26 January 2015

"I don't have water!!!" German schooling is working :-)

I was so tickled by what happened last night, that I had to write a quick blog post about it:
At night time, we usually have a lengthy routine for our three little ones. They get changed, brush their teeth, clean their room, say their prayers and then I read bible stories to them as they lay in their beds. After that, I turn out the lights and sing a bunch of German lullabies. Oh, on top of that, each child usually fills up their sippy cup (non-spill cup) with water and sets that cup within reach.
Well, last night, I apparently forgot about making sure that their water was filled. So, after songs and goodnight kisses, I closed their door and came downstairs. We were relaxing in the family room, when I heard some shuffling in the kids' bedroom above me. A little later, I heard some footsteps on the stairs and there stood Simon. He was a little bashful, because he knew he wasn't supposed to be out of bed. He handed us a note and scampered back upstairs.
We were all surprised and amused at his funny behavior. I took a look at the note. It was so cute. He wrote: Ich hade kein Wasa. Simon!  Translation: I don't have water. Simon. Then he drew a picture of a very sad boy holding an empty sippy cup. The first thing I noticed was that he had actually written the word for "I" correctly: ich.  We had been working on the "ch" sound last week in our German school. We also work a lot at sounding out words in syllables. Being very phonetic, German is an easy language to learn to spell, except that sometimes it's hard to hear certain endings...like the -er. As I expected, he misspelled the word for "Wasser", but I was impressed that he wrote it phonetically--like it sounds. We're still working on those -er endings. And like most kids, he confuses the "b" with the "d", but that will come with time.
I was just so delighted to receive this precious little note. I was pleased that he had the confidence to write a German message on paper. I love that he applied the skills that we've been working on in our German homeschooling. And most of all I love that he's learning and growing and experimenting with the language.
I promptly went upstairs and filled his little sippy cup. I love having little kids!!



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Bilingual Baby Dream Team

Going on 20+ years of raising our bilingual babies...
I'm so grateful for a sweet husband who was willing to give this whole experiment a try and and that he was willing to speak German to our kids, even though his German exposure had been limited to a few semesters of college German. It's been one of the most fun and rewarding things we've done. The fact that our family speaks German has given us our own identity and helps the kids feel like they are a part of something special. And anything that helps your family feel special and connected is a good thing.