Tiger Parent Alert: Summer math program?….

[NotCranky]

Bragging alert. My kids are kicking butt in Spanish despite the school canceling it half way through the program a few years ago.Somewhat effectively reading at grade level in Spanish. We definitely tiger parented the heck out of that one. For summer reading we are stocking up
on Harry Potter,Diary of a Wimpy kid and Magic tree house in Spanish.

Magic treehouse is cool because each book gradually goes up in reading difficulty through a few grades. My first grader is in dual language so the books can be donated to the school later. The whole awesome set in Spanish is something like $130 on Amazon. Highly recommend Magic Treehouse series in any language it comes in.

We are also doing several Cuyamaca college for kids sessions for each boy and doing more swimming lessons.

[UCGal]

Russ – that is awesome that your boys are bilingual. It will serve them well.

I’m starting with Rosetta stone for the summer, but their middle school has a foreign language requirement – and I’ve got them in Spanish. I’m hoping they are reasonably fluent by the time they get out of high school. The goal is to have them pass the IB advanced 2nd language test.

[NotCranky]

[quote=UCGal]Russ – that is awesome that your boys are bilingual. It will serve them well.

I’m starting with Rosetta stone for the summer, but their middle school has a foreign language requirement – and I’ve got them in Spanish. I’m hoping they are reasonably fluent by the time they get out of high school. The goal is to have them pass the IB advanced 2nd language test.[/quote]

As I said before, they have to watch half their TV hours in Spanish( library, borrowed or purchased videos only, no cable)….we let them watch a lot because of that, but it’s worth it. I think they can read because of the TV watching as much as anything else, though the year and a half of dual language classes helped. Movies they choose and books or magazines that they like really compliment one another. Not sure how much our kids have been using English Subtitles on the TV , but maybe that is not a bad thing to do at first as long as they are in front of a movie with Spanish Audio. It’s a chore to the kids to do that. At first they probably won’t want to do it but it’s huge. None of them fight it anymore.

[CA renter]

Good for you, Russ! Thanks for the recommendation on the Magic Treehouse books. Is there any particular movie series that you get for the kids? How do you and the kids pick the movies? Are you looking specifically at “fun” movies, or at more “educational” movies? And why no cable?

Did your kid’s school cancel the Spanish program because of budget cuts, or was there some other reason? From everything I’ve ever seen, the dual-language immersion programs are absolutely full with a long waiting list. If anything, these are the programs that should be expanded, not cut!

We had our kids in a foreign language school for a few years where they were learning Spanish and Mandarin, but the school closed, so we hired some of the teachers away. Unfortunately, one’s visa expired, and I haven’t been able to find a new Spanish teacher, and our Mandarin teacher found a full-time job in Orange County. We’ve been fortunate because a neighbor/friend of ours is tutoring our kids in Mandarin (and she’s very good), but we’re still trying to find a good Spanish teacher. Using Rosetta Stone in the meantime, but I don’t force it enough because the kids have so much else to do and I don’t want to burn them out.

[NotCranky]

No cable because I don’t want to monitor it and there is too much garbage in the programs and advertisement. I did watch a lot of TV in Spanish when working on my own learning, but I was older. Maybe your kids are good to go with telenovelas and other programs.

The videos they watch are not always much better but they get Spanish and no advertisement except for more movies.

All the popular kids movies work in my opinion. They have watched everything Harry Potter in Spanish several times. Cars series, Toy Story, Scooby Doo, Avatar,Zorba the Greek,Wrath of the Titans, Lots of Disney like Robin Hood, Jungle Book 1 & 2, Three Witch mountain movies. Percy Jackson Stuff, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and just to much random stuff to recall. Just like kdis do in English they watch the movies multiple times in Spanish. They will watch some of my wife and my choices of movies in Spanish but they are usually are in bed by then and we hardly watch anything anyway. We haven’t found lots of science and nature in Spanish. They say they have watched a few but not that many.

Enrollment fell of a cliff and they had to make combo classes with kids from non-bilingual classes. The Dual language program my youngest is in in another district has a big waiting list. They could make 3 new kindergarten classes. It will be going into the 3rd year , Kinder, first, now second. It goes until 5th grade.

