Video updates of Ella's reading progress in 4 languages

[aangeles]

Every few months or so, we try to take videos of Ella reading (but only when she feels agreeable to it - more often than not, she likes to be left alone to read in peace.   ) so that we will have a sort of video diary of her reading progress - something we can look back on over the years and cherish. Here are some of her latest reading videos and updates on her progress.

In English, she is now tackling early chapter books. Nowadays, she likes reading to herself silently most of the time. We still have our reading time together, but she now only reads aloud when I ask her to. The book in this video is called Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark, which is a level 4 book in the Step Into Reading series. It is a new book for her and she read it to herself silently once before I asked her to pick a chapter and read it aloud for the camera.  

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/cavLiK5h6zU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/cavLiK5h6zU&rel=1</a>

In Chinese, she is reading at an approximately 2nd-3rd grade level. I find it much more difficult to estimate her reading level in Chinese than in English because we do a lot of learning from Chinese classical literature, so sometimes, she is able to recognize and read really obscure Chinese characters that are way beyond grade-school level. In this video, she is reading a Chinese science story book from the Reading Lads series graded for 6-8 year-olds.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Qy-ELEp_sbw&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Qy-ELEp_sbw&rel=1</a>

In Spanish, she can sight read several hundred words and, sometime after she turned 3, figured out how to read phonetically by herself. We don't speak Spanish at home (nor French) so most of her Spanish (as well as French) exposure comes from DVDs, music CDs, audiobooks, and Rosetta Stone.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_L3aO8qgIFo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_L3aO8qgIFo&rel=1</a>

And, finally, in French,

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hUa206MnKEQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/hUa206MnKEQ&rel=1</a>

She is, basically, just sight reading and still gets confused between the different letter sounds in French and English, especially the silent French letters. I have not taught her French phonics, and frankly, I can't because I don't speak any French myself. Aside from DVDs and CDs, mostly I am just using the graded readers from the High Frequency Words series on the Reading A-Z site.  So any advice, tips, suggestions on how I should move forward with regard to French would be most appreciated. I suspect that the most beneficial thing for her at this point would be to get her into a French playgroup or hire a native French speaker to interact with her, but I haven't been able to find a suitable one where we are living right now.

Hope you enjoyed the videos!  

[Maquenzie]

Wow, just wow. 

I really wouldn't have dreamed it be possible that a little girl can do what Ella can do!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

No doubt, Ella is a superstar!! And by default, that makes Mommy one, too.

[lelask]

as always , great work. It is amazing to see that Ella really enjoys learning with you. My dd likes to watch your videos and I think it is inspiring to her same as it is to me.
I am also glad to see that it works to teach foreing language through dvd and cd.
When did you start using Rosetta ? When do you think a child is ready for it?

[arvi]

Wow, a great job Ella! Aangeles, your hard work is really paying off. Thanks for sharing.

I understand that Ella had some exposure to Spanish and French at her daycare. Do you think this has helped her to read the books now? How long was she exposed to Spanish and French at her daycare?

Or do you think only with the help of DVds and other software, any child can start to read a foreign language?

[Krista G]

What an amazing daughter you have.  Thanks for sharing your journey here.  It is really inspiring.

[Mae_Jakob_Ka]

aangeles---You are a gifted mother, and Ella is a gifted girl!
Ella and you are my inspirations. Keep up the good work and keep posted on Ella progress. Whenever I see her videos, I want to get up and do more teaching!!!

[NadiaD]

Aangeles,
I can sign my name under each comment in this thread!
So thankful that you share your progress and milestones with us!
So excited to see more to come!
Great Job, Ella and Mom!
You are true inspiration!

[aangeles]

Thank you for watching and for your comments! 

