Reblog: Holidays with Kids. Reality vs Expectation – My Family Home

This summer we went to France camping with our 2 rugrats. It will be fun! I said to myself, the kids will play happily in a safe campsite with lots of other French enfants. They will pick up the language so easily by the time we return home they will be fluent. Mr familyhomeblog and […]

via Holidays with kids. Reality versus expectation  — My Family Home

I really like this post from Jules. Please take a look at her blog and let her know what you think. The difference between reality and expectation when it comes to children definitely rings true with me.

#ThrowBackThursday: Counting Magpies

I’ve decided to post a throwback post once a week. This will be either a blog post or journal that I’ve written at some point in the past. Some will still be available in the depths of the internet, others will have never seen the light of day before. Today’s is from my 2011/12 pregnancy blog.

Being pregnant makes me superstitious.  Is that normal?  My “new best friend” Heidi Murkoff doesn’t seem to have anything to say on the subject.  I’ve heard of people not wanting to buy things for the baby too early in case they “tempt fate” and I’m probably with them on that, but with me it’s all about the magpies (and I don’t mean Newcastle United).

It started last year, when I was about six weeks pregnant and waiting for a scan which would tell me whether my pregnancy was viable.  I looked out of the kitchen window and saw a magpie on the fence.  I’ve never seen a magpie in my garden before or since and the phrase “one for sorrow” sprung to mind.  I can’t say I was surprised when I was told I’d had a miscarriage at my scan a few days later.

This pregnancy, I seem to have spent a lot of time saluting solitary magpies.  Apparently you only need to salute the first one of the day, but it’s still quite time consuming.  Quite often, I’ve saluted a magpie only to find he has a mate.  Surely a good sign…”two for joy” and all that!  On several occasions, I’ve seen three magpies (“three for a girl”) together and once or twice four (“four for a boy”).  The threes outnumber the fours, and if I’m being honest, I’d prefer a girl so I’m hoping the magpies are right!

Last week I had my combined screening for Downs Syndrome, and was told I’d receive a phone call if I was high risk.  I knew I was low risk because I saw two magpies and a black cat crossed my path when I was on my way to work.

Well, I’m off to count magpies, avoid ladders, dodge the number 13 and not wear green.   I’m just glad that I won’t be having my baby in the same maternity hospital as my sister-in-law, where a tame magpie perches on the window sill outside the maternity ward every day.

Parlez Vous Français?

We’re just back from France, but this post isn’t really a travel blog, it’s more about teaching languages to children.

We stayed at Camping St Gilles, near Bénodet in Brittany. We booked through Eurocamp and I’d definitely recommend it. I might write a review and/or travel blog post at some stage but I’m not much of a reviewer. I’m still traumatised after receiving hate mail from an elderly guest house owner, after leaving a mediocre review on Trip Advisor. Apparently, I ruined her summer! This was six years ago, and I think I deleted my account in the end – not before reporting her for abuse of Trip Advisor.

Munchkin is fortunate enough to start learning French in Year 1 at school. So she’ll start at age five, as opposed to age ten or whenever it was I started. I have an ‘A’-Level in French but my vocabulary is terrible. My husband has a GCSE, and his is even worse!

We want to help her learn and are pleased that she’s showing an interest and asking how to say things in French. Here is our plan to help her learn.

1. We’ve bought some French flash cards.
2. She wants to start going to a Saturday French group.
3. My husband is going to start French lessons. Unbelievably, the main adult education provider in Worthing doesn’t run French courses so he’s still looking for a suitable class.
4. I’m going to read bilingual story books to her. Hopefully this will improve my French. The idea is that I’ll read the story in English, then repeat it in French.

I’ll let you know how we get on. What ideas do you have for helping children learn a foreign language? Please let me know in the comments below.

French flag photo credit: wisegie via Foter.com / CC BY