HS #241: How Morning Time Transformed Our Bilingual Homeschool Lauren Stengele

HS #241: How Morning Time Transformed Our Bilingual Homeschool Lauren Stengele

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Show Notes:

How Morning Time Transformed Our Bilingual Homeschool

Description: Lauren Stengele is a non-native Spanish speaker, language teacher, and bilingual homeschooling mom. She creates homeschooling resources for bilingual families at www.bilingualtogether.com. Today, Lauren addresses one difficulty all homeschooling families face: where do we find the time to do the things that are most important to us as a family? Listen in as she talks about Morning Time, and how it allowed her to focus on one very important aspect of her family’s homeschool: raising bilingual children.

Bio: Lauren is a language teacher by training with a degree in Education and Spanish. After college, she became certified in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and taught adults from around the world. When she became a mom, she pursued her life-long dream of raising bilingual children. This journey has included starting the first-ever bilingual preschool in her rural area, hosting a weekly Spanish Playgroup in her home, and homeschooling her children in two languages. She creates homeschooling resources for bilingual families and writes about bilingual homeschooling at www.bilingualtogether.com.

Show Transcript:

Wendy -

Well hey there, welcome to the Homeschool Solutions podcast. I'm your host, Wendy Speake. Here on the podcast, we start each week with a longer, more traditional podcast, most often with guests, but sometimes, we simply open the Word together and apply it directly to our homeschooling days.

On Thursdays, however, we share shorter episodes that I like to call blogcasts, where one of our favorite homeschool bloggers simply encourages us with the content of one of their recent blog posts. I hope this message serves you and your family today.

As always, I'd like to thank our sponsor, Sonlight Curriculum. The wonderful people at Sonlight Curriculum offer complete homeschool curriculum that you are guaranteed to love.

And now, let me introduce you to one of my friends.




Lauren -

Hello. My name is Lauren Stangele. I create homeschooling resources for bi-lingual families at bilingualtogether.com.

Today, I will be sharing a blog post with you that addresses a common difficulty all homeschooling families face. Where do we find the time to do the things that are most important to us? For me, one of those things is raising my kids bilingually in Spanish and English. For you, that may be something completely different.

Regardless of what is important to you, I hope this post encourages you to keep pursuing what is important to your family. Without further ado, here is how morning time transformed our bilingual homeschool.

Everyone who is homeschooling bilingually is swimming upstream. We encourage our kids to swim with us, but many days, they would rather float easily into the current of monolingualism. We end up fighting to keep them by our side on the journey, and it is exhausting.

Where do we find rest? It is so important, on this bilingual journey, to find spaces of rest. An oasis. A safe harbor. Where a minority language is embraced with joy and laughter. For us, in our homeschool, we have found that respite in morning time.

Morning time contains subjects that the family can do together, that emphasize truth, goodness, and beauty in their homeschool. That was a quote by Pam Barnhill.

Although the idea of morning time was originally coined years ago by Cindy Rawlins, it has risen in popularity in homeschooling circles, mainly through the work of Pam Barnhill. In its simplest form, morning time is about intention. A time to gather as a family to focus on goodness, truth, and beauty.

Focus. A time to front-load your day with what matters most and ensure that the important is not pushed aside by the urgent.

Connection. A time for family members of all ages to learn together.

Joy. A time to make learning fun.

Although it's generally known as morning time, it doesn't have to be done in the morning. And it doesn't have to be called morning time. I've heard names like circle time, or symposium.

Some families gather during the baby's nap. Some, right after lunch. I know families that spend an hour or more together, and others that can only find ten minutes. The point in all of it is that it brings your family together to focus on truth, beauty, and goodness. And in a bilingual homeschool, we use this time to focus on our minority language as well.

My first attempts at a bilingual homeschool were disastrous. It mainly stemmed from my overzealous attempt to present all material in both languages. I switched back and forth between English and Spanish when I felt like it, without stopping to think how much extra work I was requiring of my children. They started to resent me and the language.

Our bilingual homeschool now is not perfect, but it is working. And morning time is the magic that ensures our minority language has a prominent place in our homeschool day.

Morning time, by its nature, draws us in and unified us around what is important. And for our family, Spanish is important. From the moment I implemented morning time in our homeschool, I did so in Spanish. No more switching back and forth between languages. My kids accepted the change almost instantly. In fact, I think they were relieved.

Our homeschool days that used to involved strong pushback around our minority language, now happen mostly in our minority language, with no complaints from my children. During morning time, my kids happily swim upstream at my side, and I don't have to fight anymore.

If you are interested in learning more about how to incorporate another language into your homeschool, I invite you to visit bilingualtogether.com. And now, I leave you with a blessing. Que Dios les bendiga.




Wendy -

I hope that today's blogcast equipped and encouraged you. Remember that next week, I'll be back with another great conversation right here on the Homeschool Solutions podcast. My name is Wendy Speake, I'm your host, and I am so glad that you tuned in today.

But before we sign off, I'd like to invite you to subscribe right now to the Homeschool Solutions podcast through Apple or Google Play. And speaking of invitations, won't you join me at one of the Great Homeschool Conventions this year? These conventions are my favorite, offering dozens of wonderful speakers, and hundreds of inspiring exhibitors. Go to GreatHomeschoolConvention.com and find one near you in 2020.

This year, I will be at the Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, and California Conventions. Make sure to stop by and say hey if you'll be at one of those events. But in the meantime, we've got this podcast and Homeschooling.mom as other great resources to support you as you educate your kids in math and science and literature, yes, but also as you train them in Godliness and love.

Until next time, this is Wendy Speake. I hope that you and your family have a wonderful day.

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