Learning English

Susanna is having a lot of fun learning all the new English words.  We talked about some of them before we moved, but now Susanna is the one always setting me straight when I use an "American" word.  Even Ben is getting in on the learning, especially with words for his favorite food, like chips instead of fries, and crisps instead of chips.

Susanna doesn't call me Mum yet, but she always gets me when I say "diaper" instead of "nappy" or "pants" instead of "trousers".  She also likes to say "push chair" instead of "stroller", and a particular favorite is "tea", which is what they call the early evening meal (dinner), not just the drink or the afternoon snack.

Another interesting thing that I learned during a preschool tour is that rather than teaching letter names, they first teach the letter sounds.  They don't work on letter names until the kids are around 6.  They also start with lower case letters, and introduce capital letters (apart from first letters of names) until later.  So, for example, they would show the letter "c" and teach the sound it makes.  Then when its time to work on reading, the kids can easily sound out each word.  I learned this at one preschool, but I'm assuming its done like this everywhere.  It will be neat to see Ben go through this system.