Beautifully written. When I moved to the US and stopped using Spanish for a couple of years--I worked in English during that time--my first language would only come out in expletives when I stubbed my toe 😂😂
Thank you so much for reading. And yes! I have heard similar experiences about swearing. There are a few fascinating studies about taboo words and swearing in multiple languages and how swearing in a language learnt later in life doesn't have the same effect.
Do you homeschool? I didn’t realize. We’re a secular homeschool family as well. Just a couple of years into it, brought on in part by the pandemic, it’s definitely been an experience but overall I like learning/re-learning with my kids.
We do! Secular as well. It is a bit of a hybrid as my kids do forest schools a couple of times a week at the moment. I was shocked by the UK system and we just couldn't do it (I grew up in Canada and the experience there is much different than here). It is for sure an experience but it works for us right now. I would love to write more about the experience but I don't think I am quite ready or know how just yet. It has definitely been a game changer for the heritage language maintenance however (not why we did it but a big positive). How old are yours?
My kids are 6.5 and 4.5. One of the tricky things is feeling like I have to fit every possible subject or extra curricular in. That may be a very American ambition. I try to give myself grace and be flexible, but I always feel like I should be introducing them to something else--music, sports, foreign language. I’m still working on finding others in a homeschool community to lean on, so I don’t feel like I’m the only teacher that has to do it all.
This is such a hard one and I so understand. The community in London has been invaluable for us but it did take a few years to figure this out for sure. Flexibility is absolutely key but also hard in the moment and I always remind myself that there are things I learned in school I don't remember at all. My older one is three years older than yours and only recently have I been able to trust a bit more that he will learn the things he both needs and wants. We do of course the core subjects but I too have been worried about the lack of music and recently, science. But then I try to remember these can be learnt in different ways than for example, a book or an instrument. It's an ongoing learning experiment for me too! Happy holidays to you and yours!
Beautifully written. When I moved to the US and stopped using Spanish for a couple of years--I worked in English during that time--my first language would only come out in expletives when I stubbed my toe 😂😂
Thank you so much for reading. And yes! I have heard similar experiences about swearing. There are a few fascinating studies about taboo words and swearing in multiple languages and how swearing in a language learnt later in life doesn't have the same effect.
Do you homeschool? I didn’t realize. We’re a secular homeschool family as well. Just a couple of years into it, brought on in part by the pandemic, it’s definitely been an experience but overall I like learning/re-learning with my kids.
We do! Secular as well. It is a bit of a hybrid as my kids do forest schools a couple of times a week at the moment. I was shocked by the UK system and we just couldn't do it (I grew up in Canada and the experience there is much different than here). It is for sure an experience but it works for us right now. I would love to write more about the experience but I don't think I am quite ready or know how just yet. It has definitely been a game changer for the heritage language maintenance however (not why we did it but a big positive). How old are yours?
My kids are 6.5 and 4.5. One of the tricky things is feeling like I have to fit every possible subject or extra curricular in. That may be a very American ambition. I try to give myself grace and be flexible, but I always feel like I should be introducing them to something else--music, sports, foreign language. I’m still working on finding others in a homeschool community to lean on, so I don’t feel like I’m the only teacher that has to do it all.
This is such a hard one and I so understand. The community in London has been invaluable for us but it did take a few years to figure this out for sure. Flexibility is absolutely key but also hard in the moment and I always remind myself that there are things I learned in school I don't remember at all. My older one is three years older than yours and only recently have I been able to trust a bit more that he will learn the things he both needs and wants. We do of course the core subjects but I too have been worried about the lack of music and recently, science. But then I try to remember these can be learnt in different ways than for example, a book or an instrument. It's an ongoing learning experiment for me too! Happy holidays to you and yours!