By Bilingual Dad ( husband of Maestra Jen)
"Make sure you take him to the restroom”, my wife reminded me as she walked out the door to enjoy a few, very much needed hours free of her mom/teacher job. I was confident I had it under control and I was sure he would let me know when he needs to go. It is a never ending process of chaos and drama, as we are both diligent and frustrated with the potty training process of our precocious, stubborn, 3 year old son! We were busy playing and having a great time ( of course, I had forgotton to take him to the restroom). Well, my wife was right as usual. Here I was running to the bathroom with toddler in tow scrambling to reach the toilet in time! All the while, my son is squirming, whining and just being a generally uncooperative.
Suddenly I found myself in one of those teachable moments, as I think to myself, “Would this be a good time to practice Spanish story time”? Well fortunately, we had a copy of Como aprenden los colores los dinosaurios, which is a pretty cool story about dinosaurs. I immediately got my son’s attention and he actually listened intently to the entire book. He even asked me to read it again. Of course the second reading included a few questions en español to reinforce the vocabulary and story line. We even had enough time to read another favorite libro en español, Tortillitas para Mamá.
We are making huge strides in potty training my son to the delight of my wife who spends most of her day with him, while simultaneously running a business. However, this is not the purpose of this blog. So, aside from providing a couple of potty training tricks, the real moral of the story is capitalizing on the many opportunities we have throughout the day to reinforce and practice Spanish. It is easy to forget but extremely important as repetition and frequent (almost constant) exposure is extremely important in raising bilingual children. We have many other times that we have Spanish story time with our children (besides during potty training); such as bedtime, on road trips, plane trips, afternoon quiet time and when my daughter pretends she is the Spanish teacher. We like to make learning fun and relevant to their lives. As parents raising our kids in a bilingual household, we try to take advantage of every teachable moment regardless of the setting!
2 comments:
Thanks for your comment!!
Today has been better, seems they are getting the concept at least now. Thanks a BILLION for the encouragement...sometimes it does get pretty rough.
anyway...I have some Spanish kids books that i love. (my kids are a little younger though). but my sons love Marcos Counts and Marcos Colors. We also have Buenas Noches, Conejito. and I personally really enjoy "Ferdinando" the old story about a bull in Spain. The language is harder for the little ones, but sometimes I read it to them so that they can hear it, they don't need to understand everything.
I am looking for more good ones too, I'll check out your suggestions.
Since my son turned 4, I have taken notice of how teachable moments come and go. Sometimes he is receptive immediately and sometimes he files the information for use at a later time. Thank you for sharing your moments, it is encouraging to read what other parents are working on in their family. I currently do not know of a family that uses teachable moments to teach Spanish. Other parents and I do share other things like potty training tips, ideas for picky eaters, or how to teach kids to be kind and respectful etc. I'm enjoying reading your blog and will stay tuned in.
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