When Mom and Kid Learn Cyrillic, Guess who Succeeds Faster?
As I alluded to last week in Expat Confessional–I am barely literate … I am learning Cyrillic, or at least trying to, for the sake of my daughter.
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- Skirt & Bra, designed by Danica. Fashionista? Yes. Early reader? Um, not so much.
When Danica was 2 1/2, I was determined to make sure she would be “kindergarten ready,” and spent many stressful hours teaching her to write her letters. I started with her name.
Once we were through the Latin alphabet, I had the brilliant idea to show her how to write in Cyrillic.
I know, I know, I’m still operating on the American “push to succeed.” Few other parents here are as actively worried about their child’s academic development. There’s more of a “you’re only a kid once,” and “what kid doesn’t know how to read?”–type of attitude.
First Foray into Cyrillic
She was three when I started on her name in Cyrillic. The first letter, D, is: Д. When I showed it to her, my daughter immediately screamed, “That. is. a. TRIANGLE! That is not my letter,” and stormed off.
It’s a trapezoid, I wanted to say, but knew well enough not to argue.
Two years have passed, and I haven’t pushed the issue further. Now, at Danica’s preschool, they are learning their Cyrillic letters, and within the context of school or from any mommy besides her mommy, she’s fine with learning the Serbian alphabet.
In fact, she now knows how to write her name (in only all caps, hey, you can’t have everything) in both Latin and Cyrillic letters. It’s no easy feat, take a look:
D A N I C A
Д А Н И Ц А
Okay, it’s not sooo different, but notice that you have “N” in Latin and then backwards “N” is an “i” sound, and is written as И in Cyrillic. Luckily, Danica learned her right from her left fairly early so, the “slide” (diagonal line) in N faces right and the “slide” in И faces left.
If all of this is making your head spin, just skip it. I did … going on three years, and I live here.
The Perils of the Mother-Daughter Relationship
One afternoon, Danica’s preschool teacher and I were chatting about home schooling. Because I’m a masochist Just for fun, I asked my daughter, “Would you like to be home schooled? I could be your teacher.” Danica had no words.
Ignoring me, she looked at her teacher and rolled her eyes, as if to say, “Can you believe this shit?” and finally turned to me and simply shook her head, “no.” And that was the end of that.
Skirt & Bra, designed by Danica. Fashionista? Yes. Early reader? Um, not so much.
And so, I’m slowly learning my Cyrillic letters, and I’m looking forward to the day when both Danica and I can read Cyrillic.
That’s the beauty of the completely phonetic aspect of the Serbian language. Whereas in English, a child has to learn the name of the letter, the sound it makes (“A” says aaaa, etc.), and then deal with all of the “exceptions to the rules.” In Cyrillic, once you recognize all your letter-sounds, reading is pretty much a done-deal.
Although, by that time I’m sure Danica is going to be correcting me, as she already does with spoken Serbian. Good times.
My husband is Russian and I had to learn the Cyrillic alphabet before we traveled to Russia. It was difficult at first and it took a lot of practice and patience. It is fun to learn something new! Good luck!
Nelieta,
Thanks so much for commenting! Yes, it can be fun, but I tend to be a perfectionist, and I suspect it is getting in the way right now … Thanks for the words of encouragement!
Laura
Interesting blog post. I've never heard of Cyrrilic until today. I can totally relate to the mother daughter thing. I teach my girl violin and if someone saw the bickering and the resistance by my daughter, I would be fired. lol Your daughter is adorable and I like that where you live the attitudes are more relaxed. I get really tired of watching parents go crazy pushing their kids. Then if you aren't one of them, they all think you are just lazy for not pushing your kid into every extra-curricular activity and they really hate it when there is a night without homework. I say, no homework? Yay! Isn't 6 hours a day enough? I do push my daughter on the violin, otherwise she would never play it, but I feel strongly that playing and learning to read music is very important. I honestly don't remember my parents being pushy about learning and I turned out ok (well maybe that is debatable!)
Love you, Laura:)
I think it's also definitely a case of chosing one's battles, especially with a high-maintenance person like, ah em, my daughter. (The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree in this case.)
I think your daughter will cherish the time you spend learning together … when she received praise, she may never tell you, but she'll feel the pride of hard work.
Laura
I home schooled all 4 of my kids and taught them to read by a method that teaches the letter sounds instead of the identifying name. It worked much better. I never tried to teach them two languages while also learning it myself. I think I'd leave that to the teachers. But you're still an awesome mom. Just look at that sweet smile on Danica.
Oh mi goodness … you. are. a. better. person. than. I. Four kids? Home schooling? And you lived to tell the tale? I had no idea!
Thanks for your encouragement, Grace. It means a lot coming from a seasoned mom such as yourself!
Laura
This made me laugh out loud for reals. (If you charged people by the laugh, I couldn't afford to read your blog.)
Corie — you are too funny … Thank you, that is a real compliment for me. — Laura
Hate to tell you, but the Cyrillic version actually says Danisa
Oh jesus, I am fixing it now. Thank you!!! (I'm a mess.)
It was quite cute, actually, and it proved the point that Cyrillic letters were hard
I'm Serbian and learned the Latin alphabet on my own when I was 2, but didn't quite manage Cyrillic letters before I was in school. My older daughter is pretty much the same.
What a challenge ! I am not sure that I could learn a different alphabet at my (old) age. Ah, the things we have to do as a parent…Good luck!
Weeelll … part of me hopes that she will read to me anything I need to know …
Alphabet Learning For Kids
Awesome post!
Thank you for sharing.
The kids look really very cute when they are doing such hilarious acts and we are appreciating them for doing all that. I really want to say that you have got the happiest child there.
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