“You mean, you recommend using dual language resources for preschool?” a middle school/high school teacher at Stuart Country Day School in Princeton asked me during a presentation at her school last week. “No, for all levels,” I said.

For those who don’t know what the term “dual-language” means, it was originally coined to describe a particular model of schools aimed at helping children develop two languages equally.

In the early grades, dual language schools typically focus more on developing the minority language (for example, Spanish or Arabic), but the idea is that by a certain grade the students will be using each language for 50% of the time (for example, half of the day in Spanish and half in English).

This is a very simple description and I invite you to learn more about the characteristics of dual language schools  (they operate using different models), but for the purposes of this blog, I will just say that the popularity of the dual language schools is increasing because their overall academic record is quite impressive and on top of that they are graduating students fluent in two languages.

Unfortunately, except for large metropolitan areas like New York City and Washington DC, dual language schools are hard to find. However, this doesn’t mean that we cannot learn from the dual language model and export some of the strategies to other situations.

What is the secret behind the success of dual language schools? There are several things to it:

• Your first language is your BEST asset when learning a second language. Unfortunately, many world language as well as ESL and regular teachers tend to forget or ignore this.
• Language skills transfer. So, for example, when you learn to read in one language, this helps with reading in the second language, even if the language uses a different alphabet or non-alphabetic scripture.
• When you probe a concept in two languages you are in effect using two different sets of eyes. It’s like if you had superhero goggles – you may have lost a detail in one language, but you have another chance to notice it in the other.
• Also, when you dig in to a concept in two languages you are in effect activating two different cultures, which will provide further insight into the variability of knowledge.
• Finally, when you learn in two languages, you start noticing how the two languages work, their similarities and differences. This “metalinguistic” awareness works magic in your language skills, and that is why many bilingual children have better command in English than their monolingual English classmates (as long as they are in the right kind of bilingual education).

What is it that I suggested to the teachers at Stuart? I suggested that they think differently. That they think in terms of a “dual-language” approach.

Instead of the typical world language program, language teachers could collaborate with the main classroom teacher (or teachers, in the higher grades) and select areas of the curriculum that could be developed in two languages.

Fortunately, in the case of Stuart, the regular preschool teachers attended the workshop, and they were very excited about collaborating with the world language teachers creating those dual language pockets. That’s a start! [BTW, school starts at age 2 in Stuart, which means that by age 5 they will have had 3 years of exposure to two languages already!]

The other thing that they can do is to use dual language materials more extensively (or create their own). As I explained to the middle school/ high school teacher, the problem when we are so picky about only using target language resources is that this restricts what we can do and as a result we end up using very simple tasks.

The drag of using only target language is particularly evident in the beginning levels of instruction, when the students know only a few words or expressions in the new language. We can spend months or even years working on basic tasks – OR we can throw our prejudices out the window and try a dual language approach that allows our children to operate at a higher linguistic level from what they could otherwise (think Vygotsky and his ideas about creating tools of the mind).

“Don’t take my word for it. Try it and decide yourself,” I said to the teacher. If we believed everything we are told, we would never discover new and more effective ways of doing things. If I had dropped my home language (Spanish) when talking with one of my daughters, who at age 2  ½ had some language delays, my daughter would not be highly bilingual and learning a third language in school.

Children learn better when all of their assets are on the table. Not when we decide in advance without trying.

During the last 12 years I have been trying and testing things, first in my own classes and later with the parents and teachers who use my curriculum and materials at home or in their schools. One thing I realized is that using a dual language approach really works because it facilitates or scaffolds the acquisition of higher levels of language that would otherwise be way beyond the reach of their children or students (and many of the parents using my materials do not even speak the language themselves, which comes to show how powerful this is!).

So I invite you to start thinking in terms of dual-language strategies that move your instruction UP (in the sense of being able to do more advanced tasks) and OUT (in the sense of taking the learning beyond your classroom into the school and home).

I think that you will soon agree with me that the future is dual-language – and of course, let me know what you think!

Best,

Ana Lomba

P.S. I invite you to learn about my new Three Little Pigs unit package in Spanish at spanishlessonplansnow.com. What can be more fun than learning Spanish through the different personalities of the pigs and pretending to be Actor, Player or Professor?

