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homeschooling in more than one native language


Lissande
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I've looked through this forum and seen a lot of information on kids LEARNING new languages, but not a lot on kids learning IN languages they already know. We've got speaking the language under control, so the next step is learning to read and write, learning about math and history and science...all to an academic standard in two or three* languages.

 

What I'd really like is to compare notes with some bilingual families who are schooling in both (or multiple) languages at once. What does your day look like? Do you do some subjects in one language and some in the other? Do you cover a topic in one language and review in the other? Do you alternate days? Did you eventually decide it was easier to focus on just one language? Do you learn to read and write in both languages at once or stagger by several months?

 

I have an idea how I want our bilingual homeschool to look, but I don't know how it will work out in practice and am just wondering how it works in other families!

 

 

 

* I'm willing to compromise on the third language for now. Our family speaks English, the language of the country we live in and the language of the country next door, where my husband is from. The two languages are very similar but have some different vocabulary, grammar and spelling rules. My daughter and I both speak the language of the country we live in fluently, while I understand my husband's language but don't attempt to speak it and my daughter speaks but not confidently yet. For this reason I imagine we might stick with English and the local language for initially learning to read. No reason to get TOO complicated. :)

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Hi!  We are bilingual English/French.  My first language is English and my husband's first language is French, and the kids have always grown up to hear us speaking our native languages and are therefore perfectly bilingual.  We live in a French speaking area. 

 

I teach math, science, and history in English.  We add in many science videos in French though.  In addition, my husband spends a lot of time talking about history with DS, as they are both big WWII airplane fans. 

 

Day to day, I do the following split:

 

AM:

French grammar, spelling, copywork, conugation, dictée... whatever French LA we have for the day

French read-aloud followed by Charlotte Mason style oral narration in French

Math

 

PM:

English reading practice

English writing (WWE) and grammar

Content subject (history, science, or art)

Math facts computer game

 

Evening:  French reading practice with DH + French read-aloud with DH + beginning German with DH

 

For grammar, I am basically running a comparative grammar course.  We learned the parts of speech and definitions in both languages and talked about a few differences.  We are now learning usage within the sentence, and the grammars are comparable enough that I just explain the English case, then add in the French complications (agreement, etc.)

 

I know our math curriculum is available in French, so I might check in the future to see if the word problem books are available in French and have him do those in French. 

 

On Fridays, we do a "free write", where he can write in either language about whatever he wants.  Next year, I want to put in two free writes, one in each language. 

 

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Monica, that sounds similar to what I have in mind. I'd like to split up the reading/writing instruction so it's not back to back. I'd like to teach subjects in English (my native language) and then supplement with library books, videos, and whatever we can find in the other language. Like we'd do a chapter of SOTW and read/watch/do anything we have on hand in English and follow up with books on the same subject from the local library. Then my husband and daughter might talk about it in the other language after work and he could make sure she is learning the vocabulary to discuss that subject. Some narrations in each language.

 

loesje, that sounds like a good solution, too. Do you find your daughter has trouble talking about or understanding material on, for instance, science in Dutch or economics in English, or do you find it balances out over time and she picks up the appropriate vocabulary without specifically covering the topic in the other language?

 

Thank you both for your input :)

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Here are some other threads that deal with the same thing.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/261054-dual-language-homeschooling/?hl=more+language&do=findComment&comment=2606167

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/449342-ideas-for-a-bilingual-lesson-plan/?hl=more+language&do=findComment&comment=4677055

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/396444-dual-language-homeschooling/?hl=more+language&do=findComment&comment=4007318

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/500695-bilingual-la-in-the-bilingual-home-tips/?hl=%2Bmore+%2Blanguage

 

We plan on doing it with English and German, using German materials as our "main" materials and then supplementing with English library books in history, science, etc. and then doing the two language separately. I'm hoping that having the German materials as the "main" will offset the sheer volume of supplemental materials we'll have in English to give us a language-balanced approach, but so far it still tends to be pretty English-heavy... 

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Thanks, deanna. As I said, there's not a lot, and even then not all the responses are in reference to native speakers. It sounds like your situation might be the mirror image of ours, as far as having the framework in German and supplemental materials in English. :) Do you have German school materials to adapt for individual instruction or will you use more regular books that happen to be in German?

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Monica, that sounds similar to what I have in mind. I'd like to split up the reading/writing instruction so it's not back to back. I'd like to teach subjects in English (my native language) and then supplement with library books, videos, and whatever we can find in the other language. Like we'd do a chapter of SOTW and read/watch/do anything we have on hand in English and follow up with books on the same subject from the local library. Then my husband and daughter might talk about it in the other language after work and he could make sure she is learning the vocabulary to discuss that subject. Some narrations in each language.

