Learning Styles Continued

In my last post, I wrote about my older son's preference for visual/spatial learning. My younger son, ML, is not quite three so his style is a bit harder to identify but he's showing a definite preference for tactile/kinesthetic (or active) learning. If he can manipulate something, he understands it and remembers. This kid has been loving jigsaw puzzles for over a year - and can pick out the piece he wants from a big pile. Show him where the play button is on the remote control and he'll never forget where it is (and uses it often!) My older son still needs reminders on which buttons to use. Like any self-respecting preschooler, he adores water play and is proud that he knows how to get the temperature just right. Dancing, climbing and jumping are favorites of his. My little ML is very active, however, he easily sinks deep into concentration when doing something engrossing to him like a puzzle or a matching activity.

Some other activities for tactile / kinesthetic learners which you can apply to German immersion:

Crafts. Do a craft and read an accompanying story
Role-play (have kids act out a story they know and help them with the German if necessary)
Dance and sing to German music.
Allow frequent breaks for movement.
Read books with tactile effects. (Lift the flap, glitter effects, touchy-feely). ML loves these kind of books and will "read" them to himself.

Luckily there seems to be a lot of overlap between my two kids' learning styles so I'm not going in two completely different directions most of the time. I wonder what the new baby will be like...?

Learning Styles for German Study

In a continued effort to understand what makes my kids ‘tick’, I have been reading a lot lately about learning styles, and consequently thinking about how it can be applied to expanding a child’s knowledge of German.

I seem to be mainly an auditory-verbal learner which explains why I found German so easy in college – I just listened to the lecture, read the textbooks and learned the rules. I always wondered why everyone said German was so difficult. I loved learning all the rules and their exceptions! My learning style is well-geared toward traditional methods of school instruction.

Fast forward to my efforts to homeschool my older son, NJ, now 6, and my verbal style is frustrating us both immensely. He is more of a visual-spatial learner and is much more interested in the big picture rather than the small details. He’s extremely creative and is constantly constructing things with his hands. The kid even learned to knit last week! (Yes, I am very proud!) Pesky details, however, are not of much interest to him and he needs to keep moving to learn. No sitting still and listening for this boy! Now that I understood this, our lessons are becoming more effective and productive.

Some ideas geared toward these two learning styles that you can use with your German study:

Auditory/verbal learners
Reading lots of books
Listening to music and audiobooks
For older children, a discussion of the grammar – they may enjoy learning the origins of words and expanding their vocabulary

Visual/spatial learners
Maps – where is Germany on the map – what path did we take when we flew their last time? We love to keep maps handy (map placemats are great) and frequently refer to them when a place is mentioned.
Puzzles – most visual/spatial learners love puzzles. Cut their workbook pages into jigsaw puzzle pieces and they may retain the information easily.
Allow them to draw a picture or model with clay while listening to a story auf Deutsch. When my son’s hands are busy, he’s able to concentrate so much better. And later on you can refer to the picture and ask the child to narrate back the story you told.
Incorporate role-playing into your work. Act out a story using action figures. You can really emphasize the verbs this way. Kids will remember the vocabulary as they visualize what the characters did.
Ask them to visualize. Write vocabulary words in color, ask them to close their eyes and write the word in the air. Ask them to see the word in their mind. If they can visualize it, they will remember it.
Have them build models or dioramas and label the parts in German.
Show them how lessons apply to their everyday lives. Visual/spatial learners need to see the big picture. Encourage them to write to other German-speakers, plan a pretend trip to Germany (where will you go, what will you do, what language might you need to use to get around, etc.)

Coming soon – ideas for tactile/kinesthetic learners.

For more information on learning styles, see this great series at Montessori for Everyone.

Licht an! Series

My kids have been engrossed in this series for a while now. Both N (6) and M(2.5) love to pour over the detailed illustrations with their paper "flashlights" and they always find something new each time they look at one of these books. It's a little tricky to explain the concept behind this series and you won't really get it until you hold one in your hands but let me do my best. Each two page spread has one side with some explanatory text and things labeled to find. On the opposite side is a transparency on top of a jet black page. The child uses his paper "flashlight" (Taschenlampe) which is really just a piece of white cardboard to illuminate things on the transparency which don't show up when backed by the black paper. So the entire page is never in view all at once and the child can really explore the page and find the creatures lurking in the dark corners. It seems to hold their attention well since they must actively search out the subjects of the page.

