Isak has decided, all on his own, that he must learn more languages before he is thirteen and his Language Acquisition Device in his brain becomes sluggish. I suggested Spanish since it is such a useful language here in the U.S., and the world at large for that matter. It's been my plan to introduce Spanish soon anyway. But Isak had different plans. Having made Norwegian friends this spring has had a major impact on him. He's heard me speak a lot of Norwegian and he has played with his new friends weekly. He wants to learn Norwegian. "It is one of my countries," he explains, "plus, it is not that different from Swedish, so I can learn it faster, then I can do Spanish after." He wants to add a Norwegian book to the Swedish-English rotation for his summer reading. But we only have three! I guess he will read them over and over.
Today he looked through all our Swedish movies and checked the available language tracks. He found over 20 that also had a Norwegian audio option, and several others that Norwegian subtitles, and separated them from the rest. Now he is watching his second Norwegian movie for the day, pen in hand, jotting down vocabulary words that I translate for him after. Elina is on board and thinks it is fun. She too has played a lot with the Norwegian kids. But Anja keeps asking, "What are they saying? What is happening?"
Some of Isak's word list:
hode, vanskelig, nydelig, syk, hvor, hvordan, føle, svømme, finne, bruke, jente, glad i, like, lyn, unskyld, heldig, slik, spise, lei, dere,
I also have to say that our "Geography summer" has been a big hit. Aided by the World Cup in soccer, the application has been easy. I do not think they teach it enough in schools here. We have printed massive maps from THIS WEBSITE and have been coloring them. Isak has been the one most interested. Elina will probably have to become a better reader before she finds it as interesting as Isak. But Isak spends hours every day looking at maps in our different atlases, especially the picture atlases, and comparing area and population statistics for different countries and American states. He is learning so much about natural resources and other basic facts about countries in the world. Our study of Pangea was made easier using youtube videos. He is absolutely smitten. And he is learning flags. I found a website from where I could print flags from different countries that he colors, among other things. He has most of Europe done. Yesterday he asked me about the origin of the nation-state. "When was it decided that the world should have different countries?" was his exact question. Today I had to pull out my knowledge from a Political Science class I took in 1998 and go over some world history, constant wars over border disputes, talk about hegemony and things like that. I guess perhaps my college degree was not worthless after all...
I am just really proud of him. This was the year he pulled out ahead of most of his classmates in every subject after having been the young ELL (English Language Learner) kid in class in kindergarten and first grade who just barely managed to stay average in anything but math (he's mathematically gifted, bless him! unlike his parents). I have been waiting for the "bilingual effect" to make itself known and trusted that the research I have read would indeed come true and our patience and persistence has paid off this year. I'm thankful for that.
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