Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Progression or Regression?

Dimaya has been growing like crazy! It seems that the only thing she wants to do these days is eat Cheerios! I was worried about putting her in the nursery school on campus where I teach, but I'm beginning to think it's the best thing we could have done for her socially. For those of you who know her, you know that she is a social butterfly! They teach her to sign at school and she currently knows the signs for EAT, SLEEP, WATER, and BRUSH (teeth). It's really cute actually! I like that she can communicate so that she doesn't feel overly frustrated when she needs something. Her progression in Sign Language is excellent!

The only drawback to sending her to nursery school, for me, is that she doesn't get any Spanish whatsoever. Last week was the first time I heard them even mention reading a book in Spanish. I feel like I need to be MUCH more consistent with Dimaya if she's really going to learn Spanish. Since I am a non-native speaker of Spanish, sometimes I feel as if I'm not the best person to be teaching her. I mean, when am I going to run out of vocabulary or get the grammar mixed up? I study and try to immerse myself in Spanish when I can by listening to interviews on Spanish radio programs or just catching the news in Spanish on TV. It feels so overwhelming at times though :( She understands when I tell/ask her to do things in Spanish, but still no words from her. We're working on counting (to 3 at least) and she says "Tays" for "tres" which I understand lol. She said "si" a few times, but I'm not totally convinced as to whether or not she understands what it means yet. Progression? Maybe...