Learn Cree with Andrea & Family Debut
tânisi nitotimak,
Andrea Custer nisithikason. nitanis awa ôta Scarlett (skalatcis) ikwa nikosis awa ôta Andrew (anchathoosis) I’m currently a stay-at-home mom, which I am really enjoying.
Anyway, I wanted to explain the website and the blog section called “Learn Cree”. The website itself serves as my portfolio and then there’s the Learn Cree section which is where I’ll be doing my blogs & vlogs. I will be uploading once a week on how I teach my children Cree in our home. It will include the methods that I use to teach which will serve as your tools to use in your own home. Most of them will cost nothing and some may require some materials. I will create a list of what you need and where you can get it when the time comes or I will make a file available for you.
I wanted to share some background information on how this website and the blogs and vlogs came about. I knew I was going to be staying home and what I wanted to do with this time is teach my children Cree.
One day I wanted to show some interesting and colourful child friendly videos with Cree songs to my baby so that I can fill my home environment with Cree sounds that didn’t always have to come from me. I found a few really good YouTube videos and created my playlist. Then *ting I had this idea “what if other parents want to teach their kids Cree but they don’t really know how” just like when I first started in 2013. I didn’t know how and English was dominant in my home. How cool would it be to teach Cree to my kids through videos and then be able to share my journey with other families. It’s part of my efforts to create awareness about language revitalization and also be able to teach Cree in many different places at different times at no cost. This is because a lot of people don’t have access to Cree teachers and/or it may not even be available in the school your child or children attend and most of all if we are to revitalize language we need to figure out ways to do this effectively. The internet and Social Media platforms seemed to have the most far-reaching audience so it was only logical that I use a blog and YouTube videos, then share these on Social Media sites such as Facebook. I will create that page at a later date. A page where we as Cree or other Indigenous families support each other on raising bilingual children.
Remember that our children have a birthright to their language and for those of us who are fluent, we are responsible to pass on this precious gift to them.
A bit of background knowledge about my children; Scarlett is 8 now and her first language is English. I will blog about why this is at a later date. And Andrew is three months old. I will also blog about why this is the prime time to be teaching him Cree.
Today we’ll start with how to introduce yourself in Cree with Scarlett as our student. Please note that I will be teaching in the "Y" dialect. If people would like, and ask, I can also demo in the "TH" dialect.
ikosi pitama, I look forward to seeing what people do with these tutorials!