The other day, I was in the kitchen and out of nowhere I heard a pretty bad "Is cailín mé". My daughter had found Duolingo on my wife's ipad and was starting the Irish course. She has now decided that she would like to learn Irish with me. She is 8, so I find it very unique for a child to voluntarily choose to study languages. Is there any advice to help teaching Irish at home? Good simple books? Videos? Thanks for the help.

There are many teachers on here who can probably help you out alot better than myself. I am learning the language too and from what i have heard, Duolingo is not the best resource out there for learning the language (grammatical errors, mis-pronunciations etc). If you have not already, you should check out Liofa, although their site is undergoing maintenance at the minute. They provide alot of resources including videos for learning the language although I think it is based around the Ulster dialect (I could be wrong) so it depends on which "flavour" of Irish you most want your child to learn.

A lot of people think that explicit pronunciation is bad enough with adults, but worse with kids. But what child have you met who doesn't enjoy making weird noises. You can do lots of exaggerated tongue movements etc to get her making slender consonants etc.

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

Well, the first thing I'd do is keep her off Duolingo!

One book I can think of that might appeal to a youngster is "Enjoy Irish" by Eithne Ní Ghallchobhair. The lessons are short and not overwhelming, and the cartoon format might appeal more to a child of that age than some other resources. You can also get an app for your smart phone that has the conversations from the book (I'm guessing that, at 8, she doesn't have a smart phone of her own, but that she enjoys playing with yours).

http://www.siopagaeilge.ie/products/C%F ... ct1-26.htm

There are also computer programs available that include games and such to keep the learning process fun. I had one that I found particularly enjoyable...it's down in my car at the moment (I brought it to class last night), and I can't recall the name, but I'll bring it back up later and post that info. Not sure if it's still available, but if it is, it's worth looking into.

There's also BYKI, whicb a lot of people swear by:

http://www.byki.com/fls/free-Irish-soft ... nload.html

Once she gets to a certain level, there are lots of children's books in Irish, as well as a line of graphic novels based on Irish myths and legents, that she might enjoy.

Redwolf

As always, I recommend Rabhlai Rabhlai because it's authentic, it's designed specifically for children and children from the Gaeltacht have participated in it. If you look there's a post devoted to children's learning materials on this forum - to which I and others have made contributions. You can also have a look at the various websites that deal with the teaching of Irish to children - Gaelscoileanna, Teachnet, Forbairt Naíonraí srl and there's also http://www.schooldance.ie/irish.html which has been mentioned recently.

Here's another suggestion - in the Usborne catalogue (on-line) there's 'Everyday Words Irish flashcards' ISBN 978 0 7460 6793 2 and 'Snap i nGaeilge' ISBN 978 0 7460 63377 8

Here's the program I was thinking of. The one I have is actually their intermediate-level program, but it was so good, I wouldn't hesitate to try the one that's geared toward beginners and children:

http://eurotalk.com/us/store/learn/irish/talknowdl/dl

I don't know about the children's courses, but the adult beginner ones from them (TalkNow!) are utter rubbish. It's a glorified phrasebook, and it's what I call "template teaching" -- they made one set of words/phrases in English and then translated them to a bunch of different languages. Not a lot of words, either, and the phrases have no variations. The volume of material is pitifully low.

Oh, and there are slots for "yes" and "no" in the template. I tried using it for Kannada, and there are two different words for "no" in the language (one to refute and one to refuse), but the course only taught one. I'm told the Scottish Gaelic one does the usual cheat and puts in "tha" for yes and "chan eil" for no, so I suspect the Irish one would be the same....

_________________
A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

I know that the pronunciation is atrocious, but so far she is having lots of fun on the Duolingo. I hate to take her all the way from that when she is enjoying it so much. Are there any other recs for apps for ipad? I see there is another one called "Cula Caint".

That's too bad. The intermediate one was quite helpful to me...but then, I was at a stage where I had a good working knowledge of the language but needed to do a lot of active listening. One game I particularly liked was one that reinforced understanding of directions: You had an increasingly complicated maze with various landmarks. The voice would give you directions (also increasingly complicated) to get to a particular point in the maze and you had to trace the route. If you got it right, the little car icon would zoom around the maze, following the route you'd traced.

Redwolf