in her second year of Chinese immersion (maybe, trilingual down the road). So, we have other Lv./Eng.families we surround ourselves with (not many). But in observing and being active in such things, I have found the double language doesn’t seem to work. When something is said in the minority language, and then repeated in the majority language, the child knows it is coming. The child doesn’t have to think, feel or try to understand the other language. Why do something “extra” when they will receive the information in another way. I have seen it with the children around me, those whose parents speak what they say in both languages (all the time), the child in a sense, and either deliberately or naturally, closes their ears, like when you reprimand about the hair cutting. The hour is a great idea, and maybe once she feels comfortable and starts to enjoy it and opens her ears and heart to it, you could increase. Again, stay strong, you don’t have an easy road ahead as a single mother, but a beautiful one nonetheless, eh?
Viviana
Posted 1254751946
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#5
Thanks for your help.
