The bilingual "experiment": two-year-old Spanish-English

"Agua, agua...!"  Hudson found one of his favorite things on a walk.

One of Hudson's mainstream pediatricians referred us to a language specialist earlier this year.  The packet of paperwork alone that came in the mail in order to go through with the referral was laughable, and we were afraid they'd just tell us to stop the bilingual life.  Recently we were at an appointment with a naturopathic pediatrician and they recommended starting to give him a supplement of cod liver oil every day because of its high DHA content, good for the ol' brain development.  And they said we should check in with a pediatrician in six months.

It's clear that Hudson is not saying "I wanna go slide" like some other two-year-olds at the park, but I have been reminded that many times boys will develop speech more slowly than girls, and I am reminded of so many anecdotes of children who didn't speak well until they were three or four and suddenly they popped out sentences like nothing ever happened.  The adults and older kids I hear about this happening to are exceptionally intelligent humans.

So, what's a mamma to do?  I don't know.  Give cod liver oil, talk a ton to my kid, get him interacting with other kids, (though most communication among toddlers I see is just shouting anyway), and try to relax.  It's hard to admit that your kid is different.  All I can say is at least so far, he's not different in a way that's costing us thousands in medical bills, or seeing specialists (yet). 

The important thing is that he is developing, albeit slowly.  He can make two-word combinations now, which he wasn't doing just a few months ago, and he even got three words together the other day:  "adios abuela cama" after we put away grandma's inflatable guest bed.  He said it like this:  "adio aba pama" but that's good enough for me.  I accept.  And every day he is repeating new words and sounds he hears us say.  Even if his speech is "horma horma horma" to ask me for his favorite song about ants (in English), I respond with "¿Hudson quiere la canción de las hormigas?" and I'm pretty sure that's the right thing to do rather than constantly respond to his partial words and sounds right off the bat just because I do in fact understand them.  He needs to hear what sentences are even if he can't make them.  He's also doing a great job of labeling items and their color, as well as other basic adjectives like "grande" or "pequeño".   He's working at differentiating "m" and "n" sounds, as well as other similar consonants like "t" and "d" even though he can actually make all those sounds.  But new stuff is happening every day.

We'll see how this all shakes down.  At 28 months, he is certainly "lagging" but I refuse to freak out and see a specialist quite yet.  His vocabulary is growing every day in English and Spanish, and he's even developing words that we have no idea who taught them to him, they just show up like magic.  Pretty cool.  Different kid, but very, very cool.

Economic bilingualism?

Hudson is multicultural in so many ways!

In a casual playground interaction the other day at Matthews Beach, a mom told me her half-Mexican daughter would be attending Zoom preschool for the summer and that it was very difficult to get into.  I have heard other parents say similar things, and it looks like several programs run an average of $350/month for attending twice a week.  There are some, like La Escuelita that don't even post tuition rates on their website and I'm the kind of person who assumes that means it's too expensive for me, and even though it's a convenient location and it is clear they have a strong program, I probably will never even call them.
Currently I am our family's full-time income-earner, bringing home enough money to keep us going and to save a bit every month toward our imminent down payment on a townhouse.  Ben paints houses during the summer (anyone need painting?) and gives us enough extra cushion to allow for our uncontrollable extras like booze and seeing shows, attending flamenco workshops, etc.  We certainly do not have an extra $350 a month right now.  (We are even using state-offered health insurance for both Ben and Hudson, because adding even one of them to my program was prohibitively expensive.)  In short, bilingual preschool is not in our future unless Ben goes to work during the school year, in which case we'd also be needing to pay for child care when preschool is not in session...

The chain of money is dizzying, yet I'm dedicated to providing my child with bilingual experiences and education.  How do we go about this?

So far, I am simply counting my blessings that I am a fluent Spanish speaker and know of great resources other than preschool.  This makes me Hudson's sole exposure to Spanish so far, but at least I'm cheap.  Free Spanish exposure seven days a week is quite the bargain I think.  Perhaps by the time Hudson is school-aged we'll consider a two-parent income model so that we can afford a bilingual school.  Or I should call the school district today to get on a wait list for kindergarten at the John Stanford school, which I hear is also hard to get into...  My head is spinning.

At any rate, my dream is to travel to Spain (not to mention the rest of the Hispanic world) at least every two years, enroll my child in a bilingual school, and most importantly, just make some Spanish-speaking friends.  But my social ineptitude is another issue entirely.  Let's see what happens.

