Books and activities to help teach your child to read English | Books/Reading/Writing Resources | Forum

My name is Stephanie and I have two boys, aged 4 and 6, who both go to a French school, while we speak English at home. I have always been interested in helping my children learn to read English, but even more so since they started being schooled in French.

For those of you who are also interested in teaching your child to read in English, I wanted to mention my website http://www.childrens-books-and…..eading.com. It is a free on-line resource, for both multilingual and monolingual parents, with suggestions for inspirational children's books and practical tips and techniques to help your child become a successful English reader. You can also find fun reading-related activities, such as games and crafts, which you can do with your child at home to reinforce their literacy skills. Most of these activities could be easily adapted for any language.

I hope that you'll stop by!

Stephanie

Eva

Sorry for taking so long to respond – I just spotted your post.

When we first arrived in France I put my children in a bilingual school where they were taught in English in the morning and French in the afternoon.  At the time my eldest was three and a half and although his understanding of French apparently improved, he didn't speak a word of French for the two years he was there.  When he was five and a half I moved him to the local French school and within 3 months he was chatting to his friends in French without problem.  He used pretty basic vocabulary, of course, but he got by and his vocabulary is constantly improving.  I think he just needed the incentive to learn.  Being able to talk to his class mates was a pretty big incentive.

So I guess when your son starts at a czech school he will be similarly incentivised.  Until then, perhaps you can think of things to do with him in czech which are fun and interesting, to help motivate him to learn.  Read books aloud to him on his favourite subjects, encourage him to listen to audiobooks in the car, let him watch children's TV programmes, try some fun word games (for example, when you think he is ready to start recognising words written in czech you could try some of the games at http://www.childrens-books-and…..games.html), or make a book (find some ideas at http://www.childrens-books-and…..ities.html).

I hope you can find something that works.  Good luck!

Stephanie