SATURDAY SCHOOL- How Easy Is It To Learn Another Language

When I was a baby my mum and dad spoke to me only in Greek so when I went to school I didn't know any English, and the teachers would say to my mum "your daughter is such a good well behaved sociable girl, but we just don't understand anything that she says!" My mum was so worried, she thought she had hindered my chances of learning. Little did she know that within a few months I would be speaking fluently in both languages and would read and write in both too. We have all heard it before that kids are like sponges and soak everything up so quickly in the first few years of their lives, so that's why my fiance and I have spoken to gg from the first day was born in Greek and Ghanaian. We want her  to be part of both cultures and feel like she is a part of both, and to understand each culture, express herself to relatives and build a relationship with all her family members, even those that don't speak English. I must admit though, we haven't been as consistent as my mum and dad were with me, but there hasn't been a day we haven't spoken to her in either language; just not all day.
We don't just focus on teaching gg Greek and Ghanaian but combine our teaching with English too, which helps us teach all three together at once. I have worked out you a schedule/plan that has helped gg learn all three languages easily by making my teachings playful and interesting (gg's daddy and I also talk to her throughout the day in Greek and Ghanaian). This may also help you in teaching your child/children their language of heritage, or if you don't have a second language you can pick a language of your choice and learn with your child. All you will need is a dictionary in the language you want to teach.

LESSON PLAN

You Will Need:

• blank note book
• 2 different colour writing pens
• dictionary in language you want to teach (optional)
• stickers or any other type of reward you want to give your child at the end of your lesson
• activity books for the age group of child

As gg is not at school yet I like to set the scene of a school day to get her familiar with how a school day is structured, but if your child is already at school or you don't have alot of time you can skip this part.

Arriving:
I get gg's Minnie mouse case and tell her to get her pencil case and book and put it in her bag to get ready for school, then we hold hands and either walk to the kitchen or the living room door where I tell her to wait for her teacher to tell her to come in and I kiss her and tell her to have a nice day. I then go into the room and say "good morning gg how are you today" she sometimes says 3 1/2 because she thinks I have said how old are you? lol, then I tell her to get her book and pens ready and take a seat.

School Song:
We start our school day with the same song everyday which for us is the theme song of the cartoon 'Timothy Goes To School' (just type 'Timothy Goes To School' in YouTube to hear it), but I have changed it a bit to be more relevant to us, this is how our song goes:

It's a brand new day
So come on and play
In the world that's waiting for you
We're about to begin
So come on in
There's so much to do at school
You can do anything if you try
With friends like Mummy by your side (this bit I changed)
There's a new adventure in everything we do
We'll all be together
And you can come too
When gg goes to school (this bit I changed)
Anything can happen
When gg goes to school (this bit I changed)

gg really likes it and sings it loud and proud as she loves the cartoon and thinks she's at school just like Timothy and his friends. I think the song is great in sending out a positive message about school and friendship and how much fun can be had and also it encourages kids that they can accomplish anything as long as they try. You don't have to use this song, you can choose any song you and your child like and have fun singing together. If you do want to use this song but you and your child don't know the song, you may want to try watching the cartoon or just the theme song on YouTube.
I have written the song on the first page of gg's book, so when she opens her book she knows what we do first and also follows my finger with hers when we are singing which will help her associate the words with those she is singing.

I start by writing the date on the top of the page and tell her what it is and then I ask her to tell me what the numbers are.

Letter Of The Week:
On Mondays I tell her to tell me the alphabet and if she gets a bit lost by repeating some letters I correct her. I then tell her what letter we will be looking at for the week and then (now this is where your 2 different coloured pens come in hand) I draw the letter in upper case and lower case and tell her to copy them both using the coloured pen. We do this a few times so she can get a feel for writing the letter and then we move on to the letter song.

Letter Song:
Now the letter song is a song that I prepare over the weekend having it ready for the start of the week. I make sure the song rhymes and uses words gg already knows and is about the letter of the week. So let's start with our first song the A song: 

Letter Aa Song
A is for Apple yum yum yum
A is for Ant Always on the run
A is for Adventure Adventure Adventure

You can use this song or make up your own. I then write down the A words from the song and get gg to copy the letters one by one (I like using different colours so gg can see how she has progressed) You may wonder how does this teach Greek or Ghanaian or another language. Well once gg learns the song, which is after about 7~8 times singing the song I then teach her what apple, ant and adventure are in Greek and Ghanaian
Apple = milo in Greek
Apple = don't have a word in or don't know of one in Ghanaian
Ant =  myrminki in Greek
Ant = chachu in Ghanaian
This takes between 15-30 minutes as I don't want to overwhelm gg or make her board with too much info, plus she can't sit still for too long lol.

