Need to introduce new language into the house

[sugarplumfairy28]

Just looking for some tips and advice. We emigrated to Germany last year, my German is limited hence why I'm here. I understand quite a bit but cannot reply or form my own sentences. Our children are 6 and 3 (will be 4 in April), they have been at Kindergarten since September and their German is starting to develop slowly.

Our daughter (whose 3) seems to be having trouble adjusting to the increased hours at Kindergarten, previously she was only doing one morning at nursery, so I have just reduced this to try and help calm her behaviour and make her feel more secure and settled.

I have family here in Germany, my uncle and cousins so have access to fluent speakers, plus the ladies at Kindergarten all speak German, although each of the children have at least one teacher in their class who can speak English.

I appreciate that if my own German was a lot better it would be more straight forward but unfortunately we're having to do it all backwards and try and integrate the children first. Does anyone have any tips on how to try and introduce German at home, I thought about adding stickers to well everything, which I should be able to arrange, say on the table, doors, windows etc. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

My advice is don't introduce it at home. You have the ideal set up just as you are for bilingualism. It's called minority language at home. You are living in a country full of Germans. The children will understand the need and speak German in no time at all. Just leave them in the kindergarten, reduced to mornings only if need be for you daughter. Mine son is 3 and only does mornings. We speak only english at home. He is picking it up slowly but there is no rush and he will have pitch perfect language when he is ready. The reason for this is that the bigger concern is they could lose the english if you have German at home and school. There is a great facebook group. Parents of bilingual children. I recommend you join it as there are some real gurus on there as well as lots of parents in the same boat. Plus you may find friends in your area as lots in Germany it seems. Good luck!

I think home should be your "English sanctuary", especially if your daughter is having a tough time. Your children will pick up German in Kindergarten.

I would do more activities with the children, like sports or music classes. Preferably ones that require parent involvement, so that you get some exposure, too.

If you want to introduce German at home, invite German speakers. Have play dates. Watch TV. If your German is quite shaky, don't try to teach your children. You should try to find a German course for yourself ASAP. Volkshochschule? Is there a Uni in your town?

Nursery rhyme cds and childrens TV

The children only go to Kindergarten from about 08:30 to 12:30 5 days a week, I've to cut our daughters hours to 3 days, and we may possibly be upping our son's hours. Our daughter really needs her alone time with either me or my parents, it's what makes her feel safe. Her German isn't such a concern as she won't start school until 2017, our son will be starting in August this year so I'd like to give him more of a vocabulary for then. He has had an assessment through the school to determine if he will need a helper, which they don't believe he will but is apparently having one to one sessions at Kindergarten although I haven't seen much of an improvement. In England he had finished his first year at school so is familiar with what school is, he is also incredibly bright and school were talking about if he were to stay him skipping a year. At the moment he is super frustrated he can't express himself, he is a very talkative boy and his English vocabulary is apparently very advanced. I think he could handle learning more, but just not sure where to start him.

I was bought up in Germany by 2 English patents and went to full time childcare from age 2. I soon picked it up there and my dad left Germany not being able to say a word and my mum managed to do conversational German so she could speak to staff. I would say don't introduce it at home as otherwise it seems that you're testing your children rather than just letting them learn it through school/X hold care.

I wouldn't introduce it at home but try to get more outside input.

We have German as the home language and English as the outside. DD watches TV and hears story tapes but otherwise DH and I only speak German.

But we made sure from baby onwards that we go out a lot and she hears lots of other people speaking English and interact. Classes are a great source and it also gives you contact.

I would also recommend that you learn it as well, it will make your life easier. I arrived in England with GCSE-level in English, grade D-E. It takes a while to gather the confidence to say something but it gets better.

What really helped me was watching TV, listen to the radio and reading newspaper and reading books.

Maybe arrange for a language course to get you started and get more confidence.

We are an English family living in Germany and I second what everyone else says. German at kindergarten, English at home. Your daughter has a long time to pick up the language. I wouldn't worry there at all (speaking as a mother to a 2 year old boy who only understands and speaks English yet goes to German kind i). Is your son interested in sports, music......? Maybe you could look for a kids club to increase his exposure. Just going to the spielplatz after kindi, with their German speaking friends really helped my kids with their (and my) German.

My familly was in a similar situation when they moved to Germany with two children ages 4 and 6. This was 20-odd-years ago, but never mind!

I was the 4-year-old at the time, and my parents spoke very, very limited German. They decided that it was better for them not to teach us their broken German with a heavy foreign accent. So instead, we picked up German at Kindergarten, at school, on the street and (this was very important) on TV. We would watch things like Sesamstrasse and Sandmann.

Both my brother and I picked up German within a year or less. It took my 6-year-old brother a little longer than me because I was younger. He had some language training by a native speaker because he had to start primary school withing 9 months of us arriving in the country. But it was never an issue for either of us.

We both think of German as our first language now and no one would suspect that we are not "native" speakers.

Your kids will learn. Try to arrange play dates, and maybe focus on making some German friends yourself? That will help them integrate more than if you tried to teach them German.

In fact, the only thing my brother and I struggled with is that our parents never quite felt at home in Germany - which we considered to be our home.