Useful tools

I haven't posted for a while as I have been busy trying to write my dissertation, but I thought I'd post with a few thoughts on things that have helped me or others I've spoken to on the path to trilingualism.

1. The consistency question
We have certainly found that being consistent and only speaking our non-community languages to our kids has helped tremendously. After an initial effort when Dragonfly was born as I certainly hadn't been speaking French much for about 10 years, it has become second nature.
However, I'd say it's not necessarily the only approach that might work: it all depends on other factors. For instance, if you have grandparents around a lot, or spend extended periods in the relevant country, the children might get enough exposure to the languages from that.

2. Having a language in common
Many couples in trilingual families speak the community language to each other as that's the only language they share. We tend to do that too, but can also speak Russian to each other and that does help: if we make an effort to speak Russian at home it drastically increases the amount of Russian the kids hear. We also occasionally have a 'Russian breakfast' or 'Russian car journey' when we all speak Russian as that is the language the little bugs hear the least.
It also helps that we both understand what's going on when we each speak our respective languages to the kids - we don't have to translate everything or feel awkward that the other parent is left out of a conversation although we do sound like a family of mad people!
On the other hand, a friend of mind pointed out that, if you don't understand your partner's language you don't have to pretend you don't understand when the child addresses you in that language: you really don't. So this can make a 'strict' approach to utterances in the 'wrong' language come naturally.

3. Modern media
We are so lucky to be able to access media from all over the world at the touch of a button these days. Youtube is full of cartoons and films in any country, you can get apps and games in all sorts of languages, you can order books from most places to be delivered to your doorstep. Several parents I have spoken to recently do as we do and use these 'treats' as tools in their language, for instance allowing TV but only in one of the non-community languages.

4. Fun fun fun!
Related to the above, we find that the more fun the kids have with their languages, the better. The other day, they were watching a slapstick Soviet comedy from their dad's childhood and they were delighted.  Both Dragonfly and Bee love singing all the French songs from my childhood (as well as some additional ones we've discovered on various family CDs). If we go on holiday to France or Russia, we take them to as many fun things that involve language as possible: this could be the theatre, puppet shows, the circus, ski lessons, museum talks, arts and crafts activities etc. If we're in the car, we'll listen to hours of audiobooks in all three languages - it makes long journeys so much easier! Bee loves games so we play lots of games with him and many of these involve a lot of talking. Bee has also discovered football and as this is definitely his dad's thing and not mine, he has to speak to his dad in Russian to discuss the latest scores and request that they watch clips of the latest games.

5. Complementary schools and other sources
At the moment, Dragonfly and Bee go to an after school Russian club and that has helped their Russian along quite a lot. They've also learnt some classic Russian kids' songs and a bit of Russian folk dancing which all builds up their Russian links.
However, we used to attend another one locally, and it was a drag! 4 hours every Saturday involving science, mathematics etc. although Dragonfly was only 4 years old. It was such a chore that it was turning her against Russian and we dropped it. Partly for this reason, we wouldn't add a French club at this stage: school overload is never great for kids' motivation!
We've also briefly thought about sending the little bugs to a French or Russian school for their main school, but the dilemma is that it would give a very strong weight to one language, which doesn't seem right to us. If one language is to dominate, we feel it is 'fairer' that it is the community language.

Wordeaters

Much to the little bugs' delight, we've recently acquired an iPad. I've been busy looking for apps they would enjoy and that would also be language related. I've found a few for French (details coming in a later post) but Russian-language apps are harder to come by.

The only Russian-language one that seems to have any success so far is Wordeaters (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordeaters/id490622258?mt=8).

This app involves dragging Russian words that float across the screen into the mouth of the head that has guessed the right meaning (or vice versa) and the word is eaten up. It's pure translating, but both Dragonfly and Bee play it from time to time, so it seems to be sufficiently entertaining and it certainly helps them work on their vocabulary and reading skills. The word is also read out so they hear the correct pronunciation.

The app also works with English-French, English-Spanish and English-Russian but we haven't tested these combinations.

Has anyone come across any other good apps for kids that use Russian?

