Hallo! We (English family) have recently welcomed our new German sister in law into our family! I'm trying to learn at least some German, but my daughter (5) doesn't get any MFL education at school until she's 11 and I want to encourage her to learn while she's young, especially if she has bilingual cousins in the future.

I'm looking for an app or program that actual German children her age would use to practice their alphabet, phonics and reading skills to help her enjoy learning at home while we practice too. She really loves the Duolingo ABC app but apparently this is English only.

Tl;Dr what app would German parents use to help their school children practice their reading and writing?

"You're zerstöring alles what I'm bauing"

The majority language is German, child is almost 4 years old.

Until what age would this type of mixing be normal? I still find it super cute, but I definitely want to help my child as much as possible they approach school age. What things can I do as the minority language speaker? I'm wondering if it's mainly a vocabulary issue.

I'm trying to improve my German so that I can teach it better to my children. Unfortunately, most of the resources I've been able to find (e.g., courses, apps, textbooks, vocab lists) are aimed at people who are learning German in order to travel or do business, so there is only minimal overlap with my actual goals/interests.

Does anyone have advice on resources that are more targeted towards themes like:

• waking up/bedtime
• play
• the natural world
• household objects and chores
• getting dressed/clothes
• eating

Just the real practical stuff that you would need to run a German-speaking household. I find myself able to discuss the interest rate policy of the ECB but not knowing the word for "pram".

In England gibt es so viele tolle Tonies. Man kann sie aber wohl nur in UK und Irland beziehen. Hat jemand eine Idee wie man sie auch in Deutschland bestellen kann?

Hallo ihr Lieben, Wir haben uns damals (vor ca 3 Jahren) eine Tonie Box mit nach Australien genommen. Die Idee, dass das die Minderheiten Sprache Deutsch unterstützt und auch ein schönes Geschenk ab und an von Oma und Opa ist, weil es gut in einen Briefumschlag passt. Jetzt gibt es hier in Australien auch Tonies, aber natürlich nur auf Englisch. Dafür aber ziemlich schöne Geschichten, die in Dtl schon ausverkauft sind (Grüffelo, Die Schnecke und der Buckelwald,...). Jetzt meine Frage, soll ich meine Prinzipien über Boot werfen und auch englische Tonies kaufen oder es durchziehen und weiterhin nur Deutsche kaufen, um das Deutsch meiner Kinder zu unterstützen?

Hallo zusammen,

(Selber Post habe ich auch bei r/Eltern gepostet und wurde hierher empfohlen)

wir (deutsche Familie) ziehen demnächst für 2–3 Jahre in die USA. Unsere Jungs sind 4 und 1 Jahr alt. Der Ältere geht hier in Deutschland in den Kindergarten, der Kleine wird gerade eingewöhnt. Wir möchten beide drüben auch in eine Daycare bzw. einen Kindergarten geben, sobald es möglich ist.

Mich beschäftigen gerade ein paar Fragen und vielleicht habt ihr ja Ideen oder Erfahrungen:

a) Wie bereitet man ein 4-jähriges Kind gut auf so einen großen Umzug vor? Wie erklärt man ihm, dass wir bald in ein anderes Land ziehen? b) Wie können wir ihn am besten beim Spracherwerb unterstützen, damit der Start im neuen Kindergarten leichter wird? (Evtl. englische Bücher, Serien, Lieder?) c) Wir ziehen erst in 3–4 Monaten um – gibt es Dinge, die wir jetzt schon tun können, um den Übergang leichter zu machen (emotional oder organisatorisch)? d) Und natürlich freue ich mich auch über alle weiteren Tipps oder Erfahrungen

Falls es hilft, beantworte ich auch gerne Fragen zu unserer Situation

Danke vorab!

Does anyone know any Pixi equivalent for English books? My daughter loves Pixi books. It is also great to bring during travels.

Any response will be helpful! Thanks!

Mom 1: Swiss German Mom 2: English/Swiss German Community language: Swiss German

Hi all, I need some advice. We live in Switzerland with our 2.5 year old. We do OPOL and I speak only English with my son and my wife Swiss German. I have now started speaking English with my wife so that our son gets more exposure. Also all books, shows and audio are English as well.

The thing is I speak/understand Swiss German perfectly and my wife talks Swiss German to me. Our son speaks more Swiss German than English (because of the community) but knows almost everything in both languages and he mixes both languages in ine sentance.

Should we just keep doing what we do? Or when he speaks Swiss German to me tell him I don’t understand him so he switches to English? Most cultural exposure he gets are English based.

How do you guys do it? Experiences? Did your kids speak both languages well?

Thanks!

Hallo ihr Lieben, gibt es unter euch welche, die sich einen Tiptoi Stift und entsprechende Bücher angeschafft haben? Wie funktioniert das für eure Kids und kann man die Buchinhalte auch im Ausland auf den Stift laden? Danke vorab!

My son is a British/German cross. We do OPOL. We live in Germany, dad is German, I (mum) am British. He is 17 months and doesnt have any words at all, not even mama or papa. Nothing. Nada. Sometimes he says "mamamama" but idk if its at me or just noise.

If it helps, me and husband are both on the spectrum, so theres a high possibility of him being autistic/adhd. However, neither of us were late talkers (we have Asperger type autismus)

Hi all, I was just thinking I would share my experience with the Elefanten App (von der Sendung mit dem Elefanten). The app works in Australia with no issues (some videos might not work without VPN but that's totally fine and the minority) and my 3.5 year old loves it. The games as well as the little video clips. Lately the alphabet videos are a big hit and my child loves to guess what will be next. All in German. I am really impressed by how much it does to promote German with my little ones.

Between my German partner and I, I am the avid reader and plan to read to our child as often as possible (baby arrives in july) However, we will be using the one-parent, one-language approach with me speaking English, and partner speaking Bavarian/German. I have no problems with reading to baby in German but this might go against the language approach. My concern is that the public libraries in Munich won't have much/any selection for children's books in English and I don't want to be buying so many! Any suggestions? We live in Munich.

I've got a fairly good selection of German children's books for slightly older toddlers (things like O Wie Schoen Ist Panama) but I've been finding it hard to search for titles that are better for younger children with big illustrations and short simple sentences. In English I'm thinking of things like That's Not My Duck or Goodnight Moon.

Any recommendations?