Come back on the Blogosphere

Roche is back on the blogosphere, after many days - or even years of absence!

And she is bringing with her in her little red spaceship her new baby sister Maevou!

For the presentations: Maevou is now 17 months, she is an adorable funny little character, we are all mad about her!

And Maevou already has two little friends, Mec and Mimi, who are exactly the same age as her. You probably can imagine them stuttering around in the house, making all kinds of ga ga goo goo sounds!

There is one big change though, compared to the time Roche was playing with her little friends: I have learnt to speak my own language with the children I mind, that is French. Maybe my practice of childminding has improved so that I feel confident to do so. My readings have helped me to build the confidence that educating a chidl in more than one language is not going to prevent the child from develioping, on the contrary, it might even improve some other cognitive skills. In fact, i now understand language as a code designed for communication between individuals, and learning a new language as cracking this code. And this is not too difficult a task for babies and toddlers as they do it effortlessly everyday when trying to communicate with the people they love!

I have come to understand that communication with small chidlren relies much on signs and eye-to-eye contact to make them understand what you want. And that the language you use with them is slowly integrated through repetition linked to the signs that you make. I would give one example: when you say "give me this" or to your child, you look at your child in the eyes and stretch out your hand  flat and open and wait in this position until your child puts it in your hand. And the same happens when pointing at things and saying "this" to guess what your toddler wants to have, or stretching your arms to hold your baby, etc.

Mec is a gorgeous little Irish boy that speaks English at home with his parents. His mother asked me if I could teach him a bit of French as she would love him to utter his first few words in the language.

And Mimi is coming from an Austrian and Irish background. I asked her mother if she would be ok with the idea of me speaking to her in French, and she accepted. She asked me if it would be all right for Mimi's linguistic development though, but I reassured her, as understanding three languages as a child is not an exception, it often happens in other countries - even if Mimi might not come to speak French fluently later on, she might improve her knowledge of French in future years, or have a passive knowledge of French, or might forget about it all, depending on her use of it.

Mec is coming to my playgroup since October 2011, and can already say a few words, and is progressing at a fast rate. On the first day, he was able to repeat "assis" when I showed him how to sit down before sliding down the slide! His settling-in in our house went very well, and he is now perfectly happy to join the group in the morning adn to be collected in the evening. His usual behaviour is to rush int he palyroom, then go tho the window and say goodbye to his mum or dad leaving with the car.

Mimi only started her settling-in last monday and is adapting very quickly too: she has not cried once and was able to say goddbye through the window after she observed Mec doing it. She was delighted to see her mum coming back too. She seemed to have had a great time with us, and after her afternoon nap, woke up in great form.

This is one of the condition of this French teaching-childminding service: emotional well-being has to prevail! Babies and toddlers need the security to be able to progress, there is no learning or developing if all their basic needs for food, cleanliness, emotional stability... are not being met. Only when they feel perfectly happy, I can think of how I could bring in some fun and learning!

So, in order to help little Mimi to settle-in, I keep speaking in German for the moment every time:

- there is a danger

- I need her to do something rapidly

- she needs to be conforted

- she is pointing at something and looking for a specific word that she knows

- I say what we are going to do next in the usual routine of my service

- I also read to her in German, among other readings in French and English, for the safety of being read a book sitting on the lap.

 I am planning to slowly move to French , even though I will still continue to speak a bit of German every time she comes to my place, to make her feel that her language is also valued here, and to make Mec and Maedou - and Roche also - hear other sounds!