A Bit of Progess in Learning Russian

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I just dropped my daughter off at Russian school and her teacher told me about what Lily did last week. In general, Lily doesn't say a whole lot in class spontaneously, but will repeat when asked and she will correctly respond when asked "give me the yellow crayon," for example.

Anyway, she found two small toy mice and brought them to her teacher and excitedly told her the correct name for plural mice in Russian. I had previously taught her the singular word for mouse using LR, but from being around her school once a week and recently our new babysitter, she was able to manipulate her knowledge of the word and correctly use the plural form which she had not been taught (to the best of my knowledge). How awesome! I realize this is only one word of course, but I am beyond proud! I, too, am learning Russian but I certainly did not teach her how to make words plural because I haven't fully solidified that concept myself.

Of course, a child's receptive language word bank will rapidly outpace their expressive language skills, especially in the beginning. But as kids move along into the next phases, it's so fun to watch them grow and develop and know something is sticking! And those little nuggets will do wonders to motivate you as a parent keep plugging away at input, input, input, regardless of their output. Kids really are intuitive sponges when it comes to language at this age! So proud of my kiddo and I just wanted to share. 

[NadiaD]

Congratulations!

I am totally agree that now she is at the phase where she is just absorbing and figuring it out while immersed in the language!
I think that soon you will get an explosion of the language, when all of the puzzle pieces will fall into places!
So exciting!
Thank you for sharing!

[aangeles]

Exciting progress!!! And, when teaching a non-native language, every little bit of progress IS awesome! 

Just curious, did you have any particular reason for choosing Russian? I know you are also teaching Spanish. Are you teaching any other languages?

[Maquenzie]

That's awesome!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

AAngeles- The short version is that about 2 years ago, we were finally able to track down my husband's biological father. Overnight, he gained a father, a stepmother, and 4 siblings, all full-blood Russian and very much welcoming him into the family. It turns out that my husband is a first generation American on his father's side and English is their second language. It took me a very long time to warm up to the idea, but I very much hope to replace this lost link in my children's heritage. For us to learn Russian is a gift to my children and their extended family. I am about a third Russian, perhaps a bit more, so as it turns out that is their main background. I was very intimidated in teaching a language that I had absolutely *zero* background in and even fewer resources, so it took me a long time to begin. I found that once I gained the confidence to do so, all the pieces began to fall into place for them in regards to finding a school, some DVDs, books, and so on.

We are teaching Spanish (I am not 100% conversational but I do speak a decent amount), Russian, and dabbling, I mean really dabbling in Chinese (simplified) using LR and some DVD's. I am at a loss as to where to enroll the kids for preschool in the fall. I can do a half-day Spanish immersion program for Lily 5 days a week, although I was really only looking for 2-3 days initially, or I can send them both to a Montessori school where one of the teachers agreed to speak to them in Russian  whenever possible. We have 2 babysitters that are semi-regular, one from Bolivia and the other from Russia. I did call a Chinese homeschool tutor this week to inquire about her lessons but she wants $30 an hour. I'd much rather find a good babysitter that happens to speak Chinese and costs a lot less! We do have a local Chinese school as well and I inquired this week. They enroll many children from "American" English speaking homes (mostly adopted) so that may be an option for us as well in the future, I just don't want to cram their schedules too full, or stretch my budget too tight.

I can teach them more Spanish at home myself than I can Russian, but a full immersion environment of any language is such a fantastic opportunity. Ideally, I contacted our local university to see about hosting a Russian student. We would provide them housing (bedroom/private bath/full privileges of the home) in exchange for X number of hours of babysitting per week. Basically, she would just be part of our family for a while and help watch our kids a bit. They don't have a traditional exchange program, so there is the potential for someone to save a ton of money on a dorm/housing. If I can find a student, I will probably go with the Spanish immersion school. If not, then I'm truly undecided! You have really been an inspiration for me because I was worried about not having enough time to do other things if Lily is in school 5 half-days a week, but you were able to do it while dealing with daycare and working full-time!

[MummyRoo]

Don't you just love spontaneous language learning

I got hit the other night at 2am - my son kept telling me 'peet' and I was tired and confused and wondering  who 'Pete' was - it ended with him grabbing the cup of my nightstand and demanding 'peet' in a 'are you really that stupid?' tone for me to realise he wanted 'to drink' - I had never heard him say that before

Well done for your daughter - I wish there was a Russian school near us. The closest is several hours away

[timandsveta]

Isn't it amazing how they do it just like that? One of my twins shocked me when she said "Mommy is drinking water" in Russian with correct grammar. How in the world do they figure it out?! I don't think I've said more than two times in their presence, and there you go. They just know. I'm a native Russian speaker, but I have to remind myself to speak Russian to them all the time because everyone around us speaks English, and I am so used to speaking only English, it's hard to switch.

I'd check to see if there is a Russian church near you because a lot of them have classes on weekends but don't advertize it (not religious courses, just the language usually). If you're in Washington DC area, there is RussianDC.com web site, and I bet there are similar resources in some other major metro areas. DC actually doesn't have a large Russian population, but suburban Maryland does, and there are some Russian schools in Northern Virginia, so it's worth checking near-by areas as well. Good luck!

[lelask]

I can imagine how great it feels. A friend of mine gave me dvds in russian. They look great. I played it today to my dd and we liked it. Even my husband! He liked that he understood it  . Even I was surprised I understood some 
Dvds are from http://www.umnitsa.ru/en/

[TeachingMyToddlers]

lelask- yes, we love those DVD's. I am going to order some other kits as well this month, hopefully.  My son is now reading phonetically in Russian, he surprised me this week. I really need to get this stuff on video!

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