I am thrilled to announce that Calistenia Sueca Version Revisida is now available! Born out of a desire to provide more Charlotte Mason resources for the Spanish-speaking community, I hope this version of Swedish Drill RevisitedTM will allow more families to effectively implement Swedish Drill in their homes.
I’d like to share a little family history with you that explains my interest in bringing this project to fruition. My husband grew up in a Spanish-speaking home in a Texas border town. Laredo is one of the least ethnically diverse cities in the United States: its population is 95% Hispanic and 5% “other.” This means that speaking English is not a necessity of life in Laredo, where you can attend a doctor’s appointment, fill your car with gas, and shop for groceries without speaking one word of English.
While my husband’s siblings spoke English at school, and his parents spoke English at their places of work, Spanish was still the language of choice in the home. I appreciated this about the Duran family, and looked forward to raising our children bilingually, too.
I met my husband in his hometown while I was completing my final physical therapy rotation. After we started dating and I began to spend time with his family they began speaking English when I was present in a magnanimous effort to make me feel welcome and included. I very much appreciate their loving gesture while recognizing, in hindsight, that I might have mastered Spanish if I had remained immersed in it once I became a part of the family.
Why does this story matter?
I assumed that our future children would be raised in a bilingual home in which their father would speak Spanish and I would speak English to them. However, when our boys were born we did not live near our families, and since Gabe was not interacting with his siblings and parents every day, he also was not speaking Spanish frequently. Our efforts to, at the very least, read the boys stories in Spanish on a daily basis fizzled, and our boys were not given the great gift of bilingualism I had hoped they would receive.
While the details may not be identical, I do not believe the overall scenario I have described is unique to Los Durans. I know that many Hispanic families struggle with the tension of how to raise their children to appreciate the language of their ancestors: many Spanish-speaking parents bemoan the fact that their children are not growing up with fluency in their native tongue. I hope that this product will help families who find themselves in this situation.
In the United States, in particular, when children are surrounded by English speakers outside the walls of their homes they often become resistant to learning the native tongue of their parent(s). Perhaps Calistenia Sueca Version Revisida might be utilized by a Spanish speaking parent in the home as a means of passing down the language in a form that children may be more receptive to learning. Combining Spanish with the habit of attention necessary to properly perform Swedish Drill is an ideal venue for learning the language with less pressure than doing so traditionally. I’d love to hear from you if you decide to utilize Calistenia Sueca Version Revisida in this way!
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to my dear friend Karla Areas for translating the text of the original Swedish Drill RevisitedTM manual into Spanish. Karla has been educating using Charlotte Mason’s principles for more than 12 years, and will graduate her oldest child this year. Karla co-founded Charlotte Mason Memphis, and was part of the volunteer team that translated Mind to Mind by Charlotte Mason and Karen Glass.
*Please note that this resource was built based on the original Swedish Drill Revisited product, and it does not include the updates recently added to Swedish Drill Revisited (i.e., lesson plans, cheat sheets, and flash cards). There are no plans for expansion at this time.*
Click here to purchase the new Spanish edition of Swedish Drill Revisited!
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