Raising Bilingual Kids Carnival

Here we are again, just in the nick of time - another edition of the Blogging on Bilingualism Carnival has gone live. This time over at Multilingual Mama - head on over and check it out. You will find entries by a few of the usual suspects, but also a bunch of new contributors. Hopefully you'll find something that inspires you :)


Before you go, please see if you can help us deal with the latest uprising of Punk 1's stubborn side - I really am looking for opinions! My friend whose three year old daughter is similarly stubborn (she just spent 6 whole weeks in Germany telling everyone "I speak English only!!!!!", something that is fairly similar to how Punk 1 behaved when we were there when she was three herself) has already resigned himself to not ever pushing his daughter with reading and writing. I think it's because he is more confident that she will indeed pick up reading and writing German because both him and his wife are German, speak nothing but German at home, and travel to Germany a lot - but in some ways I admire his confidence that it'll all work out.

I'm just not there yet.

Thanks, for anything you might have to add!

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***Thanks Multilingual Mama, for hosting! 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!  

Help Me: My Child is too Darn Stubborn

Things have been quiet around here, I know, but I’m still here. Things are going pretty well – the kids continue to speak German with me and other adults they know are German. Punk 2 speaks German to his German friends, even the younger ones that are still more prone to mixing, and has asked to learn how to read and write German. Punk 2 frequently speaks English with other German kids, but is quite eager to meet up with them. Sibling language continues to be English, though sometimes there is also room for German.

We’ve been coasting along happily for a while (which is probably why I haven’t had much to say lately), but Punk 1’s stubborn nature is once again getting the better of her. But rather than just rant about it, I would like to throw it out there in case any of you have any thoughts on the matter, or advice for us.

Yes?

So here it is: we made a deal at the beginning of the school year that Punk 1 could skip GermanSaturday School for grade 1, if, and only if, she agreed to work on reading and writing German with me at home. And by working I don’t mean grammar drills and the like, rather games and work sheets she loves doing. Home-made crossword puzzles, games of hangman, reading her beginning reader books together, etc. She agreed quite eagerly, and we thought all was well. Except that we never really practiced. We kind of forgot or were busy with other things, but occasionally she read or wrote a word or sentence or two, and of course we continued to speak German together.

Over the last couple of months, I have made much more of an effort to try to get her into something, like the German kiddie magazine I have subscribed her to, and I've also had Santa bring some new grade 1 work books (she loves work books, seriously!). Both were a big hit – but just not enough to really get her going (we’ve only read a couple of stories in one of the magazines and done the games; she’s only done a couple of the work sheets in the work book even though she continues to say she has fun with them).

And more recently she’s begun to pretty much outright refuse (sound familiar?) to even try to read or write German, even though she’s fully capable when she’s in the mood. She totally dug her heels in the other night over dinner when in conversation with Punk 2 the question around how to spell Kuh (cow) and Muh (moo) came up. She went so far as claiming that she couldn’t even hear the first sound in 'Muh', even though she had just spelled 'moo' without a problem and both words sound pretty much the same.

She has been stubborn from day one, and not just with using German. That’s how she rolls. Which is fine, ‘cause she’s getting it from both The Husband and me – but from the outside, I can see her standing in her own way again, for no particular reason other than that she’s decided to rather not do it. And I get it, reading and writing is not all that necessary in her everyday life, but what do we do?

Try harder? Leave her alone, trusting that she will eventually want to learn it and be able to pick it up later since it’s such a phonetic language? Sign her up for German Saturday School again, even though it's for second language learners and she'd have kids in her class that won't be able to speak much? Try out the heritage language classes through the school board? Try to get together with friends and hire someone to teach all of our kids reading and writing (my favourite option, just that the only people I know who are interested in this kind of thing have kids that are younger than my two)?

I can see how option 2 might have better results with someone as stubborn as her (yes, I have been there many times myself), but what if it doesn’t? I’m not ready to consider the possibility the kids won’t be able to read and write German.

Any thoughts anyone?

What would you do?