Any Spanish Mums near Petersfield? Or native Spanish teachers?

[Sara333]

We are relocating to Petersfield from Spain at the end of this year with ds aged 6/7 and dd aged 4/5. They both already have quite a high level of Spanish and really don´t want them to lose it, in case we return in the future and also just so that all they´ve gained in the past few years hasn´t been a complete waste of time! I speak fluent Spanish but they won´t speak Spanish with me and I wouldn´t be able to teach them as they don´t pay any attention to me when I try and teach them anything!
Anyway, was wondering whether there are any Spanish mums locally with children of similar age who they could chat to in Spanish?
Also, if anyone knows of any native teachers in the area (qualified or unqualified) who could give them private lessons, please let me know.

Hi Sara, can't help you there as I'm currently in Spain (though maybe I'll help by bumping this . Just curious to know are your DCs fluent just because they went to nurseries/schools in Spain and had friends there or is your DP Spanish? I'm just in the process of starting my DS (just two) at a local nursery part-time and although in some ways he seems fine the staff there do report language frustration from him at times.

Hi skydancer, to answer your question, my DP is also British so we speak English at home, my DCs are currently at a bilingual school but all the other children are Spanish and just from living in Spain they have become quite fluent, DS can read and write Spanish too (they learn to write in a different way from English, all joined up and some of the letters are different!). My DS was 3 when we came here so he learnt English first then Spanish, my DD was 6 months when we came, she went to part-time nursery from about 18 months and was mixing languages a bit until about the age of 3 when it kind of all fell into place and she knew to speak English with us and Spanish with her friends. DS speaks very well, DD still makes mistakes "yo tienes 4 años, etc." but it never ceases to amaze me how they just pick up languages like sponges when they´re so young. Am sure your DS will quickly get over his language frustration and you´ll be surprised how quickly he learns the difference. Hope this helps!

Yes that does help a lot. Really interesting to me as it sounds as if you have been through all the integration -with DCs- into a foreign country/language (and now you're going 'back home'). My DP and I (he's English too) lived in Italy before Spain but this was before we had a child. I'm just aware of all the enormous implications of bringing a child up abroad - for example expecting them to integrate into a culture and language when we his parents haven't got much of a clue about the culture ourselves and language coming slowly! It feels much more vulnerable than bringing up your child on home turf, where you can kind of anticipate what their language progression will be, integration with other kids/parents, what sort of school they'll go to or even what TV they will watch! etc. etc.

I wondered long and hard about whether to put DS into an English or bilingual nursery but the advice from friends with kids here was to just put him in the local guardaria and that way he would learn Spanish/integrate quickest. I think it's probably true but I feel a bit cruel for doing this to him - throwing him in at the deep end as it were. Did you consider this option when you were here?

Hi Sara
I am spanish 38, expecting my first baby in Feb 2009. My husband is British and we are planning to bring up our son in spanish as much as we can so he can communicate with the family in Spain.

We live just 8-9 miles away from Petersfield in Lovedean.

Will be great to have somebody around to speak spanish from time to time if you are ok.

Ana

Hi Ana,
That would be great. I forgot to say I am expecting no. 3 due early March 2009, so our babies would be very close in age indeed! Will definitely keep in touch and would love to meet up once we´re over. Whereabouts in Spain are you from? You must miss it a lot (I know I will!)
Hi Skydancer,
I agree with your friends, and don´t feel cruel, to the contrary you are doing him a huge favour and giving him a second language which would be a gift for life, and he will find it much easier to adapt to school if he learns Spanish as early as possible. Before you know it, he´ll be correcting you with your Spanish (my DS does that with DH!)

Sorry for the hijack and good luck with your move, Sara. Skydancer, just wanted to echo what Sara said to you. We live in Spain. DH and I are both British. We have 4 DCs, aged 8, 6, 3 and 18 months. We came over when our eldest was nearly 3. All the DC went to guarderia from 2 years old and started school at 3. (Our DS, the 3 y o, is in his second week of school). Although it is tough for them to start with, I think it is much better for their integration and language skills. DH is a teacher at our local international school and we could have sent the DC there, but we felt that with so much teaching in English, they would not get the level of Spanish that they have got through the local state system, and would therefore always be a bit 'different' from their peers in that sense.

When they are under 3, language abilities vary so much anyway. Even in an English nursery in the UK you'll find kids that have just turned 2 who are really good talkers, and others who are almost 3 and can barely be understood. So don't worry too much about your DS now. He will pick it up as he needs it and will soon be rabbiting away

Many thanks Claricebean! And Sara for your reassuring words (and for being so forgiving of me having hijacked!) Calricebean great to hear all your experience with four DCs no less! Ok I'll keep going. I think what can disturb me more is the way they tend to have one staff member for 13-15 tots (with the manager popping in to help occasionally), so you can easily have a room full of crying, unattended kids. Then they don't let you do ANY coming in to where the children are or settling in period, so you have to completely trust whatever it is they are doing behind closed doors. The ethos seems to be "drop them rapidly, let them cry for a month and then they will give up crying and learn to like it; Tough love indeed. Maybe I just got a bum Guarderia. Maybe I'm too soft!

p.s claricebean - where in Spain if you don't mind saying?

