Mommy is tired! Now what?
We are raising our children trilingually and I speak the two minority languages (Cantonese and English) to our two young children. Meeting the 30% exposure goal per language has been a challenge to say the least. And being a working mom, there are days that I am just too tired to stick to my planned Cantonese language activities or even to talk. Here are some activities I do on those days to try to keep up the Cantonese language exposure for my kids.
1. Cantonese cartoons
My toddler normally gets 30 to 60 minutes TV time each day. But when I am feeling exhausted, I am more relaxed about it and try to make the TV time an "educational" one by choosing Cantonese cartoons. If you can't find any DVD's of Cantonese cartoons, you can always rely on YouTube. You can find a list of cartoons on my "Kids: Cantonese Cartoon 卡通影片" Pinterest Board. And wouldn´t it be perfect if Netflix has Cantonese cartoons too?
2. Cantonese songs
I believe every parent should stock up on quiet time activities and I swear by them. You can find abundant quiet time activity ideas on Pinterest and I have saved the good ones on my "Quiet Time Activites 安靜時間" Pinterest Board. Experts said that independent play is important for child development and I say it´s crucial for keeping mommy sane. A quiet time activity usually buys me 45 to 60 minutes of freedom. During this time, why not play some Cantonese nursery rhymes as background noise? There's a small selection of Cantonese nursery rhymes on Spotify - try looking up 兒歌 or 粵語兒歌.
3. (Skype) play dates with grandparents
If you have the grandparents nearby, just drop off the kids there so they get a couple hours of Cantonese conversations while you recharge your batteries. Though my parents live in Hong Kong, I sometimes seek their help to "babysit" via Skype. Obviously I still need to be around but the grandparents do all the talking which helps a great deal already. To avoid chasing after the kids with the laptop or iPad, you may need to be a little creative. For example, you can sit the kids down with a quiet time activity and let the grandparents lead it, or get the grandparents to read to the kids (would be handy if the kids have the same copy of the book too), or turn up the music for grandparents to sing along with the kids, etc..
4. Audio books
My toddler loves to read but obviously can't read by herself yet. So children's books with audio are great. I'm looking to expand my collection of Chinese children's books with Cantonese audio and welcome any recommendations you may have. I must say that my trilingual parenting journey has been made so much easier by the "砵砵車 Little Toy Car" magazine. It is a bilingual (Chinese-English) magazine for children of 1 to 4 years old. And it comes with a CD that is dubbed in three languages - Cantonese, English and Mandarin. My toddler loves the magazine and is happy to work through the CD with my assistance. The magazine is published by Bayard in Hong Kong but they deliver overseas to with a small charge. If you are not familiar with this magazine already, you can check out a free online copy here.
So what tricks do you have up your sleeve to get some rest while continuing to maintain your kid's minority language exposure? Do share in a comment.
