Giving Thanks for Family, Language and Toy Story

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and with it a full week of Language Stars.  The hard working teachers get vacation too, and the weekend before that Leilani had a sleepover at her grandparents.  This meant two Saturdays in a row without her weekly jolt of Spanish class to keep her progressing.  Since I'm sure you have similar issues, let me tell you some of the ways we made sure Leilani practiced her Spanish without going to class.

Of course with our family it's easier, we simply re-emphasized speaking in Spanish to Crystina's parents.  Since it was the holiday weekend we visited anyway, so this much was simple.  Since you may not have your own Spanish speaking in-laws, and suggesting you remarry is impractical, I'd say just talk as much as you can in the language your child is learning.  This means you'll have to learn a little of it too.  Such is parenting.

Beyond that Crystina started playing Christmas songs in the car.  Even though Christmas songs should not be played in the car before Thanksgiving I allowed it because she played Spanish Christmas songs.  Music is one of the best ways to prod a memory, be it a child's or yours, as shown by the scientific demonstration below.

Leiliani's friend Domenica came over, and interestingly enough she sometimes insists that Leili speak in Spanish.  She then turns around and insists her mother, who is Peruvian like my wife, speak in English.  Go figure.  They also wanted to watch a movie so we started watching Toy Story 3, but we turned the language to Spanish.  Tom Hanks has a lovely accent by the way.

The point of this mini-post is that while Language Stars may take breaks, you don't have to.  Just remember to keep finding ways to practice.

Of course you stopped reading this because you can't stop singing about how Albania borders on the Adriatic.