Absent? That's on you!

Vegas baby, Vegas!

To the left you see (in order) my oldest boy Anthony, my lovely wife Crystina, and I'm the hairy one.  Behind is is Las Vegas Nevada, which we were in for Anthony's 21st birthday.  Since we went over a weekend Leilani missed her class on January 14th, meaning we've only had one class since I last spoke to you, seeming leaving me with very little to write about regarding little Leili's Spanish lessons.  Fortunately I have a big mouth, and another skill.

My Studying


You may recall that I promised to learn more Spanish this year, in no small part because I want our smaller children to become fluent and that will only happen if I become better at the language.  Well by day I am a Software Craftsman at 8th Light, and like most computer "hackers" when faced with writers block I've decided to write a computer program instead.  Spanish Flash Cards!

[Program Should be Here]

So it turns out blogger.com doesn't let you write JavaScript in the blog posts themselves.  This makes sense from their perspective but makes this blog a bit of a downer.  So instead I'll tell you what to expect in the next couple weeks.  You'll get flash cards that quiz on vocabulary from sites like these:

• http://www.espanol-ingles.com.mx/phrase_book/spanish/index.html
• http://www.braser.com/spanish-vocabulary.html
• http://www.squidoo.com/basic-spanish-vocabulary-list

The good news is that the code was extremely simple to write, and I have a functioning prototype on my laptop.  The bad news is, well you can see that in the italics above.

On Absence

Before I let you go I wanted to make a couple comments on what to do when your child is unable to attend his/her language classes.  First of all Language Stars has an extremely friendly make-up policy.  Unlike day-care, where if my daughter cannot attend one of her designated days she cannot switch (and I still pay) even if it's a day-care holiday, Language Stars allows make ups for as long as you're registered.  Indeed Leilani has missed three classes, two of them last semester, and will be making them up on Wednesdays over the next couple weeks.

That said, much like you cannot cram for a class at the end of a semester and expect to successfully learn the material, you cannot expect to take your child to classes with a multiple-week break in between and expect them to be successful. What I've talked about before, practice practice practice, becomes more important when there is extended time between classes.  While the make-ups are great Language Stars does not have a time-machine on site and the longer the time between classes the more your child will forget.  Check your curriculum before you're going to miss a class or two, and practice as much as you can.  Then get back to class!

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. 

2012 Here We Come!

Some thoughts for 2012 and Leilani's Spanish learning, which she'll need when the Mayans take over the planet.


Like most of you I have a few resolutions for this year.  Lose some weight, do that cool thing at work, etc.    Of course as a parent I have goals for my children as well.  Hopefully I haven't set goals for them, but set goals for what I want to do with them.  Done right the goals will help me become a better parent to my children.  Done wrong and I become Marv Marinovich.

I'll be learning Spanish this year too!

That said it looks like it will be a big year for both Leilani and eventually Quinn's Spanish language development.  For Leilani it's a matter of getting her Spanish to catch up to her extraordinary English vocabulary.  The only way for that to happen is for us to speak more Spanish around the house, and the only way for that to happen is for me to speak more Spanish.

So it looks like I've got some studying to do.

The problem, as such, is that I have a basic rudimentary Spanish speaking skill.  I can ask how you are, say hello, tell you my age, and say I'm hungry.  Whenever I try and learn more Spanish, be it via a book or even when I took continuing education classes they start with...how to say hello, to say your age, etc.  The repetition means I speak those phrases pretty well, and nothing else, which makes it nearly impossible to speak Spanish in the house with my wife.  She already knows my name after all.

So that's my resolution, to start speaking Spanish in the house to my wife and daughter, then eventually my littlest son.  Hopefully Niko (one of our older boys) won't make fun of me too much.