Hi, Im just wondering if anyone knows sites for children. Like that starts from the beginning explaining me, you, he, she etc. Just simple phrases. Thanks

Hi Donnachain24,
I see no one has answered yet so I'll at least say Hi.

I'll look for something this weekend. I just had two children here who are starting Irish. We covered the basic greeting 'Dia duit' (sounds like 'dee ah ghit) last week. The gh here is a soft gargling sound. They both said it really fast at the door when I opened it this week because they knew if they didn't say it first they'd get stuck with the longer 'Dia's Muire (mwihre) duit' answer. It was fun.

Today we did the numbers one to ten and we played a game. Each held his nose gently with the right hand and crossing the left arm over the right, held his right ear with the left hand. Then they had to switch arms over so the left hand held the nose and the right hand crossed over it to hold the left ear. It sounds complicated but if you build up rhythm and speed it's fun to count together when you do this and so the practiced
1. aon
2. dó
3. trí etc. up to ten and had races with it each other as they mastered both words and the game.

Anyway this is just an idea about how to make learning fun.

You could try downloading 'Before You Know It'. It's free language learning software and they have Irish. There are some mistakes in it but if you decide to do this let us know and we'll tell you where the mistakes are.

Just look up 'Before You Know It'
Choose 'Irish' and download.
It's a start.

We also covered essential questions and phrases for learning such as
Phrase........Sound.......Meaning
1. Ní thuigim (Nee higim) I don't understand.
2. Abair arís é. (ober areesh eh) Say it again.
3. Labhair go mall led' thoil. (Low (rhymes with now) ur gu moll led hull.) Speak slowly please.
4. Cad is brí le ...? (kod is bree le..?) What does ... mean?
5. Conas a deireann tú ... i nGaeilge? (kunas a derun too... ih ngayilgu?)
6. Níl 'fhios agam. (neel is agum) I don't know.

That's a start too.

But yeah I'll see if I can find something online.

This isn't specifically for kids but it's easy to follow. It has the northern Irish dialect.http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/blas/learners/beag1.shtml

Here's a list. You might want to look through and see if there's anything for children:
http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/foghlaim/

A Chaitriona,
Since you're a teacher for a living, and you're a rather nurturing person I suspect, you're probably fantastic at teaching Irish. I wish you and I lived nearby to each other so you could teach me to speak it, it sounds like those kids are going to be having lots of fun learning.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Bless your heart Riona. I adore my main job teaching Japanese and it a source of a shame to me as an Irishwoman that my skills in teaching that subject are stronger. It's probably because I learned the language as a foreigner and struggled through the hard ways and then came up with my own fun ways to learn and remember things. I designed my course, know it inside out and know what works best. The kids soak it up and it makes me feel good.

I didn't have to struggle with Irish and so it's not as easy to know what's hard for the student and how best to teach it. Even though I taught in Ireland it's not the same teaching students here and teaching adults is different. The teaching E.S.L. experience helps. I'd been out of touch with the language too until a translation project turned up here. I've learned a wealth of info. from Daltaí na Gaeilge here and only feel I'm beginning to get my act together on an Irish program I'm comfortable teaching. I'm grateful for the chance to connect with the language again. There's still lots to learn. My Irish students are amazing people and they constantly renew my faith in the best of human nature.



If you're ever in the L.A. area, Riona, drop in. Tá an doras ar oscailt agus beidh fáilte mór romhat.

I think you're in for a treat when you see Ceolmhar's pictures of Aran. I hope you have a great trip in Ireland. My thoughts will be with you.

Donnachain24,
The weekend went by too fast and I haven't found much else but Aonghus did for someone else on another thread so I'll pass that on too:

http://www.cogg.ie/aiseanna/aiseanna.aspx

http://www.tobar.ie/

how 'bout this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/colinandcumberland/game/

It's based on a cartoon series they have there. Still pretty fun games and stuff.

How about numbers? I'm trying to find a simple list of the numbers 1-100.

how's this?

http://mbm.dotnet11.hostbasket.com/textmachine/Default.aspx?PageID=87

GRMG Antaine! That was exactly what I was looking for.