How to teach my dc's German??

[NaturalBaby]

DH is starting his new job near Zurich in the new year and I am looking into moving out at Easter. I have the Michel Thomas CD's for myself and DH.
I have a 5 1/2yr old in Yr1, 4yr old in Reception and nearly 3yr old at home so am starting to show them short German programes on Youtube and talk a bit of German at home (of what I can remember from A levels!). I'm concerned about my 5yr old starting school with very little language to get by and would like to push the language lessons before we get there so he's more confident. How do I do it?!?

There are lots of French and German toddler groups around us, I think there is a German one not too far away but that would only be one session a week.

My kids liked the Usborne First Thousand Words in German Sticker book. You could read german versions of stories they know to them, a lot are translated.

KG will probably be dialect though and a lot of the words are pronounced differently/completely different, hence my DC telling me all my efforts were pointless!

Things like making sure your dc knows how to use a penknife to sharpen a stick, cook a sausage over a fire, tie shoelaces and light a candle with a match would also help with fitting in and were things I'd never thought to do with a 5 year old in England!

Natural - if you are putting the kids in Swiss KG then I would be cautious, they will learn no high German until primary and will be speaking a dialect of Schweizerdeutsch to their teacher and school friends in the early years.

Unless you are very confident of your German pronounciation it could also be confusing. They will learn quickly enough from complete immersion in their new surroundings.

You'll be very surprised at how quickly they pick it up in a non pressure environment.

We tend to project our concerns about our own communication onto our kids, it's hard not to, I did the same. But at the age your children are they really are like sponges for languages. DS has now been assessed as bilingual and just started French and Italian at 8 on top of his English and German. They are much better at picking up languages than we are as adults as they don't over complicate their brains with translation.

Saying that my English husband became fluent when his kids from a previous marriage were born and he started watching kids programs with them - so if you can download some of the Kika programs or have a version of a DVD they like that you can switch to German you could try that?

My two were 4.5yrs and 2.5yrs when we moved to Sweden. They had never spoken Swedish or learned any, even though dh is Swedish. My son used to laugh at daddy and speak 'gobbledegook' back to him when dh tried to introduce it.
They went to a local Swedish school/daycare and within 6 months the foundations were definitely in place.
4 years in and my daughters new teacher didn't know Swedish wasn't here first language.
Don't stress about the kids too much.
I, on the other hand have really struggled with the language. I wish I had really learned the lingo before we came, so my advice would be for you and your dh to learn.

Reading simple childrens books to them is a good thing to do, and watching tv programmes designed for v young children.

I am German, and I can't understand Swiss German unless they try extremely hard to speak High German - and even then I have to concentrate! Although of course it won't hurt for your dc to be exposed to some German, I don't think it is going to make much of a difference to how much they will understand in the beginning or how quickly they will pick up the language.

I agree though that learning the language most probably won't be much if a problem for your dc. They'll learn it so quickly, being surrounded by native speakers every day.

Good luck :)

Thank you, I'm trying not to worry too much because the school has a lot of expat children so I'm sure they'll be fine but I'd like to give my 5yr old a bit of a head start to tune his ear in a bit as he takes a long time to adjust to change. He might get a term of kindergarten if we move at Easter but we might not move till the summer - he's in Yr1 at the moment.

The Kika programs look perfect.