Formerly - A look at the ups and downs of life with a double pushchair!

Sunday 12 November 2017

I've got thingers!

This blog post has been a long time coming.  The interesting thing about watching kids grow up in a bilingual environment is listening to their pronunciation of certain things.

Being a stickler for the correct pronunciation of the English language I have spent the last 6 months correcting A and E with the sounds 'th', 'f' and 's'. 

I have spent many hours correcting them  -  through instead of frew, three instead of free, although instead of allvow, together instead of togever and so on.

They are getting used to my constant correction and I am hoping that one day in the not too distant future they will grasp all the English sounds. DH is less convinced and feels that bilingual kids will invariably have an accent in at least one language but I am hoping for authentic accents in both language.

It's not easy but as their reading increases I also assume that sounding out words will assist them with their pronunciation.

However it is clear I have driven them mad as on occasion they actually correct what would have been correct and now tell me they have 10 thingers!

Oh well, I can but hope, everysing will be fine - zats all for now.


Wednesday 22 March 2017

Now they are Seven

Life is busy and I find I don't have time to sit down and blog as much as I would like to. However as I sat in A and E's room the other night as it was time for them to go to bed I marvelled at how lucky they are and then by default how lucky I am.

They decided they didn't want to hear a chapter of Pippi Longstocking that evening as they had a very tight schedule of dances to get through before going to bed.

Firstly I was asked to leave the room, and once I was invited back in, A was adorned with a garland of flowers and a pink sun hat over her pyjamas. E didn't have any accessories to her pj's.  I was then instructed to find the music of "The Birdy Song" on my phone and play it.

Now the average 7 year old who wants to dance the Birdy Song before bedtime has to coax a parent or another sibling to dance with and often the arm linking part is awkward due to the height difference. Well A and E are lucky enough to have their identical counterpart to dance with. They did 5 full rounds of the dance and then they proceeded to request other songs from their list that they have learnt at school.

Partner dancing has never been so fun.

Whilst there is plenty of fighting and biting and anger between them, we don't get involved, as they manage to resolve every argument and even if they are punching each other one minute, five minutes later they will be hugging again.

And that is the problem and joy of living and sharing a room with your very best friend.