tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91612255588771447392024-03-18T02:37:19.437-07:00Bringing Up 8 Bilingual BabiesBilingual Parenting in a Non-native LanguageNinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-20503790094561561122018-05-09T11:11:00.000-07:002018-05-11T21:57:50.847-07:00The Full-Time Home School Plunge (English AND German) and our Video Yearbook!So, I did it!! I've been playing with the idea of full-time homeschooling for years. I've been part-time homeschooling my younger kids (pulling my kids out of public school about one day a week) since Kindergarten. (Posts about Part-Time Home Schooling). But this past September, I decided to pull Jonathan out of school and homeschool him full time for various reasons. And, after NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com199tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-45807996722675749812018-01-09T22:20:00.000-08:002018-05-09T21:34:45.715-07:00German with Big BrotherJust a few months ago, our fourth-oldest, Dallin, came home from serving a 2-year mission in Brazil. During that time, he didn't ever use his German. However, he became quite fluent in Portuguese! When he left for his mission, the three little ones were still speaking only German with each other and with all of us. In fact, 2 years ago, they spoke almost exclusively German at home. Since that NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-37193515018162322862017-10-23T12:07:00.000-07:002017-10-23T16:02:39.968-07:00Starting Out: First Sibling Interactions!
I thought I'd throw in another video from the good old days!! Watching this brought back lots of memories from the beginnings of our non-native bilingual parenting adventures. I remember that when the kids were first born, that it was hard to speak to them in German. It felt unnatural. However, as we persisted, it became more and more normal. This video is taken when Ben is two years old and NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-69944104614724460442017-09-16T16:58:00.001-07:002017-09-16T17:00:57.456-07:00Redefining the "Baby Language" and Allowing Kids to Grow UpSo, we have had an interesting language set-up in our house for the past decade: When the three youngest children joined our family, the older children and my husband and I decided to only speak German to them, so that they younger ones would learn German just like the older ones did. However, at that point in our family, the older kids were mostly speaking English to each other and to us. My NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-19801667197683138042017-07-15T23:03:00.001-07:002017-07-15T23:27:23.878-07:00How it all began...with Baby Ben!I came across this little snippet from almost 25 years ago. It reminded me how far we've come in the last 25 years. I remember having no idea if our little German experiment would work. Ben was our first child. We were college students at the time and dirt poor and so we only owned a handful of German books. But we read them a lot. We loved the picture dictionary books. The book that I'm reading NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-61756929627891693982017-03-25T14:41:00.001-07:002017-03-25T16:16:49.015-07:00Encouraging Target Language Use Through Our German Home School Days!
In order to help the kids continue to immerse themselves in German, I pull them out of their regular school about one day every week (or once every other week) and home school them in German. Like I've mentioned before, my kids' primary language is slowly switching from German to English. This is inevitable, since we live in the United States, my husband and I are native English speakers, all NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-44213183286040638542017-02-14T11:31:00.001-08:002017-02-14T11:31:32.442-08:00Reaching Higher Levels through Educational Software and Home Schooling!We are continuing to "part-time home school" our three youngest children. I keep them home from school one day each week (more or less). On that day, usually it's a Wednesday, we do German lessons. I have a German 2nd grade curriculum that we work from . We also work a little on math and, often, I have them work on their regular school (English) homework.
I especially like that our German NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-22485273412237932802017-02-12T16:24:00.000-08:002017-02-12T16:24:39.995-08:00Long Distance Target Language RelationshipsWith half the kids grown up and moved out, it always makes me so happy when I see the older kids interacting with their siblings who are still at home via phone, skype, and text--especially when that interaction is in our target language: German. This afternoon, I caught Simon on the phone with his older sisters Kiana and Michaela. One of the reasons I recorded the conversation is because I NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-65030269222310508862017-01-03T11:29:00.002-08:002017-01-03T11:36:19.924-08:00It's not about perfection! Bilingual Parenting Goals for the New Year!
I try to have an honest blog. Raising kids is not easy. And raising kids in a language which you do not speak natively can be downright hard at times. But I know it can be done. I'm not the perfect example of non-native bilingual parenting. I know there are plenty of families who do a much better job than we have done. But neither we, nor any other family, is going to do it perfectly. Each NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-68497330688227828942016-12-24T18:32:00.001-08:002016-12-24T18:32:48.542-08:00Reading with KittyIt's fun to see the kids reading in both English and German. We had a litter of kittens this winter. The kids love playing with all the kittens. She is excited to read her German cat book to her kitten. Even though the kids are speaking more English lately, they still speak a lot of German, too. We're trying to encourage them to read more German books so that they continue to learn new vocabularyNinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-6607994113385413902016-11-03T23:16:00.000-07:002016-11-05T23:45:53.192-07:00Working on Grammar! Still Loving our Part-time German Home School ExperimentWe have an AMAZING local elementary school. We are so blessed that the principal and teachers have been so understanding and cooperative and willing to work with us as we try to raise biliterate kids.
The kids are now in in 3rd and 2nd grades. Ever since they started school, I have been "part-time" home schooling them, meaning that I pull them out of school at least once a week so that we can NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-24836373133503849162016-10-17T22:32:00.000-07:002016-10-18T08:39:33.053-07:00Disneyland Surprise!I just watched this video from earlier this year. We had just arrived at a vacation condo in Anaheim, California and the three little kids still didn't know where we were or why we were there. They had no idea that they would get to go to Disneyland the next morning. We had kept the whole trip a complete surprise for them, only telling them that they might get to see their grandparents. The NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com340tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-1938357223007678562016-09-28T22:04:00.000-07:002016-09-28T22:05:09.179-07:00Bilingual Success? Yes, but imperfect and still a work in progress!
