Since we are already a bilingual family with German and English, I haven't tried to do much with my kids in the area of foreign languages. However, since we will be taking a trip to Russia in the near future, my kids have expressed a lot of interest in learning a bit of the language. Since I really believe in the Montessori principle of "Follow the child", I decided to jump on the chance to follow their interests in Russian.
We started learning some basic vocabulary with these wooden blocks pictured below. I bought them years ago when I lived in Russia and never dreamed that I would be using them with my own children. We've been adding a couple of words a week and are about halfway through the alphabet.
With my daughter who is learning to read in English, I am only concentrating on vocabulary and not attempting to teach her the Cyrillic alphabet. But coloring the pictures while learning a new word is a sensorimotor activity that helps her remember the word. My son, however, who is 8, is able to associate the Cyrillic letters with sounds.
We started learning some basic vocabulary with these wooden blocks pictured below. I bought them years ago when I lived in Russia and never dreamed that I would be using them with my own children. We've been adding a couple of words a week and are about halfway through the alphabet.
Then, a friend of mine recently showed me a website for teaching Russian as a foreign language with free downloads called УРЯ. We downloaded the workbooks below here. (You have to be able to speak a little Russian in order to register and navigate the site! If anyone needs help, please e-mail me and I can give some tips.)
With my daughter who is learning to read in English, I am only concentrating on vocabulary and not attempting to teach her the Cyrillic alphabet. But coloring the pictures while learning a new word is a sensorimotor activity that helps her remember the word. My son, however, who is 8, is able to associate the Cyrillic letters with sounds.
I got very excited when I found Montessori-like letter cards on the УРЯ site with the consonants in one color and the vowels in another. (Click here to view them.) I immediately had the idea to make a matching game for my son with some of the letters that he already knows. I downloaded clip art pictures to match the letters and glued them on index cards. (Yes, I am a complete nerd and make Montessori stuff in my free time! When I don't have the time or money to laminate, I often make Montessori materials with index cards.) So that my son could check his own work, I numbered the cards on the back. It was the first thing he did when he woke up this morning, so I was happy that he found it interesting.
