Bilingual Parenting, Movie Night and Dessert Bowls
I've been researching for my bilingual parenting project and have found basically the same pattern in all advice on this. I just find it interesting that a tiny human being has a brain comparable to a sponge. If you really think about it the most intelligent we've ever been in our lives is when we're toddlers. When immersing children in 2 languages what I found throughout nearly all search results was very similar: it's beneficial to the child to go to a speech therapist, when one parent speaks a different language they should use their native language always within the home or always to the child, don't freak out because the child learning two languages can sometimes be observed by parents as slightly delayed with speaking; it may take them age 2 or later before speaking, and children learning two languages from birth will sometimes mix the languages, but this usually goes away after age 4-5. I'll just use an example here for future reference, I will (futuristically) speak English at all times when at home and Arild would of course speak Norwegian.
Here are some links regarding bilingual children or bilingual parenting:
Multilingual Children FAQ
Raising Bilingual Children
In Culture Parent
Growing Up Bilingual
Movie Night! Sunday! Ides of March and yes, it was actually better that I predicted! A lot of Kentucky references in there, but Arild pointed out that George Clooney is Kentuckian, who produced and also starred in the film, so maybe not so strange. :-) Arild is very interested in the functions of politics and especially American politics, so this movie suited his taste. My movie taste is a bit all over the place, and I'm up for watching anything as long as it doesn't involve war and over the top action (think Bruce Willis movies), so I'm not too hard to please. It did have my attention and I didn't fall asleep, so that was a plus!
After spending time in my new home I have discovered we are in desperate need of kitchen supplies. No surprise there; I'm marrying a man that's been a bachelor for 29.5 years. When at first we tried looking at wedding registries we didn't really find much we needed, but we gave up on it and I don't think we put enough effort into it before, but now we've looked again and have a complete list. THANKFULLY! So we have now completed a gift registry with Kitch'n and I have (sorta) learned what dessert bowls are. Apparently Arild thinks we may have normal people over to visit and we need more normal kitchen items like dessert bowls. My next question for him was of course a sarcastic, "How many ice cream parties do you think we're going to have?" :-) His answer was, "4" But hey, we really might need dessert bowls, so I won't be quick to put that idea down. :-)
I have realized my understanding of spoken Norwegian is getting slightly better. I've been listening to Norwegian radio in the mornings, but I also listen to Arild speak and I'm piecing the spoken language together a bit better. I can actually notice improvement at least! I'm still very very shy about speaking it out loud, but I'm gradually getting better at that and while registering for wedding gifts I tried to translate the page to English (this probably hinders me more than helps) but it wouldn't translate, so I was stuck reading descriptions of products in broken Norwegian out loud to Arild. He keeps telling me I need to first learn to speak English to other Norwegians before I learn the language, I told him I'll pass on that. So this will be a time consuming process with me trying to not be so shy with strangers and get used to being a foreigner and just speak my native language until I'm comfortable speaking norsk.
Like I said earlier, I have been listening to a lot of Norwegian radio and while it's not much different from American radio as we listen to the same music some Scandinavian artists are on there and I really like this song by a Norwegian lady for some odd reason. Susanne Sundfør - White Foxes I just think she has a really pretty voice, but I listened to her other songs and her music really isn't my type so there's something about this song I like in particular. :-)
I've had a few ideas thanks to Pinterest as far as the wedding itself. I want recipes from family members, so I'm bought a recipe box with recipe cards to place on the table beside the guest book. I would like my cooking skills to go beyond the microwave one day. :-) I also bought a basket to place on this same table with the guest book specifically for ideas, tips, advice, words of praise, whatever so guests can have something to say, write it down and place it in the basket. My guest list has now grown bigger than what I expected and originally wanted and I really hoped for something more intimate with my family, Arild's family and friends so I can actually focus time and attention on our guests, but this idea can help those that either don't have time to talk to us and want to write down wishes, or if anyone has anything they want to say they can write it down and Arild and I can read it later.
