book recommendations for 2.5 year old to be learning German....

[sannie]

Hi There,

We are an English family living in Germany...DH and I speak enough/understand enough basic German to just about get by. DS1 will be starting a German kindergarten in about 5 weeks and the aim is to have him fluently speaking German eventually. We have a few German childrens books but nothing really beyond those first picture word books - we have always bought English as this is what DH and I are comfortable in....He goes to a mini kindergarten and he says a few German words already but he doesn't speak to anywhere near the level of his peers although I'm not too sure how much he understands when spoken too....

I guess we need to ensure that Ds1 has some German books around the house...I bought him one of those Bob der Baumeister comics the other week for him to look at.....

Does anyone have any recommendations for books we could get or do you think it's enough for him to have access to them at his new kindergarten and we concentrate on English at home since neither DH and I are comfortable with German?

Thanks - sorry if rambling...I'm stressing out about him starting kindergarten and the new language thing....

what about going to your local library and checking some out?

ahhh never thought of that...

thanks hana

he should be up with the others of his age in the kiga soon enough. dd was - they were amazed when they realised she could speak english too!
Get books from bookshops, library or car boot sales. Dd fairly often pounces on a book and says "we have that in the kiga"
Also, I would park him in front of german tv, it works wonders for the language skills.

"schlaff gut lieber mond" is one that sticks in my memory, good illustrations. but dd's faves are blasted Disney stuff that we get at the supermarket! I had to read Findet Nemo about a billion times last year.
you can read to him in german even if you dont understand every word yourself - your understanding will be somewhat increased after the nth reading.

Are you planning on sending your son into the german school system? If so, then I advise you to made strenuous efforts with the german. My children can't really handle the school at all (currently a disaster zone), this is largely due to 2 reasons (1) there is no parent at home in the afternoons and (2) there is no adult native german speaker in teh house.

thanks nby....

could pick up some books at the local floh markt...and also a good idea about German tv - SesammeStrasse and the like

Good point about the language and school....We were going to move back to England for him to go to school there but I'm not sure that is happening now....dh thinks it would be hard bfor him to get a jo with the way things are atm...also not sure if the English test culture is all too good....

I have to make more of an effort with the language myself....funny how you can get by in a country without speaking the language (and not in a good way)

talk to lots of people about the schools, and find out whats available in your area. Our experience (bayern) has been horrendous. The big issues are: language, whether it's a Gesamtschule, whether its a Ganztagschule, and the teaching method (state/montessori/waldorf are the main ones around here. there are also posh schools in the alps if you have a spare arm and leg).
have you already seen the km of threads on mumsnet with people moaning about schools??
Feel obliged to add a disclaimer stating that germany is wonderful and I love everything else about it