Multilingual kids & reading

[zax]

Question for those of you with kids who speak Finnish plus another language...

Junior is multilingual (Finnish/English) and manages very well speaking and listening in both languages. But now school started and more attention is being paid to reading. That seems to be causing issues for him, and he struggles a little compared to maths. He attends a Finnish school so of course is learning from Finnish textbooks.

Has anyone else had similar issues? We've cut back on the English books at home for now to let him concentrate on Finnish. While each parent speaking their own language worked very well I'm not sure the same theory is working for him when it comes to books...

[onkko]

Now in 5th class, he reads at a peer level, if not a bit higher. We found books that he actually enjoyed (and it is hard, especially with boys)...Benjamin Stilton, Scooby Doo, Pokemon, Aku Ankka, etc. He still goes to bed every night reading Aku Ankka and occasionally he'll read something from his "history of war" series of books, depending on his energy level.

In that age i red Edgar Rice Burroughs tarzan and mars series, Enid Blytons famous five series and Nancy Drew series (i have sisters!). Those are what came in mind. Somehow your examples seems bit childish and not really "reading" but that could be just me

[Rob A.]

Now in 5th class, he reads at a peer level, if not a bit higher. We found books that he actually enjoyed (and it is hard, especially with boys)...Benjamin Stilton, Scooby Doo, Pokemon, Aku Ankka, etc. He still goes to bed every night reading Aku Ankka and occasionally he'll read something from his "history of war" series of books, depending on his energy level.

In that age i red Edgar Rice Burroughs tarzan and mars series, Enid Blytons famous five series and Nancy Drew series (i have sisters!). Those are what came in mind. Somehow your examples seems bit childish and not really "reading" but that could be just me

The books I listed were books we'd chosen for 1st and 2nd class. But at any rate...even if an 11 year old was chosing Benjamin Stilton and Scooby Doo books, and he/she enjoyed them I certainly wouldn't say "you shouldn't read them because they're too childish". Any book a child, who generally hates to read, choses to read is a book and should be encouraged. Every child is different.

Yes...any reading is better than none...though at that age I was reading Thornton Burgess, and those other Canadian boyhood standards...Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer...plus just about anything I could get my hands on dealing with the solar system and "Outer Space"...

I think the key is books with words, not pictures....allowing children to develop their imaginations... And I remember well a book I read at a young age...though likely I was about twelve at the time....it was a Canadian adaptation of Les Miserables...it was called "Jean Val Jean".....published in English...though I did learn a bit of French from it... I've never forgotten some of the "lines" I picked up from this book...kind of a "distilled essence" of the human condition... Probably lots of copies in Canadian used book stores...

Maybe you could get copies of these and others even if you don't read them yourself and have them "lying" around the house....

[zax]

Cory, thanks for the info. We'll see how things go over the next few months, and stick to the regular English books.

As an almost-40-year-old who still reads Asterix I'll stay out of the "what is a suitable book for kids" argument