I bought too many English handwriting books. Every now and then I get seized with panic that my bilingual children will fall behind their English peers in reading and writing. A large part of this is due to the fact that in Japan, primary school doesn't start until the April after you have turned six years old. In England and Wales primary school starts the September after you turn 4 years old. This means that some of my friends in the UK have had their children in school for more than a year and my daughter (5) who is the same age is still in nursery. When I hear them talking about the progress their child is making in English I find it impossible not to worry that I am in some way failing my children and their English education.
TLDR: I'm currently using the CGP daily practice workbooks
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My worries as a parent raising bilingual children in Japan
It's hard to remember that our experience raising English Japanese billinguals in Japan is completely different from following the UK national curriculum. In these fits of panic, I have printed and scrutinised the full English Literacy pathway for England and Wales and ordered ridiculous amounts English handwriting books. I even ordered the Alphablocks DVDs and reading set for a two year old because she liked the cartoon. Once my daughter showed some interest in the Collins handwriting book, I ordered the set and the flashcards and the wipeable workbooks too. Most of these we didn't use. My mistake was sharing the vast quantity of materials I had with my daughter. The rarity of having an English writing book lost its sheen and she lost interest.
How can I develop my bilingual childrens English reading and writing skills at home?
Buying the workbooks books briefly quells the panic but its's obviously not the solution. To placate emotional impulse purchases of yet more study materials, I have taken to feeding my logical brain by seeking out the research.
Bialystoks (2007) Aqusition of literacy in bilinguals paper states that as long as bilinguals have rich and consistent literacy experiences in both languages their literacy development can parallel that of their monolingual peers.
How can we create rich and consistent literacy experiences?
It takes time to nuture and generate interest in the home language. When my children were very young I worried about them learning Japanese, now my concern is them having the ability to read and write in English. Senpai parents will tell you, give it time, it will happen but I never find that very reassuring. The most difficult part of learning to read and write English at home seems to be carving out a regular time to do it. Bedtime reading I have found easy and it has always been a part of our bedtime routine that we read to the children in English.
When we do Reading Eggs consistently I really notice my daughters reading coming on in leaps. But the motivation for this wanders. I never want English study to be something I have to nag about. I'm always looking for that one magic resources that engages them. I don't think it exists and have decided variety is what works best for us. I'll utilise a resource until they get bored and then move on. We liked the Progress with Oxford workbooks for a while and when Paw Patrol was popular in our house we did the
Paw Patrol workbook too. I haven't quite given up on Reading Eggs yet, I think it is because I don't yet have a good alternative to offer.
Our current English study setup
Here is what is currently working for us:
This workbook doesn't come with stickers which were briefly motivating when we used the Progress with Oxford workbooks.
I like the CGP books because they match the UK curriculum (as do the Oxford and Collins workbooks). I also remember using CGP for my GCSE Science revision over 20 years ago, the layout of the revision guides closely matched the exam which served me well.
The CGP daily handwriting practices books have 5 pages to complete each week. At the front of the book it states that it should take 15 minutes per page. We are now on the Summer book. The first 4 weeks of pages are tracing letters and are easily completed in under 5 minutes. They have a picture to colour on many of the pages and we often skip these. As the book progresses I think the activities will take a little longer.
Why I cut up the CGP Reception Handwriting Daily Practice book
My daughter is currently going to Kumon for kokugo (Japanese) and it is going well. With Kumon you only get given the worksheets that you have to work on at home that week. So in
Atomic Habit style we are chaining the English study onto the already successful Kumon study. I've cut up the CPG workbook into worksheets and just take out one page each day. This removed the distraction of flicking through the rest of the book and it's not so overwhelming that there is still so much work to do.
Having now tried a variety of handwriting practice workbooks, I think it really comes down to personal preference and sometimes you just need variety. All of the workbooks that I mentioned in this post are very similar in terms of English content and progress inline with the national curriculum.
I don't have all of the answers but I hope that sharing my experience can help you. I've been there worrying about whether I am offering the right English materials. We've got this!
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