I am amazed at how many children have a deep love for writing. They are the ones who take their writing journals to recess, lunch, and even home to record their experiences – they want to make sure they ‘capture’ that special moment that will inspire them to write even more. However, we all know that NOT all children have an innate passion for the written word.

After years of trying strategy after strategy, I believe I have compiled a list that has worked for most of my students. And trust me, whether you are a parent or educator, threats, taking privileges away, or getting upset WILL NOT make them write or want to write more.

1- Make the experience enjoyable. It sounds like a ‘no brainer’ but it is easy to get frustrated and go from “Let’s find something to write about today” to “You are not leaving your room until you have at least a page of writing in your notebook.” With the latest one, you will see that children WILL get the page filled, but with giant words. You requested it, and they delivered (they got the page filled!).

2- Start Small. Writing does not have to take hours and does not need to happen sitting at a desk. Start small. Maybe you want to have your child start with an illustration/picture and then move on to having him/her add information about that picture. Sometimes it is not about baby steps, but rather ‘ant steps.’

3- Let them write in a ‘special notebook.’ Before starting to add words on the page, spend time with your child decorating his/her notebook. Look for photos of family, pets, special events, vacation/trips and/or pictures of things that he/she loves (from ponies to Minecraft). This will really decrease the chances of his/her journal getting lost and, most importantly, they will have a ‘special place’ to record those thoughts.

4- Give them freedom of choice. As long as they are writing, let them write. A word of caution and this applies especially to boys – they love to write about topics that for many adults are just too much to handle. Examples? Bodily/physiological functions, gross things, and violent events (on this last one, you can definitely set boundaries), but keep in mind that boys will be boys.

5- Writing is everywhere. Encourage your child to take his journal everywhere he/she goes and devote a few minutes to writing. You will see that slowly, he/she will see how writing is not as difficult and they first thought.

6- Use mentor texts. Have a special picture book you love? Then share it with your child and try to have your child imitate a craft the author is using. There are plenty of great ideas under the “31 Days of Reading in Spanish.” You will surely find something you both love.

7- Stop being the editor. No one likes to write when we know we will get back a page full of red marks. Editing skills are necessary, but too early in the process can stop your child for wanting to write because of the fear of just doing it ‘wrong.’ Let them become fluent writers first, editing will come later.

8- Know that frustration is part of the process. Writing in another language can be a bit more frustrating than writing in the language your child feels more comfortable in. He/she needs to think harder to find the right words. Don’t discourage them by saying, “Look for that word in the dictionary.” Do you know how long it would take him/her to finish a paragraph? Have them circle the words they are not sure about, you can later meet and chat about those words. An authentic teachable moment indeed.

Writing can be both exciting and fun, but remember to start small. You will be amazed at how your child can soon become an amazing author. And as always, I am looking to expand my repertoire of strategies. What have you done that has proven to be effective? I would love to hear.

Much love,

Kelly

Photo by WellSpring School

I have nothing against technology when raising bilingual children. Apps, online games and movies in Spanish are a great supplement in this journey — but they’re just that, a supplement. It is a mistake to think that just sitting your child in front of the television set to watch a show in Spanish or to let them mouse around with a bilingual computer game will expose them to the kind of vocabulary needed to become proficient in the minority language.

More than one study has proven that the best way for children to develop their language and reading skills is through dialogue. This is particularly important for bilingual children. So motivate your child to interact verbally with you and you’ll be teaching him the basics of language: phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. These will eventually help him develop more complex skills such as reading and writing.

6 Ways to Improve Your Child’s Vocabulary:

1) Read, read and then read some more — Nothing is better for boosting your child’s vocabulary than reading. Read to them out loud. Read to them often. And it doesn’t have to be just books. You can read everything from labels to billboards to them!

2) Don’t change the way you normally speak — You don’t have to simplify your vocabulary when you talk to your children. They will get what you’re trying to say even when they don’t understand every single word. I’m pretty sure part of the reason why my daughter’s vocabulary is so extensive for her age is because I always speak to her the way I would if I were talking to, say, my husband.

3) Expand on the conversation — You can do this by responding to your child using longer sentences based on his simple phrases. When my 3-year-old son, Santiago, says something like: “Me encantan mis carritos.” I say something like: “Sí, tus carritos son muy divertidos porque van muy rápido. ¿Cuál es tu favorito?” I also do this a lot when I read him a book and he points to something in particular. I expand on what he’s saying by asking him to describe the object in more detail or relating it to something we did or saw recently. That always gets him going.

