She'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 letters that warms a mother's heart:

TRANSLATION:

Dear Mommy,

You are the best! I'm being completely honest. Mom, you are really the best. I could never say thank you enough that you spoke German to us. This special ability that I have--to speak German (which you gave to me)--has opened many doors and hearts. You never served a full-time mission, but you are serving next to me every day--because every word that I speak is a word that you taught me. I love you so much, but right now I don't want to be anywhere else but here. I cherish every moment here on my mission. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (3 Ne 13:21). 

Today I had a funny/awesome experience. While we were on the train, I met an older lady. She was completely taken aback when I told her that I was an American. She was 100% sure that I was German AND she studied languages (she was a female version of Henry Higgens). After that encounter I had to laugh because I had that funny tune going around in my head from "My Fair Lady."  ..."She's Hungarian!"  You know? That point where Eliza passes her language test at the ball. Well, that's what I felt like today. 

From the bottom of my heart!

Your Michaela

My Fair Lady: "The Dreadful Hungarian"

First off, I have to say that I have not taught Michaela every word she knows...because I had to look up one of the expressions she used in her letter: "Ohrwurm im Kopf haben". I didn't know that meant to have a catchy tune stuck in one's head. But, what a gift that she is able to write the letter in German! This letter is precious to me. I am so happy that my grown children feel so grateful for the gift that we worked so hard to give them: the gift of a second language.  I am so touched by the fact that our efforts to raise our children bilingually have not only blessed the lives of our children, but also (through them) the lives of many others, as well! What a blessing! Once again, I am totally blown away by the unanticipated blessings we have received because of our decision to speak German to the kids. When we started this funny language experiment over 22 years ago, I never would have thought that it would have brought this much joy! What a wonderful journey this has been...with some amazing results and rewards!

Job Chart in Action

One 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 use with the younger ones. For example, I spent a lot of time developing a great job chart that I used for many years with my older kids. How fun to pull it back out this summer and put it to good use!! All I had to do was change the names on the chart and update some of the chores. I LOVE my job chart. It has worked so well for us for so many years and I'm just tickled that I get to use it for many more years (one of the perks of having another batch of kids later in life)!!

For anyone interested in how it works, you can read about it HERE.

As you can see, it's a hodge-podge mixture of English and German--but it works for us. Each morning I pick all the jobs that need to be done that day. I sort of walk around the house and see what I'd like to have done. Then I lay the corresponding job tabs on the counter and have the kids pick which ones they want to do. Then they hang them on the chart in the order that they prefer to do the jobs. Then, throughout the day, as they complete each job, they are able to turn over the corresponding tab. They know they can't go out to play until all the tabs are turned over. And I am able to easily track their progress. It's been a great system for us.

Below is a video of the kids using the chart. As you can see, the kids mostly speak German as they discuss what chores they are going to do. But, many of our words we use for our chores are English. For example, we've always used the English word "mud room"--probably because there just isn't a good word for mudroom in German. We also use "stair basket" instead of figuring out the German word (Treppenkorb?). I find that we often insert English words into our German conversations. It's just easy to do. I should probably try a little harder to come up with German versions and get them to switch to the German word...but honestly, I often just don't worry about it. The kids already speak way more German than I ever expected from them. I'm just tickled that they are still speaking mostly German as they go about their morning chores.

