Au Pairs – Our Partners in Language Learning

I have briefly described my family’s experience with two of our au pairs in my posts about Crêpes and Language Teaching Tools for Babies (Tool #7). In those posts, I promised to elaborate more on the topic of au pairs at a later date. So, in the spirit of keeping my word, I will share with you one of the most valuable, enjoyable and long-lasting tools I have implemented in raising my children to be multilingual world citizens. This tool encompasses Passion, Partnerships and Planning (3 P’s from my Formula for Raising Bilingual Children)

Parents-to-be who are developing a language plan for their family as well as parents currently following a language plan and considering options to support the bilingual upbringing of their children may find this post of interest.

Au Pairs are young adults (male or female) who travel to other countries to join a family and offer their services as in-home child care providers.  In the USA, they typically stay for a minimum of one year in exchange for a stipend and a rich cultural exchange. In some cases, au pairs are not the sole child care provider, but as agencies advertise, “au pairs can be an extra set of hands” for stay-at-home parents. In my experience, au pairs have potential to be much, much more than merely “an extra set of hands.”

Welcoming au pairs into our family proved to be instrumental in our endeavor to shape our children into world citizens and nurture their love of languages.  Our au pairs (with the exception of one) spoke fluent English upon arrival and hailed from Brazil, Japan, Spain, Germany, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, and France. And some of them were trilingual. Both my husband and I, as well as our boys learned many intriguing facts about our au pairs’ respective countries, and our au pairs, in turn, discovered a great deal about the culture in the USA and about themselves during their stay.

Surfing tips from our Okinawan au pair!

Making a Spanish tortilla at home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did Au Pairs help us further our goal of raising multilingual world citizens?

1. They shared a passion for languages and were genuinely interested in supporting our family’s goal of raising multilingual children.

2. They partnered with us and proactively planned activities that exposed our children to other languages and cultures.

3. They helped develop our boys’ palate and piqued their interest in tasting different foods by sharing their culinary traditions.

4. They were young, fun-loving role models for our children who saw in them a genuine interest in studying languages and their desire to learn about other cultures.

5. They embodied world citizenship, and to this day continue to influence our boys and help shape them into world citizens.

Thanks to Brazil’s flag and this awesome T-Shirt, his favorite color is green!

Some Fun Tidbits About Our Au Pairs:

1. Our Brazilian au pair started taking an on-line German class to keep up with my son’s German language acquisition and ultimately traveled to Germany, staying for a year and becoming fluent in German!

2. Our Spanish au pair had used Muzzy to complement her English studies as a child (20 years ago) and loved that she knew the characters, the plot and the songs and could join right in with my boys when they watched it in Spanish!

3.  Our Japanese au pair, who was an avid basketball player in Japan, introduced our boys to basketball and taught them everything they know!

 

 

To learn more about how to leverage the Cultural Exchange and Language features of the au pair experience, please visit the Consulting and Coaching tab of my blog and submit your request for a complimentary consultation about Au Pairs.

 

 

My Tips & Top 10 Tools for Raising Bilingual or Multilingual Children – Part I: Babies

Part I of this series is intended for Parents-to-Be and parents of young babies through 18 months. The subsequent parts of this series will address toddlers, pre-schoolers, pre-readers, elementary school-aged, middle school-aged and beyond.  

Here goes:

MUSIC 

Tip: I started playing music in Spanish (target language #1) as soon as my boys came home from the hospital.  I played it at certain times of the day (feeding, diaper-changing, playtime, etc.). Sometimes, I sang along and made the experience playful, more enjoyable and memorable. When my boys started speaking, I noticed they incorporated words from the various songs into their own vocabulary and correctly used them in context. Carefully select your music in French, Italian, German, Romanian, Greek – you name it – and start playing music and singing to your baby in the target language of your choice!

Tool # 1: Cantemos Todos Juntos

For a top of the line, quality, musical and language experience in Spanish, get your hands on Cantemos Todos Juntos. This CD not only brings a smile to children’s faces, but also makes them want to sing and dance! I supplemented this CD with the use of egg shakers, tambourines triangles and castanets and made  listening to it as festive and fun-filled as possible! My boys listened to the traditional songs on this CD well into their 4’s and 5’s and to this day, they recall some of the lyrics and sing to themselves when trying to jog their memory with respect to a word that is on the tip of their tongue.  The music is beautifully executed and of varying tempos and rhythms which keeps children engaged throughout the CD and exposes them to the patterns of music.

