Thanks for sharing this! That’s a beautiful anecdote. When I worked as a teacher, I would let the 6-year-olds give me questions and we’d investigate them together; we covered some pretty advanced topics: evolutionary theory, the basics of Newtonian mechanics, electricity, the atomic theory etc. The kids and parents loved it but I ended up on collision course with the some of the other teachers.
Also, I’ve taught my five year old a second langauge through immersion—which feels like a free lunch. Just show films in the other language, and speak it at home every other day, then get some friends in the language, and voila, you never have to struggle with that. She now does this on her own, trying to learn English this way by restructuring her environment.
It’s so sad that other teachers weren’t on board with the advanced topics. Some adults can’t stand it when you teach kids about topics that they don’t understand themselves. I think it’s because doing so makes the adults feel less superior to kids. Just know that you were doing the right thing (if the right thing means helping kids to love learning, and to not be afraid of any topic). And what a gift for your daughter with a second language! She is so fortunate.
What type of program did you use for your five year old for language acquisition? I want to start a similar course of language with my three year old. Were you programmatic or was it just immersion? Curious if you have any resources. For context, the language I want to teach is Spanish. It’s a second language for me and I’m reasonably fluent after a dozen years of school and several months of immersion in South America. I’m a few years out of practice, however… Thanks!
Just immersion. I did some Duolingo for myself so I would be able to speak some to her, but the rest was just letting her see films in the language like 2-3 hrs a week for two years. Then we found her friends who spoke the language—let her play with them for like 100 hrs. Now she’s pretty fluent, at the level of a native kid a year younger than her or so.
Thanks for sharing this! That’s a beautiful anecdote. When I worked as a teacher, I would let the 6-year-olds give me questions and we’d investigate them together; we covered some pretty advanced topics: evolutionary theory, the basics of Newtonian mechanics, electricity, the atomic theory etc. The kids and parents loved it but I ended up on collision course with the some of the other teachers.
Also, I’ve taught my five year old a second langauge through immersion—which feels like a free lunch. Just show films in the other language, and speak it at home every other day, then get some friends in the language, and voila, you never have to struggle with that. She now does this on her own, trying to learn English this way by restructuring her environment.
It’s so sad that other teachers weren’t on board with the advanced topics. Some adults can’t stand it when you teach kids about topics that they don’t understand themselves. I think it’s because doing so makes the adults feel less superior to kids. Just know that you were doing the right thing (if the right thing means helping kids to love learning, and to not be afraid of any topic). And what a gift for your daughter with a second language! She is so fortunate.
What type of program did you use for your five year old for language acquisition? I want to start a similar course of language with my three year old. Were you programmatic or was it just immersion? Curious if you have any resources. For context, the language I want to teach is Spanish. It’s a second language for me and I’m reasonably fluent after a dozen years of school and several months of immersion in South America. I’m a few years out of practice, however… Thanks!
Just immersion. I did some Duolingo for myself so I would be able to speak some to her, but the rest was just letting her see films in the language like 2-3 hrs a week for two years. Then we found her friends who spoke the language—let her play with them for like 100 hrs. Now she’s pretty fluent, at the level of a native kid a year younger than her or so.