It's low tech, got tons of detail, and works well for beginners who are just picking up vocabulary through profis who want technical details.

The transparent pages are sturdy and we've not lost a Taschenlampe yet, although if you do, it's easy to make one out of stiff paper. There's a slot at the back of the book to hold the Taschenlampe when not in use.

Licht an!, part of Meyers Kleine Kinderbibliothek from Alphabet Garten

German Music for dancing and singing along

Im Kindergarten is a wonderful, upbeat, happy CD by the hugely popular Rolf Zuckowski. This album will have your kids dancing through the house, although you may wipe away tears as I do every time I hear "Wie schön, dass Du geboren bist" (How wonderful that you were born). This CD, with it's child and adult singers, will leave a lasting impression on it's listeners. I used to listen to this CD when my first child was a baby and think "Maybe he'll speak and sing like these kids one day." I'm glad to say that now he does!

A really BIG book - Erste Bilder, Erste Wörter

Besides the realistic illustrations of items from a small child’s world, the best thing about Erste Bilder, Erste Wörter is it’s size – it’s huge! When opened up, it measures almost 2 feet across by 15 inches tall. Kids will feel they can practically climb into the book.

There’s lots to see and talk about on every page from the toys, animals, and trains on the Kinderzimmer page to the tools, laundry items, and dry goods on the Im Keller page. You can play “find the …” or make up stories about what the little bears who appear throughout the book are doing on each page. Sturdy boardbook pages allow enthusiastic little ones to enjoy this book without risk of damage.

A favorite poem - Das kleine Ich bin Ich

Das kleine Ich bin Ich is another of the very first books I purchased for NJ before starting Alphabet Garten. I picked it out solely from the look of the cover and it turned out to be a true gem. NJ was about 18 months when it arrived and we read it over and over. It was great for my German and I loved the rhythm of the poetry. A bit long, especially for kids who prefer shorter picture books but so much fun!

This book is a wonderful poem about an animal who doesn't know exactly what it is. In amusing verse, the story follows the little creature as it goes around asking other animals what it might be - it's got ears like a horse - maybe it's a foal? No, not a horse. Maybe it's a fish because it swims so well. No, not a fish either. Finally the creature comes to a happy realization that he's simply himself - "Ich bin ich"!

The rhyming in this book flows so well that it's a joy to listen to and read aloud. The imaginative illustrations alternate between black/white and color and I always discover something new to look at each time I read the book. Read the sample text below and see for yourself!

Alle Hunde, groß und klein,
bellen laut: "Was fällt dir ein?
Hast zwar Ohren wie ein Dackel,
auch sein Freuden-Schwanz-Gewackel.
Aber deine kleinen Beine
Sind nicht so schön krumm wie seine,
hast auch keine Hundeleine
-und bist überhaupt zu bunt
und kein Hund."

This book is great for kids ages 5 and up who have at least a basic understanding of German. When read aloud with expression, kids will enjoy the book and begin to understand the story even if they don't understand all the text.

It's all Japanese to me

I've had the interesting experience lately of being in many of my customers' shoes. That is, of understanding very little of a language I'm trying to learn. A little background: my 6 year old homeschooled son, NJ, has developed a passion for all things Japanese. He loves Japanese anime movies, Japanese art, and particularly Japanese language, both written and spoken. So we have plunged into learning some Japanese. Since he isn't reading in English (or German) yet, this means I need to do most of the legwork and basically learn alongside him. He has infected the whole family with his passion and we all know a lot more now than we did a few months ago. Even our two-year-old loves to say Konichiwa (hello) on the telephone. :)

Of course being the book maven that I am, one of my first steps has been to search out books! But I don't speak Japanese and since the alphabet is different, I don't even have a chance when trying to decide on a book. Luckily, we have good friends who are able to help a bit and who have pointed us in the right direction. I realize how many of my customers must feel who are shopping for German books but whose German is not sufficient to help them make a decision. I now know how it is! I do feel for you!

So I'm going to try and do more book reviews and more translations to help the beginners. And if anyone has any tips on learning Japanese, we'd love to hear them!

