teaching neighbour's 4 yr old Kiga kid english......

[ernesttheBavarian]

Living in germany. Neighbour moving to english speaking area, has asked me about helping prepare her 4 yr old ds.

I said he could come round a couple of times so we could see. I also have a 4 yr old at same Kindergarten.

basically the boy had the attention span of a hyper gnat. He just rushed round our house in a frenzy. He picked up a book, so I took the opportunity to look at it with him and eg say the names of the animals in english. He repeated a couple then wandered off to the next thing.

so, do I have him round when my dd not there. He basically just wanted to watch telly which we didn't do, but I know next time he will want to. I can't decide if it's worth it, what I could do with a pre reader, if I should just have him round to play w. dd and speak to him in english, or actually try to teach him, and what, if anything I should charge?

Thanks for advice.

Am stressing now about it. He's coming tomorrow.

Why does he need to learn English before moving? He'll learn it by immersion when he has no choice and finds everyone around him at school speaks English. Seems completely pointless to me. Our 3, 7 and 10 year olds all learned French within a year of moving, no more than a vocabulary of 10 French words before moving.

I might be an awful person for saying this but could you let him watch some english tv and talk to him about it? I remember watching cartoons in French lessons.

Just playing with you and daughter who both speak english may be benificial. If he's not used to classroom learning he may not take to any sort of structured approach.

How about flash cards and make a competition/game out of it?

I could try with the flash cards and competition. I guess maybe as he's in a new house he's just frantically looking at everything. His mum looked horrified at the very mention of tv. I am feeling v. tired today and the thought of him coming tomorrow, well I can't be bothered. I tend to agree with you natation. maybe I just say he can come round and play (and maybe watch tv) and she doesn't have to pay anything. I don't think he will be tethered down to officially learning anything.

I tried to do something similar with a 5 year old a couple of years ago - her parents actually wanted to pay me for immersing their DD in English, and I had a 5 year old DD too then. We speak English as a family and I hoped we could just have normal playdates, but that I would do activities like baking, board games, crafts etc. too, and go for walks and play outside as well, at least something each time, to make sure there was conversation but also so that my own children weren't lumped with a child not of their choosing and forced to play with her...
My DD and younger son just instinctively spoke German to the little girl though, you can't effectively enforce which language a child speaks to another child, as they chose instinctively, and as the little girl spoke German but not English they almost couldn't help themselves speaking German to her. She was also very un co-operative about the activities I tried to do and wanted to play dull, repetitive, formulaic role play situations - which would have improved her English but she wanted to do so alone with my daughter in German! The whole thing ended with my daughter (who was looking forward to the baking, board games and crafts and who loves pretend play but not the same thing over and over) fed up and wanting to play with her own friends instead, and the little girl sitting about sulking if my daughter wouldn't basically do what she wanted.

It was not a sucess and I was glad to call it off after 3 or 4 tries :o

My daughter's actual friends do pick up bits of English, unintentionally though, and one of her most switched on friends now often responds in German to things I have said in English in a way that shows she has a really very good understanding, which I guess may stand her in good stead when she learns English at school! They are 7 and have been playing together since they were 3 though!

If you're being imposed on or doing this as a favour I'd let him watch an English DVD of something he is likely to be familiar with in German already and speak to him in English, offer him yes/ no choices with visual props (would you like a drink? etc) but not really do too much actively beyond that!

thanks Mr T - whereabouts in Bavaria are you? This is only our 2nd go (tomorrow) and already I can't be bothered, as he is just too young and not interested in sitting down and doing stuff. And like your experience, my dd will only speak to him in German.

I think I will tell the mum he can come round to play if he wants, I will speak english to him, and if the telly is on, so be it.

I taught three 5 year old boys English last year and it was really hard work; they preferred to jump on the sofa than sit on the floor and play games (looking at flash cards, pulling toy animals out of a bag and naming them, etc.). One thing they did like doing was sitting at the table and colouring in - I would speak to them in English and they did pick up colours and names of objects pretty quickly.

I used to charge ?5 per child per hour (for groups of up to 7 or 8 children), but a few of the parents said - when I decided to give up - that they would be willing to pay more. For one child, I wouldn't go down to much less than ?10 - and even that is still very cheap (all depends on how much preparation you need to do as well). It's also surprising how much English German-speaking children can pick up from hearing you speak English to your DC on a regular basis (more passive than active, though) - with the added bonus that there's little preparation involved.

have you got a TING pen by any chance? they are great interactive pen/books. and there are several TING books which are German/English. my nephew (he's almost 4), who speaks only German but was always very interested in English because of our DC', was given one of those books a couple of weeks ago and has learnt quite a bit of English that way. maybe you could try that to spark his interest? our ds' love the ting pens too btw!

no, don't have ting pen. Went ok. Have told her I'll only do play stuff with him. SHe'S pushing for payment but seems wrong somehow if I'm only having basically one of the kids in the street round.