Wednesday
Jun092010
Product Review: Einfach Alles (Language Flash Cards)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
My friend Allie writes the blog No Time for Flash Cards, and in general I would agree. Although we don't often turn to crafts (like Allie does), we prefer learning by reading books, spending time outdoors, and going to museums rather than by memorization and repetition. So when Julian's French teacher said that he needed to work on building his vocabulary and suggested flash cards, I cringed. But we gave it a try and it did help him learn some new words. He enjoyed it, and used the cards both with us at home and with older children at school, but I never got excited about the idea.
I've written before about raising bilingual kids. Our children are learning English and German at home and English, French and Spanish at school. Both my partner and I speak English, French and German. We want our kids to learn other languages and to have fun doing it. Since we arrived in Berlin, both of them have been struggling with their German a bit. That has led to them not talking to others or trying to talk to others and lacking the vocabulary to do so. I also know that once school starts up again in the fall, the French flash cards issue will come up again and I wasn't thrilled with the flash cards we had been able to purchase in Canada.
So I was intrigued when I came across a box of flash cards at the bookstore in Berlin called Einfach Alles: Die Welt in Bildern by Rotraut Susanne Berner. It includes 150 flash cards and each card contains:
The set of cards comes in a sturdy and attractive box. It also includes a set of instructions with ideas for games you can play with the cards (opposites, charades, word games and more). There are also several blank cards where you can draw your own picture and then write the words on the back.
As if that isn't impressive enough, I was even more impressed when we cracked the box open and I saw the quality of the cards and of the illustrations. As an example, this is the card for WOMAN and yes, there is a corresponding one for MAN too (can you tell this isn't an American kids product?).
As I said above, the illustrations really are excellent. They range from simple line drawings in one colour to elaborate landscapes. Some of them are quite literal, some are more abstract, and some of them make the kids laugh out loud. It includes nouns (e.g. elephant, snow man, bathtub) as well as feelings and emotions (e.g. fear, love, sadness) and actions (e.g. kidding around). Some of them create opportunities to talk about the things that are on the cards, especially when they are new words or new concepts for the kids.
My kids favourites are things like:
I've thrown in a few images of some of the other cards here to give you an idea of the types of illustrations found in the set. My mother will be really impressed to know that one of them passes as Grannie (let it be known loud and clear that the elderly woman pictured on the card looks nothing like my mother), but I'm happy with them saying "Grannie" for the sake of a giggle and in the hopes that they don't yell and point "Hey, look at that old lady" at the top of their lungs in public again (especially since they now have the vocabulary to do so in German). The picture of the pregnant woman, showing the position of the baby, is just wonderful.
I get numerous requests daily to do flash cards, even before getting out of their pajamas in the morning, and who can resist a face like this?
I've written before about raising bilingual kids. Our children are learning English and German at home and English, French and Spanish at school. Both my partner and I speak English, French and German. We want our kids to learn other languages and to have fun doing it. Since we arrived in Berlin, both of them have been struggling with their German a bit. That has led to them not talking to others or trying to talk to others and lacking the vocabulary to do so. I also know that once school starts up again in the fall, the French flash cards issue will come up again and I wasn't thrilled with the flash cards we had been able to purchase in Canada.
So I was intrigued when I came across a box of flash cards at the bookstore in Berlin called Einfach Alles: Die Welt in Bildern by Rotraut Susanne Berner. It includes 150 flash cards and each card contains:
- an illustration on the front
- the word in 6 languages (German, English, French, Spanish, Turkish and Chinese) as well as a word-related phrase or saying in German on the back
The set of cards comes in a sturdy and attractive box. It also includes a set of instructions with ideas for games you can play with the cards (opposites, charades, word games and more). There are also several blank cards where you can draw your own picture and then write the words on the back.
As if that isn't impressive enough, I was even more impressed when we cracked the box open and I saw the quality of the cards and of the illustrations. As an example, this is the card for WOMAN and yes, there is a corresponding one for MAN too (can you tell this isn't an American kids product?).
As I said above, the illustrations really are excellent. They range from simple line drawings in one colour to elaborate landscapes. Some of them are quite literal, some are more abstract, and some of them make the kids laugh out loud. It includes nouns (e.g. elephant, snow man, bathtub) as well as feelings and emotions (e.g. fear, love, sadness) and actions (e.g. kidding around). Some of them create opportunities to talk about the things that are on the cards, especially when they are new words or new concepts for the kids.
