Better Late, Than Never

Both Mike and I are fluent speakers/readers/writers of the Spanish language. Mike's mom doesn't speak English so naturally he had to learn and I was babysat by my grandma my early years and she didn't speak English either. Lucky for us, we had parents that spoke English fluently as well (both my parents, and Mike's dad). So you would think our two children would have a perfect grasp of Spanish as well.

No. Let me explain....

We did start out with every intention of immersing our children in both languages. I would speak to Leilani in both English and Spanish. She spent tons of time with her Grandma Auri who would speak to her in Spanish. But at age 3, all that stopped. I took Leilani to the library for storytime once I became a full time stay at home mom and I came to the shocking realization that my child was speech delayed. Being the only one in my close circle of friends to be a mom made it difficult for me to realize that my child had a speech problem. I had no one to compare her to. So once I moved to the Jersey Shore and started interacting with other parents of children her age, it became apparent that her one to two word statements and pointing of the finger were not going to cut it.

Lucky for me, I met a mom at the library who told me that the school system offered speech therapy for children 3-5 years in age. I had her tested and her 18 month speech delay won her a ticket into thier preschool program. One thing they did advise me....stop using the second language. They wanted us to concentrate on one of the two languages, at least until she mastered one.

I did as I was told. And Leilani caught up in speech in a remarkable 9 months! So why didn't I start teaching her Spanish then? By this time, Chris came into the picture and I was afraid of having a repeat of what happened with Lei. I was neurotic! I even had early intervention come to evaluate Chris at home when he was 15 months. Of course the little man, who said NOTHING but Mama, Dada, and Baba (for bottle), decides he is going to be a showoff with the therapists and said Ball, Book, Dog, Baby....clear as day! He was deemed perfect with his speech emerging at a perfect rate.

Yesterday I decided, I have been lazy for far too long. I've also been a little selfish. It is perfect when I need to talk about the kids to Mike or my Mom and they don't understand much of what I am saying when I speak in Spanish. But that isn't fair to them. Not only to them, but to thier heritage. They come from latin background. They should be able to communicate in the language of thier ancestors as well. So I went to the teacher store and picked up a curriulum of how to teach conversation Spanish to school age children. There wasn't much to choose from, I might add. But it is a start. While school is out I will do 30 minute sessions daily, and once school is back in session I will do three 30 minute sessions a week.

Better late, than never.