Hi-
So nothing truly exciting to report on the home front- the kids are doing well, Aaron is excited it is Friday and has already booked his tee time for tomorrow morning as he desperately needs some daddy time and Mama has been at the office all week, and the kids are starting to be okay with Aga - though not in the same room...
But here is what I am thinking about today. When do we stop speaking Russian to the kids? We learned a fair amount of Russian (nothing fancy, just toddler Russian, maybe 75 phrases) before we took custody and have been speaking a mix of Russian and English all along- more in Russian when we speak directly to them and then in English around them and to them occassionally.
Now, I would say that THE BEST THING we did in adopting 2 verbal toddlers was learn some Russian. I know there are those out there that think full immersion is best and that they dont have time to learn Russian etc etc etc but I honestly cannot fathom how hard things would have been if we could not communicate, soothe, talk and play with them in Russian. Especially in country and the first week home. I am not sure how people do that but I would say it would make your life way less difficult if you could learn a bit of Russian to help you along...
But we may have erred on the other side of the equation....We are pretty sure they "get" about 90% of the English spoken at home-- especially Ana as she chirps in often with her opinion even when we are speaking exclusivly in English. But their vocabulary is still pretty limited- 2 and 3 word sentences mostly. This is okay and normal for Sasha as he is only 2 but Ana's Russian vocab is much higher- she is/was speaking in full sentences and she still prefers to speak Russian I think as she usually does... So, while it is awesome to actually be able to communicate with them and I would not trade that for anything- do we at some point go cold turkey on Russian to get their English vocab ramped up? I understand that Ana will 'lose' her Russian before the English really kicks in (that is what the experts say anyway) but are we hindering her English skills by continuing in Russian? I for one would love to stop speaking Russian so much- it confuses me when I am out and about and I keep talking to waitresses etc at business meetings in Russian- which is just weird....
I am also seriously considering letting them watch more TV- now they watch about 1/2 hour of Sprout a day, but I think it does help their receptive language and am considering upping that to at least an hour- I just need buy in from Aaron on that one!
So any ideas on language acquistion or if we should go cold turkey on Russian at home are welcome!
SKB
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2 comments:
I can't really give advise about speaking Russian because we didn't know much at all when we brought our boys home. However, I've heard that it's totally fine for them to watch T.V. and that it helps them with language. Lately I even hear my 33 month old repeating things he hears on cartoons. (We watch PBS ones mostly.) Good luck! It sounds like they're doing really well.
It sounds like you are doing great! I wouldn't stress about using Russian with them, maybe slowly reduce it or just pair the Russian with the English phrase of what was said. I don't think it's hindering their English at this point, and all of their new learning is in English.
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