Packing Up Time:
I then tell gg to pack her pens and pencils up and put her pencil case and book back in her bag and when she is done I give her a sticker as a reward for her hard work. gg loves this and ends up taking more then 1 (",) you don't have to give stickers, you can give whatever you like as a reward even if it is a great big hug and you praising your child with how proud you are of their hard work. I then tell gg to wait for her mummy to come for her by the kitchen or living room door she always says "ok teacher" soooo cute (",). I then go out and come back in and give gg a big hug and ask her how was her day and what did she learn as we hold hands and walk into her room and put her bag away. gg really loves the whole role playing aspect of school as she thinks it's all play and doesn't see it as learning.

Activities:
I like to make what gg is learning real and fun so I try and do activities that carry on teaching the letters and words. She really loves this part because most of the time it is something new and she doesn't see it as learning because she is free to play the game I set out for her. I like to keep things interesting and flowing so try and mix up the activities by doing some outdoors and some indoors. It's always good to have a few indoor activities to do just in case the weather isn't good outside plus they are free. Here's a few things I did with gg in the week with the letter Aa 

Outdoor Trips:
I told her we were going on an adventure like Dora the Explora, and told her to get her magnifying glass, her pencil case and her school book. She was jumping up and down saying YAY (",). As we were putting our shoes on I kept singing our Aa song which really helped set the mood and once outside I asked her to see if she could find any ants with her magnifying glass. For 10 minutes all you could hear was "mummy look ants! I found some more mummy look", her happiness at finding the ants filled me with so much joy, because she was so happy and learning at the same time too. She looked so cute with her big fluffy hair looking in her magnifying glass at ants on the floor I had to take pics to show her daddy and also as a memory for gg about her first adventure. Whenever gg said "look mummy ants" I said to her "what are ants in Greek? then what are ants in Ghanaian?". The first few times I had to tell her and she repeated them back to me but soon she made up a song herself and started saying "ants, myrminki, chachu, ants, myrminki, chachu". As I drove us to the park we sang our Aa song again, with gg singing it loud and proud all the way and every now and then she would say ants, myrminki, chachu, ants, myrminki, chachu. Once at the park I asked her if she could see any other bugs or insects. She was very excited to see a worm and some ladybirds and every time she saw an ant she would say ants, myrminki, chachu. I was very impressed how quickly she learnt the Aa song and also ants in Greek and Ghanaian. I then asked her to sit down on a bench and tell me everything she could see, and then I asked her if she would draw what she could see in her book so we could show daddy when he got home. gg excitedly got her crayons out of her pencil case and started drawing the trees, grass and flowers etc and sat there for around 20 minutes, content with just drawing. This was a surprise because gg never sits still, from the first time she went into a playground when she could walk she would just run around excitedly not even going on the slide or swings because it would mean she would have to stop running and sit still, so gg sitting still on a bench in a park to draw was very impressive for me and her dad. I don't know if it was the fact she was drawing out doors for the first time or she was playing her part in her adventure, but whatever it was I was happy, even if it only lasted 20 minutes and then she was off running around the park looking for more bugs and insects. Just before she ran off to carry on her adventure I asked her to pose in front of the scenery she had drawn so I could stick the photo next to her drawing. gg was having such a good time I felt so bad to tell her we had to go home so she could have her nap, so to save on her moaning and getting upset that we had to leave I told her to pick up some things on our way to the car that reminded her of our adventure. She picked up some stones, twigs, flowers and leaves and put them in a plastic carrier bag, and happily got into the car. (The things gg put in the plastic carrier bag will be used later in an activity at home)

