If you were throughly monolingual and wanted to introduce a second language to your kids...

[Fillyjonk]

what do you reckon would be the best way?

we live in wales. I have a welsh gcse and think this is the language they should learn, but there don't seem to be any classes outside schools (kids 18 months and 3, will not being going to school til at least 7). (yes have checked out ti a fi and phoned twf btw-only option is a meithrin/nursery but for various reasons do not want to send ds to nursery).

I actually can't think of a way for them to learn welsh, really. I have a vague thought of them having lessons and building up a relationship with a welsh student/mothers help type when they are older, but am baulking at doing this when they are so young, for some reason. Thoughts?

alternative-french classes with something like le club francais. I do have french gcse, but that is all.

Either way would supplement with stuff like welsh/french language dvds, books etc

I'm sorry, this is utterly woolly, but what are your thoughts on these scenarios? I want to introduce another language, I know I am not going to do anywhere near as good a job as a native speaker but I'd like to at least try...

Any other ideas or recommendations or anything really? It doesn't have to be specific to welsh.

What about those Muzzy courses? BBC do them I think

why are you baulking at the idea of a mother's help? ds and dd have had one since they were 18 months and their Spanish has improved no end. In dd's case, it has helped a lot more than nursery did, just because of the 1:1 attention. You don't have to leave the house or even the room.

but anyway - if you want to diy then at first it is very important that you don't mix the languages. for ds and dd this has been easy becasue they speak spanish with the mother's help and at nursery, and english with me. since you'll be speaking both languages I guess you could set aside a time every day when you speak welsh although it doesn't have to be the same time - after a while children are actually very good at moving between languages.

hmm. have seen muzzy spanish (£2 from cancer research) and was not impressed. they really didn't seem very engaging. but would do this in addition, I think. something like muzzy would be great, absolutely. I think teletubbies exists in welsh and maisie in french?

re mothers help. I think problem really is that I'm not sure what they are or what they do. can I ask her to just speak welsh with the kids and take them to the park or whatever or will she insist on helping to wash up? Them being so young...actually the big problem would be that I'm assuming it would be more expensive. dunno why. and don't know how to go about finding one. I want someone to just play with them, is that the sort of thing they do?

I think the nursery would work best but you have to feel comfortable with the decisions you make regarding childcare, so obviously this isn't for you. They need a certain amount of regular immersion in the language, if they are going to pick up anything much.

Can you organise for a nice teenage girl or a retired lady with time on her hands to come round two or three afternoons a week and play with them for an hour, paint pictures together, read a short story, sing a couple of songs? It may work, it may not but you could try it for a bit. I would try and get someone on personal recommendation or go to a church and approach people I liked the look of.

It can take some time. To give you an idea from my experience - Dd was in a German kindergarten from 9-3 5 x a week for 1 year before she spoke a word of German. She spent that first year sussing the language out it seems but not speaking it. She wasn't really speaking fluent German till she'd been in kindergarten for 2 years (not mother-tongue level mind you) and now after 4 years in a German speaking environment (age 6), she is really bilingual. All dc develop differently of course but don't be discouraged if you don't see rapid improvement.

there really isn't cf. theres one in north wales somewhere but not round here. its a pita. maybe i should set one up. that would be the absolute ideal.

or I could maybe just lie about ds's age and sneak him into cyclch (oh yes, he s very tall and preccocious, isn't he?)

I think what is really putting me off hiring someone is the whole interviewing business. and how much to pay. and what if they are shite. etc. hmmm. i might put a notice up at the uni, I think. must ponder.

why will they not go to school til they are 7 ? I have nephews in mid wales who started school at 4 - and incidentally go to the welsh stream of the school - there was no choice to do the english stream I think. They did not speak Welsh until they started school but all seem to have picked it up really carefully.

If you want to tackle a language on your own then Spanish I think is one that is most similar to English (easier than French) - you can get books dvds etc aimed at young children.

Leave the tv or radio on in welsh all day, supplemented with tellytubbies and any other rubbishy cartoons etc you can lay your hands on, and get him into welsh classes or school as soon as you can.

