Hablando Espanol

When we first decided on Colombia, learning Spanish became a top priority. Our new daughter, being 3 or 4 yrs old, will have a lot of language. We will need to learn so we can communicate with her in those critical first few months. We also want her to be able to keep her Spanish, therefore we feel it is important to learn as well.

I immediately went and bought Rosetta Stone and started working on it. At the same time I was overwhelmed with paperwork and other requirements while completing our dossier. I decided to take a break and pick it back up once our dossier was in Colombia. So I’ve been back at it for now for a couple of weeks. I did take a couple classes in high school and college, but most of it is long gone. The task seems overwhelming. The importance is imperative.

Raleigh (our 4 yr old biological daughter) was at an in-home daycare when she was 3 for about 6 months with a Colombian woman. She spoke just about everything in Spanish and in English to the kids. We took R out when we felt she was ready for a classroom setting. This year in pre-K she has had Spanish once a week in school. And we hired a tutor to come to our home once a week for her, although I’m getting so much out of it too! I LOVE our tutor, Marcia! She is awesome with R and makes it fun for her. Originally, we were going to keep R at her school for summer camp. I decided to look around to see if there was any Spanish camp options in our area. I found one that has 4 weeks throughout the summer near us that gets great reviews. We decided this would be a good option for her. It is an immersion program, so hopefully she’ll start picking it up quickly. The weeks she’s not at camp she will be going to her old in-home daycare with Claudia. She will have a summer FULL of Spanish!

Sam took Spanish in school too, but he remembers much more than me. He can actually converse a little with Marcia when she comes over. He is so busy with work that he can’t spend quite the time I do on it. But he will pick it up quickly by me just reviewing what I’m learning with him.

Also, we bought a book/CD set of sentences and phrases most important and useful to adoptive parents. I haven’t spent too much time with it yet, but I’ll get there. Since R will be so immersed this summer, I think I’ll keep Marcia coming for me. R might have had enough all day to come home to a tutoring session in the evening.

We love this child before we’ve even met her and are trying to do everything we can to make her/our transition as smooth as possible.