My kids favourites are things like:
- the BOTTOM (a small child sticking it's bum out)
- the RAGE (a red faced fist clenched figure)
- the NAUSEA (which is an illustration of a man sitting in bed vomiting into a bowl)
- the HOLE (which is a blank card with a small hole in the middle of it)
- ...and of course the naked people (Mommy and Daddy in the shower, they call them)
I've thrown in a few images of some of the other cards here to give you an idea of the types of illustrations found in the set. My mother will be really impressed to know that one of them passes as Grannie (let it be known loud and clear that the elderly woman pictured on the card looks nothing like my mother), but I'm happy with them saying "Grannie" for the sake of a giggle and in the hopes that they don't yell and point "Hey, look at that old lady" at the top of their lungs in public again (especially since they now have the vocabulary to do so in German). The picture of the pregnant woman, showing the position of the baby, is just wonderful.
I get numerous requests daily to do flash cards, even before getting out of their pajamas in the morning, and who can resist a face like this?
Reader Comments (16)
This product looks awesome! Thanks for the review/recommendation!
I love it!
As a kid I had to use flash cards for French grammar - I too was in an immersion program. I'll let it slide ;) Seriously though playing with them is a far cry from a parent drilling a 18 month old so they can "learn to read" . When I reviewed Hooked on Phonics last year guess what part of the program my child liked the best? I thought I was going to stab myself in the eye, he loved the flash cards! So we played games with them.
Have fun
I wonder whether these can be ordered to the U.S.
The author is a prolific writer (she's a graphic designer by training), with many books for children to her credit. Many of her books can be ordered on Amazon.com in the US, and the flashcards can be ordered through Amazon.de.
Those look good - we will give them a try. I really like Susanne Rotraut Berner's "Wimmelbücher" too - books with pictures of a small town with lots going on. They are so good for looking at with children of different ages ... my one year old can just "find the cat" on each page or point to a "ball" or a "bike" (cat, ball and bike being his favourite (only?) words), whilst an older child can piece together stories from one page to the next - why is that man buying a pair of trousers? - look back a few pages - because he fell over and tore his trousers. Why did he fall over? he fell on a banana skin, who dropped the banana skin? - look back a few pages etc.. There are even stories which link up the different books (spring, summer, autumn, winter). I even found piecing the stories together (there is no text, only the pictures) and spotting new stories quite nice for myself - it allowed me another "level" when my daughter was at the level of "where's the ball?".
Dear Author,
I was totally surprised to read such an excellent review about our beloved "Einfach alles" - I am the publisher who was so lucky to develop this product together with the wonderful artist Rotraut Susanne Berner. Thank you VERY MUCH for your review, and I am really happy to read about the impact on your children. We made similar experiences with the kids in our house and neighbourhood. In our family we have two boxes, one for playing and the other one we used for a "Bilderfries" all around the kitchen walls. It looks so beautiful.
If someone wants to look at the list of words, please consult our webpage klett-kinderbuch.de and look for "Einfach alles!"
An american edition is - of course - not available, but you can order it via Amazon.
Best wishes for your blog, M.O.
These look impressive, but I am disappointed in the portrayal of "grannie." Maybe it's just the gerontologist in my talking, but why does her defining feature have to be a walker?
Amanda:
The description on the card doesn't say "Grannie". It says "old woman". My kids just say "Grannie" when they see the card.
It's sad either way. I wouldn't want me children to associate old age with frailty-being bent over using a walker. These are such pervasive stereotypes in our culture. I need to make my own flash cards for aging! =-)
Love how detailed the pictures are, yes, they definitely are different than American cards ( :
I love these. I think I may have to order them. Honestly, I do see the point in the anti-flash-card crowd, but I really think that language vocabulary is really hard to learn for Americans because we don't have much besides Spanish easily accessible on the TV. So even if you're trying to immerse yourself, it's almost impossible to do with any European language besides Spanish.
Amanda:
I think it is tough with flash cards. On the one hand, you don't want to put labels on people or groups of people. On the other hand, if you want to create a flash card, you need a picture for one side of it. Maybe a group of elderly women would have been an option, showing the range of possibilities? While I don't like stereotyping aging as meaning bent over using a walker, there are people in that situation and I wouldn't want to make them invisible either.
Monika:
Thank you for your comment and for the great product.
We're also teaching our son English and German at home and have some German children's books that are completely honest about nudity. I wish I saw that kind of directness in more American products.
Oh gosh, this looks like such a fabulous item! Must find it!
So funny. Declan found an old "learn German" book of mine and has been obsessed recently. Totally taking advantage. (I used to be fluent in both German and Spanish and am a loser and lost a TON of both).