I have just completed level 1, and in addition to attending a Welsh course am trying to use as much Welsh as possible with my daughter (18months). Will I cause her confusion when switching to English and then Welsh and back again? She appears to understand and is already counting 1,2,3 in Welsh, recognises her facial parts and can say certain foods. We go to Amser Stori and Ti a Fi, so I am exposing her to Welsh when I can. Any previous learners with a similar story? Any tips? I find watching CYW helpful in picking up words, and practise with friends when possible however, the conversations usually go over my head so I am keen to move onto Level 2 now!
Diolch am fawr!
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Technically, yes, a small amount - bilingual speakers usually take until they’re about 11, some studies suggest, before they are fully equivalent to native monoglots in both languages - but it’s a valuable and enriching confusion from which she can only benefit… 
The more Welsh you can build into her environment, the more fully she’ll process it. Might well be worth trying to work out what are the 10 or 20 sentences you tend to be saying to her most at this stage, and then get them worked out in Welsh, and then use them in Welsh all the time…
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Everything is new and at least potentially confusing to a baby and a toddler. It’s a natural state and it’s probably best to embrace it rather than try, inevitably unsuccessfully, to avoid it.
Some might say that the world continues to be confusing as we grow into childhood and then adulthood, but that we simply find strategies to make ourselves blind to the complexities of life.
Getting back onto the question, I started learning when my daughter came back from her first Ti a Fi session as a two year old (she’s 17 now!). I didn’t feel competent enough to speak Welsh with her for several years, but I did it anyway. If SSIW had existed at the time, I’m sure I would have gained confidence very much more quickly. This is purely anecdotal, but compared to her friends whose parents didn’t start or continue with learning Welsh, my daughter has a much better feel for the language and a much stronger connection to the culture.
Go for it. Don’t worry about getting stuff wrong or being a bad influence or whatever. It will change your life.
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Yes that’s a good idea, I will write them down and learn tonight. I am really enjoying the exercises, as feel the course I attend once a week is so slow with hardly any speaking, just lots of vocabulary and listening. It’s frustrating! Anyway, thanks for the advise regarding my child!
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Do you speak Welsh with her now? Did she attend WM school? Thanks for the supportive comments! I will continue as love learning and speaking Welsh.
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She went through Welsh medium education which in most of Powys means Welsh streams in predominantly English-speaking schools. It’s not ideal, and it was one of the reasons why bringing some Welsh into the family was so important. And, yes, we speak Welsh with each other most of the time.
Dal ati!
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I started learning Welsh 2 years ago. By the time I had started learning , my then 9 year old daughter was already fluent due to attending a Welsh medium school.
I really threw myself in to it and tried to speak Welsh with her as often as possible from the start. It was strange switching our family language at first but it became normal fairly quickly and we now speak Welsh with each other the vast majority of the time.
It is a much different situation that you are in with your child being much younger and not yet fluent but over the next few years as you move towards fluency and your daughter becomes fluent herself through attending Cylch Meithrin and Welsh medium education ( if that is what you choose of course ) then you could travel the path to fluency together and Welsh could gradually become your family language too
There is no rush . I think that it would be way too difficult for you to speak mostly Welsh with each other at this early stage but if you just enjoy learning and speak more and more Welsh with each other as time goes on then the rewards will be amazing. It’s a really proud feeling when it does finally click . Dal ati
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Sam and robbruce, this is encouraging to hear. My girls are 3 and 4 and I speak Welsh to them the vast majority of the time and they seem to have stages of speaking Welsh. At the moment, English is definitely first choice but hoping this will transition as they get older and their Welsh catches up with their English
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My daughter is five and she is in the Welsh stream of school having been to Cylch and ti a fi. I’ve been learning Welsh for about six years on and off but it’s taken me until the last year or so to improve my confidence in speaking Welsh to others so now I do use more Welsh with her and if the mood takes her she will speak Welsh to me. I also read her kids books in Welsh and we watch cyw plus have cyw apps on the tablet. Recently though I have had some really proud moments where she has voluntarily spoken Welsh to other adults and even with the odd English word thrown in made sense. She has also started to correct my pronunciation which I find funny.
Keep doing what you’re doing and enjoy the experience and over time if you have some chat groups that you can take her to, do so she can see it isn’t just a language for school and it isn’t just to be used at home.
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