A personal favorite

ML (2.5 years old) has found an old book of NJ's and begs to read it over and over at bedtime. The book is Klopf an and is one of the original books I ordered for NJ sight unseen when he was a baby, way back before Alphabet Garten was created.

This book has earned its keep over the past 6 years. It's a good-sized boardbook and the right side of every other page spread is a door - all one color with a door handle. The child is asked "Mal sehen, wer da wohnt. Wir klopfen einfach an" and encouraged to knock on the door page. All this knocking is a big hit with babies and toddlers! Open the "door" and the next page shows a scene from a room with lots to talk about. One time it's a family of rabbits eating dinner at the table, another time it's a little boy in his room. Each room leads to the next. ML learned his colors from this book and still loves to count the little bears and rabbits. The very last page takes you outside again to see the moon.

Not a whole lot of text but lots of great drawings and things to talk about.

Einfach süß...

Klopf an

Incorporating German Culture and Customs

I like to read books with my children that initiate discussions on German culture. The Lesemaus books do a great job of this in a very natural way. My favorite right now is Ich hab einen Freund, der ist Bäcker. This book transports me back to my student days in München and hot bread and pretzels from the neighborhood Müller Brot. Bakeries in Germany are ubiquitious and there's just nothing like them in the U.S.! This book has a picture of a bakery case and reading about the Streuselschnecken and Brötchen takes me back. My mouth waters and I wonder for a second if I've finished my German assignment for Frau Rischer! Will those college nightmares ever cease?!

Anyway, my two-year-old loves the images of kneading fresh bread dough and grinding oats into oatmeal and his big brother loves the thought of buying his own Pausenbrot. Come to think of it, we need to go make Brezen!

Some other great choices for German culture are:
Wir entdecken das Hotel
Welches Tier war das hier? (We love the hedgehog and dung beetle!)
Märchen, Fabeln, Sagen - Set of 8 Pixi Books - how can you discuss German culture and leave out fairy tales?
Conni am Strand I get such a kick out of the hairy middle-aged lifeguard in this book!

What language do bilingual kids dream in?

A thought-provoking post from Corey - you shouldn't miss it:

Dreamland

Deutschland hat's geschafft! Einzug ins Halbfinale. Weiter so!!!

We have our own little bit of Fussball Fieber here! No, this isn't our ML but it sure does look like him!

ML doing geography work

ML (2) loves "building" the world! 

Geography lessons for little ones

We use a lot of Montessori materials in our homeschool and my little guy, ML (2), has really taken to the geography materials! I thought I might describe some of the things he uses which others might find useful during summer vacation with their children.

I love doing geography with my children because they make so many connections with the information they learn. It's so easy for NJ (6) to relate a location in a book we're reading with a place on a map or the globe. If it's a place he's not familiar with, we look it up. We're making this into a habit so it will become second nature.

The first thing I offered to ML was a continents globe - I painted an old 6" globe so that each continent was a different color. The result is a very simple representation of the earth - no text, no country divisions, just continents and blue for the ocean. Then we discussed a few things known to ML about each continent - we live here, here's where Oma and Opa live, here's where Felix went when he visited the kangaroos, etc.

Then I made a felt continents map. This is a large blue piece of felt for the ocean with each continent cut out of stiffened felt in it's appropriate color to match the continents globe. ML and I "build" the world map together. He loves this! He's so proud that he knows where he lives and his little tongue gets tied up when pronouncing "Nord-Amerika" and "Europa." And since he loves this game, he really remembers what he's learned! We also take different plastic animals and put them on the map according to where they live - alligators in Florida, elephants in Africa and India, etc. This is also a huge hit. Who knew learning could be such fun?!



My next big splurge will be a wooden puzzle map of Europe - Allison's Montessori has beautiful ones - and ML loves puzzles. This will be a great opportunity to learn the names and locations of the countries and again put our favorite storybook characters into perspective.

Also, Enchanted Learning has lots of coloring pages which are great for geography - I have managed to pull up an outline map of the Caribbean within 30 seconds! NJ has taken to coloring maps, flags, and state crests. They also have many printables in German which can help save a rainy summer afternoon.

