Foreign Language for 4 year old and 22 month old

[SundayCrepes]

I'd love to introduce my kids to a foreign language while they are little and in their prime for language acquisition. I've heard of a woman in town that only speaks spanish and will take in kids so they learn the language. Unfortunately, I just can't afford to pay anything at this time.

Did anyone do anything to teach young kids a foreign language? (Me speaking to them in another language isn't an option since I'm monolingual.)

Thanks

[titania8]

I'd love to do this too. I should look into it. I wonder if the woman in your town would be willing to teach your kids in exchange for a service? Like house cleaning, yard work, cooking?

[Casha'sMommy]

I have a similar situation in our house. We're choosing a language to start in the fall however, we speak only English. We feel that there isn't a way for our children to become fluent in any language without us also learning the language so dh and I are also planning to learn another language. We're starting by getting some of the First Thousand Words books and add to the kids materials and resources as we grow our own understanding of the language.
I see teaching my dc another language as an opportunity to learn myself.

[AAK]

At that age, a lot of learning is through play. So, go to the library and get some CDs of children's songs in a different language. We have loved "Fiesta Songs"--it was a sesame street one, though we don't watch the show. But, there are lots of choices. Then, get a spanish (french, whatever) language thing for you so that you can learn some basic vocabulary etc. You can use it with the kids. (For an example, you can ask them if they want juice/(spanish word for juice) or milk/(spanish word for milk.)) If you can afford it, you can get Muzzy. . . but we actually have that and IMO it isn't really "all that". We prefer the free online stuff from the BBC. Here is a link to their younger resources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/website...anguages.shtml

Amy

[schrocat]

Do you have something like bilingual storytime at your library? My library has bilingual storytime and it's a great way for kids to be exposed to some Spanish. I send my son to the Chinese Community Center for chinese lessons so that he could hear someone else speak in Chinese. It's $155 for a semester. We also have lots of chinese DVDs and the like for the kids to watch.

[eclipse]

My kids, while not fluent yet, have picked up a lot of Spanish just from watching TV in Spanish. I live in Mexico, so Spanish kids shows are easy to come by - but if you have Directv, they show a lot of shows like Dora and Diego, Plaza Sesamo (Spanish Sesame street), etc. I do think it's important for you to learn a long with them - I think finding a good program for you is the best thing you can do towards ensuring that your kids learn a foreign language.

[AllyRae]

Our library has language computer games you can borrow as well, so that's an option.

We actually have a pimsleur and a rosetta stone course for Vietnamese, plus some Vietnamese children's books, videos, and CDs. Since none of us speak Vietnamese, but our daughter was born in Vietnam, we're all trying to learn.

[kgianforti]

I've used Bilingual Baby DVDs to expose German to my kiddos.

http://www.babyclassroom.com/bilingual-baby.html

[SundayCrepes]

Hmm...

I tried our library storytimes that are bilingual and they weren't very bilingual, just songs in Spanish. Given the inconvenience of the times we didn't go any more.

I do have Pimsleur here. I'd been thinking of trying it in the car. Maybe I need to do it in the house. Has it worked for anyone's little kids.

We do have Spanish TV here. I HATE TV, so I'm not sure which is a better choice, watching for language reasons or just not watching TV.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll have to mull them over.