 

Just to add, this is a relatively new system that I put in place as of the new year.  We have a mandatory inspection once per year as homeschoolers, and even though my kids were ahead in French, they still wanted to see more French ( :confused1: ) so I switched from an every-other-day language arts to both languages each day.  Grammar is usually a lesson in English, get it cemented, then maintain with daily diagramming while I teach the subtleties in French, then maintain with parsing, back and forth, so really less that 5 minutes a day in one language and maybe 5-10 min in the other.  I would feel comfortable just teaching French grammar, since the English would then be obvious, but I feel like the English makes a nice stepping stone up to the French concept. 

 

I have seen no issues with vocabulary transfer in content subjects.  When a word is missing, my husband supplies it, and the kids have no issues using it from then on.  Also, there are a lot of cognates for specialized terms between the two languages... not sure if this would be the same for you. 

 

I can't see myself running two concurrent spelling programs at this point or in the future, so I really hope they are natural spellers in English until French spelling finishes, which is around 4th grade (to be replaced by a pure dictation system)

 

If we are still marching forward in home school at high school level, I will probably then shift content subjects to French for the literary branches and maintain English for the sciences.  I think at that point the history would be somewhat independant (he reads, researches, I check papers) and the sciences I will actively teach because that is my personal background. 

 

For math, I would probably work more in French if he seems gifted, as there is a gifted program at the university down the street for middle and high school students that I think would be great experience. 

 

One last thing, as if my rambling weren't enough... our local library offers a lot of French audiobooks for kids.  I have borrowed and uploaded practically the entire collection onto my computer!  I don't like to read in French to the kids if I can avoid it because I'm slow and have an accent, but they get a lot of French audio books during the day and at bedtime. 

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Do you have German school materials to adapt for individual instruction or will you use more regular books that happen to be in German?

 

We're still in the early years, so we're still figuring out exactly what this looks like for us. Basically, I'm trying to do things more or less the way they're outlined in the original well-trained mind book. What it looks like is that we pick a topic/time, and read about it in our German Kinderlexikon, e.g., we read the two page spread on pirates dealing with weapons, boats, clothes, habits, food, famous pirates, etc. Then we go to the library and pick out a bunch of (English) books (mix of fiction and nonfiction) that deal with those topics. Those books get read aloud in a mix of English and German (just translating on the fly), depending on how comfortable I am with the technical and specific vocabulary (because sometimes it takes me a few runs through the Kinderlexikon to pick all of that up -- we started our bilingual journey after me not speaking German for 15 years, so I'm still catching up a little :D). 

 

We re-read subsections from the Kinderlexikon as appropriate during the next week or two, and somewhere during this process, we watch a Was ist Was video (e.g., Seeraüber) about the topic, and listen to an audiobook if we have a relevant one (e.g., Kokosnuss und die Wilden Piraten).

 

I don't push school for academic purposes right now, since my kids are young enough that I don't think it's at all necessary yet. All of their learning is interest led at this point (in particular, my kids have become really taken with the Magic tree house books, so we just choose our topics based on which of those books are next). I've only started implementing things this way when they want to learn about a topic in order to figure out the kinks of homeschooling in more than one language before we get to the point where we really need to be doing formal academics.

 

I think I intend to do math in both languages, and just trade off regularly what language we're doing it in.

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Do you have German school materials to adapt for individual instruction or will you use more regular books that happen to be in German?

 

I got so caught up in the rest of what I was saying about *what* we do, that I forgot to actually answer the question: No, we don't have squat in the way of German school materials. It's just so hard to find stuff that's suited for homeschooling! I really wish there was more. :P

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Thank you for this post, Lissande !  I have been looking for the same thing.

 

I'm just getting started.  Our oldest will turn 5 this summer.  I mostly started doing things to keep her busy especially when it's too cold to be outside for all that long, and because cleaning crayon off walls just isn't that much fun.

 

She speaks french and understands english.  We've started Dino Lingo for latin.  It was the only language program for little ones I could find where it wasn't someone speaking english teaching latin.  She really likes it and I'm having fun doing it with her and refreshing my latin.  We do a little bit every day with watching part of a video and playing with some flash cards and also use "real life" scenarios to reinforce the words.

 

We've started drawing numbers on her magnetic board, which she loves.  I draw the number and then she draws it.  Now that we're doing latin we say the number in latin, also.  We're going to do La méthode de Singapour for math, which we'll start sometime.  We're also starting more focused art time.  Starting group introduction to music lessons to prepare for piano lessons, but that doesn't start until September.  All of that is in french, though.

