Laloulah

This morning was typical in the challenges it presented to my commitment to speaking both languages to the boys.  We usually speak in German before lunch, but M was excited about what he learnt in French school yesterday afternoon, and he wanted to do a follow-up activity in French. At first I said, 'No, we speak German in the mornings (which is not strictly true- I read to them and sing to them in German, but find I'm speaking less and less to them in German. ) But then I thought I should follow his lead. The activity was sticking vocab stickers into a picture dictionary from a circus theme page. This was perfect as French school holiday program had been all about the circus. The books I'm using are called 'Usborne First Thousand Words in French Pack' and it contains a picture dictionary with all the words displayed,  a book divided into sections of the alphabet where you can stick words from the sticker sheets provided. It's good, but probably a little advanced for M at this stage. Well, I  wanted to scan the stickers before we got stuck into them so I could reuse them later. But my wonderful hubby had cleaned up the desktop, and I couldn't find the scan icon. So I thought, 'Just keep going with the stickers, M will lose interest soon!' Anyway, we started and A piped up that he wanted Mummy to play with him. He didn't stop, so I had to speak over him and cut short the activity. So we all played together in English and I was thinking- when am I going to get my shower? So I suggested watching 'Weihnachten mit Caillou' (Christmas with Caillou) which the boys were very happy about. But in terms of interaction with me in either French or German- a minimal amount!

However, I am still encouraged how often the boys sing to themselves in either German or French throughout the day. And M saw some stickers which said 'I love French' and he said 'I love French, I love it so much'. I'm not sure if this was so he could use the sticker, but hey, I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt.

And yes, French school was worth the $75 we paid per kid for 5 hours of spoken French, activities and games. M was very proud of the clown hat and glasses he made and wanted to know how to write 'Circus' in French and German. A was happy that he had thrown a ball in a hoop and both of them slept for 2 1/2 hours when we got home. Bliss!

Lalou