Going for french is good at this stage, because it is much easier to learn a difficult language at such a young age.

fillyjonk: it's fine to have a mother's help who just plays with and talks to the kids. That's what mine does - I don't think she's ever so much as turned a tap on, never mind cleaned. In Spain the best way to find them is to look out for students or recent graduates (mine is actually a teacher, but it'll be years until she gets a proper job because of the stupid list system they have here). I assume it's similar over there. is there a university near you? could you advertise there? a BEd or PGCE student would be ideal (just because then they'll be motivated by gaining experience as well as the dosh)

But I have to say that a real live person is 100x better than welsh dvds or whatever - without the interaction it's just not the same.

if you have access to a French (or other language) club, I would do that. DS attends a club after school, which is run by another mother at his school - but she is an experienced languages teacher.
She runs it as a club, she talks in French the whole time they are there, they have juice, watch a small amount of French video, learn songs, do puzzles, learn vocabulary through games etc. and she sends sheets home which include the vocab they have learned as part of the puzzles etc. Then I occasionally watch a French dvd with DS or read a simple book.

He's drinking it all in.

Hi. just saw this thread and wanted to jump in. A few years ago a woman in the bank very randomly just asked me if I taught english (i live in spain). I said no, but I was interested. Ended up looking after her 3 girls (5, 7, 9) for several afternoons a week. Sometimes she was there. sometimes not. She didn´t pay me much, ?50 a week I think as it was really only a few hours and I didn´t feel comfortable taking more.

I just talked to the girls in english all the time, sometimes they understood me, sometimes they didn´t but we all managed. We played board games, painted, drew, played nursery type games like ´what´s the time mr. wolf?´ and I also gave them their dinner (normally pre-prepared by their mum, I just had to reheat and sit with them while they ate) and ran their bath.

I think they got a lot out of it to be honest, if only from the exposure to the language. The older ones benefitted most OBVIOUSLY but the little one was game and joined in and to be honest, I think it would have been even easier if they were smaller as the younger they are the more they just accept that you speak differently and that´s that.

So I wouldn´t be necessarily be put off by the idea of a mother´s help..you could always ask colleagues/friends/relatives if they know anyone first? An older teenager would be great, someone who will play easily with the kids and not demand a wadload of cash but will also be responsible.. good luck

It depends on your child's willingness as well - DD1 is 13, battling through German at secondary school (she couldn't get on with French which I would have preferred). For years we have gone on hols to France and she can just about manage Bonjour.

Whereas DD2 is nearly 4, we have just tried to teach her a few words of French as we've been on hols, and she can when prompted now say bonjour/merci/au revoir. She has started to ask what things are in French (oh help, most of my vocab relates to food and make-up!) so we have enrolled her for Club Francais. She had her first class yesterday and seemed to enjoy it. (I don't practise French at all except on hols, I did French O-level and an evening class 10 years ago to brush up. Grammar is probably all over the place but I get by).

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is start with some simple bits like hello/goodbye/thank you - are there any smaller shops where there are Welsh speakers? If you can find eg a sweet shop or newsagent with a Welsh speaking assistant, perhaps befriend them and let the kids ask for things when you go in there? If you think about how they started to learn to speak, perhaps as they are not too old try that again - so call a banana the Welsh name etc, grdually introduce other bits such as "I'd like an apple". Build it up the same way they have built up English. Hope it helps!

try this book from Amzon perhaps?

Absolutely start them young, and with a native speaker. Ds started learning spanish at 3, before he could read, and speaks with a fabulous accent because he just mimics exactly the teacher, rather than trying to anglicise the pronunciation or read from a worksheet. He is mortified by my attempts to say anything. Really, the younger the better IMO. I'll start dd very soon.

Fillyjonk,

As you live in Wales I would probably choose to teach my children welsh (rather than French, Spanish or German) and I would start as soon as you can. The earlier they hear the language the easier it is to pick it up.

I think your idea of a welsch student or mothers help is a good one. Children associate languages with a person, so you could have your children regularly play, sing and talk with a native welsh speaker.

We have been consistently using the one-language, one-parent approach with our chilren since birth and our 4 year old happily switches between languages. The most important thing, in my opinion, is to be consistent and only speak 'your' language with the child.

Good luck!

Filly,the most important thing for language learning is to have a purpose for doing so.

I know you home ed,so are obviously not accessing Welsh medium stuff,but i would seriously question what you hope to achieve by not making Welsh available to them.

Why are you interested in French? Do you go to France/have family there/plan on living there?
If not I wouldn;t bother.
What you will enable them to learn in a piece meal fashion will be worthless frankly.

It's hard I know.
A noble aspiration but one has to be realistic.

I am,in case you don't know,a salt,a native Welsh speaker,a French speaker and a bit of an old hippy who understands where you are coming from.