Would you do a bilingual childminding service?

[Kimmy050983]

I am German and only speak German to my son, who is naturally bilingual.
When I am working though, I only sing English nursery rhymes and speak English most of the time.
I was now thinking it would be nice to incorporate some simple German songs into "music time" (we sing every day for at least 30 minutes)

This would be great for my LO , and probably nice for the girl I mind too.

Do you think parents would like that sort of thing?

[Jollybones]

Personally I would love it if my children got given that opportunity from a young age!! I am sure most parents would see it as a positive thing.
Ask them first though to make sure.

[Playmate]

I think this is a fab idea, but I suppose you shoud run it past the parents first

[zippy]

definetly, its a great idea

[Kimmy050983]

I would definitely ask the parents first
I would probably do just one little song each week

[onceinabluemoon]

I'd love my child to have that chance, or to learn to count to ten, learn simple phrases etc.

Perhaps send a questionnaire to parents just to double check, but I would put if you would not be happy please say why (only in better engish, sorry I'm knackered and brain dead)

[Kimmy050983]

I am certain they will love it , LO is only 17 months but they love everything I do

[Mouse]

Definitely!

I teach my mindees a couple of french songs I know & they love the french picture cards we have.

[Bluebell]

I think it would be lovely - the pre-school my son used to go to did a french club which was quite sweet. Numbers and nursery rhymes and maybe some food items would be great! I bet the children will love it!

[kel1983]

thats fab. get parents permission and go for it

[Helen Dempster]

I think it would be a fantastic asset/unique selling point to your childminding service - if it was one of my own children, I'd be thrilled they were learning another language. Speak to the parents and see what they think, but I'd say go for it

[PerkyEars]

Sounds brilliant! I'm sure many parents would love it.

Only question I can think of is if you are in a multicultural area, how it would impact a child learning english as an additional langauge with you? I've got one Somali boy who takes a few hours to warm up to attempting some English with me, not sure I'd want to throw a third language at him , but on the other hand in some parts of the world children learn more than two languages. Not something I know much about, but maybe someone does?

[stargazer1]

I live in Wales, we speak English at home but the preschool and primary school are primarily Welsh speaking. My 4 year old daughter has been in the primary school a year and has soaked up Welsh like a sponge. I have a friend who is Polish, her husband is Maltese, they both speak English to eachother and their little girl has just started the preschool, where they speak Welsh. At just 3, she is learning her 4th language. Go for it, kids are like sponges, how can it do any harm to learn something new