• The next day I thought why didn't I put animals in my Aa song?, Animals should have been the first thing I thought of. Oh well! Then I thought what could be better than singing about animals? Seeing them yaaaay! I was so excited that I could still incorporate the animals into my teaching gg about the letter Aa, that when I told her, we were both dancing around together (",) I took gg to the local farm and looked at the animals. gg was talking to them, making proper conversations hehehehe. As we went and looked at each animal I told her what each animal was in Greek and had to ring my fiance to find out how to say their names in Ghanaian. She repeated them a few times but I didn't want to make our trip too much about learning Greek and Ghanaian. I wanted gg to enjoy the animals, and I could teach her the names of the animals anytime when we were at home with her animal story books, toys, and puzzles. I did though keep referring to the animals by their Greek and Ghanaian names to get gg familiar with them, which resulted in gg referring to the animals in Greek/Ghanaian naturally on her own.
• All three of us headed to sainsburys for our weekly food shop, and on the way in the car gg's dad said why don't we test gg to see if she knows the letter Aa by seeing if she can recognise it on the food labels? I thought it was a great idea and we both started to think of food that began with the letter Aa to test gg with. It was pretty hard we only came up with apple, apricot, avocado and asparagus but that was enough to keep gg entertained. We went down the aisles with the Aa food and stood in front of the Aa food and asked gg which product began with the letter Aa and she would point, then try and grab the food and put them in the trolley lol. We didn't ask her to find the food by their name because she knows what they look like, and then our test wouldn't be accurate.

Indoor Activities:

• When we got back from our outdoor adventure gg had her nap, and when she woke up I got her a piece of card, some sellotape, pens and the things we picked up from our adventure. I got her to lay them all out and then I helped her stick her objects down onto the card to make an adventure collage. When her adventure objects were stuck down I wrote down on the paper what each object is called and got her to copy each word onto her collage, next to the correct object. gg doesn't like to line the letters next to each other but is happy to write them all over the place lol. I also got gg to put a few of the flowers she picked on some card. We then folded the card in half and then put it in between the pages of a book and left them in there for a few weeks. When we went back to the flowers they were nicely pressed and a great memento for gg to have when she gets older, because the flower won't change.

This is a pic of gg's adventure collage and flower pressed flowers

• When we got back home from our journey to the farm I asked gg if she wanted to draw the animals she saw at the farm in her school book (I like her to do most things in her school book, because it keeps things organised and also acts as a diary/story board of her progress) she was very excited. Every time she finished an animal, I wrote what it was called (on a separate piece of paper) and got her to copy it next to the animal she had just drawn. I like to do this as this helps her become familiar with writing out different letters. Also whilst gg was drawing her animals I was telling her what they are in Greek and Ghanaian.
• When we got back from our food shop I laid out the Aa food that gg found on the table and told her we were in art class now and asked her to draw them, while I told her what they were in Greek and Ghanaian and then I got her to label each of them. When she had finished I told her it was now time to eat them all. She was very excited and tried everything. This was a little shocking because gg doesn't like asparagus or avocado but ate quite a bit (",).
• I told gg that the alphabet begins with Aa then we both sang the abc together then I got her to copy me writing the alphabet, and then I quizzed her by pointing at the different letters to see if she knew what they where.
• I told gg that arm, armpit and ankle begin with Aa and if she knew where they were on her body. gg and I then laid out a big piece of paper and got gg's daddy to lay on top of the paper and we drew around him, then gg's daddy and I drew around gg, then gg and her daddy drew around me (gg couldn't stop laughing and jumping around over whoever was on the floor, and loved constantly rolling in the big paper. Once we were all drawn we asked gg to find everyone's arm, armpit and ankle and then got her to copy the words to the body part.
• At the end of the week I tell gg it's computer time, this is her favourite. I open photoshop and ask gg what colour she wants her letters to be. I then tell gg "let's sing our Aa song". Then I tell her she is going to type the song out, this is when I get a big YYYEEEEAAAHH. I tell gg letter by letter and she types the whole song (she knows where some letters are on the keyboard, and the ones she doesn't know I show her). When she has finished typing, I ask her to pick another colour and I highlight all the letter Aas. I then tell gg to pick some pictures to put with her song. In this case ant, apple and her adventure pictures. I then save the song and images as a jpeg and then go and print it as a 6x4 print at the photo shop, for about 25p. I like to have them as little cards so whenever she picks them up she will see the pictures and remember what song it is and then start singing it. Because the words that begin with Aa are in a different colour she will be able to associate the letter with the word in time.



This is gg's Aa song card. All typed and pics chosen by gg

 I hope you find our teaching and play as helpful and fun as we do and if you have any other useful tips or ideas I would love to hear about them. Next week's Saturday school will be the letter Bb, so BBBBB prepared (",)

I am not a professional teacher just a mother trying to educate her daughter in a fun and loving way, what works for us may not work for everyone.