 

I'm pretty open to how we'll ultimately figure this out.  I'm not planning on having any structured school day at all.  I would definitely like to learn a lot more about recommended ways of handling multi-lingual development.  My thought so far is we won't start her in english reading or grammar until she has a solid foundation in french.  Hubby also wants her to be able to read Greek.  No clue how to introduce something else on top of what we are already doing language-wise.

Fortunately, we don't have to be regulated by anybody to homeschool, so we can do whatever we want.  I don't plan on ever having any set time of day for school or set lesson plans or anything like that.  I love the freedom of doing a bit here and a bit there.   I think what we are attempting might be unschooling for a classical education.  I want to get the target goals set up, just not stress about getting there.

Thank you very much for the links.  Still going through them, but very helpful so far !  I feel much less alone in this endeavor.  :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

 No, we don't have squat in the way of German school materials. It's just so hard to find stuff that's suited for homeschooling! 

We're a bilingual Spanish/English family and teach in both languages, but we've also had a hard time to find the same breadth of homeschooling materials in Spanish as in English.  So, we use primarily English-language textbooks, with a Spanish book here and there as we find them.  For maintenance of the language, I speak mostly English to DS, Mom speakes exclusively Spanish to DS, and we speak Spanish when the three of us are having a conversation.

 

Once or twice a week, we have devoted time for Spanish reading comprehension and writing practice. Whenever we discuss grammar, spelling, or vocabulary, we usually give them in both Spanish as well as English; after the basics, the spelling and vocabulary is so similar except for a few consistent differences, that this is quite simple for Spanish/English.  (Italian/English, Portuguese/English, and French/English shouldn't be too time consuming either to make comparisons.)

 

Spanish literature, of course, is always covered in the original language, and literature in Spanish is pretty easy to get.  As we visit relatives in a Spanish-speaking country each year, DS does have an opportunity to see what his cousins are learning, in Spanish, and he's visited classes a few times, so he has a little exposure to the Spanish usage in a few different subjects, in addition to conversational fluency at a native-speaker level.  I hope that helps to see how we're doing "bilingual homeschooling."

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We're afterschooling in Mandarin and Vietnamese. Mandarin is not a native language for either of the parents, but since 8yo dd and 11yo ds were born there and we lived in China until last year, they learned it 'natively'. Now, we are keeping it up with afterschooling. Both kids have an hour of lesson via Skype with their teacher from Beijing. They work through the common textbook used by schoolchildren in Beijing. We don't bother with math, except as 'fun' work when they ask for something different. The textbook covers history, geography, as well as literature, and an introduction to science. To break up the lesson a little, sometimes they read aloud and discuss a book with their teacher. She will correct their pronunciation, or tell them the word if they don't know, etc. Ask questions to make sure they understand what they are reading. There is also always time for a chat about their day, always in Chinese. It's really fun for them, even if it takes up a lot of their time. In addition, we have a huge library of Chinese children's books, to keep up their interest in reading, both translated works and those by Chinese authors.

 

What I'd really love, and the kids too, is to set up an email book club, where the children read a book together and discuss it over email or skype. There aren't many Asians where we live, let alone Chinese children, so my children are lacking the social component to their language learning. Their only motivator for learning language has been other children, so for now, it's ok, but I don't know if we can keep this up without interaction with other kids.

 

Any takers? I know a lot of families are teaching Chinese, are any of your children reading at grade-level in Chinese and interested in a book club?

 

In Vietnamese (my native tongue), again we are using the textbooks and school materials from Vietnam. We go through it very quickly and of course not as in depth as at school since many of the concepts are familiar and serve as practice/reinforcement (math, for example). I view it mainly as a way to build up their vocabulary, learning how to say longitude and latitude in various languages for example, rather than learning a completely new concept. Vietnamese children's literature is quite lacking--good for up to grade 1/2 but after that not very interesting, unfortunately. Because we afterschool, the children are not at grade level in Vietnamese--too much going on. This is less successful because the materials are less engaging and everyone is worn out!

 

I would also be interested in setting up a book club for Vietnamese readers.

 

A few years ago, I afterschooled my children in French and found the CNED program excellent, especially the introduction to reading. Highly recommended. It helped the children transition to a French school fairly easily.