Elka

It's Elka / Елка season in this house. A elka is a Christmas (or New Year) tree, but it also refers to a New Year show for kids with дед мороз (Grandfather Frost) and so on. 

Last weekend, Dragonfly and Bee took part in their Russian club's elka, and had to learn their lines, steps and songs. A bit like the school nativity play but with no nativity story - all on a wintry theme of snow, ice, Grandfather frost and his helper/ daughter Snegurochka ... so when we announced that they were going to a big one yesterday with their Babushka (grandma), they were worried that they hadn't rehearsed! 

But yesterday's one (kremlinelka.co.uk) was just a show (phew!), so no performing was needed. However, despite their nerves, last week's was much more fun, in particular for Dragonfly, who found the Kremlin Elka boooring. Bee was more positive. Judging by Bee's rather dodgy photography, seems to have involved people dressed up as animals. Perhaps 9-year-olds are too old for this sort of thing?

Penpals

We're having a bit of follow up success on the 'finding French children to interact with' front.

This summer, Dragonfly went to a kids' day camp while we were on holiday in France. One of the aims (other than giving her the opportunity to do cool stuff like white water rafting and donkey riding!) was to increase her exposure to French, and in particular to enable her to interact with French kids.

And it seemed to work! Dragonfly came home each afternoon chatting away in a higher pitched voice than usual and using new phrases like 'hyper' ('j'avais hyper peur'). I was expecting the new vocabulary, but was intrigued about the new girly voice. Is it the case that French girls use a higher pitch generally than English girls? Does anyone have this experience with other languages? Something to investigate.

Anyway, to 'return to our sheep' (as the French would say), not only did Dragonfly chat away to French kids, she also made a new friend and we managed to arrange a few playdates. We swapped addresses and returned home ... and this is where the follow up success comes in: Dragonfly liked my suggestion that she might send her new friend a postcard (in French!), so we did that, and a few weeks later got a response! Dragonfly is so excited to be getting her own letters in the post she's already started drafting another letter. There's nothing like making language 'real' to increase motivation!

Bayard / Milan addicts

One of my favourite French kids' resources has always been Bayard Presse's magazines. My brothers and I subscribed to these for years when we were growing up bilingually and I'm glad to say they're still going strong as my kids love them!

I took out my first subscription (to Popi) for Dragonfly when she was about 1. She mainly chewed and tore her magazine at the beginning, but we persevered and she grew big enough to engage with the book in less physical ways. We've subscribed to a magazine for her ever since and then added a suitable subscription for Bee when he was old enough. Soon we'll have tried them all!

Bayard has now merged with Milan Jeunesse, so they now have an even more bewildering choice of magazines on offer (see the whole list here: http://www.frenchmagforkids.com/collection_mag.html). 

This choice, combined with two imperfectly coordinated subscription sources (my mother and myself!), means that we now have 4 of these magazines landing on our doormat every month! That's on top of the entire back collection of 'J'Aime Lire' books from when we were small ... But I can't complain: the magazines are great. Bee loves his animal magazine Wakou and enjoys seeing how he is now too big for Babar. Both Dragonfly and Bee enjoy Youpi (a Grandma gift). And J'aime Lire is Dragonfly's favourite and one of the main reasons she has managed to transfer most of her reading skills from English to French and can now read in French for pleasure. Hooray!

In addition, much to Bee-the-technology-addict's delight, these subscriptions also come with a web-based subscription to 'BayaM' with games, little films etc. so there is even an interactive element for demanding 21st Century children.

So I'm sure we'll be taking out a subscription for Butterfly when the time comes ...

Do you have any favourite French resources? 

Propisnye bukvy!

Much to my surprise, despite not being particularly known for beautiful handwriting in English, and despite writing in Russian exclusively in rather wobbly capitals until very recently, Dragonfly (aged 9) is now suddenly writing pretty impressive 'propisnye bukvy' (joined up writing) in her Russian club notebook, even managing the required slant for most of the letters. Wow! I didn't expect that! I wonder whether it will impact on her handwriting generally (if she keeps it up) - you can often recognise Russian people's handwriting by this characteristic slanting pattern.