Scheduling in Spanish Lessons

[SundayCrepes]

This forum helped me so much when it inspired me to do a daily clean up (with my roomba) after dinner. It totally changed/improved my life to get that simple idea. Now I have another scheduling issue.

I host a Spanish playgroup twice a week. I say what little Spanish I know to my kids between sessions. I need/want to learn more Spanish for my benefit and so I can teach it to my kids. I've gotten Spanish flashcards (both vocabulary and phrases.) I'm going to start by learning them. I just can't figure out how to fit it into the day. It's not all that complicated, but I just haven't figured out how to make it happen. Actually, I feel kind of stupid even asking for help, I should just do it, right? But I'm not making it happen.

Any suggestions?

[lolar2]

What is the rest of your schedule like?

[SundayCrepes]

It's pretty open. I'm a SAHM.

I get up with daughter around 6, son gets up around 7. We do random activities through the day. Read a lot of books. Go wherever we want. Daughter naps 12 to 1 or 1:30. We try and eat dinner between 5 and 6. Afterwards we usually watch the kids play. Then I start cleaning the house and running the roomba. My husband bathes the kids. If all is right with the world, daughter to bed around 8. By 8:30 I sneak out of bedroom. Read books to son. He falls asleep around 9 or 9:30. I get on computer. I'm not too interested in doing much brainwork at that point. I go to bed between 10 and 12:30.

Right now Mondays are totally open though mid September we will have an art class in the mornings.

On Tuesdays we host Spanish playgroup at 9 for 1.5 hours. One of the girls stays until 2 ( I babysit.) Starting mid-September my daughter will go to musical play at 4. Soon the homeschooling park days start up. I don't know if we'll stop by after nap or not.

Wed. are open.

Thursday babysit 10 to 2. Every other week is speech therapy in the am. The opposite weeks we try and go to storytime.

Friday we host Spanish playgroup at 10 for 1.5 hours. Kids can stay for hours afterwards playing.

Saturday morning my husband mountain bikes and I grocery shop. The rest of the weekend is whatever it is.

[lolar2]

It does look like you have a pretty open schedule. Maybe you just aren't the flashcard type, and would do better with something on audio (while you clean?) or some computer software.

Also when you go out with your kids on errands, if you have a Spanish-speaking enclave near you, it might be a good idea to run at least some of the errands there. I never took Spanish, but I understand it pretty well because of having had a Spanish-speaking roommate in college and living in a lot of areas where I was surrounded by people speaking it.

[Drummer's Wife]

What about spanish lessons on your ipod? Then you could be doing other things at the same time?

[SundayCrepes]

Thanks for the thoughts.

I don't have an ipod. I'm definitely the flashcard kind of person--I learned a lot of German that way. What I need is to just make it part of my routine. I just haven't figured out when/how. It's sort of like cleaning my house. I used to sit around whining that my house was filthy. Then from this forum I got the idea to clean up after dinner. Now I spend an hour every evening cleaning. I just need the right "sound bite" from someone to inspire me into a routine.

[zoebird]

well, as always, i'm a big fan of using the rhythm concept from steiner (waldorf). you probably already have most of it, you just need to be made aware of what it is so that you can know when it would be a good time to do things for yourself.

first, it's easy to see when the kids are eating and sleeping, and then the tidying that goes around that. it's in between that gets a bit odd to get your head around.

in steiner, you create a rhythm, moving from active to passive activities, around those primary activities that run the home. your play group can be a clear example of of an 'active' time, that may have active and passive elements within it, and then when everyone heads home, then people naturally move toward more passive (restful) activities. sometimes, that's straight up nap time, but for older children, it might be art, or playing alone quietly, and so on.

it's when the children move into something passive--whether by your leading or by theirs--that is a good time for you to do something for yourself, such as doing your flash cards.

my son tends to go from breakfast to active play where he wants my attention (after i wash dishes and we get dressed) or where he needs it (on a playground), and then going to a situation where he is playing more on his own, and so i tend to use that time to read, get online, or even work. it can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 1-2 hrs even. so, it's enough time.

at least, that's what i experience.

[IsaFrench]

zoebird, I'm learning a lot by reading your posts and comments to other people !

"... just need to be made aware of what it is ..."
when I read you it makes sense

....I just don't understand why "getting organised" still feels like trying to speak a foreign language ... when I've been reeding posts on this subforum for months and months ...

I didn't have a clear concept in my mind about active/passive activities before I just read you above (although you mentionned something about it but more succint in another post a few months back) or couldn't put it in words so well if I would try
.. but have been trying to implement some "quiet reading time" for after bath/before dinner with older DCs ... DH might not have that concept very clear in his mind either ... so it's not quite a routine yet ...

thanks anyway ....

[zoebird]

it takes time to get it.

and also, you are juggling multiple needs. it can be helpful to sit down with your DP and "puzzle out" what your needs are--the kids, his, yours--and then how to create a rhythm that meets all of those needs.

my husband and i are reinventing ours right now, based on some new situations that have come up. it is positive for us to go through this every few months, and discern what we want and need, and then creating a rhythm that allows that to happen.

it's a powerful and creative process, and most of us do it anyway without realizing it, but if we can work with it, then all of the sudden time opens up for everything. we just get a sense that what we want can, in fact, be done.