Ja, ein bisschen!
One of our longest running homeschool topics is German. We’ve been learning German at home since Bluey was born.
When he was an infant, TRDad and Bluey would listen to German podcasts each morning. Since that time, our lessons have grown more advanced. Now our foreign language curriculum includes not only podcasts, but a German song playlist on our iTunes, a collection of cassette tapes and a daily reading from one of our many German textbooks.
All this while no one in the house claims any solid German fluency!
TRDad took some German in High School and college, but never enrolled in any advanced classes. The main thing that stuck with him was a love of the language and pronunciation skills. So knowing that he has a pretty good idea of how to pronounce any German words we might encounter, we just plunged into German instruction at home.
Our books and tapes are all garage sale and book sale finds- so our entire shelf of German language materials cost less than $10. Our collection runs the gamut from 1950’s era classroom texts, to hip books for modern travelers to tapes geared for young kids. We are able to mix up our instruction and keep it interesting.
It has gone pretty good so far. Bluey’s ability to repeat German words and phrases is improving, as is his ability to recognize the language- even when he hears it out of context. And not for nothing- TRDad’s German vocabulary is increasing steadily as well!
Someday we may travel to Germany as a family. Or Bluey may travel there himself when he’s older. Or maybe not. Until then, we love the influence foreign language study has had on our youngest’s mind- helping him see connections between words and languages that he might not notice otherwise.
Auf Wiedersehen!