A week in Ancient Egypt

It's been a bit quiet here at the Alphabet Garten. The reason being, we spent the past week digging up a little piece of ancient Egypt right here in New Jersey. We were fortunate enough to participate in a homeschool archeology camp run by the fantastic group, The Archaeological Perspective. NJ (6) was knee deep in ancient artifacts, with stories and pictures of Egypt swimming through his head. It was an amazing experience. The kids learned the proper way to dig (no, NJ was a bit disappointed to learn that no pick-axes would be employed), how to map the finds, and most importantly how to put together a story about the people who left the items and how they lived. We had an engrossing lesson in history, geography, culture, with a little math, handwriting and phonics squeezed in by sneaky mom! ("NJ - there are 6 squares to dig in and 12 kids. How many kids will work in a square?!")

If you ever have the chance to work with Geoff "Big Dog" Purcell of The Archeological Perspective, you must jump at the chance! He's a gold mine of knowledge and an inspiring teacher. And guess what else? He speaks German! He runs camps year-round. For more information, visit http://www.dothedig.net/

Toddler Language Awareness, Part 2

I wrote recently that ML (2) has begun to show an understanding that there's a difference between German and English and that not everyone speaks both languages. I got more proof the other day! He was bringing my (American) mother upstairs and said to her "Come to my (long pause) room." This is huge because I've only ever heard him use the word Zimmer for his room. I could just see the wheels turning in his little head - Mema speaks English ... we're going to my room ... say room and not Zimmer. How cool is that? I'm so glad I didn't miss it :)

Toddler Language Awareness

I basically assume that ML (2) doesn't make much distinction between German and English since he mixes freely right now - he'll say "You're krank" and "I go draussen". Pretty common stuff for a bilingual this age. Of course I address him in German, even when we're out in public and we've gotten some funny looks lately from the kids in NJ's karate class. So it was a lot of fun when Emma, who is 8, asked for me to tell her some phrases in German. She then repeated them to ML - "Setz dich hin", "Komm her", "Werf den Ball." He was delighted! He thought it was hysterical. So I guess he really does know the difference since he didn't expect Emma to be speaking German to him.

Proud of the Language

Since Opa has returned to Germany, we've been experiencing an interesting development from NJ's (6) language skills and interest level. He is now very aware of the fact that speaking German is a valued skill and he wants to tell everyone about it! He addresses complete strangers in the library and at the store in German! And he's even using the formal to do it! Verstehen Sie Deutsch?, he'll say. And the people will look at him because they think they just misunderstood him. He'll repeat himself in German and then I'll explain for him. It's quite bizarre. :) And he's fond of disciplining his little brother in German. Hmm, I wonder where he got that idea. Perhaps I need to use a little more English when telling someone to stop doing something.

His vocabulary is still quite lacking but he's comfortable using the words he knows - pretty cool!

Animal sounds in German

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/german.html

We love the rooster (Hahn) - kikeriki!

Unsere Woche mit Opa

Thanks for everyone who wished us well for Opa's visit. I'll write more about it later but suffice it to say that we had a great time. We of course spoke lots of German, including my older son, 6, who made a true effort and seemed to enjoy using his skills. He's got a lot of work to do in terms of increasing his vocabulary but he can make himself understood and he had no problem goofing off with Opa!

I think the week was also useful from my father-in-law's perspective because having only heard second-hand about the challenges we've been facing with NJ's sensory integration dysfunction, I think he and my mother-in-law were under the impression that a little more strict parenting would remedy the picky eating and other troublesome behaviors. Now, having seen it up close, Günter could tell that NJ isn't a bad kid and that his problems are not simply due to too much time in front of the TV or too much junk food. I think that he, too, will be a little less judgmental. Plus, he could hardly fault NJ for being picky since he choose not to eat about 90% of what we ate! It's all relative, isn't it? :)

Luckily, he didn't mind cooking for himself which was fortunate since I am not talented in the cooking department and am no Lilo Mueller. She had the menu planned out for his return and I'm sure he's enjoyed being back home again.

We do miss him and it was fun to have him around for a short visit.

Multicultural Living Magazine

The latest newsletter from the Bilingual / Bicultural Family Network is out and has many great articles on multi-culturalism and bilingual kids. Check it out!