02 August 2012

More Teaching Kids About Poland

I know many of you are parents looking for ways to teach your children about Poland. 

I found some more interesting ideas to help teach kids about Poland.




First, Yahoo! Kids has an entire section about Poland.  There are no games or videos, but the site is great for research.  You could check out a few interesting tidbits there about Poland and talk about them while looking at a map of Poland together. 


WGBY in Connecticut, together with The Kosciuszko Foundation, Central Connecticut State University, Polish National Credit Union, and the Polish National Alliance, has some great coloring pages for Polish American kids.




With the temperatures still soaring outside, you could print out a couple of these pages and give them to your kids to color in.  Say the colors of the crayons in Polish with them and ask them to repeat it back to you.  Cheer them on, no matter their pronunciation.

I once had a pediatrician tell me that, unless a child has an actual speech problem, in which case speech therapy is the best option, they will naturally correct themselves over time.  There is no need to say "No, say it like this" to them, if anything that just affects their self esteem negatively, particularly regarding learning a new language.  My childrens' pediatrician explained that the more you say the word around them, the more the correct pronunciation is embedded in their "language memory".  And, eventually they will say it correctly themselves.

I hope helps keep you encouraged as the keepers of your family language and culture.  Have patience, keep trying and keep encouraging, and eventually, our kids will get it.

Another bonus to being persistent?  Our kids will be more quickly able to master other languages, such as Spanish.  They will also have a better understanding of our world and have more compassion toward others.

There could be nothing wrong with that.




On another topic, what do you think of this latest article "FACT CHECK: Romney on Polish Economy, Gov't Role"?  The author discusses with figures the Polish Economy and Government Role in it.  I'd love to hear your opinion.

Na razie...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi! My name is Amanda and I found your blog when I was looking for a carrot salad recipe. I'm living in Poland (American girl, teaching English, home in the States for the summer), and I thought this post reminded me of my friend's foundation in Wroclaw -- Fundacja FREYA. http://www.freya.org.pl/main/

You should check it out. It promotes Polish culture for children of Polish descent around the world. :)