Monday, July 22, 2013

Languages

I had lots of interests when I was younger.  History, drama, movies, books, animals, and languages.  We lived far into the country, nearly 30 minutes from our town.  This meant I spent most of my time away from my peers.

I didn't really mind, because I enjoyed doing my own thing.  I'd ride my horse, read whatever books I found interesting or my parents recommended, and do a little self-taught language learning.  I really enjoying sharing these passions with my son(s).  Braeden is now 2, and seems to be a bookworm.  He will spend hours 'reading' to himself or asking us to read his entire library.  He knows all his letters by sight, and likes to show them to little brother, Kelan, and tell him how to pronounce them.

Last year's Halloween Costume.  A book worm, reading a book.

 
When he was just a couple months old I started to slowly introduce sign language to him.  It took quite awhile for him to catch on, but once it 'clicked' with him he loved signing.  He was considered a late talker, but had many signs to get his point across.  Once he took the step into verbalizing his words we started slacking in the signing department.  Since his brother's birth he has started signing again.  Most likely due to the fact that we haven't been able to always give him our undivided attention.  He seems to be accentuating the important words with signs.  Also, in the 'too cute' department he has been trying to teach 6 week old Kelan how to sign.
We used the book 'The Joy of Signing' by Lottie Riekehof.  It isn't a typical baby signing book, but more of a dictionary of common signs.  The first chapter explains different aspects of signs, and how to string sentences together.  I'm going to be using this book again to expand on his signs.

In addition to the signing, I'd like to introduce a foreign language to him.  Studies have shown that the best time to introduce another language is before age 5.  I've studied French, Spanish, German, and Japanese.  The majority of my studies were in Japanese.  I took both courses offered at my high school, did some independent study of it the summer after I graduated, and was accepted to the UW's Japanese program.  Unfortunately my anxiety and self doubt got the best of me and I opted out of it.
I also studied German in high school, and have done a little independent study of it.  It might be easy to pick up German because of the similarity of the alphabet, many of the letter pronunciations, and sentence structure.
I'm debating between introducing him to a language that I already have a background in, like Japanese or German and Spanish. While I don't have much background in speaking Spanish, it seems to be a good option, due to the number of people in our country that speak it as a first language but for the most part I'd have to learn along side him.
For now we'll continue ASL while I weigh the pros and cons of each language.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Long time gone

It's been ages since I've written anything for either of my blogs.  Life and internet access issues got in the way.  I'd really like to be better, so I formulated a plan.  I'm going to head to the local coffee shop to use their internet and get some much needed alone time.  I'll have my posts written ahead of time, and will upload photos and schedule publish dates while drinking coffee.  Lets see if I can find the time to stick with my plan.