This is the fifth post in a series that answers the questions you asked. To read the rest of the series, click here.
How do you spend your time before your adopted kids are fluent in English? It seems like I could handle that for a couple hours a day, but all the time would be very taxing.
When adopting older kids, families largest anxiety often revolves around language barrier. Ironically, in many ways, this will be the least of your worries. If you are bringing home kids under the age of around 12, their brains are still developmentally acquiring language. This means they will learn the spoken language by just being immersed in it. Unfortunately, it also means they will lose their first language rather rapidly. These kids will benefit immensely from having really good literature read aloud to them and just participating in every day conversation. For kids older than 12, language needs to be learned and acquisition is much slower. At 9 months home, our kids still struggle with language. It doesn’t matter how often I have them correct their sentences to include prepositions and article adjectives, they still ask, “May I have sandwich?” EVERYDAY and EVERDAY I have them re-say it with an “a.” Our situation is also a bit out of the ordinary because our kids have each other to speak Amharic to daily. All that to say, our kids had plenty of English to get their basic needs met. The language barrier is a bigger problem when it comes to exploring feelings and finding healing.
I think I diverge a bit. For pre-lingual or non-verbal activities, try simple board games, audio book/CD pairs, physical activities (i.e., bikes, jump rope, walks, playgrounds, swimming, etc.), or just having them mimic every day routines like brushing teeth, showering, cooking, and cleaning. I think you will be surprised how much transcends language barriers.