I don’t know much about Rosetta Stone. Just think of it as some kind of canned program, which could be wrong. I did stuff on tape and book drills but exposure to life in Spanish is what makes it work. That is not something that is easy to come by for everyone so the TV and Radio (usually in the car) are key. Reading is good…reading what they like to read but in Spanish with the tutor. Let the classroom time at school be about grammar drills and all the usual stuff.

Can’t say a thing about learning Mandarin.

[UCGal]

I know it’s a bit of a hike for you, but Longfellow has a Spanish immersion program. It’s K-8. It’s part of San Diego Unified and in the Clairemont area.

Birney Elementary has Mandarin immersion. It feeds into PB Middle (an IB school) so PB is going to start offering Mandarin in addition to Spanish and French. At least that’s what I heard.

But those school probably are too far west for you to commute to daily, Russ.

[NotCranky]

Our program was a 50/50 and most start off as 90/10 so there probably wasn’t a good match. It was really disappointing to see the program chopped but “where there is a will there is a way” applies.

Hobbit and Hobbit Desolation of Smaug also have Spanish Audio. Epic Spanish Audio.

[CA renter]

No telenovelas for our kids. I was just wondering if there was a series or something that was specifically designed to help English-speaking kids learn Spanish. What you’re doing sounds like a good idea, also because the kids are already familiar with the stories, so will have a bit of an understanding before watching the movies. I’m going to try that.

Hope you’re able to find a new language program for your kids. What you’re doing for your kids is awesome.

[NotCranky]

Thanks CAR,
The youngest still is in a great 90-10 program and the oldest is getting transferred out of district to a middle school with obligatory language all 3 years. Not sure if the middle kid will transfer to that school but he will be bi-literate by the time he finishes HS.

[NotCranky]

How about Sports, Flyer mentioned sports and musical instruments.

I won’t force musical instruments but encourage and support is important for those so inclined. Neither parent can set the example as musicians.

Not necessarily sports but physical fitness is mandatory. Two of my kids are active enough, one isn’t. He is still reasonably fit but we fight too much about it. Doesn’t regularly go outside to ride bike or jump on the trampoline and bitches about family hikes etc.

Yesterday , he started swimming lessons even though he is a pretty good swimmer. Since we are driving the little guy we figured that he might as well take some lessons. He likes the water and it is his best place physically. So, I told him he had the choice to take up consistent swimming or running which he hates, until he was on his own. He chose swimming. He gets that consistency is the key. He doesn’t have to be a monster swimmer or anything just do it consistently and usually on a team(for support and fun). He’s pretty o.k. with it so far. I think he will actually enjoy it, it will be good for him socially and physically and I won’t have to fight with him to stay at healthy levels of activity. The whole change even seems like a happy occasion to him. My wife is very happy about it.

[NotCranky]

I am the only one that is going to admit to making his kids be fit until they get out of the house at least? I am not talking about boot camp for 18 years just regular exercise and fitness through sports or other recreational activities.

File it under “taboo”?

[UCGal]

You’re not the only one.
My kids have to be enrolled in a sports program (baseball or basketball) pretty much year round. And they have to do something physical every day – regardless of sports.

Right now they’re in gateways. I make them walk the 2 miles home from the bus stop. If they weren’t in gateways they’d be required to play hoops or ride their bikes for at least 45 mins/day.

Their preference would be to sit inside and play video games all day.

We actually have a schedule of “musts” this summer – and it includes the physical activity daily.

[CA renter]

Nope. Our kids have been in swim for years (and were in Tae Kwon Do and track prior to that). In addition to swim, we walk at least 2 miles ~3-5 days/week and try to incorporate some hills (not enough, but we do what we can). I also make them go outside to play (get exercise) every day. We’re lucky to have a number of kids on our street and they all ride bikes, walk, skate, etc.

[NotCranky]

Oh good,
My brother in law always was on a swimming team as a kid. As an adult he really let his health go. But when he saw some kind of now or never moment for his life he got back into it and is doing great. So he had that value deep down inside, perhaps from his parents making him stay fit.

[NotCranky]

del.

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