Mandarin and Spanish lessons at 16months?

JGirl2005

Seriously...

Ok, I am trying not to judge, but is this normal?  My friend's son is 2m older than mine and is going to weekly lessons.  I would be happy if my child spoke more than 3 words of ENGLISH!

I do have to say that I do talk to him in spanish - simple stuff and he gets some spanish at daycare.  They counted one time in mandarin too, but...

Anyone on here doing lessons?

I mean I had spanish from 1st - 11th grade, but learning a language at 5 seems more reasonable than 16 m.  Maybe I have no clue...  Ideas?  Thoughts?

LCB34

We won't be doing lessons but, starting at 18 months, any curriculum taught at our daycare center is taught in both English and Spanish.  At 16 months, a weekly lesson won't do as much as daily exposure.

JGirl2005

Yeah that makes sense...

DS goes to daycare where I think they do talk Spanish.

Her son doesn't go to daycare.

DavezWife

one thing we learned on our travels is that americans are about the only culture that just speaks one language. even in poor and remote areas, the kids spoke 2-4 languages. we were blown away.

I'm fluent in french (well, rusty now from neglect) and I do count and say some things in french to Ava. Mostly to expose her to another way to hear it - keep that brain working. The other day she yelled at the dog "Saw sufe-fee!"  (ca suffit is "cut it out" in french) so I know she is retaining some of it. We watch Ni Hao Kai Lan a lot, (and the Dora/Diego crap) and I turn on international news channels and have them on during dinner prep, etc. again, not to necessarily teach her the phrase "parliment passed a bill today" in Portugese, but just to have those brain wires aware there's other ways to say things.

I don't know what once a week would do for a kid that age, you really have to dunk them in to get the full benefits. But it can't hurt. I imagine it's one on one time with M&D, right? Always beneficial ;-)

SeaSoul

I think it's great to start them young on second languages, but "lessons" seems a bit much @ 16 months!!  DH is fluent in Spanish and tries to work it in regularly with Cal.  When he's old enough, we plan to show him Sesame Street DVDs in Spanish.

RoxBride

As neither my husband and I speak Mandarin or Spanish, we'd have no way of keeping up the learning at home, so I think it would be a big waste of money and time.

I'm not keen on classes for babies.  When DD plays with her toys or explores the world, I can see her learning.

I honestly think an hour is better served playing outside at ther water table, which is what we did yesterday. You could see her figure out that a cup filled with water sunk, an empty cup floated...I'd rather her learn by playing.  She can learn a language later. 

shipoopiisforme

lessons sound a bit nutty to me at that age. we do plan on speaking russian to the babies (i of course need to commit to my rosetta stone and just learn) and maybe do some kind of baby einstein type video for russian if it exists. but then again mh's whole family speaks russian and some no english so we would like the twins to be able to communicate with all of them.

JGirl2005

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

Roxbride, that is the thing, the parents don't speak or understand either.  At least I understand/speak Spanish but DH doesn't...so I think it is more helpful if the parent speaks X language. 

Ship, makes sense for Russian since your DH's family is Russian.