Friday, April 15, 2011

There is a bunch of kakas on our tree

We have a tree just outside our windows, and it is a home to squirrels, sparrows, woodpeckers, and so on. Sasha enjoys keeping track of them. And every so often, he is sitting in his high chair and saying: "Kaka! Uh-oh!"

First, I thought that he pooped, because kaka is a Russian word for poop. But you will be surprised that this is Sasha's word for any kind of birds he sees.

The explanation for this is plain simple. Last fall, I used to take him to Cheeseman Park for a stroll and also for swinging. In Cheeseman Park, there are many crows, and so I taught Sasha that the crow (in Russian - ворона) says: "Karrr! Karrr!" ( I understand that it says: "Caw! Caw!" in English, but you will be surprised how different the sounds of animals are from one language to another). It took him 2-3 months to connect the dots, and it wasn't until January of this year when, upon arriving to Cheeseman Park, he started saying: "Ka! Ka!" as imitation of crow's cry. (Sasha cannot roll his Rs, yet. It takes Russian children years before they can.)

Now, since we moved to our new apartment with a tree outside our window, I realized that he quickly learned to generalize, and he is now using crow's cry to name any bird he sees. 

This is typical for his age. According to Barbara Zurer-Pearson, as well as to Dr. Harvey Karp (check out his book "The happiest toddler on the block"), between one and two years of age, toddlers ascribe multiple meanings to the same form (form is sounded word or a sentence, or a sign). Sasha does the same with ASL sign "more". While most of the time he uses it to ask for more of whatever, now and then, he uses it to ask to read a book. This is how he originally learned the sign. He would cry because a book would be over, and Greg would teach him to use the sign to ask for more. There are occasions when he brings us a random book and signs: "More!", meaning: "Read this book!"

Either way, Sasha's use of the word kaka creates a lot of confusion for his parents, because he has been known to use it in context of going on the potty, and now there is "Kaka! Uh-oh!". My translation for that is: "Birds! Where are the birds? They are gone! Birds fell down!"

Thursday, April 14, 2011

A possibility of Russian immersion in Denver

I have recently contacted a charter school in SE Denver / Glendale area which offers a German immersion for elementary students. I posed a question: Why just German? And why not Russian? Their location is in the midst of a Russian-Jewish / Russian-Central Asian community with stores, cultural centers and restaurants directed at Russian speaking customers. Why not Russian immersion?

To my surprise, the director of the school (World Wide Academy, Laura Smallwood) responded with eager interest on the subject. She says it is a possibility, and the center she is working closely with would be interested in starting a Russian immersion as soon as next school year. What it comes down to is how many parents would be actually interested in something like that. So, at this point I am volunteering to promote the possibility of the program.

If you know a family that would be interested in placing their child into a Russian immersion program in Denver, please forward them this information:


Worldwide Academy
2829 N Fairfax Street
Denver, CO 80207

Ms. Laura Smallwood
303-564-5848

They are welcome to write an email to Laura in order to express their interest: laura8sule@msn.com

Dear Laura:

I am a parent of a ... year old child, and I am interested in placing my child into a school that would offer a partial or a full immersion in Russian language. If World Wide Academy would start such a program, we intend to apply for admission starting with the school year ... . Please feel free to contact me at ... (phone number) or via email: ....

Sincerely,
.........

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

New happenings

It's been over a month since my last post. There is a whole bunch of excuses for that: we moved, I got a small irregular job, we have been having visitors and small get-togethers at our new place, and most importantly - the weather is getting better.

In the meantime, Sasha is learning new words in both English and Russian. His favorite English words are Hi! and fish, and in Russian he says каша, нет and he has been caught saying купаться. Of course, most of his communication is still signs, grunts, points, cries etc. The most identifiable signs are "more" (the classic ASL sign) and "play some music" (by swinging with whole upper body from left to right with hands in the air). However, I have also noticed that he sometimes talks and talks in long sequences of syllables, but I just have no idea what he says. For example, a couple of days ago in the car, he was repeating the same long utterance over and over, and the intonation sounded like it was either a question or a request, but I don't know what he said. It's very amusing.

In the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to teach Sasha to draw shapes. He easily identifies shapes. We have a green 3D triangle, a blue rectangle, a red square (it's actually a cube, but for the purpose of learning I call it a square), and a yellow circle (a cylinder). So, when I draw a circle, I use yellow color, etc., and it makes it easier to compare the drawing to the object, because we can identify it by color and by shape. Sasha easily finds the right object when he sees me drawing it. And if I ask: "Where is the triangle?" - He picks out the right object. Except that sometimes he confuses the triangle with the rectangle, because they sound similar. Still, it's a start. At the end, I always offer Sasha a crayon, so that he can draw a shape. So far, he has been drawing things that cannot be identified as a particular geometrical shape, but the goal is that he draws something instead of just scribbling lines across the page.

I see this exercise helpful not just for drawing, but also for language skills. Ultimately, the interaction between us, as well as naming and finding the right object is a language exercise. Every time an adult names an object for a child, he separates that object from the surrounding world of chaos. So, naming and finding is a great skill.

Last weekend, we had visitors from Germany and one of them were drawing fish for Sasha. I also drew one or two and went to take a shower. When I came back, our German friend informed me that Sasha drew a fish. The was a giant shape on top of all other fish drawings that absolutely looks like fish (it does not have eyes or scales, or fins, but it's a giant fish). So, officially the first thing he has ever drawn is fish. Both of his grandpas will be proud.

I will try to pace myself through all the other stories, such as explaining why Sasha calls birds kaka. So, watch for new posts soon.