More language on a walk

Times when Sasha would nap on our walks have passed. Nowadays, it's all about looking around, exploring, meeting people and animals... While walks have always been part of our daily routine, now they have become part of his awake time.

For me this means, every walk (which may last an hour to three hours) can be an opportunity to teach him more Russian. As I push the stroller towards Cheeseman park, I point out squirrels, dogs, cars, people, bicycles... At this point, he can already recognize what I mean when I point out a dog. So, just saying (in Russian): "Look! It's a dog!" is not enough. I narrate with details: "Do you see two dogs over there -  a black one and a white one?",  "Look at that big, shabby dog across the street!", "Do you see a dog coming towards us?", "What does that dog say? Woof! Woof!". The same applies to squirrels, which fascinate Sasha beyond description. And so, I go into details about each squirrel in the park, its ears, nose, fuzzy tail and what it is munching on.

The way I see it, the more narration, the more contexts I provide Sasha with. His brain can then decipher my speech and identify the words that he has heard before in similar contexts. Animals excite all children at his age, and that excitement means high level of interest which translates into high motivation to learn.

Of course, each walk can also be a missed opportunity. We walk the same streets every day. And depending on the hour, we might not meet any dogs on the way to the park. But I don't want to be silent as we walk, I want to pack him with more phonetics and grammar. And so, I sing on the way to the park. (I wonder if the locals think of me as "that crazy singing lady with the stroller".) My repertoire includes mostly songs about walking, travel, and wander.  I know that, at this age, Sasha cannot really understand each word I am singing, but it gives him more exposure to Russian phonetics (the sounds of the language).

At the park, we are surrounded by English, obviously. And even though I converse with other parents and children in English, I still address Sasha in Russian only (One Parent One Language method), including description of what's going on around us: "Oh, that girl is just having so much fun on the swing!", "See how those children are going down the slide?", etc. This creates some confusion, mostly between me and toddlers. A four year old claimed that I said: "Snickerdoodle". I tried to explain to him that I was speaking Russian, which is a different language. He did not understand that. His parents commented that he has not been exposed to any language other than English, so he would not know what is a language.

I am sure that Sasha will know that concept, because he has exposure to more than one language.