This may be a bit contradictory or well, it may go right along with my last blog entry, but it is something I guiltily admitted. One more wedding related topic I was a bit concerned about is actually my hair. I have my veil, but my issue is having thin hair. When putting it in my hair the veil always slides out and this is problematic because I'm not wearing my hair up at the wedding. So, if I can't change my mind on my hairstyle which isn't going to happen, I have to change my hair and I've been eating yogurt daily and taking vitamins specifically for hair, skin and nails and I'm very amazed at results. My hair feels a lot thicker and I've noticed my fingernails actually growing and not breaking. :-) Just an idea thrown out there for people with that same issue. ;-)
Did I mention my suitcase is already packed? =D
Here are some links regarding bilingual children or bilingual parenting:
Multilingual Children FAQ
Raising Bilingual Children
In Culture Parent
Growing Up Bilingual
Movie Night! Sunday! Ides of March and yes, it was actually better that I predicted! A lot of Kentucky references in there, but Arild pointed out that George Clooney is Kentuckian, who produced and also starred in the film, so maybe not so strange. :-) Arild is very interested in the functions of politics and especially American politics, so this movie suited his taste. My movie taste is a bit all over the place, and I'm up for watching anything as long as it doesn't involve war and over the top action (think Bruce Willis movies), so I'm not too hard to please. It did have my attention and I didn't fall asleep, so that was a plus!
After spending time in my new home I have discovered we are in desperate need of kitchen supplies. No surprise there; I'm marrying a man that's been a bachelor for 29.5 years. When at first we tried looking at wedding registries we didn't really find much we needed, but we gave up on it and I don't think we put enough effort into it before, but now we've looked again and have a complete list. THANKFULLY! So we have now completed a gift registry with Kitch'n and I have (sorta) learned what dessert bowls are. Apparently Arild thinks we may have normal people over to visit and we need more normal kitchen items like dessert bowls. My next question for him was of course a sarcastic, "How many ice cream parties do you think we're going to have?" :-) His answer was, "4" But hey, we really might need dessert bowls, so I won't be quick to put that idea down. :-)
I have realized my understanding of spoken Norwegian is getting slightly better. I've been listening to Norwegian radio in the mornings, but I also listen to Arild speak and I'm piecing the spoken language together a bit better. I can actually notice improvement at least! I'm still very very shy about speaking it out loud, but I'm gradually getting better at that and while registering for wedding gifts I tried to translate the page to English (this probably hinders me more than helps) but it wouldn't translate, so I was stuck reading descriptions of products in broken Norwegian out loud to Arild. He keeps telling me I need to first learn to speak English to other Norwegians before I learn the language, I told him I'll pass on that. So this will be a time consuming process with me trying to not be so shy with strangers and get used to being a foreigner and just speak my native language until I'm comfortable speaking norsk.
Like I said earlier, I have been listening to a lot of Norwegian radio and while it's not much different from American radio as we listen to the same music some Scandinavian artists are on there and I really like this song by a Norwegian lady for some odd reason. Susanne Sundfør - White Foxes I just think she has a really pretty voice, but I listened to her other songs and her music really isn't my type so there's something about this song I like in particular. :-)
I've had a few ideas thanks to Pinterest as far as the wedding itself. I want recipes from family members, so I'm bought a recipe box with recipe cards to place on the table beside the guest book. I would like my cooking skills to go beyond the microwave one day. :-) I also bought a basket to place on this same table with the guest book specifically for ideas, tips, advice, words of praise, whatever so guests can have something to say, write it down and place it in the basket. My guest list has now grown bigger than what I expected and originally wanted and I really hoped for something more intimate with my family, Arild's family and friends so I can actually focus time and attention on our guests, but this idea can help those that either don't have time to talk to us and want to write down wishes, or if anyone has anything they want to say they can write it down and Arild and I can read it later.
This may be a bit contradictory or well, it may go right along with my last blog entry, but it is something I guiltily admitted. One more wedding related topic I was a bit concerned about is actually my hair. I have my veil, but my issue is having thin hair. When putting it in my hair the veil always slides out and this is problematic because I'm not wearing my hair up at the wedding. So, if I can't change my mind on my hairstyle which isn't going to happen, I have to change my hair and I've been eating yogurt daily and taking vitamins specifically for hair, skin and nails and I'm very amazed at results. My hair feels a lot thicker and I've noticed my fingernails actually growing and not breaking. :-) Just an idea thrown out there for people with that same issue. ;-)
Did I mention my suitcase is already packed? =D
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