My daughter received a new book in English titled "If I were a train driver". It was the perfect occasion to read a new story in English. She has other books in English but I translated them in Romanian while reading. I am pretty sure that I shouldn't have done it. She did not know that they are written in another language. I tried a few days ago to read them in English but they are no longer interesting for her. Maybe I will find a new way to introduce them in English too.
Even though she took a few English lessons in kindergarten, she quickly forgot what she was learning. We need to practice more. But I feel that it is difficult because most of the time I don't know how to learn her English. :-)
So, we have this new book. She put me read it in English for a lot of time. At home, but most of the time while we were going somewhere or being somewhere else than home. I am sure that she did this in a way to show to others that she knows a few words in English.
This book has 25 pages with big pictures and a sentence on each page. It is about a boy who imagines that he is a train driver. I read each sentence and I tried to correlate the image with the sentence. I also let her describe the image. I thought it will be a good idea to repet some expressions, showing the images, without translated them anymore like:
put on my uniform
i start the engine
red light, wait
green light...go
the passengers board the train
into the tunnel
out of the tunnel
up the hill
down the hill
over the bridge
under the bridge
trains with cars
lights on
wipers on
into the station
everyone out
well done
captain of a big ship.
If I ask her, she can say  from this list, words like start, go, train, tunnel and cars. Words, not expressions or sentences. But we will certainly practice again with this book.

reading to the child  language
Popovici Simona

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12 aug 2013, 10:37
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Popovici Simona
Popovici Simona 02 sept 2013, 02:42
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I tried to use some indications, but I guess I don\'t have all the cards downloaded.
Thank you for your ideas and indications. I will use them soon and write about it.
Alexander Sokol
Alexander Sokol 30 aug 2013, 01:32
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Simona,
sorry, took me a while to write a comment on this one.
It\'s great to hear you\'ve decided to give try to language activities as well. Have you tried using some of the techniques suggested in PASS cards for working with a book? For example, you and your daughter could try to read an English book (even a very simple one) to one of the toys trying to teach it some English. Then the role of your daughter would change, so it might be more attractive to her. The toy might even explicitly ask your daughter to read something or to say something.
I think you can also use some of the ideas from Phase 1 cards. A Yes-No game connected with a book might be an idea. You can also look up other activities and see if any of the suggestions might work out for your context.  And do share, of course.
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