4) Understand that her mistakes are part of her progress — Grammar and pronunciation errors will happen as your child establishes her own knowledge of the language. Maybe she understands the rule about conjugating certain verbs, for example, but she’s not aware of the exceptions — and if you know anything about Spanish, then you know those abound. Just give her the correct response, but don’t make a big deal out of it. Vanessa used to do this constantly with the verb poner. She would say, “¿Por qué papito ponió su mochila ahí?” And I would respond, “Papito puso su mochila ahí para no olvidársela“. Eventually, she got it.

5) Turn everything into a topic of conversation — Try to provide your children with all kinds of experiences in as many different places as possible and as often as possible. I love taking walks around our neighborhood with my kids because just about anything going on out there becomes a topic of conversation and helps expand their vocabulary: children playing basketball, Easter decorations, the mailman delivering a package, etc.  In fact, it was thanks to one of our walks that Vanessa learned the phrase “darle la vuelta a la manzana” which translates as a walk around the block.

6) Learn to listen — Being a good listener is such an essential trait, yet not everybody possesses it. My father used to say: “Calla y escucha”. Roughly translated into: “Shut up and listen.” The truth is that you learn a lot more from listening than from talking — especially when it comes to helping your child enrich his vocabulary. It’s absolutely normal for little ones to go off on a tangent when verbalizing an idea or sharing a story with you. Just listen without interrupting and then you’ll be better equipped to ask the kind of questions that will lead to even more conversations.

What are some strategies you use to boost your child’s vocabulary?

{Photo by runintherain}

A few months ago I was texting back and forth with my good friend Melanie of ModernMami and she came up with the excellent idea of getting our girls to become pen pals. Although they’ve only met each other once when we visited Disney last year, we figured it’d be a good way for them to keep in touch and practice their Spanish at the same time. Plus, I have such fond memories of my own pen pals growing up (I had one in Panama and the other one in Mexico) that I immediately jump on it!

After I explained to Vanessa the concept behind having a pen pal, she got really excited and want to get to it right away. But it took us a little while to get started because she was still in school at the time. When we finally got around to it, I must say that Vanessa was very proud of what she ended up sending Melanie’s daughter in Orlando.

She started by writing her a little note with a few sentences in Spanish (and one in English!) and I just let her say whatever she wanted. She then decorated the card with drawings and stickers. But she wanted to send her new pen pal a little gift too, so she decided to make her a necklace using beads to spell her friend’s name. And then we put everything in a package and we went to the post office together so Vanessa could send it off. Now, she’s patiently waiting for her pen pal to respond!

I love the idea of an old-fashioned (snail mail) pen pal for bilingual kids because it allows them to not only practice their writing skills in Spanish, but it gives them a perceived need to continue being bilingual. In other words, Vanessa’s so excited about keeping in touch with her pen pal that if we keep this up and she ever starts refusing to speak her minority language, I’ll have a great reason to remind her to continue speaking it.

In terms of how to get started, I think that in an ideal world, your child can be pen pals with another bilingual child whose parent you already know, but doesn’t necessarily live in the same city or state. When I was younger, all I had to do was look in the back of the teen magazines I used to read (like Tú, does anybody remember that one?) and see if there was anybody interesting. Today, I’d be very worried about my kids doing something like that…

There are, however, some options available online — which I haven’t tried and I’m not endorsing — that you can research and see if it’s something that would work for you and your bilingual child. Here are some:

• Pen Pal Kids Club
• Pen Pals for Kids
• Amazing Kids! Pen Pals

 
Do you know of any others you’d care to share with us? Did you have a pen pal yourself? What do you think about your bilingual child having a pen pal?

You might remember how worried I was about teaching Vanessa to read and write in Spanish before she entered kindergarten last fall. In the end, I opted not to go that route and instead she’s been learning to read and write at school in English first. When I made my decision, I figured it’d be easier – for both of us – to transfer the skills she learned in English to Spanish and all would be merry.

Little did I know that my bilingual daughter would get ahead of the game all by herself. As evident from the pictures above, she’s been having absolutely no issues transferring the writing skills she’s learned in school in English into Spanish. I’ve been stuck in the library the past few weekends finish our forthcoming SpanglishBaby book and so my husband has been in charge of the children. When I came home after a long day writing last weekend, I found the papers pictured above on top of my desk in my home office. (The ones here are only one example. She actually wrote several more in both English and Spanish).

