Multilingual Living ran a great article a couple of weeks ago setting out 10 things you should NEVER say to your bilingual child. Corey Heller, the author, is a real inspiration and I have lost count of the times that one of her pearls of wisdoms has given me renewed motivation or food for thought along this multilingual path.
It's a good thing for us all to remember that bilingualism is a fabulous thing but only if it does not come at the expense of relationships and harmony within ones family unit.
To this end (keeping things light and fun) our home at the moment is filled with music and stories. Poppette is really loving listening to music right now and always points at the stereo insistently whenever it isn't on. We have been stocking up on fabulous music CD's, story CD's and books. Some of the most recent and highly recommended ones are:-
50 Histoires à lire en turbulette a great set of stories and rhymes for young children with gorgeous illustrations.
Contemimes a CD with music and short songs for young children. The music here is really lively and so so different from any other CD we own. Very original and a wealth of great vocab for young ones to learn whilst having fun. This CD comes with a book with the song lyrics in and suggested hand mimes to do along to the songs.
Coco et les bulles de savon a short story book with illustrations accompanied by a CD with a spoken version of the story set to music and real sounds (such as the bath running at the appropriate point in the story). Coco is a cheeky little monkey who gets himself into all sorts of scrapes. There is a whole series of Coco CD/book combos available and we will definitely be increasing our collection.
If anyone has any suggestions of other fun books or CD's do let me know.
Ooh that reminds me - Maria over at Busy as a bee in Paris posted a link to another blog (The Inspiration Thief) which also took me to another blog (Oopsey Daisy) with a great idea for Christmas Book Advent Calendars. It’s a little late for me to sort for this year but it will be at the top of my 'To Do List' for next Christmas. The idea is that you get 24 Christmas themed books (or maybe mix it up with an activity or a project) and wrap them up for your little one(s) to open each day until Christmas... the opportunities this would open up for having fun in the minority language seem limitless.... Joyeux Noël everyone.
