whatMsg?

Despite my best efforts of consistency in only speaking Estonian with my children, translating every picture book I read into Estonian on the fly, or reading Estonian stories, and playing many fun Estonian DVDs, I would estimate that my 3 year old speaks 70% English and 30% Estonian with me.  The 23 month old speaks Estonian even less, perhaps 90% English and 10% Estonian and then it is mostly just nouns that are in Estonian with a few demands here and there as well.  The girls play together very nicely and converse, though almost entirely in English with each other.  I’m sticking to my Estonian however because they have 100% comprehension of everything I tell them at t least that is something.  I’m just going to keep doing what I have been doing and have been careful not to nag at all about speaking in Estonian, though if they forget saying “please” or “thank you” then I give them the Estonian phrase they should be using to politely ask me for whatever it is that they wanted.  That’s the extent of my pushing for Estonian.

What has given me new hope for the future is that a family friend with two daughters about 10 years older than mine has gone through this all already and what did the trick for her was spending a summer in Estonia with the girls when they were still in the single digit ages.  So, that is what I will look forward to!  In the meantime, I’ll keep up my Estonian-only conversation and will try to be content with my children’s comprehension and occassional Estonian words and phrases as I figure it is better than nothing.