We're in Cordoba. How about you? We were in Granada first so have had experience of 3 different guarderias. IME they do vary quite a bit. The one we used latterly for DD2, for DS and will next year for DD3 is lovely. They do the drop at the door thing too, but the staff are lovely and staff turnover very low, which counts for a lot I think.

What made a big difference to us was the attitude of staff to our DCs' initial lack of Spanish. When we moved to Cordoba it was mid year and we didn't have much choice of guarderia. We put DD1 (at the time 3) and DD2 in one from April to June but we found that they treated especially DD1 as though she were really stupid just because her Spanish language skills weren't that great. We spent that time looking for a good one for DD2 for the following year.

Luckily the local school which the 3 eldest go to now has been absolutely brilliant about their language skills. I know that it is more difficult for the teacher at first if you have a child struggling to make themselves understood, but it really is such a short time before they are fine in the second language. We are a bit of a novelty here though, so the teachers aren't jaded, as I imagine they could be in places where there are a lot more foreigners.

Now there is no difference between DD1 and DD2's Spanish and their classmates while they're at school. In other environments it's different because they miss out on whole tranches of vocab as we speak only English at home - for example, food. But that will come in time.

Sorry for the essay. Hope your DS is managing the settling in period OK today.

Please don't apologise for writing a lot - really appreciate hearing about all your experience. Just started another thread in the living overseas section (anyone living in Spain?) as was a bit embarrassed about taking over Sara's thread like this! Write more there?

Please don't apologise for writing a lot - really appreciate hearing about all your experience. Just started another thread in the living overseas section (anyone living in Spain?) as was a bit embarrassed about taking over Sara's thread like this! Write more there?

Good idea. We'll bow out now, Sara. Good luck with Peterborough and your third birth.

0oops I mean Petersfield

Hi Sara,

I am from Madrid and husband originally from Wales; We are looking for our baby to be born in Madrid late January 2009, as I am planning a C.S. and it would be easier to be with my family and get more help.

Espero estar de vuelta en UK dos semanas despues del nacimiento de nuestro hijo en madrid.

Me alegro mucho de las noticias de tu bebe en Marzo, es fantastico!! y me alegrara muchisimo mantener el contacto contigo y conocernos en cuanto llegues.

Que estais esperando?? nino o nina?

would be good to keep in touch. :-)

Ana

Hi Ana,
Pues no sé todavía si va a ser niño o niña, aquí no me lo pueden decir hasta la ecografía de las 20 semanas (que la tengo el 21 de este mes). Ya tengo la parejita asi que no me importa, aunque personalmente preferiría niña porque mi hija es un encanto, muy dulce y cariñosa, mientras mi hijo me da más trabajo, tiene muchos celos de la pequeña y se porta mal a veces por eso.
Cuidado con tu viaje a Madrid, porque creo que la mayoría de las líneas aéreas no te dejan viajar después de las 28 semanas sin certificado médico y luego a partir de no sé cuantas semanas no te dejan y punto, asi que compruebalo antes de reservar vuelos, etc. Bueno, me imagino que ya lo sabes.
Me haría ilusión conocerte cuando vuelva a UK y conocer a tu bebé cuando volváis de Madrid. Yo estudié la carrera en Madrid asi que viví allí hace 15 años, me imagino que habrá cambiado un poquito desde entonces.
Keep in touch, vale?
Sara

Vaya,, que suerte ya tienes la parejita. Yo personalmente tambien preferiria una nina pero no parece que vayamos a tener tanta suerte. Aqui fui al scan de las 20 semanas y fue bastante decepcionante. Es scan se completo en menos de 7 minutos y cuando preguntamos si era nino o nina nos dijo simplemente: Pues no se,, creo que es un nino pero no lo se. Imagino que de haber mirado lo hubiese visto pero bueno.. Ahora estoy en la semana 22 y aun no he visto a ninguna matrona y el contacto con el medico (una vez) fue una emergencia y fue muy desagradable.

En cuanto al viaje a Espana,, gracias por el consejo, estoy mirando de poder ir en el ferry hasta Bilbao y de ahi a Madrid. Principalmente, a parte de las lineas aereas, tambien me preocupa volar con un bebe de dos semanas de vuelta a UK asi que esta vez recorreremos la distancia por mar.

Definitivamente, me alegro mucho de conocerte y espero que nos mantengamos en contacto.

Un saludo!
Ana

Esto y algunas otras cosas me han hecho decidirme

Parece que has tenido mala suerte con los scans y los médicos. Tuve a mis 2 hijos en Londres y estaba muy contenta tanto con el parto como el pre-natal y post-natal care, bueno me imagino que dependerá del hospital, ¿porqué no vas a tu GP e intentas cambiar de hospital? Dicen que el hospital de Chichester es muy bueno, yo estoy pensando en irme allí por lo menos para el parto.

