German/English bilingual playgroup in Balham Post Reply

[Babybump]

Hi, just found this thread & am wondering if anything came of it? I am an English mother with a German husband & 8 week old son who we'd like to bring up bilingual. We live in Streatham & don't know any local German speakers so I'd like to find ways of exposing & little chap to the language outside of our home.

Thanks!

[sabimum northcote]

Hi,
my son is 4.5 years and raised bilingual - both parents are German.
He spends 5 full days in an English speaking nursery, therefore his first choice of language is English. He understands German perfectly however lazy speaking in German to us. We have experienced though if amongst German children or his grand parents (who dont speak English), it takes about 2 days and is German improves significantly and he happily chats along.
It is just a matter of practising it and maybe forced a bit to make an effort.
So would be great to meet some German speaking children in his age group, I noticed most posts refer to children under 1.
We live off Northcote Road, very happy to meet up somewhere.

[MVM]

Hi Guys,

Also interested to know if anything came of this.

Relatively new to Balham and am Swiss Pakistani.

Raising daughter bilingually... Urdu and English but would love for her to add a Swiss language at some point. French or German. Am a bit concerned as she's under 2 and already I find she's much more interetsed in English so not sure if adding a third language is asking too much??

But still interested to know if anything happens with this group. Keep me in the loop please.

thanks

[April Baby]

Hi all

Our almost 2 year old son is being raised bilingually too. Has this playgroup been established yet and if so, is it possible to join?

[Cals_mum_silly]

so glad to see this thread -- we are as parents, one German and one American, and had been lazy about each speaking our own language to our son, reverting to English too often. a few weeks ago we had our interview at the German Schule in Richmond and the teacher there emphasized how to reinforce the language, to set out times and activities to balance each other. since then my husband has been more consistent in speaking only German to my son, and I've noticed that his comprehension is clearly active but he has yet to speak it himself. i would be very interested in meeting up so he could speak and learn with *other kids* as I think that would help the most.