Sunday, January 15, 2012

Holiday Over!

I have taken a little holdiay from blogging the last couple of weeks. We were ill between Christmas and New Year, and I have only just got Nicholas back into going to his room to sleep at bedtime, as well as going back to his bed when he comes to my room at 2am. Now that my evenings are mostly baby-free and I am sleeping almost enough to feel that I have some energy in the day,  my brain is functioning enough for me to write in complete sentences again!

The last week I have been really lazy. Nikki has a new favourite Russian DVD: Русский с Хрюшей or Russian with Hrusha, a series teaching the alphabet and reading with some very old-style puppets. I didn't intend to show it to him for a while (if at all) because the sound can be a bit muffled and I'd rather something with actual children, but Nikki has been demanding it hour after hour, and I have been that desperate to get some sleep that I have allowed it!

Amazingly, he has started speaking a lot more Russian with the constant dvd exposure (especially since he went through a couple of weeks refusing to acknowledge me speaking Russian or speak Russian to me afterehis father visited) and now if I ignore his request to carry him when we are out for a walk, he will say 'cuddle' in Russian because he knows I won't ignore his linguistic progress! Cheeky monster!



I have been working hard on my 2012 Russian/English curriculum for Nicholas. I plan to do a lot more 'school' with him this year, as he is very interested in letters and counting at the moment and has developed a longer attention span. I have started planning pre-reading games and activities in both languages, as well as writing a story-based program (like our Chinese books, but more intense) to teach Russian language from zero, which will hopefully progress him to understanding and speaking in proper sentences. I am hoping that by introducing a gradual progression of new vocabulary and grammar, he will become more comfortable (and vocal) with his Russian.

At the moment, although he listens to dvds and audio books in Russian, he doesn't like to sit and listen to me reading Russian stories that are longer than a few simple phrases. I think this is because he doesn't have the same vocabulary, and most childrens books are written in fairy-tale language which is quite unlike the day-to-day conversational language. It might also be because I am rubbish at reading said fairy-tale Russian.

Unfortunately, a lack of sleep also led to a distinct lack of housework and as much as I would like to write the many posts I've been planning over the last month, I must go and wage war on my kitchen...

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