When I asked my husband about them, he said Vanessa had done them all by herself and had surprised him too. In other words, nobody prompted her to write them or to do it in both languages.

I don’t think I need to tell any of you what a proud mama I am!

p.s. She’s been doing the same with reading… just transferring those skills. I am extremely impressed.

What proud bilingual moments can you share with us?

{Photo by: WellspringsCS}

Growing up, gifts or money enclosed in a greeting card meant I knew what I would be doing the next day – writing “thank you” letters.

My mother wasn’t strict with my sisters and I in many ways – but when it came to etiquette, we knew what was expected of us. Fortunately, writing the “thank you” letters never felt like an obligation to me because I loved to write, I loved everything about the process of sending mail, and I loved knowing that in a few days an aunt or grandmother would be made happy when she received it.

All of this has come in handy now that I have my own kids and my own reasons for wanting them to write “thank you” letters. Not only do I have my boys do this for etiquette and to keep in touch, but in the age of E-mail, letter writing is an art I want my children to know.

The last reason to encourage your children to write “thank you” letters? When writing to Spanish-speaking family, it is the perfect opportunity to practice their written language skills!

With the holidays coming up, your children will have plenty to thank people for. Here are some excellent tips on how to get started from Margaret Shepherd, author of the new book, Learn World Calligraphy, and The Art of the Handwritten Note.

“I’m going to stop sending presents.” “It’s like dropping money into a black hole.” “What happened to gratitude-or manners?” “What’s wrong with this generation?” I hear this kind of complaint a lot from grandparents who send a child a gift and never hear back. It’s a common situation with an easy solution. All you need to fix it is to choose from a list of twelve little techniques to change the child’s behavior and accept one big idea to change your own attitude (see #6). I’ve been that child, and I’ve been that parent.

12 ways to help you help your child write thank-you notes

1. Start a holiday tradition. Children do better when they know what is expected of them. An annual gift of stationery will set the stage. Focus your holiday on promoting your family’s generosity and gratitude.

2. Schedule. Set aside a specific chunk of time, the sooner the better. The quiet day after Christmas day is often available.

3. Clerical support. Make sure the child has all the materials she needs and a place to work. That includes stationery, pens, return address stickers, stamps, and addresses.

4. Sugar coating. Add little extras to make it more fun, such as stickers, glitter, pretty envelopes, and interesting stamps.

5. Training wheels. Help them over the hard parts by supplying phrasing, steno service, models for capital letters. Some people like to help a very small child by taking dictation, or an older one by suggesting phrases. I recommend the 3-sentence structure; name the gift, mention the occasion, and express gratitude for the thought. Whatever gets ink on the page and into the mail.

6. Aspiration. Letter writing has the sophistication of grown-up behavior. Set a good example by portraying thank-you notes as something you like to do-you can’t expect the child to be eager to write notes if you bad-mouth them as a chore.

7. Companionship. Sit down and write while the child writes.

8. Reward. Some parents like to set up a reward for completing the job such as earning an television time, adjusted bedtime, or other treat.

9. Deadline/downside. Include some negative reinforcement. For instance, you can declare that she cannot play with a toy till it’s thanked for. Other privileges can be tied to saying thank-you, but should not trivialize the wonderful glow that comes simply from having expressed gratitude.

10. Imaging. Help the child remember the person with pictures, and remind her why the gift gave her pleasure by keeping it in sight. What if she did not like it? Help her imagine the letter on its way to the recipient. And make sure that person reinforces the child’s good behavior.

11. Reciprocity. Help the child understand why a handwritten note is worth the trouble by sending her one yourself. Most children today do not receive letters in the mail, making this an unfamiliar experience. You can’t expect a child to picture someone else’s pleasure on receiving a handwritten note if she’s never gotten one herself.

12. Work behind the scenes. Reassure the grandparent or other gift-giver that the gift arrived, the child liked it, and the thank-you note will get written. Try to keep the giver from putting the child on the defensive while the child masters the task.

These strategies also work for adults, helping the bride or groom, birthday celebrator, and recent graduate to do the right thing. A handwritten note is still the gold standard for saying “thank you.”

These tips are adapted from The Art of the Handwritten Note, by Margaret Shepherd, from Broadway Books/Random House.