​In a few days the year 2015 ends. At this time of the year, do you reflect on what happened in the past 12 months, or are you already making plans for the next year?

I would tend to plan ahead although I am not one for making New Years resolutions. I do want to take on a few new activities and revive old ones so the strategy that promises best results, I've heard, is to write down my goals so I can go back to them every now and then and evaluate my progress, take or change action, as and if necessary. 

Most importantly: If you want something specific to happen, schedule it, e.g. commit to it. And for those things that are really important to us, we WILL find the time to do them.

A new routine we've only just started recently is to make learning and practising to read in German part of our bedtime story. As we read stories before bedtime anyway, it makes it that much easier to just add a few minutes to this activity and let the kids read a few lines. And step by step, evening after evening, the kids read more and more.

Of course, there will still be plenty of time for play! So for a bit of Christmas and Winter fun for everyone, enjoy the Simons Cat Christmas Collection with the kids  - no specific language skills required!
 

You want your child to learn German and have already started teaching her at home or are thinking about it. The first step is to introduce and use the language in engaging activities she enjoys.

In my last email I talked about stories as a tool to teach German - at home or in the class room; whether you require the support of a German teacher and how illustrations and visual aids support listening and reading comprehension.

The short story (with audio) in my previous email offers an example of using stories for helping your child learn German without any further preparation on your part.