Now, let
me just say that I never had a bilingual goal of raising children who speak
perfect German. That would be quite unrealistic, since neither my husband nor I
speak perfect German. The most we could hope for would be children who could
speak our own level of German. But, even that would be asking a lot, since I
actually lived in Germany for some time and studied it in college...and they
NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-77617585324039594892016-09-22T21:26:00.003-07:002016-09-22T21:27:44.874-07:00My Little German Babies are starting to become more American...It happened this summer! I always knew it would happen. I didn't even expect it to last this long. In fact, I've been quite amazed that it has lasted as long as it has. What has happened? Well, my kids are starting to talk to each other in English! Yes, my babies are slowly switching from German to English. They still can and do speak German very often. The biggest change, and this is the same NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-33571490033785124382016-06-30T07:32:00.001-07:002016-06-30T07:33:47.361-07:00Teaching Grammar! Starting with the basics: Der, Die, Das!The one thing I've struggled with as I've raised my children in my non-native German is teaching them correct grammar. My own grammar is faulty and I often see them making the same mistakes that I make. One of the most difficult obstacles for us is learning the correct gender of nouns. Even I struggle with this on a regular basis. It's one of those things for which you develop a "feel." And when NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-11565019077657101202016-04-06T12:30:00.002-07:002016-04-06T12:49:31.692-07:00Finding Friends that speak the Target Language!We stumbled across the sweetest family a few months ago. Both the mom and dad are from Germany and they have two darling kids. We invited them over at Christmas time for our annual Adventsingen and it was so fun to see my little Clarissa hit it off so well with their daughter, Zoey. Clarissa is always thrilled to have a girl to play with...since she is constantly surrounded by her two brothers. &NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-5972017222082263972016-02-22T21:23:00.001-08:002016-02-22T21:23:58.079-08:00Almost Home!!!This post isn't so much about language...but then again, maybe it is. I just wanted to share a letter I received from my daughter, Michaela, who has been serving an 18 month mission in Germany for our church. She has less than two weeks left before she returns home. We haven't seen her since she left in August 2014. And we've only been able to talk to her on the phone 3 times since she's been NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-25113604977381678642016-01-28T19:58:00.001-08:002016-02-22T21:24:54.263-08:00Mixing Languages: Borrowing Loan WordsOK, since my last post was about the fears of passing our mistakes on to our children, I thought I'd blog a little more about imperfect language...or in this case impure language:
One of the phenomenons I'd like to discuss and one that happens frequently when raising children in a language that is not spoken in the community, is that you often get a little bit of language mixing. By this, I mean NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-44257763382936863952016-01-20T22:09:00.004-08:002016-01-27T08:46:34.795-08:00Thoughts on Raising Children in a Non-Native (and therefore imperfect) LanguageThere
are regular bilingual parenting issues and then there are non-native bilingual
parenting issues. Those of us who are attempting to raise our children in a
language which we do not speak natively will naturally have additional
questions, fears and feelings of inadequacy. One of the most common fears, and
one that I remember facing when I first started out on our bilingual parenting
journey, NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-55693879585831122022016-01-09T21:05:00.000-08:002016-01-09T21:05:14.603-08:00Starting Early is Key!
We always tend drift towards the language that
comes more naturally and feels most comfortable. Because of this, it’s crucial
establish your target language as early as possible.
It’s hard to imagine that speaking your foreign
language will ever feel comfortable, but it definitely can. Be patient.
The concept of starting early actually benefits
the parent more than the child. It’s all about NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-51856136684473546032015-11-12T22:41:00.000-08:002015-11-12T22:45:09.634-08:00Getting written up in a magazine and spreading the word about non-native bilingual parenting!
I get excited about non-native bilingual parenting. Our family's bilingualism has had such a positive impact on everything that we do. If you ask any of my kids, they will all tell you that they are super happy that we taught them German. And because of this, I get excited about encouraging others to do the same. There are so many people that speak a foreign language who haven't even considered NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-35327408951649583702015-10-24T22:42:00.000-07:002015-11-12T17:35:45.112-08:00German School at Home! An Update on our French and German part-time Home School Experiment.
We're already a couple months into the school year and things are going great! I'm still so grateful to the kids' teachers at school. I'm so grateful that they are willing to support us as we pull the kids out of school one day each week to home school them in German and French.
At first the kids were a little reluctant to miss school, however, they now really look forward to our "German NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-49029221264013005612015-09-16T12:12:00.001-07:002015-09-17T21:42:21.161-07:00Getting geared up for the new bilingual school year and wanting to be a more "deliberate" mom!September arrived way too soon. I'm always so surprised at how quickly summer flies by. I always think I'll have the time to do summer school work with the kids, but it seldom works out. Between having all the kids home from school and all the summer activities and camps and the lack of a rigid schedule, I just don't seem to fit in any real school work. We mostly played, worked and had fun. We NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-19182712751745107912015-08-12T19:37:00.000-07:002015-09-14T21:31:02.312-07:00She's Hungarian!!! (I mean, she's German!) Bilingualism Blessing my (grown) Babies! Today I got a very sweet postcard in the mail. It's from my 20 year old daughter, Michaela, who is currently serving an 18 month mission for our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) in Germany. Link to Michaela's Mission Blog. She has been serving the people of Germany for almost a year now. She loves Germany and she loves the German people. Today's postcard is one of those NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161225558877144739.post-66375805924699140932015-07-15T06:24:00.000-07:002015-09-14T21:20:48.092-07:00Job Chart in ActionOne of the things I LOVE about having two batches of kids, is that I don't have to reinvent the wheel for each phase of the kids' childhood. Now that the younger ones are old enough to really help with chores, I don't have to try and come up with a whole new system. I already did all that work the first time around. I actually did a lot of cool things with my older batch that I'm able to NinaBoBinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01792477818678914468noreply@blogger.com0