Post by Matthias on May 30, 2017 4:33:27 GMT 9
Hello,
I was always a silent reader of this forum but now I feel like having to check if I am on the right track. I am German and my soon to be wife is English. We are living in England so German is the minority language with me being our son's only German source. I am working full-time but my hours are really good in regards of my son's waking hours. He wakes up at about 8/8:30 (I leave the house at 6:45 and come back at 15:30) and he goes to bed at about 20:00. So I basically have about 4-5 hours every day with him. As soon as I come home I spend time with him, play, read, listen to music, read, show him things, play the guitar and sing with him etc. At the weekend we skype with the German grandparents. At night I bring him to bed and read him a story. In the car we have German music and a DVD player with no German DVDs yet.
I give him his dinner as well. I used to watch kids' programs in German while we were eating but I want to get away from it because I don't like the idea of watching TV during meals. So I started to read to him while he is eating. My partner also plays German songs to him while I'm away but of course also English ones.
He is turning two in July and lately he made massive improvement in both languages. He is copying more, knows the difference between the languages ("gone" and "weg"; "cat" and "katze") says little sentences in English like "where is it gone?" However, I feel his English ability is a little bit ahead of the German. (He only says words, no sentences in German.) Don't get me wrong, he understands me when I ask him things, give him commands etc. But he is more active in English.
My partner is a very playful person which he loves and I am a little bit more serious but like I said, I sing with him and also joke around. I am also the stricter one and my partner lets him do things that I tell him off for. So sometimes I feel like I am the "bad" one and this makes him maybe not refuse German but resist it a little bit because he would rather turn to mummy. I don't want to reduce my strictness because this is how I want him to be raised with my values and beliefs and this also leads to arguments sometimes so I am worried that this interferes with his German language development. What do you think? I should easily hit the 25h/week mark and it seems to work. I am just worried that in a year's time when he goes to nursery the German will be left behind. So what do you think? Am I on the right track? Should I read to him more? How can I make him more active in German? Should I be less strict for the sake of his language development? I feel like I do a lot but at the same time I think I could do more. I appreciate your input.
Thanks,
Matthias
I was always a silent reader of this forum but now I feel like having to check if I am on the right track. I am German and my soon to be wife is English. We are living in England so German is the minority language with me being our son's only German source. I am working full-time but my hours are really good in regards of my son's waking hours. He wakes up at about 8/8:30 (I leave the house at 6:45 and come back at 15:30) and he goes to bed at about 20:00. So I basically have about 4-5 hours every day with him. As soon as I come home I spend time with him, play, read, listen to music, read, show him things, play the guitar and sing with him etc. At the weekend we skype with the German grandparents. At night I bring him to bed and read him a story. In the car we have German music and a DVD player with no German DVDs yet.
I give him his dinner as well. I used to watch kids' programs in German while we were eating but I want to get away from it because I don't like the idea of watching TV during meals. So I started to read to him while he is eating. My partner also plays German songs to him while I'm away but of course also English ones.He is turning two in July and lately he made massive improvement in both languages. He is copying more, knows the difference between the languages ("gone" and "weg"; "cat" and "katze") says little sentences in English like "where is it gone?" However, I feel his English ability is a little bit ahead of the German. (He only says words, no sentences in German.) Don't get me wrong, he understands me when I ask him things, give him commands etc. But he is more active in English.
My partner is a very playful person which he loves and I am a little bit more serious but like I said, I sing with him and also joke around. I am also the stricter one and my partner lets him do things that I tell him off for. So sometimes I feel like I am the "bad" one and this makes him maybe not refuse German but resist it a little bit because he would rather turn to mummy. I don't want to reduce my strictness because this is how I want him to be raised with my values and beliefs and this also leads to arguments sometimes so I am worried that this interferes with his German language development. What do you think? I should easily hit the 25h/week mark and it seems to work. I am just worried that in a year's time when he goes to nursery the German will be left behind. So what do you think? Am I on the right track? Should I read to him more? How can I make him more active in German? Should I be less strict for the sake of his language development? I feel like I do a lot but at the same time I think I could do more. I appreciate your input.
Thanks,
Matthias
