Goal Charts and Calendars

Many of us use goal charts and calendars as a way to gage and motivate positive behaviors as well as keep record of our childrens activities.  Recently, I decided to make calendars for each of my children as a way to track the approach of Santa's visit in our second language.  It worked so well, I decided to continue this approach, and the children have memorized the days of the week along with the numbers really well.  So, I decided to continue this method of motivation, and incorporated a goal chart along with each new month.

In a nutshell, I am exposing and reinforcing the children's knowledge of the days and month, as well as specific desired behaviors in Greek (or whatever second language is being taught).  So far, it has been a very easy and fun way of interactive learning.

Photo of the Pajama Party Shirts

After the last post, it was suggested to me that a photo of the pajama tee shirt with patches be posted.  Here it is.  To my children, it is a source of pride as they earn the patches.

REWARDING THE CHILDREN WITH A PAJAMA PARTY

Well, this one is not for the faint of heart, but as I've said before, my intent is to give you ideas on motivating and getting the children to understand and become bilingual.  Every so often, (but not too often), I offer our children a "pajama party" night.  Granted, this is likely best suited for children from toddler to the upper tween years.  However, I'll tell you that it really has worked well for me so far.  There are several benefits to having these fun nights.

1)  The children get to spend time with me and I with them, with out the constant pressure of having to run from one activity or another.  (Plus, my husband would say, he gets to watch the television in bed with no complaints from me describing how boring it is to watch football.!)

2)  We play games that are from the Greek culture (an asset, if the kids will be playing tavlee, cards, or kreefto, with cousins in Greece).

3)  Most of all, I speak to the children in Greek only. They get to respond in Greek. Now of course there are many times they do not know how to say something, but I will let them know, how to say it, and then when they do....out comes the treasure chest.  (As always, keep it light, this is really important, as this generation is not like ours where we just got the look and we dealt.)  Anyone recall, the koutala, or how about, tnv zwvn.?

So, what do we do exactly?  Well, firstly, I present it as a real treat.  After all, I am sleeping on the den floor, and they get to sleep as late as they want.  Generally, we do this when there is no school the following day.  We all wear a T-shirt that is worn just for these nights, the pajama party shirts.  Each morning after our  night has ended, each of the children earn a patch, which I iron on that following morning.  At this point, you could imagine that they take great pride in wearing the pj shirts with all the patches.  I wear one also, since we are all a part of this together.  In fact, both girls and I, as well as my sister in Greece have the same color, pink.  My son wears a lime green, as does my godson who lives in Greece.  Yes, these shirts have traveled to Greece, along with patches I did not forget to bring on our last trip.  My sister earned a few patches already. (Oh, there is another benefit to these parties).  By including my sister and son, in on something as special as this, my children's connection to their aunt increased / increases their bond. Getting back to what we do during these nights...  The kids vote, and they pick if we start with a snack, game or craft.  I try to give them as much decision making power as possible.  After all this is work hidden under the guise of being fun.
First I open my now famous "Mary Poppins bag".  This bag contains a never ending supply of books, art and crafts supplies, all of which the children never get to actually view in the bag.  I started this Mary Poppins bag idea when my oldest daughter, now eight, was four, and they still love it.  The children are still young enough that they enjoy it's mystery.    In the bag is also their favorite colors for nail polish, and I will offer them a pedicure and manicure.  All these little activities I maintain in Greek and because of the high value they regard these "sleep in the den" nights, I find they are very willing to enjoy it as such.  This works well, since the foundation of forein language acquisition is easiest in the early years.

Snack?  Everyone must say, "I want (flavor) and (topping) please.  In other words, Boro na exo sokolata me sirope se parakalo?  I'll have my kids repeat this phrase if pronounciation is not clear...always easily, and going at the childrens' pace. 
Games? I may say that I will ask a question and whoever repeats correctly what I asked, gets to pick a trinket from the treasure box.  (For a child that can not guess or is easily frustrated, I would offer to have them repeat when someone else answered correctly and they would pick from the treasure chest also.)  If you have one child, then use yourself.  If they don't know, you can just offer to tell them and when they repeat it,  well they've just earned a treasure.  In a nutshell, during, the time that we make a craft, we use phrases like, "pass me the scissors please", I need 2 yellow sheets.  I encourage the children to say everything or as much as possible in our foreign language. If they are too frustrated, I let them know that they are doing great, and I will communicate in Greek and leave the kids to speak in what ever comes naturally.  Revisiting those words and phrases that were too hard is important and I certainly get back to it.  As always though, it is of paramount importance that the children find it worth their while, and equally important that we encourage a confidence in their ability to "get it".

The final treat of the night is that the children pick a movie & I make popcorn. The children usually will fall asleep by the end but all of them happy that they stayed up past midnight!  We as parents know our own childrens' strengths and what may get their attention.  I hope you will find this post useful, and if you use this idea I would love to learn how it went.

A LITTLE COMPETITION AND INCENTIVE GO A LONG WAY!

January 12, 2010

So Sunday Morning was very chilly and I had taken my 3 children shopping.  I told my son, kleese to femwaar sou, (which means zipper up your jacket).  He yelled, "what?, I don't understand what you're saying?!"    I replied, "you do not need to yell, but if any of you can guess what femwaar means, you'll get a toy from the treasure box when we return home."  The girls being more advanced in the language got it.   To motivate my son in now REMEMBERING this new phrase, I told him, the meaning again, (repetition is key) then I said, " if I ask you in one hour what this means and you tell me correctly, you too will get a prize."  Well, he did earn that prize.

The kicker to this story though, is that the next evening we were in the market, when I noticed his pant's zipper was down.  Now that he is five, he finally appreciates discretion, and lit up when I said, "kleese to femwaar sou"  He remembered!!!

Did you ever wonder why children can pick up another language easily if they are immersed in the foreign language? Let's think about it.

For any of us lucky enough to spend a few weeks in Greece [insert here {any foreign country}], we returned home with greater fluency in communication skills as a result of higher recall and increased vocabulary. 

How does it happen?  How can we mimic some of the variables that help to develop a bilingual child?  Children are forced to use all their senses when hearing a language that they do not understand.  If we think about entering a foreign setting where we understand little to nothing, wouldn't we watch carefully, the facial expressions of the people around us, their body language, tone of voice, where or what they are pointing at? 

A LITTLE INTRODUCTION AS TO WHY AND HOW I CAME UP WITH THIS BLOG

I grew up in New York, though many people I meet often say, "where in Greece were you born?".  I guess it is that obvious how much I love, Greece, the language, the culture...in essence its beauty.  What fortified my love for the language was less about Greece's beauty and more about my grandparents, and cousins.  It's quite a long and intricate story to tell, but it was during my childhood and adolescent years that my love for the language and culture blossomed....When I turned 8 years old my father passed away.  Up to this point my parents had chosen to share the responsibility of raising my sister and I bilingual.  Mom would speak only English, while Dad spoke only Greek.  After his passing, however, my mother was concerned with how she would have us continue remaining comfortable communicating in Greek.  As a result she signed us up for Greek school and had us visit Greece every summer.  The former we hated, the latter, we loved.  The benefits however, were two-fold.  We not only kept ourselves fluid in our communications, but we grew up very close to our aunt's, uncles, Yiayiathes, and Pappou.  Over those years, yes we increased our vocabulary, learned expressions and the right way to greet someone (firm handshake paidi mou, kai apo tis thio meries filane), but it was secondary to the fun we had in learning where are roots came from and who and what we represent as members of our family, specifically and of Greeks in general  .  So here I am hoping to pass on what we can.