P.S.S. The instructions to the activities are in English and the examples in Spanish (with English translations), but you could also use the package the other way around, to teach English – or better yet, in tandem between two teachers to follow a dual language approach!

P.S.S. Again, you can read more about the unit at spanishlessonplans.now.

****

Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

 

In the previous posts, I told you about my number 1 practice for making HUGE strides in a new language, even in 15-minute sessions. Unfortunately, most parents and teachers of children learning languages are not aware of this treasure in the rough, so I decided to write a blog series just about this top-notch practice.

[Note: If you haven’t done it already, please go to post 1 and read until this point; there were lots of great information in the first 3 posts! BTW, the information is applicable to all languages, not only Spanish]

The practice, by the way is reading aloud and contributing today to the topic is my friend and colleague Karen Nemeth. She will talk about monolingual parents and how they have A LOT to gain by reading aloud in a new language to their children. Enjoy on this World Read Aloud Day 2012 (March 7)!

Only 15 Minutes for Spanish? Why Monolingual Parents Have a LOT to Win! By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M., www.languagecastle.com

Do you like to get even more for your time and effort?  What about winning the language “trifecta” (your child learns, you learn, and both spend a great time together)?

Well, then I have a language learning strategy for you!  Ana Lomba has already revealed her secret for spending fifteen minutes a day to help your child learn a new language.  Now, here is the secret within the secret:  when you read aloud to your child in a new language, you are more likely to learn that language yourself!

Many parents want their children to enjoy the benefits of learning a new language, but they feel intimidated about trying to learn and practice with their child.

That’s a shame because we know that a child who is ‘taught’ a new language must be given opportunities to actively use it or it will slip away.

To get the most out of the time and/or money you spend trying to help your child learn a new language, why not learn right along with them and get twice the results while doing something fun together!

You may be thinking back to the language courses you took in school – and perhaps those are not such happy memories.

Stop thinking about language learning in terms of boring textbooks or endless drills of sentences you may never use!

Certainly, much of what you learn in an adult language course would not be used with your child anyway…

After all, how many times do you have a reason to ask your child, “Where is the bank?” or “May I have two beers?” in Spanish or French or have a great discussion about the uses of the imperfect and the preterite?

Of all the sources you could find to build your own language skills as a parent and language learning role model, the language of storybooks may be the very best place to start! 

Just think about the way stories are written.   They are filled with illustrations that help you make sense of the new words on the page.  They have familiar themes that you can follow and build on.

Storybooks provide you with the words, sentences, characters and conversations that are EXACTLY what you need to interact with your child in the language you are learning together.

Since the stories are familiar, it will be easier for you to learn the words.   These are not just isolated vocabulary words.  You will learn the new words in the context of meaningful sentences that prepare you instantly to engage in conversations with your child.  Some of those conversations can be very interesting – maybe even dramatic or hilarious!

An important component to this successful strategy is that you must be willing to stick with one language at a time.  If you or your child keeps going back and looking up the English words, you will not be challenging yourself to really learn and remember the new language.

The brain needs a bit of a challenge – we call it ‘demand quality’ – in order to actively learn new information.  You know what that’s like now that we all have speed dial on our phones and we can’t remember anyone’s phone number any more.   We can all use a little brain exercise from time to time.

The beauty of storybooks – whether they are old or new, hardcover or paperback, paper or electronic – is that they provide a world of meaning and context that makes it so much easier to remember and use the new language.

Storybook reading in a new language is an activity that will bring benefits to you, benefits to your child, and benefits to your relationship with each other.  Now that’s a lot to gain from just fifteen minutes a day!

 

 

Karen Nemeth, Ed.M. is an author, speaker and consultant on teaching young children who are dual language learners.  You can find her books, Many Languages, One Classroom: Teaching Dual and English Language Learners and Many Languages, Building Connections: Supporting Infants and Toddlers who are Dual Language Learners at www.gryphonhouse.com

Visit her website at www.languagecastle.com for lots of resources about young children learning languages.

 

 

 

 

 

P. S. Talking about reading aloud, make sure to check my collection of bilingual e-storybooks in Spanish, French, and Chinese with English on this website (also available as iPad apps from the iPad App Store).

