Spanish+English+French+Basque, is it too much?

[NPLight]

Hello, I have just seen that French curriculum is available for Little Reader and I'm sooo excited! But... I'm teaching to my 18 mo twins to read in Spanish (mainly by translating LR), English (LR), and next September they will start school and they will learn basque (there's no other option as we live in a very small town and everything is taught in basque, a language spoken in North Spain). I can speak French and I like it a lot, I would really enjoy teaching it to my children, but do you think it could be too much for them? I don't want to overload them with so many different things! We are also doing Little Musician, Little Math...   
Thank you!!

[lois1]

Personally, I don't think so. I think it's great that they have the opportunity. My little guy (nearly 2.5) is learning 4 languages, 2 we speak in the house (Eng & Spanish), the other 2 I'm trying to be structured & incorporate into our week at set times. He amazes me that he knows distinctly which language is which & who he has to spk to in which language (if that makes sense).

They don't know they are learning, it's a game & my son pleads for more of whichever language we are "playing in" (flashcards, CDs)  Its not whether its too much for the child but whether its too much for the parent

And if you personally already have a good grasp of the language then it's an easier thing for you to do. For me it worked introducing the 3rd & 4th languages separately. I got some French materials (yah, now we have LR in French don't have to worry so much about sourcing materials!) & once we were doing that regularly, I started getting the 4th (Kuna - local indian spoken language) underway.

If you have a regular schedule at home already with 3 languages by next Sept, then Basque will be the school language & they'll pick it up sooo easily without you having to do very much. And at 18months, it's still minutes per day of exposure in each area really but it all adds up (or at least I was, of course you can be as intensive as you like). How about just introducing French by reading to them a book or poem/ day, then gradually add in the LR French into your day. The other thing is that you don't have to do everything every day, I don't have our structured time for the 3rd & 4th languages on the same day, I don't have enough time. French was Tuesday/ Thursday. Kuna is Wed/ Sat/ Sun. That will probably change now with having LR French.

We do everything else (Maths, EK) as we talk thoughout the day plus LMusician... it doesn't seem to overload him at all. He asks for it & still has plenty of time to dig in the garden & bring me poisonous caterpillars. 

Given my own experience of doing well in school but struggling with languages in adult life when I had to.. I think languages are so important. Maybe even more so than maths - which being logical is perhaps easier to pick up in traditional school years, particularly if there is an EL background. I'm not saying its 1 or the other but languages are harder to learn in later life than a maths concept IMHO 

Your children are so fortunate to have all those languages so easily available to them & if you feel it's too much for them, you'll know & you can hold back a bit until they are ready. Good for you, would love to hear how you get on in the future!

[NPLight]

Thank you so much lois1, you are very encouraging!! I have been thinking about it and I have decided that we will go for French as well, alternating between English and French during the week. I have very short time with them, unfortunately, because I work full time, but we will try. Anyway, at 18 mo, there's still plenty of time to learn even if you teach them only for 15-20 minutes a day.

Sounds like you are doing a very good work with your little one!! People here are so inspiring...

[mario]

NPLight, how do you do this? Do you try to create a new environment for each language? I'm just curious.

[NPLight]

Hi Mario, I'm afraid I do it with a lot of improvisation, too much I would say. We do a LR session of English each afternoon, and sometimes in the morning before work. During bath time I usually speak English to them. We sometimes watch Pocoyo on youtube and I try to comment it with them in English and ask them about what they are seeing... things like that. But nothing really structured.
Spanish is our mother tongue and they will learn Basque at school, as I can't speak it properly.
With French I'm planning to do the same as with English, alternating between them during the week.
I would like to give you a better defined structure, but I have three children, a full time work, dad is not at home except for the weekends, and a day has only 24 hours...   

[mario]

Thank you NPLight.

My son can understand Portuguese and English and some words in German. For German he has an environment, which is a house of some relatives nearby. But for me to introduce a 3rd language is something that I think I should plan the environment but so far I haven't stopped to do this. Anyway, he sometimes watch something in French and Mandarin.

[Skylark]

NPLight, you are an amazing mommy and it is so inspiring to see how much you are giving your children. Truly! K2you!

And I fully agree with Lois, languages for young children come naturally as long as they are given an opportunity. We also considering French, and we already doing 4 languages -- English, Russian, Mandarin and Spanish, they love languages and are not confused with them at all.

We do LR ( as it is the bestprogram hands down) and we supplement with Little Pim and Sing and Learn Chinese for Mandarin, educational and documentary videos for Russian ( and I speak Russian to them as well), and our house helper speaks spanish. French would be the language that none of us speak, but I am willing to try!

[NPLight]

Thank you so much Skylark for your words, it is very encouraging to read that when even your family is completely against early learning and try to "boycott" it! 

Please tell us about your experience if you finally try French too! I'm sure a lot of people here can help us with additional resources and suggestions.

[c4andy20]

I say add as many languages as you can. Especially if you are able to speak the language.The best time to learn any language is when your brain is still developing. We speak English and Spanish at home, but languages are so much easier for young children to learn that I have added Mandarin Chinese and French. I don't actually speak those languages so we are learning them together by watching dvd's, youtube videos, reading bilingual books with CD, and Little Reader.

My 3 and 4 year old have been picking up the vocabulary, and using it in their daily life. They learn the languages so fast they make me look slow      It just clicks in their brain, whereas, it takes a while for my brain to work things out. I think my language learning is actually slowing their progress in French and Mandarin  

We are making progress despite my slowness and I guess that's all that matters. Most of my family thought I was crazy for doing Early Learning with my children.  Now that they are starting to see that my children can read, do math etc... they are starting to come around and are interested in what I am doing with my kids.

[mario]

This is great to know c4andy20.

It makes more confident to add languages I don't speak. Thank you.

[c4andy20]

I thought I would give you guys an update on our progress in Mandarin. My 4 year old is starting to read! Yay!!!    I'm super excited about that. Our pronunciation is not great and our tones are sometimes off, but we are making steady progress and I'm happy with it. Here is a video of my 4 year old reading "I Love My Family."

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