Tool # 2: Canciones de los Animalitos

My children and I loved the gentle songs about an array of animals on this MP3 Album titled: Canciones de los Animalitos. Although the songs are calming and soothing, they are also catchy. As my little listeners got older, they paid closer attention to the elaborate descriptions of the animals and eventually began asking questions to further their knowledge about them. This MP3 Album is an excellent tool for building vocabulary as it provides more details about animals that you could ever imagine in a song. (These animal songs are far from being a variation of of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”). There are two tracks about caring for the environment, which is an added bonus. You can sample the songs by clicking on the link provided above.

 

Tools # 3, 4, and 5: Cantando Aprendo a Hablar Vol. I Vol. II and Vol. III

This MP3 Collection was developed by speech pathologists (called speech therapists in the USA).The songs are nurturing, fun, and playful. This collection is definitely one ideal for playtime or when you want to be silly. I recommend incorporating toys and your own interactive fun to get the most out of them. I found that they were extremely useful for introducing words, but more so for developing phonological awareness (the ability to hear sounds that make up words in spoken language). Phonological awareness is the first step towards developing reading and writing abilities. For more on bilingualism and biliteracy, please see my previous post Formula for Raising Bilingual and Biliterate Children. Some of the sounds the songs review are the rolling r’s, the vowel sounds, rhyming words and so much more. We have all 3 volumes, and because there are so many tracks, I chose the tracks that were the most appropriate for the developmental stage in which my children found themselves. I gradually introduced the remaining tracks as the boys made progress in their language skills. You can sample the songs by clicking on the links provided below.

Volume II 

Volume I

Volume III

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOKS

Tip: In my experience, certain types of books were more conducive to learning the target language than others during different developmental stages. In addition to short story books that can be read to babies in order to accustom them to the rhythm, intonation and sounds of the target language, I highly recommend the following categories of books in the target language of your choice:

Tool # 6: Word Books

Colorful word books that feature photographs in lieu of illustrations for the youngest babies. My boys tended to focus on the photographs of the babies and the baby-related objects in the DK Word Books and they really made the connection when I said the word while pointing to the photo. I could almost see their wheels spinning as they took it all in. Since babies are generally intrigued by seeing other babies in person and in photographs, this type of book is so helpful and useful in introducing a target language to babies. My little readers enjoyed DK Word Books  mainly because of the vivid, colorful photos they could identify with.

“The Farm” German Word Book!

“The Colors” German Word Book!!

“Your World” German Word Book

 

Tool # 7: Board Books

By the time my older son was 16 months old, our German au pair had joined us and brought with her a collection of wonderful German Board Books. And so we started introducing him to German (target language #2). My favorite object identification books in German for this age group are “Kennst Du Das?” books (available on Amazon.de) They are colorful, captivating, thematically organized and so well made. We loved this series so much, we continued collecting DUDEN books as the boys got older and went pre-school.  More on the advanced DUDEN books in upcoming posts!

 

Tool # 8: Lift-the-Flap Books

¡Cu-Cú, Bebé!

¿Dónde Está el Ombliguito?

I found that this category of books piqued my boys’  attention the most because of the interactive component. As they were immersed in the sounds and rhythm of words and sentences, they also reveled in the interactive possibilities – thanks to the simple flaps. These books were page-turners for them! Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap books were some of our favorites.

 

 

Tool # 9 – Tactile Books

Touch and Feel books are suitable for making the connections between words and the sense of touch. Babies are further stimulated when you add their senses to the language learning process and tend to remember these usually abstract words more easily. It became a natural and memorable way to learn descriptive words in the target language.

Touch and Feel in French and Spanish

Touch and Feel in French and Spanish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tool #10: Language Program designed for Babies and Toddlers

Enroll your baby in a quality Language Program that will enrich your baby and support your goal as a parent. See my post How to Choose A Language Program for Your Little One for additional Tips. Babies and toddlers get so much pleasure from socializing with other children,and it is so special for parents to see how their little ones flourish in a second language. It is natural for babies to want to communicate with, observe, listen to and play with other children. Bringing your child to an environment outside of the home to do just that, in the target language, is so beneficial and stimulating!!

I hope that these songs and books make you and your little one as happy and as excited about languages as they made us. All of my recommendations are based on my personal experience using the products with my children since 2006.

 

 

 

 

Frances Mingoia is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.