Mom: Rino
Son: Haruto (3-year-old boy)
Yume Mama's encounter with Instagram
My son was born during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was too scared to take him outside, so I stayed at home, but every time I turned on the TV, all I saw was news about COVID-19.
I wanted to show my son something fun, and I thought, "I might as well show something in English," so I did some research and came across Yume Mama's Instagram.
Later, when my son was one year old, I bought the DWE Mickey Package + Q&A second-hand, added the missing parts, and completed the complete set second-hand.
From thereFor about six months, I played one DVD (PA or SA) a day, and spent the rest of the time playing SA or PA CDs (for about 7 or 8 hours)..
When my son was one and a half years old,Yume Mama's Instagram states that SP needs to be used for more than 3 hours a day.I learned that, and from then on, while I was at home,Always keep SP running while in the carI started doing that.
Since my child was in home care until he was three years old, I started giving him continuous running water for 7 to 8 hours every day for about a year and a half.
Of the things that were being played, 80 to 90 percent were SP, and the rest of the time they were PA, ZAM, and LP.
By the way, while in the bath, I used a waterproof speaker to play my son's favorite English songs and educational songs, such as songs about the days of the week, the month, and the phases of the moon, and The Wheels on the Bus.
that's why,
For about a year and a half, English was constantly being played in the house and in the car.
It was.
My son's first utterance was"Blue!!!"It was.
Since he was a baby, he has loved looking at cars, so whenever we went for a walk he would always look at them from the park, and every time a car passed by he would say simple things like, "That is a blue car!" or "Here comes a red car!", and he continued doing this.
I don't know if it was because of that, but even though he couldn't speak Japanese at all yet, he could say blue, red, purple, pink, and said "ugh" for green (lol).
Looking back, I think my son's English skills have all improved through cars.
While he was playing Oni-Kake-Ryuu, rather than concentrating on the screen, I basically listened to him while playing with other toys, but even so, as I called out the same phrases as during the Kake-Ryuu and DWE, he absorbed the words one after another.
Make the most of your child's interests by "linking" them together!
but,I can't seem to come up with a sentence. I'm still in the input stage, but I'm still worried.It was.
At that time, Yume Mama said,"Connecting things together" and "Making use of children's interests"When I heard this story, I thought, "This is it!"
I've been working really hard on just running the baths up until now,I had never thought about linking things, and I hadn't consciously tried to make use of my children's interests.(Looking back, I realize that I was unconsciously inputting English through the car, but I guess that was just luck...)
It was when my son was two and a half years old that we started focusing on the concept of "linking things together and making use of children's interests."
For example, SP4, PA3, and ZAM3 feature cars, so I played scenes with cars and used my son's favorite Cars to move along with the songs and stories, made roads with Pythagoras and rainbow toys, bought some Disney Lego Duplo, recreated SP4 perfectly, played with it together, took pictures of it, and made it into a picture book to read aloud. Not only DWE x Cars, but also when choosing YouTubeBe mindful of "linking things together and making use of children's interests"I carefully selected the videos, and the first YouTube video I showed my son was a video from Ryan's World of Ryan playing with Cars toys.
I chose Ryan for three reasons:
1) Playing with the same toys as my son
②There must be videos of you when you were about the same age as my son.
3) There aren't many sound effects, so you can hear the natural interactions between Ryan and his mom and dad (older videos had almost no sound effects).
From the first day I showed him, my son was captivated by Ryan and immediately started imitating him as he played and talked.
From there, we started buying toys similar to Ryan's, watching shopping videos instead of just Cars, using the kids' card in the same way, and making shopping lists in the same way and going shopping.
I used Ryan's YouTube channel as a kind of reenactment game.
However, I only let him watch YouTube for about 30 minutes a day and played DWE for more than four hours, so my life continued to revolve around DWE.
The explosive period begins
As Yume Mama advised,Focus on building a foundation with DWEI was doing that.
A change began to appear in my son just before he turned three. His sentences gradually became longer and he began to speak a lot of extraterrestrial languages.
From this time on, we focused on further linking real-life experiences with DWE (this was also advice from Yume Mama), and while doing so, we went to the circus, visited a farm, and made birthday cakes.Whatever I do, I can now connect it to DWE, which has greatly expanded the scope of my recreational play, and I feel like the hurdles I set for myself have been lowered.There was.
Then, one month later, when my son was 3 years and 1 month old, I received a message from Yume Mama.Explosive period certificationI received it (;_;)!!!
He is now 3 years and 8 months old, and his life still revolves around DWE.
Although he is still working hard to become bilingual, my son now speaks English when he is playing alone, and he speaks English so fluently that it is clear he is thinking in English.
In my family, my husband is not good at English and can't speak it at all, so when I ask my son in English, like "Can you ask my husband if ____ is there?", my son translates it, asks my husband in Japanese, and then answers me in English again lol
Even though he is my own child, I think he is amazing every day. However, I think the reason I have been able to get this far is because I have received so much advice from Yume Mama and Besty, which has helped me to stay highly motivated.
I will continue to work hard to achieve my goal of becoming bilingual in just one year!!!
Message from Rino
(I also occasionally write the "Practical Tips" section of the blog "The Frontline of English at Home" ♫)
Nice to meet you ☺️
I'm Rino! My 3-year-old son and I are working on English at home using DWE as a base.
Taking advantage of my son's interests, I have been able to improve his English skills while having fun playing.I plan to 🥺!
As a second-hand DWE user, I had a hard time meeting fellow students and no one to turn to for advice, so I continued to teach English at home with feelings of anxiety and loneliness rather than enjoyment. However, I wanted to approach English at home with my son in a more enjoyable and confident way, so I decided to join Besty, which offers an environment where I can hear directly from moms who have raised bilingual children and work hard with moms who share the same aspirations ❤️🔥💪
I am still working hard to become bilingual, but I have received a lot of advice from my instructors so far, which has given me confidence and allowed me to work hard and have fun, which has helped me reach my explosive stage.
I am very grateful for that, so I would like to update my blog with the hope that I can be of some help to moms who are currently feeling anxious, lacking in confidence, or struggling. 🥹❤️🔥❤️🔥
Thank you very much for your support🙇🤍
