I've just received a GreatSchools newsletter where the main discussion was "Press On or Give Up: Should You Let Your Child Quit?" - the very common issue of kids getting sick and tired of ballet, karate, soccer, violin and so on, and how to keep them engaged. The article eventually concludes that "At some point, you may just have to let them quit". Foreign Mama says: "Well, that's for quitters." Not with foreign languages, baby. In this arena, you've got the upper hand.
Kids may refuse to speak to you back, but as long as you keep talking to them, there is nothing they can do but learn. And if they are stubborn (like my son), "No, I don't want to speak Portuguese" or my neighbors' kid, "I just speak Spanish with abuelita or when we go to Mexico", all those excuses will only make you smile and laugh. Because in the morning, he wakes up and asks "Mamãe, I want mingau!" (Mommy, I want oatmeal). They don't know better. You are the care taker, the main source, the mothership (or the fathership, guys I did not forget about you). They will absorb like a sponge everything you give to them. Even if they don't talk back, they are registering and saving it all in their little empty and eager hard drives. Speaking a foreign language to them when they are as little as zero and as old as twelve will work like a 401k retirement plan: the earlier you start and the more consistent you are, the bigger value you will reap at the end. Like when they take College level Spanish at High School. Or when they are undergrads and become the most popular kids in the spring break at Puerto Vallarta just because they can get by. Or when they are hired for a job due to that little extra "fluency in a foreign language" detail in their Résumé...
So keep depositing those little language dollars in their heads. Your effort will have a big pay back, even if much later.
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