Teaching Your Children a Second Language is Vital!

If you talk to a man in a language he understands,

that goes to his head.

If you talk to him in his language,

that goes to his heart.

(Nelson Mandela)

Is it really important for our children to learn a second language? Why not wait until they are older... you know... High School level... Besides, if they learn a language now, they are going to have to learn a third language in High School since it is required by law in our state that each child have a high school level class in foreign languages in graduate!

We start our children out young. From birth they start learning sign language, and now, at 1, 4, and 6, we are learning Spanish. This is Sierra's (6) second year of Spanish. Why?

Children are able to learn a new language a lot easier if they learn it before they reach adolescence. At these young ages, their brain is still developing, and the language "department" of their brain is still accepting new words and phrases as their "first language". Before adolescence, children learn second languages at an alarming rate and retain it better, because their brain sees it as learning their mother tongue.

Learning another language opens up a whole new world for your child. Learning about a different culture, different dress, different foods and customs... these all add to who a child is. In learning about the different cultures, they also learn to be more accepting of other people, regardless of their race, sex, tongue, creed, or culture.

Teaching them another language... or two, or three, or... invests in their life. With extra language skills, your children will have more opportunities... greater opportunities. Bilingual adults have more of a chance of getting hired. Most colleges and graduate schools, these days, require that a student have at least two years of foreign language under their belt before they will be accepted! Also, being fluent in another language gives your child the unique opportunity of studying abroad.

The sad truth is that out of the 66% of the world's population that is at least bilingual, less than 30% of them have English as a first language, and even a smaller percentage is American. There are people all around us that speak another language, and many of the do not speak English. As the world's population grows, the world is shrinking. Are you going to let your children be unprepared?

You live a new life for every new language you speak.

If you know only one language, you live only once. 

(Czech proverb)

Howls on the How To's

Last month, I decided that I would try my hand at knitting. Last week, I bought a set of knitting needles on clearance at a store that is going out of business. Tonight, I tried to knit, emphasis on the word "tried".

Sitting down with my one page computer printout of "How To" instructions, a desire to learn, a new skein of green yarn, purchased from a yard sale, and my new needles, I was full of hope and anticipation. Then I tried to start... Who writes the instructions for these things anyway? Have you ever tried to read them? I turned my head sideways, I looked at them upside down, I crossed my eyes, I read them out loud, I stood on my head... No matter what I tried, understanding the instructions alluded me. They seemed to be written in Latin... or Chinese...

I tried and failed and tried again. Frustration had me sighing, pitching the needles, and vowing to give up. Finally, I got the first stitch to stay on the needle. Yes, I said "first stitch"! I kept trying. I had two, three, four stitches! Then I dropped my needle and had to start over... twice... *Sigh*... I now have two rows of enough stitches across my needle to make it wide enough to make a scarf... or maybe a potholder... all because I kept on trying!

Have you ever tried to teach your child something only to have them consistently fail at trying to perform the task set before them? Does it frustrate you? I wonder if our instructions sound like gibberish to them. I wonder how much it frustrates them. I wonder if they feel like giving up, throwing their "needles", or promising to never try again. I wonder if they keep on trying just simply to make us happy. I wonder if they take our frustration at the situation to mean that we are mad at them. I wonder if we discourage them by the manner in which we handle it and our lack of patience.

I learned some things today, things I should have learned long ago. I realized that maybe I am not always as clear as I think I am. I learned that when I try to teach my girls a new task, I really need to sit down with them and walk them through it step by step, showing them carefully how I want it done. I learned that it might help to show them, not just once, but two or three times. I learned that even though my children have a desire and acclamation to learn, unclear or hard to understand instructions may frustrate them to the point of quitting. I learned that my children's failures in learning to do a new chore, sew, write, read, or clean may be my fault, the fault of faulty instructions.

I made a new vow today. From now on, I will try my hardest to always be my clearest, breaking instructions down to the simplest form necessary. I vowed to not only tell my children how to do something, but to show them. I decided to actively teach, to truly train my children!

What about you? Do you get frustrated with your children's inabilities? What do you think we can do to meet the goal of carefully training our children and being frustration-free during the process? Will you join me in a challenge to go one or two days without yelling at our children in frustration over something as silly as writing the letter "G" wrong for the twentieth time in a row? Can we make it a week? What about a month... or a year? How about forever? I am going to try... How about you?