International Bumpies
lilles
member
If your LO is bi/multilingual
lilles
member
which language they start reading in first? We are doing the One Parent One Language approach and my DD who's 5 and will start Kindergarten this fall seems more interested and can read some (basic stuff) in Spanish (my language) vs in English where she is sounding out words but gets frustrated and wants her dad to read to her. This is also happening with writing. The Kindergarten is in the States and will be in English with one hour of Spanish a day. She did a year of Kindergarten in Germany but it was all in German plus they don't teach reading and writing there until later. So what she knows in English and Spanish is what my DH and I have worked with her on. I stay at home so I know that is one reason that I have more time to work with her than my husband does. I just concerned that she will be behind when she starts school in a couple weeks.
Re: If your LO is bi/multilingual
PP is correct. Studies show that they do appear to be slower at first, but quickly catch up and then are above their peers. We are a bilingual family-Spanish/English. My DH is from ARG and even though I have requested that he speaks to her in Spanish, he rarely does. He did not come into our lives until she was 3 so the only exposure she had to Spanish was through me (my native language is English). Also, she has a hard time understanding his accent, whereas if I speak to her, she can much better understand me.
Anyhow, my LO learned to read English first, but this summer I started teaching her to read Spanish. She is opposite of your LO--she tries to sound out the Spanish words as they would sound in English. But as I have worked more with her, she is learning.
You will find that young children are not like adults, they are able to soak things up like sponges. Your LO will quickly pick up English if she is exposed to it every day, I promise!
BFP #1 ended in MMC. Discovered Oct 2005 @10w5d, baby stopped growing around 6w. D&C.
BFP#2 Nov 2005. Baby's heart stopped @ 8w3d. D&C Jan 2006. Trisomy 18
BFP#3 Nov 2006. My "miracle baby" DD born 7/25/07
BFP #4 11/6/12. EDD 7/16/13~my birthday! No sac found @ 5w1d, betas not increasing. Natural m/c started 11/20/12.
BFP#5 11/9/13. EDD 7/21/14 Our beautiful rainbow born on his due date!!
I'm hoping to atleast have a "Spanish day" or I like the idea of meals or set activities to practice once LO comes around. Would be good for me too. We're both native English, but I've had 18 yrs of Spanish and lived in Mexico and Chile. Hoping I can teach right.......
I spoke my mother tongue fluently till I got too the states and had to learn English. I had an odd pattern of ignoring my native language and absorbing English entirely. My parents enforced speaking Korean at home so I wouldn't forget but I rebeled by fasting and my dad gave up. While in the states my mother had my aunt send me math and korean grammar books for my grade level each year and she taught me. As time passed reading Korean became so difficult it would take me an hour to read half a page, and I had no idea what it meant. Had my dad been more persistent and I listened to him, I would've returned to Korea a perfect bilingual. Instead, when we returned to Korea I pretty much relearned Korean.
In cases like mine, children have a strong foundation of another language to base their learning of the second language. This is also why one may not speak that well if their knowledge and usage oft heir native language is not up to par.
Since your little ones will have to learn the same words in two or more languages at once, it will take more time at first. But, once they pick up both or more, they'll pick up the rest swiftly. It's fascinating to read about each experience as children. I'm a language major that studied with a many cosmopolitan multilinguals and each person's experience of learning their second or third language can be so different
Fun fact: multilingual people tend to learn quickly and get bored of things easily!