P. S. S. If you are on Facebook, make sure to “like” my Ana Lomba Early Languages page (and thanks!)

P. S. S. S. And while you wait for the next blog you may want to take a look at the “Language Challenge 180” hosted by Multilingual Living. Better to learn in company, don’t you think? At this point there are over 650 families that have joined the challenge. Why not join the fun!

 

 

(Applicable to French, Chinese, English and Any Other Language)

 

 

As promised in my previous blog post (please read it before this one), in my next few posts I am going to share with you my Number One practice for building proficiency 15 minutes at a time.

 

I will also share with you a few tips to improve your technique and get the most out of those precious 15-minute language sessions with your children (and please let me know how it’s going!).

 

 

Good painters prime the walls first in order to get the smoothest surface and the brightest colors. In the same way, in order to get the most of my Number One 15-minute practice, I’d like to tell you about (and help you prime) two enormous holes that are pretty common but unfortunately not very known by parents and teachers alike.

I can see your eyes rolling… Don’t worry! This time I will indeed tell you what the practice is (but don’t cheat and keep reading! And yes, this post is somewhat long, but very juicy :).

So let’s start by filling in those two large (and pretty common) holes in the early childhood language education wall so that you can get the very best of the 15 minute practice that I will soon (promise!) share with you:

Hole #1  – Teaching Your Child Just Words (e.g. Colors, Numbers, etc) or Flashcard Style Language

Priming this hole will consist in using fluent language from the get-go.

Unfortunately, the need to use fluent language from the beginner levels is not well understood in language education. This is why, even in the 21^st century, children can go through long years of study without mastering a language.

In many instances, they simply are not exposed enough to fluent language in context. All that they do is practice words and expressions.

In fact, your children may not be exposed to fluent language until they have taken several years of language instruction, which in my opinion is absolutely crazy.

We have become addicted to flashcards (colors, numbers, animals), greetings (¡Hola! Me llamo… / Hi, my name is…), basic pragmatic expressions (¿Dónde está el baño? / Where is the bathroom?), and other language sound-bites of the sort. There is also the trap of focusing to closely on grammar…

This focus on language sound-bites, be them vocabulary, expressions or grammar in isolation is especially sad in the case of young children, because young children have a special sense for language.

As I said in the introduction to this post series,

One thing that is very clear today that [Maria] Montessori stated quite brilliantly in her time is that the young child goes through a very powerful sensitive period for figuring out languages. There are lots of studies documenting this amazing ability.

For this reason, I believe that we would do well to subscribe to Montessori’s ideas and transform ourselves into facilitators whose role is to prepare “the environment” (as Montessori called it) in order to allow young children work their inner magic with languages. By “environment,” Montessori meant much more than the physical environment; the term referred to all sorts of relationships, practices, and materials.

We need to change this state of affairs and start offering the rich fluent language that our children need in order to activate their inner detective-like linguistic skills.

A few weeks of daily 15 minutes packed with carefully crafted fluent language in context can help your children advance more than a whole year of unfocused and random delivery of words and expressions.

In fact, 15 minutes of carefully crafted fluent language in context can be all that you need to outrun the hare (if you remember what I said about the turtle and the hare).

But, what do I mean by “fluent language in context?”

By FLUENT I mean the way that native speakers of the language talk to each other. Granted that native speakers also make modifications when talking to babies and young children, but they don’t chop the language to the extreme.

Yes, their children will hear plenty of colors, numbers, and “Hello, birdie!” or “Goodbye, doggy.”

However, native parents will also say, “Today is a beautiful day. Let’s go to the park!” and have a fluent conversation with their children, even if the children are very young and only smile back.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use sound-bytes – they do indeed serve an important purpose in early language education. What I am saying is that it should not be at the expense of fluent language, because – let me tell you – NOTHING will take your children farther than using fluent language.

Unfortunately, in the foreign language circles (specially in regards to young children) chopping the language has become the norm, with the result that children are rarely exposed to fluent language.

Instead, your children may be learning words such as “mano” (hand) or “baño” (bathroom), or sentences such as “¿Cómo te llamas?” (What’s your name?), but they are not really exposed to longer sequences of fluent language that they (the children) have to decipher and then figure out how to produce themselves.

