As our little girl is closing in on her second birthday, I can’t help comparing her language skills to those of her peers. Her daddy told me the other day about his colleague’s girl (two months younger) who put her sleeping bag on her parents’ bed and declared “Moi dodo là.” That’s a full sentence, […]

I proudly announce that our girl is now officially bilingual: Today she said for the first time a word in French that she already says in German. Which one? Good-bye. That is to say, “aurvoir” (still contracted) after “tschü-tschüß” about two months ago. With the handful of recognisable words she says, it seems to me […]

Today we went to see a child-minder because our child-minder is on sick leave. The lady is already looking after a little boy three months younger than our girl. We stayed for a while and the two of them played. There was a little tent in the room, and they had been in and out […]

It’s always nice when the subject gets positive treatment in the mainstream media. Here is a recent article from the NY TImes / International Herald Tribune titled “Why Bilinguals are Smarter – The Benefits of Bilingualism”.

This weekend I discovered that sometimes a lesson in bilingualism doesn’t need more than a little goodwill and basic (and I mean very basic) muscial skills. You see, our little girl is the proud owner of a xylophone – and the only tune I can play on it is “Alle meine Entchen”. There might be […]

Remember our attempts at sign language? I thought it was exciting, but given our lack of using the signs, our little girl has mastered a grand total of two signs: all done and cheese. Today I had a look at the website of Baby Signs® and found an article on signing in a biligual setting […]

Our girl was sick and teething and coughing recently (yes, all at once), so when she wasn’t too keen on supper, we were indulgent. On Monday night she was well again, but when I came home, Daddy was already engaged in the supper battle with her. Since sometimes she’ll eat with one of us but not […]

It’s been a while since I last ran after my girl with the mike. Not for lack of expression on her part, on the contrary, but rather for lack of mastery of said mike, which is integrated in my walkman, one of her favourite “tech toys”. But this morning she was so engrossed in sorting […]

Do you know the difference between German and French fire-fighters? The German ones drive a big red truck with a blue light and a siren that goes “tatütata”, as any German child will tell you. The French ones drive a big red truck with a blue light and a siren that goes “pim-pom-pim-pom”, as any […]

It is a special moment when your child first says her name. I still remember the midwife in the hospital telling me to call her by her name often so she would understand that it meant her. She was less than a day old then. And now she’s 18 months and two weeks, and she […]