No había pensado en la posibilidad de viajar en ferry .. ¿no te da miedo ponerte de parto en el barco? .. a ver donde tendrías que registrar el nacimiento ? bueno si vas muy pronto supongo que no habrá ningún problema .. y para la vuelta estoy de acuerdo que sería mucho mejor por mar, ¿irá tu DH contigo? ¡Que ilusión!

Estaremos en contacto, ¿vale? Un saludo, Sara

La Jolie Ronde, they do Spanish and French and have teachers around the uk. My friends DS has French lessons at his local village hall on Sat mornings. www.lajolieronde.co.uk

Hola Sara,

YO estoy en el hospital de Chichester y dicen que es mejor que en St.Mary (Portsmouth).

DH will be with me in Spain. At the moment these are only plans, lets see how they develop.

Como es el espanol de tus dos ninos? te gustaria que siguiesen con el espanol (como segunda lengua) una vez que esteis en Petersfield?

Un saludo !

Thanks for the link mumma2, although there appear to be more French teachers in the area than Spanish ones. Will keep on looking, as also they´d have to be native teachers as having lived in Spain their Spanish is at quite a high level or at least they have perfect accents (which I´m very envious of)!

My DS´s Spanish is really good, and my DD gets by and has good vocab and comprehension, but makes some mistakes still in forming sentences, e.g. "yo me gusta pequeños perros" etc.

Yes I really want them to carry on with lessons and come back to Spain to practise during holidays, plus I am hoping we may be able to move back at some point in the future so that they can still have a chance to become completely bilingual.

Saludos

Good for you,, I think that languages is a great skill, y que no mucha gente en UK tiene. Es impresionante que quieras regalarles algo asi a tus hijos.

Nosotros queremos que el nuestro hable espanol tambien para poderse comunicar con mi familia en Madrid y tambien porque hoy por hoy es muy importante hablar otros idiomas.

Espero poder ayudarte con los ninos (el idioma) siempre que lo necesitas.. aunque entiendo que vosotros hablais un espanol muy fluido. Por otro lado me gusta la idea de que los ninos puedan jugar y hablar en espanol.

Nosotros tenemos unos amigos en Portsmouth con una hija de 5-6 anios que entiende el espanol perfectamente. A ella no le gusta mucho hablar espanol, pero si que lo hace cuando viene a nuestra casa de visita. Quiza por alguna razon piensa que no hablamos ingles y ella se esfuerza por hablarnos en espanol,, es una moneria ver ninos hablando tan pequenos dos idiomas! .

Un saludo

Hola Sara,

Espero que estes bien, hace ya tiempo que no he oido nada de ti.

Por aqui, engordando y esperando que pase el tiempo lo antes posible.

Sabes ya que dia os moveis de vuelta a UK?

Un saludo

Hola Sara,

Espero que estes bien, hace ya tiempo que no he oido nada de ti.

Por aqui, engordando y esperando que pase el tiempo lo antes posible.

Sabes ya que dia os moveis de vuelta a UK?

Un saludo

Hola Sara,

Espero que estes bien, hace ya tiempo que no he oido nada de ti.

Por aqui, engordando y esperando que pase el tiempo lo antes posible.

Sabes ya que dia os moveis de vuelta a UK?

Un saludo

Hola Ana
Gracias por acordarte de mí.

La verdad es que he estado muy liada, terminando cosas aquí y buscando casa, cole, etc. en UK, mi hija está ahora con fiebre, en fin una cosa tras otra.

Tenemos vuelos para volver al UK el 20 de Diciembre, después de terminar el trimestre del cole de los niños. Mi marido ya se ha ido (se fue ayer) por trabajo y para arreglar las cosas (alquilar y amueblar casa, etc.) y aunque estoy muy ocupada pues le echo de menos mucho, las hormonas del embarazo no ayudan mucho y los niños están un poco tristes sin su papi asi que tengo que intentar ser fuerte por ellos. Nos iremos a verle un fin de semana en Noviembre y él también vendrá una vez, pero nunca hemos tenido una separación tan larga, y tengo ganas de que se termine.

Estoy por dejarlo todo e irnos todos ahora, pero ahora mismo no puedo porque nuestra casa aquí no está terminada del todo y todavía tengo que arreglar cositas con los constructores y papeleo de licencias con el ayuntamiento etc. para poder dejarla en condiciones y quedarme tranquila antes de irnos y antes de que nazca el bebé.

Me he enterado que voy a tener una NIÑA, y estoy muy contenta, me hubiera dado igual pero bueno me hace ilusión tener otra niña además estará más cerca de edad a mi hija que a mi hijo.

¿Y tú? ¿Qué tal te va el embarazo? ¿Te gusta vivir en UK y en Lovedean o preferirías vivir en Madrid? ¿Ya has empezado a prepararte para el bebé etc.?

Todavía no sé donde voy a tener el parto, estaba en UK para el puente de Octubre y fui a ver el hospital de Chichester, no me gustaron mucho las salas de parto etc. Iré a ver el hospital de Petersfield, pero allí no tienen médicos sólo tienen comadronas asi que en el caso de complicaciones te mandan a Portsmouth y ya que me dijiste que Portsmouth es peor que Chichester, pues no sé.

Un beso Sara