A very common method in elementary school, for example, is called “TPRS. ” In a nutshell, students are given a few vocabulary words accompanied by gestures at a time and little by little they start making a story out of it.

Yes, TPRS is a valuable tool in a teacher’s toolbox and the students learn and make progress, but TPRS does not employ the powerful brain of young children effectively. There is simply not enough of a young child’s inner linguistic knack being employed here. Fluent language should be part of any teacher (or parent) toolbox from the very beginning.

By IN CONTEXT I mean that when using fluent language with young language learners there has to be a clear point of reference. Young children are not able to process abstract ideas. For example, they will have a hard time understanding subtle cultural differences, but you can expose them to child-friendly cultural practices such as eating with sticks.

Hole #2 – Sitting your children in front of the TV or just letting them use iPad apps, DVDs or other programs ALONE

Priming this wall will consist in interacting with your children in the language.

This is another factor that is not well known by the general public and even by many language professionals: young children do not learn much language by watching the TV or using gadgets on their own, no matter how fun and interactive they are.

As they grow up, they will be able to learn more language that way, but not when they are young.

During the last two decades there has been a lot of fascinating research on the young child’s brain and how it process language and other information and let me tell you, we could well say that the young child has a mind of his own!

Interestingly enough, Maria Montessori was also talking about this many decades ago. She compared the process of human development to that of the caterpillar. While most people think that humans develop in a linear way, she realized that young children are to adults what the caterpillar is to a butterfly. That is, human development is not linear, but rather metamorphic.

In humans, this radical change is not physical as in the caterpillar, but psychological. Just as the caterpillar looks and behaves very differently than the butterfly, the young child thinks, organizes, and processes information quite differently than an adult.

That is why we need to think differently.

So What Do We Know About These Major Differences or Holes?

In connection with hole #1 we know, for example, that babies are pros at detecting language patterns, including sounds and grammar (young children still have this faculty, although not as acute as that of babies). In contrast, adults are pretty bad at this, especially at detecting sounds. That’s why we want everything explained and sounded out for us.

In connection with hole #2 we know, for example, that babies and toddlers simply don’t learn ANY language by watching TV. NOT EVEN if you insert a video of their mommies talking to them. The same applies to other gadgets. For some reason, our human caterpillars need direct human interaction in order to learn language. This continues to be very strong during early childhood. In contrast, adults and older children can learn a lot of language by using a multiplicity of platforms on their own.

I’ll give you a second tip in reference to hole #2. Young children learn language best in one-on-one interactions with adults or older children. Obviously, if young children have very basic language, they will not learn as much language from each other as from a rich interaction with adults or older siblings/children.

Please note that I am not saying that young children should not interact with other children their age. NOT AT ALL! They will benefit greatly from that interaction as well. What I am saying is that all things being equal, young children will experience the most language growth when interacting with adults or older children. So make sure to dedicate some special time for that one-on-one interaction (the practice I am about to share is great for this).

That is why YOU, the parent or educator, are in a unique position to provide the best language education at the best time. All you need then is the how-to knowledge.

So Now that We Have Primed the Early Language Wall (at Least in Reference to Two Important Holes) … What Is the 15-Minute Golden Practice That Tops Any Other to Speed-Up Proficiency in Spanish or Other Language?

The answer is…

and I am sure this answer may surprise you…

READING ALOUD to/with your children

Truly? Reading aloud? To learn a new language in early childhood? How come?

Yes, if I only had 15 minutes of instruction or interaction with my children I would make absolutely sure to read aloud to them. I know that I would get the most bang for my time by doing that.

However, I told you that I would do it somewhat differently. Multilingual upbringing requires multilingual solutions.

But this blog is getting way too long and I want you to digest the tons of information that I just gave you. So let’s stop here for today. I will be back with some great tips to make the most of that reading aloud interaction next Saturday, March 3^rd.  Stay tuned or sign in to my list to receive a reminder! [To opt in to my list, just write your name and e-mail information on the right sidebar where it says, “Sign Up for Language Learning Tips”]

To be continued on 3/3…

Best,

Ana Lomba

P. S. In the meantime, you may want to take a look at the “Language Challenge 180” hosted by Multilingual Living. Better to learn in company, don’t you think? At this point there are over 350 families that have joined the challenge. Why not join the fun!

