Diwrnod Cyntaf / First Day
Heddiw oedd dydd cyntaf Car yn yr Ysgol Feithrin / Today was Car's first day at nursery school.
The nursery school she is attending is run by the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin. It is a voluntary organisation which aims to give every young child in Wales the opportuntiy to an early year provision through the medium of Welsh.
Although Welsh is my first language I've so far found it difficult to raise them bilingually. The literature suggests that the non-English speaker speak to the child in their language (Welsh for me) and for the English speaker to speak to them in English. I have tried to do this with my children but as Neb is currently only learning Welsh I find that I also talk to them in English too. I feel that I have let down my children while doing this. Have I spoken to them enough in Welsh? Bel told her grandparents last week that she felt that she wasn't that good in Welsh (which she does in school) as she hadn't been given a sticker for it as she had for everything else. On the other hand, her teacher says that her Welsh is fantastic but when my family speak to her in Welsh she goes dumb.
We decided against sending Bel to a Category 1 - Welsh school where everything is taught in Welsh. She goes to a bilingual school which she enjoys and Welsh is taught and spoken there.
Is there more I could be doing for my children? Do I need to look at myself more? Nid wyf yn gwybod beth gallaf wneud / I don't know what I could do?
Car enjoyed her first day in nursery! She didn't miss us once and seemed to settle in well.
BNMx
More information on the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin can be found here.
We are in pretty much the same situation just substitute the Irish language for Welsh language. Sorry, can't help, I still wrestle with the same question, sigh. Jen.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone want to speak anything other than english? LOL
ReplyDelete(I live in Israel and am raising my kids bilingual as well)
My own english/hebrew are neither up to par.
My kids are also a bit of both with a leaning towards hebrew.
It's tough but their friends come high school are very jealous of their english.
Lost in Translation did a piece recently on bilingualism which was fantastic.
ReplyDeletehttp://mwaonline.blogspot.com/2010/03/raising-kids-bilingually.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she just gets performance anxiety? If her teacher has told you that her Welsh is fantastic - then maybe she just doesn't feel confident enough in her ability yet. I think it's fantastic that you are teaching her to be bi-lingual. I would speak to her in Welsh often and just see what happens.
ReplyDeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your visit and thanks Very Bored in Catalunya for the lovely comment!
Maybe you should get more stubborn at home - my husband learned pretty much all his Dutch by listening to me speaking to my family and children. He now understands every single word. It will only take your husband about as long as it takes the children to catch on. And then you won't need to feel like you're excluding him any more.
It's not supposed to be a stick to beat yourself with love.
ReplyDelete"One parent one language" is only one way, there is more than one form of bilingualism and more than one road to get there.
Have a look at the site suggested and here are a few more if you are interested. All lumped together in a carnival.
http://multitonguekids.blogspot.com/2010/04/easter-kind-of-carnival.html
It isn't too late by any stretch of the imagination if it is what you want to aim for, but by the same token they will get input at school so you shouldn't feel like it is an obligation either.
God knows there are enough things for mummies to deal with in any given day to day without adding language learning guilt into the mix to boot ( :
Try denying them anything except Welsh telly for a week and see if you can stand the howls of protest before you commit. The amount of whinging in this house over which language a cartoon can be watched in can stretch my tolerance to its limits. That's before we get into "no I am not responding until you shout at me in English instead of Italian." tussles.
I'm more or less in the same position. Marie's father didn't want me to speak french in front of him because he found it rude and couldn't understand. His parents even told me last week that I was being ignorant by speaking french to her in front of them, even if it is only 'how are you?'.
ReplyDeleteI try to catch up now but I have to admit I still speak english to her a lot of the time as she understands better. My parents say that she has improved tremendously in the past year and that she only pretends not to understand when I'm around that way I translate it to her, but that she speaks only french to them with the odd english word she doesn't know thrown in there.
As for Noelie, I speak french to her all the time (don't want to repeat the same mistake). Mr Foodie is learning that way and so is Marie. So we'll see the results soon, I hope!
Hi BNM..
ReplyDeleteI'm in pretty much the same situation (and rather envious that I'm not fluent in Welsh).
Little Man attends a Welsh medium primary (the only one in this area).
We went to a Welsh medium mother and toddler group, a Welsh medium playgroup and meithrin was the next logical step.
I have a grasp of the Welsh language so far as I can speak in basic sentences, and this does not hold LM back at all.
He's taught me so much since he started. I wouldn't worry too much as Bel probably does feel less comfortable in front of family (LM does the same)
Thank you everyone for all your kind words. I would try to make them watch just welsh kids tv but there isn't much of that. I have though just found Peppa Pinc (Peppa Pig) and will record that for Car. Yesterday I also found some Welsh games on the primary site so will do some more of those with Bel.
ReplyDeleteDiolch pawb / Thank you all
BNMx
"Yesterday I also found some Welsh games on the primary site so will do some more of those with Bel"
ReplyDeleteIf you have a kid who likes "making stuff" you can get them to make their own language games at purpose games. Dead easy to do, great for enhancing ITC skills and apparently fun given that I can't crowbar my son off the computer such is his delight in making them.
Here is one of his first ones just as soon as he got the hang of it.
http://www.purposegames.com/game/7375e58a51
What really motivates him is seeing other people playing them and I reckon an explosion of Welsh vocab games would get quite a following very quickly.
If you need a hand with trying to work out how to use the "create games" option, particularly with the making of the background pic I can always make a little vid of step by step instructions.
Other options for making their own games of different varieties are.....
http://www.superteachertools.com
http://classtools.net/
Video please Sarah - brain doesn't seem to work these days!! ( I think its because we have sun!!)
ReplyDeleteBNMx