Mom: Arisa
daughter:TentenChan (8 years old, girl)
Daughter: Anju (5 years old, girl)
A late start and my eldest daughter's lack of progress
From December 2023, my eldest daughter will be 8 years old (second grade) and my second daughter will be 5 years old (preschool).I started learning English at home quite late.I did.
I myself have always wanted my children to be able to speak English, but my husband had a strange opinion that "It's okay even if they can't speak English because by the time they grow up, there will be useful machines in the world," so we didn't agree...lol
I was shocked when I happened to come across a pair of sisters on Instagram who were speaking fluent English using DWE at home.
In the midst of all this, my eldest daughter said, "I want to go abroad" and "I want to go to summer school," and that's when we decided to purchase DWE.
Once I made the decision, I applied immediately, and when the study materials arrived at my home, I made an appointment with my sister.
"I won't watch Japanese TV until I can speak English."
From that day on, I asked my dad to help me, and we stopped watching Japanese TV and started by creating a good environment.
My sisters were not used to watching TV to begin with, so even though it was a DWE DVD, they were glued to the screen every day, even though they didn't understand the meaning of it, as they were able to watch TV all day, from the moment they woke up in the morning until just before they went to bed.
In addition to streaming DVDs,
Weekdays: Listen to Book 1 story with a magic marker before going to bed, play 10 TACs in the morning, read Todo English, and touch the SA poster with a magic marker.
Weekends: Do weekday activities + one page of Q&A and F&A
I made this a routine and worked my way through Blue from the beginning.
After about three months, I began to feel anxious and impatient, wondering if I would really be able to speak English using this method.
As for the sisters, they were completely confused by anything other than the DVD...they were in a state of "I don't understand what they're saying," "It's not fun," and "I don't want to do it." However, we repeatedly encouraged them by saying, "Let's work hard so that we can speak English," and somehow they managed to continue working on it.
Meanwhile, my second daughter was able to read the words in the books better than my eldest daughter (Books 1 and 2) and it became clear that she understood more than my eldest daughter.
The eldest daughter is frustrated that she is losing to the second daughter and is the only one who doesn't understand English, so she sulks and says, "I want to be able to speak English, but I don't want to do anything other than the DVDs" ⇨ She talks to her mother about it ⇨ She tries again ⇨ But she still feels frustrated and sulks again, and this cycle repeats several times.
At this time (around the first 2 months), it was difficult to see my eldest daughter, who wanted to speak English and loved it, struggling.
Because I was immature, there were times when I got angry at my eldest daughter when she was sulking.
Yume Mama's encounter with Instagram and joining Besty
Just when I was thinking about how to break out of this situation, I came across Yume Mama's Instagram account and learned about Besty.
The moment I saw it, I decided to join Besty, saying "I definitely want to participate!" lol
However, at that time, only monitor students were available and it was not yet possible for them to participate immediately.
I had about two months until I could participate, but Yume Mama still took time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions (;;)
I didn't have any friends around me who spoke English at home, so I was saved by Yume Mama on many occasions (;;)
I will never forget how kindly you listened to me when I boldly sent you my first DM, asking to be included in Besty, even though we had never met (;;)
After meeting Yume Mama, I reviewed my approach based on the advice she gave me in the two months leading up to joining Besty.
Then,Both sisters are now producing Blue level vocabulary output.
I still remember how happy I was.
It was April, and I took the bilingual course as an April student.The course explained in detail many things, including the parental mindset, the stages in becoming bilingual, the need to take steps that are tailored to each stage (time), why it is necessary to take steps that are tailored to each time, an explanation of the background, key points to keep in mind when taking steps, cognitive characteristics, and more.
So I wondered if that was the order in which the lessons were being taught, or if that was why there was no output at all, or if that was why I was able to read the text, and so on. I felt like the dots were all connecting.It was.
After taking the bilingual course, I further reviewed the content of my efforts and focused on strengthening my input and getting used to speaking sentences.
Then, in June, two months after taking the bilingual course, I was able to answer Blue's Q&A cards 1-25 in sentences.
When I first started DWE, I was surprised to see that my child had grown to the point where he could understand what was being said and respond in sentences, but I was also surprised that he could grow to this extent depending on how he approached it..
After taking a short course in August, I reviewed the content of my efforts again.
This dramatically increased the speed at which I understood things.
Not everything, but since my speed of understanding has increased, has the speed of input also increased? Perhaps the speed at which I can output information has increased more quickly than before.
Each time they took a class, I was able to review my efforts and see the sisters' growth, which was both a joy and a surprise!
I have personally experienced the importance of the content of our efforts!
My eldest daughter is having an explosive period!
At the end of October, my eldest daughter was certified as being in her explosive stage, and just when I was so happy, she suddenly stopped playing English games by herself (;;)
She's not at an age where she normally plays alone, but when I decided to tell my oldest daughter, "You haven't been talking to me much in English lately," she laughed and said, "My brain's tired!" (Looking back, perhaps because I was relieved that my daughter was producing so much output, I was speaking to her in English less, so that may have been a factor.)
I told her, "I see, but I'm happy to see you speaking English," and the next day her output increased again, making my mother happy again. She's now trying her best to speak to her in English, which she's not very good at.
Since we started teaching English at home, my emotions as a mother have been going through a lot of ups and downs, with joy, anxiety, impatience, sadness, and sometimes anger (sorry, girls lol) depending on how my sisters react, but at Besty, there are lots of other girls who are working hard just like me!
The open chat allows members to interact with each other, and watching the videos everyone sends has become one of the things I look forward to!
It's very reassuring to have friends who can empathize with you in both happy and sad times.
I will continue to work hard to make my sisters bilingual!!!