P. S. S. Talking about reading aloud, make sure to check my collection of bilingual e-storybooks in Spanish, French, and Chinese with English on this website (also available as iPad apps from the iPad App Store).

P. S. S. S. And if you are interested in other languages, check out the Language Lizard website for fantastic bilingual books in many languages.

 

 

 

Pin It

Time is one of our worst enemies in language learning. Foreign language teachers typically have very short periods of instruction, sometimes as short as 15 minutes.

Parents wanting to introduce a language at home don’t have it easy either, with millions of things competing for their parenting attention.

The constant bombardment of information doesn’t facilitate things either. So many things we could be doing to help our children or students learn languages, but are they truly effective? Where is the truth in all this fog?

It is easy to give up after trying many things that seem to not lead anywhere. But what if we could isolate the practices that bring the best results for young children?

What if instead of loosing steam with things that don’t lead anywhere we could apply laser-like focus on efforts or practices that bring the most proficiency for the least amount of time?

Beware of False Promises that Will Curtail Your Kid’s Fluency

Sadly, teachers and parents alike spend tons of time in the least effective ways. Since most people out there do not know what practices are or are not effective in language learning they are easily tricked into doing more of the least effective ones.

This is not surprising – the market is saturated with products that offer very little value but are presented as if they could do magical things for you –

“Learn a language in 10 days” or “The only way to learn a foreign language,” claim two of the most famous language learning companies (Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone), and there are TONS of other misleading nonsense like that out there.

In the case of young children, not a day passes by that you don’t hear about a new application, toy or other product aimed at teaching young children the colors, numbers and animals in Spanish or other languages.

But seriously, do your kids need so many products to teach them the same words? And what are they supposed to do with those words? Will they ever use them to talk about something? Will they even recognize those words when a native speaker talks to them at a normal fluent speed?

Songs are fun and definitely much better than learning isolated words, but they will not have a significant impact in your children’s fluency either.

Having been in the field for many years and knowing what is behind the linguistic brain engines of young children, I can tell you the sad truth: if all that you do with your 15 minutes is this (memorizing words or expressions), you are absolutely wasting your time.

15 Minutes of Spanish (French, Chinese…) Requires a Focused Strategy

When you only have 15 minutes, you have to be highly selective and learn to sift the gold from the gravel. Learning words or isolated sentences will not do.

But the question is: Can a child learn a language 15 minutes at a time?

The answer: It depends.

Having all the time in the world is not always the best thing…

Neither is having many other great advantages such as being a native mom or teacher…

It all comes down to TACTICS.

Are you familiar with the fable of the turtle and the hare? The turtle wins the race because she keeps the finish line in mind and keeps walking slowly but surely towards it.

In contrast, the hare, that could have won the race in a snap, is too unfocused and self-confident of his abilities in the matter and wastes tons of time doing the wrong things along the way.

15 minutes several times a week will add up and take you through the finish line – as long as you are selective with what you do and don’t goof around like the hare.

Just as the turtle, you can outrun the hare if you keep your focus on the finish line and stay on course.

In Fact Having Only 15 Minutes to Do Spanish May Be an Advantage

Many people think, “I only have 15 minutes, so why bother. I’ll just do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and I’ll be done. The kids can’t truly learn much language in 15 minutes anyway.”

Now, what a losing train of thoughts! Unfortunately, a lot of people fall for this.

Well, let me tell you a secret…

15 minutes can indeed COUNT A LOT in language learning, depending on what you do with them. Again, it all comes down to TACTICS.

So, I invite you to think differently and treat those 15 minutes as a golden opportunity to introduce your kids to a new language.

Here is the new you speaking again:

• “Since I only have 15 minutes, I am going to learn to think strategically about language learning and get the most out of it.”

• “I do not speak Spanish (or French, German, etc), but I can manage 15 minutes of Spanish with my kids. I am sure it will get easier with practice and, who knows! soon I may be able to do 60 minutes or the whole morning.”