 

As for when to teach reading/writing, I taught my children English reading first, and when I felt they were confident readers, I then taught Vietnamese reading and French. I felt English is the hardest to learn because there are so many irregularities. Vietnamese is the easiest to learn because each letter only makes one sound. (In fact, my daughter taught herself to read Vietnamese because she was so anxious to read what her brother was reading!) French slightly less easy but still quite straightforward. I taught handwriting at the same time as reading and did a cursory introduction to printing and moved quickly to cursive because that is the Vietnamese and French way.

 

Chinese was a whole other matter. The children did not start to really learn it formally until gr1 but before that we used flashcards and rhymes to aid memory. Some practice writing but not much. I used a program called Zhonghuazijing which places the characters into couplets explaining the natural world. The couplets help them remember the words, and we played various games to improve recognition of the characters. Just an hour a day (30 minutes at a time). Introduce the characters in the lesson, repeat, listen to the couplet. Explain the meaning, explain the vocabulary. Try to remember and recite the couplet. Various word-recognition games.

 

Hope that helps.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I got so caught up in the rest of what I was saying about *what* we do, that I forgot to actually answer the question: No, we don't have squat in the way of German school materials. It's just so hard to find stuff that's suited for homeschooling! I really wish there was more. :p

 

Deanna, yes I found this, too. We h/s bilingually in Amrc. English and German (my mother tongue).

German school textbooks are not very suited for home education, and there is no market for German homeschooling books as h/s is still illegal in Germany. 

 

We use a German textbook for LA (grammar and text comprehension and orthography) and a German textbook for Latin. A little brag here: I think German textbooks for Latin are the best. (I'm just a little bit biased :blush: ...) But what I've seen in the US and what is offered as Latin textbooks for h/s, it is just not really cutting it. Too little practice, too few real good translation exercises, too little reading, too little repetition. But I digress.

 

Lissande wrote:

I've looked through this forum and seen a lot of information on kids LEARNING new languages, but not a lot on kids learning IN languages they already know. We've got speaking the language under control, so the next step is learning to read and write, learning about math and history and science...all to an academic standard in two or three* languages.

 

 

I was also a bit confused when I saw the threads in this sub-forum. I think it is a bit mislabeled. It should be something like "Language Acquisition Board". 

 

What I'd really like is to compare notes with some bilingual families who are schooling in both (or multiple) languages at once. What does your day look like? Do you do some subjects in one language and some in the other? Do you cover a topic in one language and review in the other? Do you alternate days? Did you eventually decide it was easier to focus on just one language? 

 

I speak German to my children most of the time. They might not answer in G, and I don't push it either. 

 

All our textbooks are in English, except (as mentioned above) German LA and Latin.

 

We talk about math, science, geography, etc. in German and all the other subjects, too, but we read everything in E. I used to put a lot of terminology (science for instance) on flashcards with the E word on one side and the G on the other. It has become too much work really. I have gradually come to the conclusion that the minority language will always suffer to a certain extent. There is no way to attempt a double duty in both languages.  :sad: There are only so many hours in a day, and you still want the children to have time to play and decompress. 

 

To keep up with German we have one German LA session per day. Reading, listening, or watching a German video online, or doing some grammar work or writing of some sort. As they get older they will read more on their own. 

 

I think a good goal is to have them bi-literate. But not completely bi-cultural.  

 

Do you learn to read and write in both languages at once or stagger by several months?

 

 

It has happened in a different way with each child in this family. It really depends on their natural inclinations and gifts. I taught my first and second child to read and write in German first, and taught them English later, so they they acquired a good graphemic pronunciation background before attempting phonics. Going back and forth between English and German LA with regards to reading and spelling and grammar back to back in one day or in one sitting even has been very helpful and there are a lot of inferences that can be drawn from one lang. to the other. I don't think spacing it apart over months makes much sense.

 

I had to ease off with German writing and reading with my second child because he has special needs and all the other subjects take a lot of bandwidth away from our bilingual pursuits. But once we get a better grip on English LA, and he becomes more secure and proficient in handwriting, I will teach him more German spelling and reading. For now he will be read to will watch German movies and cartoons. 

 

The youngest has picked up reading English first. I didn't even bug him at all, he just picked up a book and wanted to know what this or that is pronounces, and off we went. I will "do" German with him later. I don't think it will be very difficult with him at all. 

 

Both lang. have to be kept going at the same time. At different rates, yes, because of the majority/minority language disparity. But still at the same time. Adding a third language (which is neither parent's mother tongue) can happen at any time. I'm not sure if there are any precautions. If it causes too much confusion and it is too much of a burden for the child, well, then just back off a bit for a while and keep the regular scheduled program going until the child seems more ready to tackle something new. 

 

Have fun!

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