Helping my daughter

December2012

Please help me.

My 3 year old is starting naoinra in September. We don't speak Irish at home.

What can I do to help her have an easy love of Irish?

biko

This forum doesn't allow English so I suspect this thread will be closed soon.
Have a look at Gaeilge forum here

Insect Overlord

Thread moved from Teach na nGealt. Much better here.

December2012

Gabh mo leath sceal!

December2012

So, now I'm in the right place, if anybody could help me with ideas, suggestions or tips for a way to help my 3 year old learn, understand and enjoy Irish, I would be very grateful.

I'm Irish, but my Irish is not great. My husband is also Irish, but his is woeful, and I don't anticipate he will get on board with things I suggest (he won't be anti-it now, he will just more or less be leaving it to me).

She will start a naoinra in September for 2 1/2 hours a day.

Sometimes we watch cartoons on TG4 but it sounds a bit "harsh" and I've no idea what is going on so I can't repeat the stories to her, like she likes me to do with her normal cartoons.

biko

Perhaps get books with super easy Irish? Ask in your local library.
And Irish music CDs with singing? Children's stories in easy Irish and such.

jimmycrackcorm

Learn a few common phrases that you can use every day such as oiche mhaith.

mr chips

Initially she'll just be learning pretty basic things like numbers, rhymes, songs etc - the staff at the naíonra should be more than willing to help you out by providing these if you need any help with them. Once your daughter is in primary school/bunscoil, she'll quickly outstrip you anyway - this is a very common experience and not something to be worried about. She'll probably get a kick out of being able to know something that Mammy and Daddy don't know! The main thing is that your attitude should be really encouraging and positive - keep asking her to tell you the stuff she's learned and ask her to teach it to you, she'll love doing that.

There's a course called "Foscailt Doirse" that was developed for parents of young children attending naíonra/naíscoil/bunscoil who don't have the language themselves - it's not so much about learning the language as about showing parents how to help their children value the language as something real as opposed to something that's just for school, and ways to encourage their children to use it e.g. by including key phrases at home such as "Oíche mhaith", "tá grá agam duit", "go raibh maith agat" and so on. I don't know if there are any copies of the DVD still available, but if you send me a PM on here I'd be happy to enquire about it on your behalf.

Gael

Have a look at this document, which answers a lot of questions and concerns that parents have about speaking Irish to your child at home: http://www.corkchildcare.ie/documents/final_bearla.pdf

I've also heard that this package is very good for people who want to speak Irish to their kids at home: http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=3883

A handbook of 2000 phrases, together with a complete CD recording, for parents who wish their children to grow up able to speak Irish.
The three main Irish dialects are represented in the book, which is colour-coded for ease of use, and on the CDs.
All recordings are by native Irish speakers.
Several different ways of saying the same thing.

Aard

OP, I went to a naíonra even though my parents didn't speak a word of Irish. They're still not great at it tbh. I never watched cartoons in Irish, nor did we have Irish books at home, much like all the other kids. Don't worry about not picking the language up yourself - the schoolbooks go at a leisurely pace and iirc some of them have a glossary at the bottom of each page.

Slightly off topic, but naíonraí are great for making friends, as they're usually tied to a bunscoil where most of the children will go on to. In turn, they'll be tied to a meanscoil. I'm not joking when I say there were about ten people in sixth year who had also gone to my naíonra.

Anyway... Just remember that for your daughter, learning through Irish will become second nature. After a while it won't be a bother for hear not using English. Maybe enquire if there's courses for parents to learn Irish if you're really interested.

franc 91

Usually there is a scheme in place to help parents learn Irish and anyway the teachers will explain to you how to best support your daughter's education in Irish. There's the Naionrai website where, among other things, there's a booklet and CD for parents that you can buy - and you can choose it in the appropriate dialect too. Of course there's Comhluadar as mentioned above. The educational authorities have put the curriculum on line both in Irish and in English for Gaelscoileanna, if you want to look at that and see how it's all organised.
We've already mentioned here on this forum the various materials such as CDs and so on that you might find useful, but again her teachers will the best people to advise you.

December2012

Thanks everybody, they've said not to worry about it for now as they'll be focusing on playing / hand skills etc for the first few months and incorporating songs / rhymes.

Im very excited, if a little apprehensive about my "little" girl starting on an education path, let alone one so different to mine.

Enkidu

I just want to say that Gaschaint is a great book and I strongly second Gael's suggestion.