See how having only 15 minutes can be seen as an advantage? 15 minutes can turn you into a tactical thinker. Also, if you are a non-native parent or an inexperienced teacher, 15 minutes of Spanish will probably sound much feasible than 60 minutes.

So What Would You, Ana Lomba, Do if You Only Had 15 Minutes?

In my opinion, there is ONE practice that tops all others to help young children learn languages gain higher fluency in less time.

If I only had 15 minutes of class instruction or if I was too tired or busy to do more than 15 minutes of Spanish with my children at home, this is the one practice I would use the most.

Is the 15-Minute Practice that You Are Talking About Backed by Research?

There is ample research to back up the fundamental premise. In fact, the practice that I am talking about is one of the most researched practices in education and it is considered a crucial threshold in the path to getting a good education.

That being said, the angle in which I will present it to you is not the traditional way of using this practice. This new angle is based on my two-decade experience as a language educator and entrepreneur specialized in young children learning languages.

If you are familiar with my work then you know that I am on a mission to change the stagnant condition of the early language-learning field and I am always trying new things that I think are promising.

My goals with re-purposing the practice are two-fold:

• To target the specific needs of young children learning languages, which are not a priority or even a consideration of this practice in the current monolingual state of affairs.
• To make great strides in language proficiency in situations that are otherwise not ideal for mastering a new language, such as when time is at a prime (e.g. when you only have 15 minutes) or when the adults do not speak the target language.

Why Should You Try a New Way of Learning Language?

Many of the greatest advances in education have come from shaking and turning things around.

Remember Maria Montessori? She was not a teacher, but a medical doctor on a mission to discover how to educate children with special needs. In the process, she developed a very innovative sensorial and child-centered approach that has revolutionized the world of education and helped millions of children around the world (and not only children with disabilities).

Dr. Montessori had a hunch that there was a full universe inside each child waiting to be unraveled. Up until that time, teaching had always traveled one way: from the teacher to the child.

Montessori flipped the (until then) unquestioned teacher-centered model 180 degrees around. In her ingenious method, the teacher becomes a facilitator whose main role is to help the child unwrap the learning compass that is already inside of him or her and become the motor of his or her own progress. The results were (and are) extraordinary.

We have learned quite a lot about the young multilingual mind since Maria Montessori’s death but…

One thing that is very clear today that Montessori stated quite brilliantly in her time is that the young child goes through a very powerful sensitive period for figuring out languages. There are lots of studies documenting this amazing ability.

For this reason, I believe that we would do well to subscribe to Montessori’s ideas and transform ourselves into facilitators whose role is to prepare “the environment” (as Montessori called it) in order to allow young children work their inner magic with languages. By “environment,” Montessori meant much more than the physical environment; the term referred to all sorts of relationships, practices, and materials.

[Please note that the ideas that I will share with you for those precious 15 minutes are my own. I am not trained in the Montessori method and my system is quite different to hers. However, I am a great believer in the potential of young children and for this reason I am on my own quest to facilitate their spontaneous learning one modified practice at a time.]

I’ll Show You How to Unwrap the Children’s Inner Language Learning Mechanism 15 Minutes at a Time

So here is the thing:

If you don’t try new things, you will never discover anything significant –

That is why I try plenty of new things even at the risk of being disappointed. I know that this is how I will discover the gold nuggets hidden in the sand.

And now I invite you to jump in and try this practice at home or in your class – again, the practice refers to what I would do if I only had 15 minutes a day to help my children or students learn a language.

But you will have be patient like the turtle and wait for the continuation to this blog (I have written it as a series – I won’t only tell you what practice this is, but also tips to get the most out of it). So come back on February 28^th and keep reading… or opt in to my list and I will send you a reminder to keep reading next week. [To opt in to my list, just write your name and e-mail information on the right sidebar where it says, “Sign Up for Language Learning Tips”]

To be continued on 2/28… [Note: The next issue is now available. Click here to continue reading: Part 2: Only 15 Minutes for Spanish? Then Be Aware of THIS]

Best,

Ana Lomba

P. S. You may want to take a look at the “Language Challenge 180” hosted by Multilingual Living. Better to learn in company, don’t you think? At this point there are over 325 families that have joined the challenge. Why not join the fun!