Drawing in an activity book, our daughter counted two rows of six items each on the page. Daddy: “Ça fait combien, six et six?” (So how much is 6 and 6?) She: “Ben ça fait qu’il y en a encore beaucoup.” (Well, it means there are quite a lot.)

Yesterday we were getting into the car, when Dad told our almost-4-year-old daughter to put something into the trunk, “le coffre”. When she replied, however, she used the word suitcase, “la valise” instead. This is what I think happened: French le coffre – the trunk – is a false friend to German der Koffer – […]

If you have children (and probably even if you don’t), you’ll be familiar with marshmallows. And chances are, your kids will, too. My daughter’s teacher used them to introduce the concept of “alternating”, making the kids put alternating white and pink marshmallows on a wooden stick. In order to understand what follows, you need to […]

What do you do when there is no word to express what you want to say? And when on top of that you are not quite four years old? My daughter takes advantage of her dual vocabulary and borrows from the other language when she doesn’t know a word. She shows off her new long […]

Saturday morning, Daddy and my little girl let me sleep in. As they had breakfast together, my daughter asked for “un Glas”. Daddy refused: “No ice cream for breakfast!” It turned out she didn’t want “une glace” (an ice cream) but “ein Glas” (a glass, which in French would have been un verre). Maybe if […]

Yesterday I took my now-almost-4-year-old daughter to the playground at the end of the street where I grew up and where my mom still lives. We’d been there before on a previous visit, it’s a nice little playground for younger kids, but this was the first time we went there and other kids (and moms) […]

When my daughter (now going on 4) starts talking, a missing word is not going to stop her. When I’m the person she’s talking to, she’ll chat away in German and simply slip in a few French words here and there. I’m trying to make out a patterm, and I’ve noticed a few words are […]

Both my daughter and her father have recently been opposed to me recording bedtime stories. But since I bought this book on the condition that I record Dad reading it, they were unable to refuse. In fact, they are reading it together. Click on the title to listen and enjoy! Ce livre se prête à […]

This week, my daughter came home from school and showed me a drawing she had made. I noticed she had drawn two suns side by side, and the inevitable comment escaped my lips. Today, the drawing was still lying in the living room when she saw it, picked it up and asked me: “Mama, comment […]

Earlier this week my 3½-year-old daughter threw a morning tantrum that almost caused us to miss school. So this morning, Daddy checked on her before we left: “T’as été sage?” (Were you good?) “Oui, papa.” She turns to me: “Mama, ich war doch lieb, oder?” (Mommy, I was good, wasn’t I?)