This year, it occurred to me that I tend to follow the Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing progression for my kids’ bilingual education.
What I mean is, when I deemed that they have mastered one skill in Chinese, then I introduce that skill in English while we move onto the next level in Chinese.
So two examples. We very much limited English speaking and listening opportunities for Thumper to just Baba before 4. In fact he tried to speak Chinese to her till 2. Only after 4, when she is solidly speaking Chinese and getting exposed to reading, did I start exposing her to English speaking opportunities.
Similarly, I waited till Astroboy could read very well in Chinese before I really intensified the English listening exposure. Right now, I’m still not consistently providing English books for him to read for leisure, just whatever we have time for during work period. We’re mostly relying on the reader from All About Reading most of the time.
Listening to English is our way of ensuring that the kids have enough time to get a Chinese reading habit down. Though I’ve only had experience with 2 kids, I see that with enough listening exposure, you don’t really need to worry about English reading. What happens after getting over the hump of a child learning to read is really about acquiring comprehension, and comprehension can be acquired through listening and speaking instead of reading, at least for the simple stuff from 1st-3rd grade. I find with just minimal daily but deliberate conversation with Baba and a lot of listening, both of my kids were able to quickly jump through the early readers.
So I highly recommend using audio sources to “maintain” English level. Don’t worry about English reading. Unless you’re super hard working and intentional, most kids who are taught to read English early, or at the same time as Chinese, will have their Chinese level lag behind in a year or two. You’ll see the gap starting in 3rd grade and increasing year after year.
Oops. I got side tracked. So these are the 5 podcasts I intentionally listen to in the car, starting when Thumper was 6-7, and intensifying the last year or two, at 9-10. Some are meant for adults and may require some filtering (Radiolab). I’m deliberately exposing her to adult vocabulary and language to up her comprehension. In the beginning we listen to it in the car together so that she doesn’t think it’s Mama’s assigned work. It becomes more of a “I’m eavesdropping what mom’s listening to”. And when she gets bored or can’t understand, she can tune out or take a nap.
There have been other podcasts along the one, some purported kid friendly ones. But we’ve found these to be the keepers, the ones that keep either the parents or the kids engrossed when we listen.
In the last year, I added the podcasts to both kids’ iPhones. Though Thumper has really been the one to actively listen to the podcasts. Astroboy will only listen when I listen to them in the car.
Brains On
Rated G
This is Thumpers favorite podcast and now adays where she learns a lot of her science info. It’s a podcast for children. There are cool sound effects to really engage the kids. Every episode is age appropriate for children.
The show tries to answer typical children’s questions on science, like How do Animals Breath Underwater or Dogs: What’s the Secret to their Sense of Smell? but the pacing is done so well, you never feel like they’re dragging. There’s great sound effects to draw the kids interest and every episode has a mystery sound for you to guess.
Radiolab
PG13
This is my favorite podcast. If Montessori elementary is about piquing children’s interest in a subject, often through story telling, Radiolab does it a million times better than I ever could.
Radiolab, especially in its earlier episodes which are not available on iTunes, focuses on science topics and presents them in such an interesting way. Some of our favorite podcasts are ones that talked about another theory on dinosaur extinction, the story of the number 7, colors, the Taung child (early human), Crisper (cells), freezing water (States of matter), to name a few. Some of these are such great companions to the Montessori Great Lessons.
Not every episode of radio lab is appropriate for children. I typically pick the ones I find interesting and let the kids listen to it in the car.
Planet money
Rated PG
Though many of the podcasts are over the kids’ head, I think it is useful for them to repeatedly be exposed to the language of economics so they’re familiar with the vocabs as kids. Economics is supposed to be slightly covered as part of Geography in the Montessori curriculum, but we havn’t gotten around to it.
Some of our favorite episodes are ones about the journey of a tshirt around the world, and how to get your own satellite onto space.
Most Planet Money episodes are G, though some are more PG and PG-13. So I also typically listen to it in the car with the children.
The Indicator
Rated G
Whereas Planet Money tends to do in depth reporting of something related to money, The Indicator is short 10 minute podcasts of current economic topics. I like it a lot because it’s short, perfect for my short attention span. I’m sure this is the kids’ least favorite podcasts. But I like its repetitive information and really it is a very good way for them to get acquainted to business news.
They often talk about the stock market, interest rates, and random number indicators used in the business world. Since I felt like I didn’t learn much of this till college and later, even though this is what is most relevant to my life now, as money and economy affects everything, I wanted to expose the kids to these concepts earlier.
Almost all of The Indicator is G. It is just boring numbers.
Every Little Thing
Rated R
This is an irreverent podcast that definitely some adult filtering. Listeners call in with their weird questions about little things and the programs aims to answer them and the host promises to answer every little question. Some episodes are truly appealing to children, like Do Scarecrows Scare Crow, Do Dogs Have Belly Buttons?, The Quest to Wipe out a Virus, and ARRRRR Pirate Peg Legs Really A Thing? While others aren’t meant for children. There can be swear words sometimes.
How to Listen?
I know there are a variety of ways, like Spotify. But we just use the Podcast app on our iPhone, search for these shows, and subscribe. One note is that iTunes doesn’t allow you to hold over 100 episodes so a lot of the early podcasts can be found on their website but not on iTunes.