A Matter of Choice

I started trying to learn Greek way back in 2007 when we decided to move to Cyprus, and even when Leo was just a baby in England I was looking for ways to introduce him to the language.   I remember one morning looking for Greek cartoon on youtube with a 5 month old Leo sitting on my lap! Last year we went to Greek 4 Kids lessons which gave him a little taste of the language before starting school. Although I'm not really trying to teach him, as my Greek is not good enough, and he is picking it up much quicker than I am anyway at school, I do like to find ways to encourage him to use it - it helps me too! Greek 4 Kids is a brilliant website which aims to teach Greek through fun games and activities, they have a great selection of free printables and recently have added some booklets in addition to these.  We now have a copy of the Greek Nursery Rhymes booklet which we've been trying out. Leo often comes home from school singing songs that I can't join in with a...

Regular readers will know that I am very interested in learning the Greek language and helping Leo to learn it (or having him help me which is increasingly the case now!) I've been learning Greek now via many different methods for several years now but although I always encourage Leo, I don't want to try and teach him myself as I don't wish to confuse him by not telling him things correctly. Greek is not one of the most common languages when it comes to learning materials, and is often not one of the languages available  so I was really pleased to see that Dino Lingo - Language for kids have not left it out! We recently received a set of Dino Lingo Greek DVDs and they have gone down very well so far. Using the top 200 words and phrases from the chosen language Dino Lingo is a fun way to introduce your child to a second language.  Using cute dinosaur characters (which do a really funky little dance, that Leo and I both copy each time it comes on!)  and colourfu...

Leo loves to learn and seems to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge!  We conquered numbers a long time ago, closely followed by the alphabet and one of his favourite things at the moment is spelling! I think this came about by playing  'I-Spy' in the car to keep him entertained, it took a while but he's finally got the idea that you have to be able to see the thing you are 'spying' - (no Leo we cannot see a snake....  well we'd better not be able to see one!)   From the back of this he now asks how everything is spelt  - and I mean EVERYTHING, I feel like I'm living in some kind of spelling competition, I'm not complaining obviously, its a good thing he is so interested but it can be tiring! He always asks what things spell or what the letters are when he sees a sign or writing on anything, my usual response is 'I don't know, you tell me what letters you can see'   When he tells me the letters I then tell he what it spells.   This wor...

Yesterday, for the first time in the two years I have known my friend Sam we finally escaped the kids for the whole day and had a day out without the little darlings! We went to Nicosia to the Baby, Toddler and Christening exhibition held at the Cyprus State Pavilion.  I was really looking forward to it, and after attending several events in Cyprus which didn't live up to my expectations was intrigued to see how successful it would be. Before I get moaned at, I realise Cyprus is not England, and that it is a small country but often I get frustrated with how easily things could be improved - events are not always well publicised and I feel the internet  / social media is rarely used to its full potential,  not that I claim to be an expert by any means but if I can see ways to improve things then they must be there! I was excited to see in the run up to the exhibition that the organisers were using their facebook page along with various groups t...

As you probably know I'm in the (slow!) process of learning Greek  and since Leo started to talk we've been trying to teach him what we know.  He knows his colours and numbers in both languages along with a few random things in Greek but I still would like him to know more.  I know he will pick it up at school, many British children here go to school knowing no Greek whatsoever and apparently get on fine but I'd like him to have a reasonable idea of what's going on when he gets there and not struggling through trying to work out what to do and what everyone is saying! My biggest reason to learn Greek is due to Leo - I intend to be able to read the letters that come from school and know what he is talking about when he comes home! For some time I've been a big fan of the 'Greek 4 Kids' blog and was really pleased when the classes were launched in Protaras earlier this month.  Aimed at children age 3 and up (3 ish - Leo's not 3 until May!) the classe...

Since (hopefully) enrolling Leo to start at pre-primary school later this year I've been thinking of what I can do to help him settle in. Although I'm trying to learn Greek and I know he will pick it up very quickly when he starts I want to do all I can to make it more comfortable for him. Obviously his English is much better than his Greek but we have always tried to teach him things we know as we've gone along. We taught him to count in both languages at the same time, for a long time he didn't separate the two,  counting 'one, ena.. two, dheio'  but now will count in whichever language you ask him to.... when he feels like it of course! He knows colours in both languages and will often pick something up and ask 'What's this colour in Greek Mummy?'  to reply with 'yes that's right Mummy, that's clever' when you reply! I've been following a great website now for a while - Greek For Kids and I'm certainly going to start...