Brief Update



First things first:

I'm still rather absent from this space, but not enough to not still be in the loop on the latest edition of the Raising Bilingual Children Carnival! There are loads of participants this month, so please go check it out over at Babelkid - Raising Multilingual Children - you are sure to find some useful information or even inspiration that might be helpful to you.

Thanks Jan, for hosting this time around!

*** And as always, if you'd like to keep up to date with future carnivals, host one, or submit a post, why not join our mailing list? You can also access all past editions of the Carnival on my Resources Page!

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In other news, everything is chugging along just fine. Kind of anyway.

Punk 1 is now in grade 1 French Immersion, and begging asking - temporarily we hope - whether she can to switch to the English stream for grade 2 since apparently she doesn't actually speak any French. This is very much reminiscent of how she didn't want to speak German way back when, and hopefully nothing to worry about too much. She hasn't been using French all summer, so it's not surprising she's finding it difficult to get back into it. She also says that all the other kids are in the same boat, so it's not like she's having a harder time than anyone else. Also, things likely have kicked into a higher gear compared to what she was used to in Kindergarten, and she's still adjusting. We're still monitoring how things are progressing, but according to her teacher she is doing just fine.

The little Punk is now in Junior Kindergarten, in English until he can start in French when he enters Senior Kindergarten next fall. He appears to be doing well, though going to school is not as much of a love affair for him as it was (still is, really) for Punk 1. But at least he goes quite willingly and now often comes home to play doing homework and working on computer assignments. The other day, though, he came home with a car he lifted (I know! I was shocked, too!) from school - not in a bad way though, since he didn't try to hide it and declared quite openly he only brought it home so he could take it back the next day to play with it again. He just didn't want anyone else to put it somewhere he wouldn't be able to find it. This was still a first in our house since Punk 1 would have never done anything like this - but when we talked to him, it was quite clear that he understands we cannot just take things because we want them. And he returned the car the next day and hasn't brought anything back since. Phew :)

Both kids continue to speak German with me, though once again Punk 1 is sneaking in increasingly bigger amounts of English. Apparently this is because she doesn't want to explain everything to me in German and then again to The Husband in English (and very much like any bilingual would behave, so yay for her!), but it takes away important opportunities for her to speak German, so I'm not too sure about this just yet.

Otherwise we're settling back into normal life, now that all the summer excitement - vacation! camp! staying with the in-laws for a week! having Oma visit from Germany! starting school all over again! starting a new daycare! getting lice in summer camp! - is over and we're getting used to our routine.

More to follow, 'cause I'm still here. Really, I am.