HELPING YOUR CHILD WITH IRISH:
1. NEW Rang Maher is a new and helpful website suitable for 4th – 6th class. It is particularly helpful for teaching Irish Grammar with videos to learn from, practical activities and useful summaries.
2. Click on THIS link for a book that encourages introducing Irish at home, as your child starts school. Recommended by Mr. Dodd, ‘Introduce Irish into your home’ is a simple story book and dictionary.
3. You may have heard about Duolingo. It is a great resource for learning Irish – for both children (from 3rd Class up approximately) and parents ! Set up an account and get your child to take the placement test. This ensures they are set up at the correct level of Irish for them to practice. Just 10 minutes a day and they can learn lots. We get good feedback about Duolingo from parents and students.
4. Mr. Dodd provided us with link to the Cúla 4 Ar Scoil YouTube Channel, where the videos are in shorter snippets and organised according to topics. This may be more manageable for you and your child.
Cúla4 also has cartoons and children’s programmes as Gaeilge on the following LINK: Again watching these help children get the language ‘on their ear’ and to see Irish as a living language.
HERE is a link to Irish Language Programming for children on TG4. Apps can be downloaded onto phones from TG 4 – e.g. Cúla Caint or Seinnteoir TG 4 (TG 4 Player)
5. On the school website, there is a Symbaloo Webmix with links for learning Irish. The very first link ‘Word Games – Digital Dialects’ is good for vocabulary development as are Cluiche 1 & 2 from the top line of the webmix.
6. Mr. Dodd suggested we include the following website which is good for reading, pronunciation and understanding.LEIGH ANOIS
7. He also let us know about this online Irish dictionary which has the facility to pronounce the different words you look up. Here is another online Irish dictionary.
8. Also recommended is the You Tube channel Scéal an Lae (Story of the Day) where good quality Irish picture books are read aloud. They are five to ten minutes long and would would be suitable for Infants to Fourth Class approximately.
9.‘Muzzy’ Episodes 1 – 6 on YouTube ‘Muzzy’ is an award-winning language course for learners of all ages, developed by the BBC. It is subtitled in English.
10.Reading, writing, listening and writing exercises are to be found on Séideán Sí for each class level. If your child finds the exercises for their class level too hard, try an easier one.
11.There are stories on Soundcloud: Scéalta by Foras na Gaeilge
12.You can purchase Irish language games here.
Adults might like to improve their Irish further using the following:
Scroll down this link for Phrases of the Day and Adult Irish Language Courses (All Levels) with Gaelchultúr and there are many other useful resources for Gaelchultúr here.
Learning about Irish placenames is also interesting. You can do so here.
Neart rudaí deasa don Nollaig anseo in aon áit amháin.
Rainn agus amhráin anseo
agus scannáin Gaeilge um Nollaig ar TG4 anseo
Rabhlóga anseo tongue twisters as Gaeilge. Píosa spraoi.
Thank you Mr. Dodd for all those recommendations.
Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam