We love reading, but what about our second language? {Kids book review}

It’s no secret, we’re a family of readers! Some more than others, but I am a mom that will encourage my kids and my husband to read as much as they can. Reading is beneficial for so many reasons:

• Improves reading comprehension
• Improves and expands vocabulary
• Memory is improved
• Mental stimulation for the brain
• Improved concentration and focus
• In our home, increased family time!

I’ve actively focused on reading for about a year now….but I’ve come to realise that I have been neglecting something! Reading in our second language…AFRIKAANS! It shows in our daily lives…my kids cannot speak afrikaans. Their pronunciation is awful and they barely even know basic words. How they are passing at school, is beyond me! lol. Recently, Pan Macmillan sent over some Afrikaans Priddy Puzzle books and I was thrilled.

What are these puzzle books about?

We received 2 books, ‘Op die plaas‘ and ‘Prinses Partytjie‘. These fun books are beautifully illustrated, colourful and interactive, providing lots of fun for kids over the age of 3!

What I love about them

For Adam (3yrs old)

The minute these books arrived, Adam claimed them as his own. We went through the books and he did the puzzles probably at least 6 times…PER BOOK. He loves showing me the different animals, as well as interacting with the puzzle pieces. i.e Animals play with each other, tractor rides, combs his hair…. The possibilities for him, are endless! He whips these books out DAILY…and if anything is missing, he will find it. I haven’t seen him this interested in anything in a while…and after 2 weeks, the novelty has not worn off yet.

For Joshua and Addison

So I am sure one would think Joshua and Addison are too old for these books, you’d be wrong. The books are easy to read, but also focuses on teaching the kids the object and animal names. Along with the name in each puzzle slot, there’s also a little description of what the thing does. I didn’t even realise that Joshua didn’t know that ‘money’ was ‘geld’. So I’ve chosen a word to drill him with…and then to use that word in a sentence in the correct context. Every week we’ll learn a different word, depending on how fast he grasped/remembered the previous word.

The same with Addison, if there’s something she doesn’t know….I’m trying to reinforce it…and also hoping to get her conversational skills to at least be able to get through a basic/simple Afrikaans conversation.

Also what I enjoy is that there are questions for the kids to answer, objects to find. This really enhances the learning experience.

Final thoughts

These books are fantastic and there’s a whole range of these books and similar from Priddy in a wide variety of topics. I also like that there is a built in storage space for the puzzles, so they are easy to store…with the actual book.

I find it really overwhelming to think of HOW to teach my kids to speak a second language, but I think these books have given me a starting point. Kids are battling at school with their second languages, so I think even the most basic toddler books are actually a good starting point depending on your child’s fluency. I am definitely going to be encouraging more reading of Afrikaans books this year and also implementing a day where we only speak Afrikaans. Do you have any tips on how to help my kids speak Afrikaans? I’d even love to get them speaking some Xhosa, but I guess Rome wasn’t built in a day……

Disclaimer: These books were sent to me by Pan Macmillan with no obligation to review.