Wednesday 18 January 2012

Non-Native Crib Sheet

Since my fortuitous meeting with Belgian Maman a few weeks ago, we have been getting to know each other and excitedly trading ideas, words and phrases.

Belgian Maman came up with a fantastic idea - creating a Non-Native Crib Sheet full of useful words and phrases that we need on an almost daily basis when chatting with our little ones. She also suggested we share this crib sheet on my blog.

What a fabulous idea.

I honestly can't imagine how happy I would have felt to have found any semblance of a crib sheet when I first started speaking French with Poppette. I would have jumped for joy :-)

So... I have started a new page "Non-Native Crib Sheet" which you can access via the tab at the top of this page. I really hope that it helps a few people... even one person.

The list already runs to over more than 200 words and phrases but so far I have only had the time to upload a few onto the blog. If the crib sheet is of interest to you, I do recommend you keep popping back to have a look for updates.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

A (Mini) Explosion of Words

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you have all had a fabulous time over the festive period.

Christmas at our house this year was unusual in that I had two whole weeks off work. This is absolutely unheard of. Papa also had a week off so we got to spend some great quality time as a family.

Spending such a concentrated amount of time with our daughter was amazing for both of us. We have been bowled over by the progress she makes every day. The new tricks she learns and shares with us. Little life skills and personality traits.

On Poppette's last day in nursery prior to the Christmas break, her nursery nurse told us that she had said 'banana'. I'm not sure why I was dubious (particularly as it is one of her very favourite foods) but I reserved judgement until I heard it for myself. Which I did when Poppette asked for a banana one day when we were sitting in the living room. There was no mistaking it although her pronunciation was more 'nana'. She has since gone on to say it several times.

Not only this, but she now says Daddy and Papa continually ... hundreds of times a day. She also says Mama but not quite as often. I have a sneaking suspicion that its because my littel angel knows she has Papa totally wrapped around her finger and that if she says his name there is no way on God's earth that he will refuse her anything :-)

I am also very excited to say that I have come accross my alter ego. A Belgian woman raising her young son in her non-native English. It's such a boost to meet people that are taking on the same challenges and hopefully we will be able to inspire and support each other on this bilingual journey. This Belgian maman has been kind enough to review the French vocabulary listed on the "Le Langage Enfantin en Français" page listed at the top of my blog so I have updated it accordingly.