On Making Time

Upon re-reading this blog it's occurred to me that I make myself sound like some kind of super-dad who spends hours up hours working on his daughter's Spanish.  This is completely true.  Thanks to my super powers I am able to extend the day to 50 hours without any sign of fatigue, using the first 24 hours for a normal day the next 18 for studying Spanish and then getting a healthy 8 hours of sleep.  This is why my three year old daughter is able to read Don Quixote.

In the real world I have two little secrets:

• This is my blog, and as such I only write the good things.  When I don't practice Spanish with my daughter for a month I don't put it here.
• I try to schedule a lot of my time.

The first is self-evident but the second is more important.  Scheduling time with your daughter sounds awful I know, but my schedule seems to grow increasingly hectic with each passing year so if I don't set aside times then I often see goals and deadlines fly by.  A few examples:

• With Leilani in a kids-only class I use her classroom time for this blog.
• I make an effort to read to her before bed a couple times a week, and make at least one of the books Spanish.

When I talked about learning Spanish myself, that's in the car on my commute.  None of this requires a huge investment of time, but you do have to make some time for it.  I don't have a calendar or anything, but I do know when I haven't read her a Spanish book all week and when she's in class and I'm not writing this little guilt angel appears on my shoulder. 

The point of this little note is just that I am not a super-dad, and you don't have to be a super-dad or super-mom to help your children learn a new language.  Just a little practice and encouragement and a lot of help from a language academy can go a long way.

I also recommend marrying a native Spanish Speaker, an option that may not be available to you.