Introducing Maria...The Joys of Having a Native German Speaker in Our Home

I haven't blogged for a while. Sometimes, life is just so full of experiences that you just have to live them and enjoy them and there just isn't time to sit down at your computer and write a blog post. End of May and beginning of June are busy, event-filled weeks around our home. We've been busy with track meets, high school graduation, open-house, yard work, many fun family outings, mission calls, and so much more. And all this activity just hasn't left much time for blogging.
But all that said, I've been itching to blog about our special visitor from Germany. Her name is Maria. Her mother is a friend of mine, who contacted me a while back asking me if her daughter could stay with us for a month. So, after working out all the logistics, Maria arrived on May 22nd. We have been absolutely delighted to have her in our home. She hit it off with the kids right away! It was amazing to see how quickly the three little ones just fell in love with her. The very first day she was in our home, she developed a special bond with the three little kids...like she was their long, lost sister. She constantly reads them books, plays games (tag, board games, tickle games, etc) with them, and just hangs out with them. She also immediately bonded with the older kids. It's been fun to hear Maria and the girls giggling and laughing up in their room. They get along great and have had so much fun together. It's been amazing to see how seamlessly Maria has integrated into our family. She's probably been one of the easiest house guests we've ever had. She's sweet, gracious, obliging, considerate and helpful and a delight to have in our home.
Because Maria would like to improve her English while she's here in the states, I am trying to always speak English to her. I do slip sometimes and we fall back into German. But most of the time we communicate in English. However, she and the little ones always speak German to each other. So, basically, Maria is following our family's language habits: English among big people and German to little people. And the little people continue to speak German among themselves.
Language Help:
Maria has been a great help when it comes to correcting several of our ingrained German errors. Over the years we have come up with a few expressions and words which are not quite correct...and I am very aware of this. Because we are isolated from native German speakers and because none of us are actually "native born" German speakers, we have developed some incorrect language habits over the years. For example, if someone is silly, we might refer to them as "komisch". However, Maria pointed out that "komisch" has a much more negative connotation and suggested we use "lustig". She also (very sweetly) points out little errors that the kids are making. For example, they often get "wissen" (to know) and "kennen" (to be acquainted with) mixed up. They often say "Weisst du diese Frau?" (do you know (as in know about) this lady) instead of "Kennst du diese Frau?" (are you acquainted with this lady). These are mistakes that I am aware of and could easily correct, but sometimes I just don't make the effort. Also, I've noticed that when Maria corrects their German, they are much more enthusiastic about learning correct German, because "Maria weiss Alles!" (Maria knows everything).
We're sad that we only have a few days left before Maria leaves. It certainly has been a fun experience having her in our home. She has helped us all speak better German and, hopefully, we've been able to help her improve her English. But most of all, we're grateful to have forged a wonderful and lasting friendship. We will miss our Maria when she leaves.

Maria has her first piece of pie.

Maria experiences Dallin's high school graduation.

Maria and the twins hang out in the hammock. Clarissa loves to just sit and talk with Maria.

Maria is a great book reader. 

We take Maria on all our family excursions (including the beach).

French Fridays: Je mange une pomme! Fun with Little Pim!

For the past several months, my little kids have been doing half public school and half homeschool--meaning that I pull them out of public school two days a week so that we can work on our German and French. My goal in German is to have them reading and writing at approximately the same level in German as they are in English. This isn't really that hard, since they're using basically the same "reading skills" in both English and German. It just takes time...time which we can never find after they've spent a whole day at school. My goal for French is much simpler. Since my French is pretty limited, I basically just want to expose them to as much French as possible while they are young. Why French? Because it's the only other language I'm familiar with (I took a few semesters in college) and also because my husband also speaks some French. And why do I want to even teach them a third language? Well, I guess it's because they are at a great age to soak up languages. Being bilingual already, they totally understand the concept of "language". They understand that there are many different ways to express an idea. They are fascinated with foreign languages. They light up when they hear someone speaking Spanish at the store. They immediately recognize it as Spanish and start rattling off the five Spanish words they know in an effort to prove to me that they can speak Spanish. So, why not expose them to French right now? They're interested and they're primed to learn.
I have a French curriculum that I've been using. It's called La Petite Pierre. It's a French curriculum for German elementary students. But recently, I checked out the Little Pim DVDs from the library to supplement our French lesson on food. The Little Pim videos are very simple and repetitive. I really like them because they not only introduce and review vocabulary, but also help teach how to put that vocabulary into simple sentences so that the kids can actually use the new vocab.
Below, you can see my twins watching and interacting with the Little Pim video.  I've put out some food and drinks to help them practice some of the vocab. My goal is to get them to not only listen and watch the DVD, but also for them to produce language themselves. It's fun to see their little brains working so hard as they process the language. Although, they can only say a few things in French, they are under the impression that they can speak quite well. If you asked them what languages they speak, they would say German and French. They are quite proud of the fact that they have learned (some) French. And I'm thrilled that they are learning and enjoying languages.