Notes on the bilingual process - 22 months!

My little Hudson Guy is nearing his second birthday, and he is slow with his verbal expression but at no loss to make himself understood.  He is certainly fascinated by words, and is probably starting to recognize more clearly the differences between English and Spanish, at least judging by his need to have certain books read to him in English by Papá and certain books in Spanish by Mamá.  Here are some of the words he is currently fascinated with:

Practicing sounds and words with his puzzle

Last night while playing with his toy helicopter he had me repeat the word "aspas" over and over and would try to repeat it.  He could not quite get the consonant combinations and stuck mostly to his adadada variations that are common in his current speech, but he would very clearly point to the helicopter blades, try out the word, and intently watch my face while I said the word.  He loved it.  He has done similar things with fun sounding words like "luciérnaga" and "buho", and loves hearing other animal names like "delfin" and "manatí" that he tries to imitate.  He thinks the word "zapatillas" is hilarious, and there are others that crack him up that aren't coming to mind right now.  He'll listen to the word, crack up, and then stop suddenly and look at my face and point to whatever it is he wants me to say, waiting for the awesome sound.  It goes on forever.

Hudson's toddler babble is getting more complex and creative and sounding like crazy gurgles and gronks, and he wants to try out every word.  He is getting great at identifying letters now that we have refrigerator magnets for him to play with.  He can easily name "A", "O", "B", "P", "X", "D", and can point out, even if not produce, many others.  It's so exciting to watch. 

Language production, as I said, is a bit slower with him than with many other toddlers I have seen who have many word combinations and sentences that he's not close to producing, but I'm pretty sure that from the little I've read, our Hudson is not beyond the realm of normal.  He is great at using his signs to make his needs known and even if there are many objects that have the name "ma" or "mo", the context always makes it clear.  For example, if he goes to the coffee table and says "mo" he clearly wants to watch some coins spin, but if he goes to the kitchen and says "mo" he clearly wants juice. 

It is exciting to be in a phase where every day something new happens.  I sometimes get home from teaching late and have only two or maybe three hours if we're lucky to spend together speaking Spanish, but we have the weekends, and I'm very excited to see what will happen over the summer when he's in a fury of language acquisition.  We're hoping to some day get into a rhythm of summer travel and regular visits to Spain, so that will keep Spanish alive for all of us, not just Hudson, but for now we are continuing our experiment with OPOL.  I really try to stay Spanish-only, and sometimes Ben will read to him in Spanish too, so hopefully this experiment will have some awesome outcomes.  And I'll continue investigating bilingual opportunities in the area for our family, and to share with all the other padres bilingües out there!

Mujeres gitanas y exploraciones del arte teatral

Click here for the link to the documentary I watched a few days ago that I loved and really made me think.  I found it on www.rtve.es which is my favorite source for television and I thought I'd share it with readers here -- it was a recent airing of the show "Documentos TV" on Spanish television and in case the link doesn't work you should be able to search the "a la carta" section of the rtve site for the show name, and the episode name was "Una casa para Bernarda Alba".

It shows how a gitano slum outside Sevilla, Spain, was the source for a whole cast of "La casa de Bernarda Alba", a Lorca play, put on by a nearby theater.  The producers went through the neighborhood and talked to every family and introduced themselves, and got unexpectedly high interest in their theater program by the gitana women there.  They ended up going beyond an acting workshop and put on a whole production that eventually toured to other Spanish cities and was slated to do shows in Mexico and Germany in 2011.

The documentary tracks the progress of the show and gives insight into the lives of the cast -- traditional, typical gitana women cleaning and cooking and feeding babies in their makeshift shacks that let water pour in every time it rains.  It was such a great example of how things change when you bring art into life, and of how art is accessible and important to all, regardless of economic and social status.  Many of the women actors were illiterate, had never heard of Lorca (which, in Spain, is saying something), and hadn't even understood what a play was before getting involved.  (Can you imagine learning your lines without being able to read??)

Women are infinitely strong.  We care for our children while husbands are in jail.  We make ends meet when it seems there's nothing.  And then, in the midst of that, an opportunity to practice art comes along, and instead of turning it down because we are already weighed down, we take it on because it is the life and soul of our perseverance.  It gets us out of the house, it gives us freedom, allows us to provide income to poverty-stricken households.  That documentary was such a great insight into the vast spectrum of women's realities, and how art can be powerful and grounding no matter where you are in the spectrum.  It reminds me what dignity is.  Yes, women are infinitely strong.