@ lelask: I think it would be premature to say that using DVDs/CDs alone works for teaching languages, although, for me, they are indeed indispensable especially since we don't have access to a native speaker at this time. I started Rosetta Stone when she was around 3 years old, but this was with a LOT of guidance from me since the software is not designed for this age group. I would typically work through a couple of lessons with her. Sometimes, if she is in the mood for it, we would do an entire unit. We DON'T do RS everyday or even every other day, maybe once or twice a week when we have time for it. We do listen to music and audiobooks everyday. RS is just something different that keeps language learning interesting for her.

@ arvi: A few weeks after Ella turned 2, she moved from the infant class to the toddler class in her daycare, and we were very blessed to have gotten a teacher who was not only quadrilingual (Spanish, French, Italian, English) AND Montessori-trained, but also very very supportive of all my efforts in early learning (Yes, she was definitely overqualified to be working in that daycare!) It took her only a few days to discover that Ella can read and she proceeded to label everything in her classroom for Ella's benefit. I requested her to speak to Ella mainly in Spanish, and to work in as much French as she could. Obviously, she had to speak in English for the other children, but she would follow up all her English sentences with one in Spanish addressed to Ella. Ella routinely woke up 20-30 minutes earlier than the other kids at nap time, and she asked me to bring Ella's Fr and Sp children's books to daycare so she can read to her at this time. I also made a lot of Fr and Sp Montessori materials and they would work on those as well. Ella was in her classroom for about 8-9 months and she absolutely LOVED her teacher! She still talks a lot about her beloved Ms. Lizzie to this day. 

[mum2tiger]

Wow! Aaangeles, your daughter is definitely a gifted one. I don't think an average 7 year old can even read that well in native English. You guys are true inspiration to parents who doubted early learning or meeting little bumps along the way.

Keep the videos coming! I really enjoyed watching them, especially when she skipped a page and said "Sorry".  !  She is adorable and truly a gem.

[iwini]

Aaangeles,you are great.
simply mothering is  a tough job but a mother of a gifted child is the most tough job what i believe.
Really  you are an angel of an angel.
I inspired by Ella and you.
I hope all of us in this forum are motivated by your excellency.
Please share your personal experience in rising such a super kid.

[bella]

nothing to add to all the previous posts , Ella is really amazing , and you anna are an amazing mum . it will be very helpful if you could please share your routine with language learning with us . i do speak 4 languages , but still finding it hard to remember to fit them all or only just two in our daily routine . so how do you do it . do you do specific langaue on specific day , than if you do that like french on monday than you don't do english or chinese at all or what ??
how do you present your material and when , dvds  audio , so you decide now bedtime audio listening is in french , tomorrow in english , after tomorrow in spanish ???her bedtime story would be only in the language of the day .
also an advice tina is ok switching languages and is open to learning , matti is showing frustration from his inability to express himself in the new language i try to introduce , he even cried , and i find him having preferences , whenever i sit down with him to read a book if i choose a french book he is not happy closes it and choose an english one . any advice .

[busyparent]

WOW  ! you have inspired me . thank you for sharing.
let me introduce myself  ,my name is Gina and I am a mother of 5 beautiful girls and 1 boy. My boy is 8 months old and  i am really interested in early development. I feel very strong to teach him  how to read early. I am currently teaching him to read English,Spanish, Chinese.would introduce french soon. I  speak English and Spanish and with the help of little reader Chinese and my 2 oldest daughter(ages11,10, they go to a Chinese school) I am able to teach him Chinese.
would you please offer some advise on other materials  i could get for teaching him mandarin.
and french.  Do you know where i could get grade level Spanish books??

[queriquita]

aangeles, as everyone has already written: excellent job to you all :-)

to try and answer one of your questions regarding the french: we love youtube videos (hooked up to a large screen), especially some of les comptines with subtitles!   lot are by 'comptines' but there are many from so many other users too.  you can see some listed on one of our playlists here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL656FF7DBC8DB39B7&feature=mh_lolz. hope that helps!

looking forward to many more amazing videos of inspiration :-)

[nadia0801]

Great job Anna & Ella! Inspired me to start teaching other languages as well. 

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