I can't remember if I posted these questions already. If I have, let me know!!! But if not, please share your thoughts!
- If you and your spouse are from different countries, how do you teach your kids both languages? And does that affect how and when they start talking?
- Do you prefer a high chair or a booster seat? I don't like how low the booster seat is but I've heard that high chair kinda keeps baby away from the table... Ideas?
- How do you establish and stick to a schedule/routine with your child?
- What do you do when your toddler sends you to time out?
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-I'm Mexican and my husband is American. I speak Spanish to my daughters and my husband tries to speak Spanish with them as well. Sometimes he'll speak to them in English but overall they hear mostly Spanish at home.
From my language dev. class back in college, I remember that it was emphasized that a parent/caregiver begins speaking to a child only in one language so that the child begins to get familiar with the whole language structure. Then you can begin introducing other languages and since they develop the basics then it's supposed to be easier for them to catch on to many other languages.
I think you just have to be consistent and don't go back and forth between languages (like Spanglish for example), stick to the one you want your kid to learn first. Also if you both want to speak to your child in your own language then you should try and each stick to that and don't switch off. I taught dual immersion kindergarten classes back in California and the lessons were taught in 80% Spanish and 20% English. When it was time for the 20% English, we would switch classes with the teacher next door. This was done so that the children knew that it was Spanish only in our class and they needed to make the effort to speak it. We would never speak English in front of them. It was amazing to see children from many racial backgrounds who in kindergarten were already fluent in English and Spanish, not just spoken, but written and read.
-I have high chairs but would have rether had booster seats just so that I could take them w/ me whenever I need to. Nevertheless, the high chairs work great and we can pull the high chairs to the table. Our table is tall so the high chairs easily fit. Also, our previous table was small but we would just pull the high chairs close to the table so that the girls were close to us.
-You stick to a routine/schedule by being consistent. Consistensy makes things easier.
I speak Portuguese to Olivia and Trevor speaks English most the time. She seems to understand both so far, but she is really young (13 months). I wonder if she'll learn to speak later because of that and also because I have noticed that a lot of words are easier to learn in English versus in Portuguese (hot/quente, shoe/sapato, food/comida, etc) so that worries me. But I want her to be able to communicate with my family so I will be persistent. We also plan on taking her to Brazil/Portugal as often as we can, I think it will help her language skills.
I asked the high chair vs booster seat question so I want to see the answers :)
Schedules, I think you need to pick the one that works for YOUR family and again, be persistent. It took Olivia less than a week to go from many small naps a day to two naps during the day. The bedtime changed a lot when she started teething but it's back to its usual time. You also have to commit and stick to it because it's unfair to confuse the kids... they learn and grow happier when they know what to expect, routine is key. :)
hugs to all!
Chris usually speaks english to the kids and I only ever speak portuguese. Sometimes he slips and ends up speaking portuguese because they understand it a lot better than english, so it's hard. We are going to be consistent, that's for sure!
I also have two high chairs and even though the booster seat has it's downfalls (like it doesn't have wheels for ex) I think I still like it better because it's small. Unless you have a pretty big dining area (or just one kid) then I think it doesn't really make a huge difference.
I think with the routine and schedule it's really hard in the beginning but like everyone said, consistency is key. Don't give up! Put it on paper (that's what I did anyway) and keep doing it, everyday, until it becomes a habit.
My toddler has never sent me to time-out but if she ever did, it would either be out of silliness or because I did something I probably shouldn't have (like yell, or spank). Either way though I would just play along and do it. Especially if I had done something wrong. So the child would see that it isn't okay to yell, or spank, or say a bad word, etc.
- I prefer booster seat. We have been through 3 different high chairs and 2 different boosters. Right now my baby uses a high chair because she's only 6 months and couldn't sit in a booster; but I am excited for the day that I can store away the high chair and put her at the table with us in a booster.
- As for the routine, I think it's very important to have one and stick to it. It think it takes a week or two of staying at home and establishing one without letting anything else get in the way. The hard part is sticking to it, lol. It gets harder when there's more kids involved as well and they need to be taken places like school or a friend's house or the doctor. I'm struggling with that right now, sigh. But on the days that we stick to the routine my kids are so much better behaved and happier.
- I asked the time out question. I love your answer Aline! My son does this anytime he gets in trouble. I don't usually yell and I never spank, I simply tell him to go to time out if he's done something wrong and he gets really mad and says that I hit him and that I need to go to time out (of coarse I didn't hit him). Maybe I'll actually do it sometime like you said, lol. I just don't know what to do with him sometimes, he's my difficult child but he has so much personality too :)
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