Media update 293

Reading: Julia Boehme, Silke Voigt, Toko und Mammut und der Säbelzahntiger; Meyers Kleine Kinderbibliothek, Die Maus und andere Nagetiere; Roger Hargreaves, Mister Fröhlich; Mister Niemand, Miss Böse; Mister Schnee; Mister Zackig; Mister Vergesslich; Miss Superstar; DK Penguin Random House, Naturwissenschaften für clevere Kids (various pages); Was ist Was, Schlangen: Jäger mit dem sechsten Sinn (various pages); Kathleen Pleet, Anne Stickney, World of Warcraft: Das Ultimative Kompendium. 

Listening: Torben Kuhlmann, Armstrong: Die abenteuerliche Reise einer Maus zum Mond (46 min.); Dimiter Inkiow, Jason und die Argonauten (112 min.); A.L. Milne, Pu der Bär (240 min.).

Viewing: Drachenzähmen leicht gemacht (94 min.); Dreamworks Dragons: Auf zu neuen Ufern, vol. 2 (45 min., = two episodes); Unten am Fluss / Watership Down (88 min.)

2016
Total audio: 35.52
Total video: 29.12
Total gamplay: 5.40
Age 6.10.21

Cute conversation

My wife told me she and J had approximately this conversation today (in English): 

J: "Mommy, you know I feel that I've been speaking German my whole life."

K: "Well, you practically have, honey. Daddy started speaking German with you when you were just two. You hadn't even been speaking English that long."

J: "Yeah. And I didn't want to speak German at first. That's when we got Friedel."

K: "Do you remember that?"

J: "No, Daddy told me. Friedel was the first puppet. Thusnelda came later. Thusnelda doesn't mind that Friedel is called 'the main piggy.' Except for sometimes, like on her birthday. Then she wants to be called the main piggy."

Sunday school 24: Moses 2

Listening: Die Bibel, 4:42 - 5:05 (Exodus ch. 5-9).

J got very exasperated with the Pharaoh constantly changing his mind about whether to let the Israelites go. But I pointed out that it doesn't seem to be entirely his decision, that God is also controlling the Pharaoh to a certain extent (ch. 7:3). Yesterday we worked on the verb manipulieren in another context. I brought it to bear here. 

Also, when the narrator started reading the genealogical list at 6:14, after a few names J said: "Ja, ja ..." 

Later we looked at and talked about a lot of images of the plagues, as well as did some reading:

Grocery shopping

I'm still using grocery shopping trips as L2-intensive opportunities, still with the Wieso, weshalb, warum books. This morning J sat in the cart reading with great absorption for about twenty minutes straight. 

L3

So in a couple weeks (when the books below come in), I'm going to start something I've been planning for years: Teaching J Spanish. My own Spanish, though quite rusty, is pretty good, somewhere in the intermediate range. 

Actually, after our Paris trip, J wanted to learn French (which Gustav speaks). Since both my wife and I speak French (also quite rustily but it's there), that would have worked. My wife bought some French children's books and has read them with him.

All else being equal, I would prefer French myself, since I know the language and country better than with Spanish. But all else is not equal: J has several classmates from Latin American families. There are many opportunities to speak and hear Spanish right here in Georgia. Latin America is closer to us than Europe for vacation purposes. Spanish will be much more useful to J growing up in the US. 

As far as the motivation Gustav would have provided to J with French, that's an easy one with my method: It turns out that Gustav wants to learn Spanish too, and how to cook Latin American food! 

So as not to have any switching to English, I'm going to purchase all my Spanish learning resources from Germany. I've started with these books: 

This will also help J's reading in German. 

Prepositional phrases

Since I've been back I've been noticing that J's prepositional phrases are much improved, especially in the dative case. Whereas before he would often still say that we are "in das Haus" or "in den Wagen" or "in die Schule," now he is getting them right most of the time. 

I have not yet heard or noticed examples that show me he is distinguishing cases in two-way preposition usage. I've explained this to him a few times, but mostly I just try to model it.  

Update: during J's photostory he has Ulli approaching Gustav and bowing before him: 

I used this as an opportunity to work on two-way preposition usage. Since I find J often learns best when I'm not teaching him directly, but someone else (I talk about this in my puppetry article), I addressed my instruction to Gustav:

Ulli tritt vor dich und verneigt sich vor dir. 

Gustav asked why this was the case, and I gave a grammar explanation. 

We'll see if J repeats this at next telling!

Narration

J has made a photo story with the puppets, something of a mix between Star Wars and World of Warcraft. As he was putting it together he walked me through the scenes in a very extended and complex narration (always in German of course). 

The later he wanted to show & tell everything again to Gustav. 

Great practice!

Update two hours later: In the meantime J has added another 50 photos, for a total of 100, and has told the story to Gustav twice more from beginning to end. Each time his narration has become faster and smoother, and also I've noticed he varies his vocabulary and expressions. One time he said "Thusnelda verpasst der Schlange einen Fußtritt," the next time he used the verb versetzen. Also, he incorporates my corrections, (re)formulations, and commentary very quickly.