The apparent success of my endeavours to raise my children bilingually may have made me greedy, or maybe greedy isn't the right word. I don't know. All I know is I really love learning new languages and my kids seem to be the same way. .
As for Spanish we are now about two weeks into it and some of us are more motivated than others. It was my idea so I am probably the most enthusiastic out of the four of us (my husband is not participating).
I'm studying the grown-up way, most of the time. I got hold of a Pimsleur course that I listen to on my phone. The course I have is in Latin American Spanish and though I appreciate the lack of lisping the talk of pesos and dollares is getting a bit annoying for this European.
In addition I have started watching Mi Vida Loca (on BBC's website). It is very good! I'm up to episodio 5 now. I am trying to get Christi (12) to watch this with me because I believe she would get more out of this than by doing the standard audio course, simply because the audio course is boring.
For Ben (5) I have gotten some Dora the explorer episodes in English/Spanish. In the Norwegian version Dora speaks Norwegian with English mixed in but now that Ben understands English watching the original is a great introduction to Spanish. Just like when he started learning learning English he is very eager to show me how much he knows. It makes me really proud too!
I have also found some great language apps for my iPhone :) For myself; the MosaLingua SRS (flashcards) which helps me build vocabulary, and for the kids; 123 color a colouring in app teaching the kids the names of the colour and the numbers (as well as the letters but I am reluctant to let Ben use the latter, because he has only just started learning the names of the letters in English and Norwegian, and I don't want him to get confused) and Play2learn Spanish - a great vocab builder for children with pictures and the option to listen to either European Spanish or Latin American Spanish pronunciation.
Finally, I ordered some books. I love books! I got the Easy Spanish Reader for myself. It consists of three simple, through progressively more complex texts in Spanish and numerous exercises after each chapter. I only got it yesterday and I really like it! I am chuffed to bits that I know so much after only two weeks worth of studying that I was able to read the first 10 chapters without much effort at all!
For the boys I got three bilingual English/Spanish books, Puss in boots, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. They may be too childish for Nic (9) but I still think he'll like them because he loves being read to and we often read books together, taking turns reading aloud. I ordered them last week so I hope they arrive before the weekend.
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