**revised September 11th, 2026
German is special for my family. My great-grandmother immigrated from the Alsace-Lorraine region between Germany and France as a child. My mother spoke German and I learned German in college. I want to carry this tradition on with my daughter. I’ve always regretted that I didn’t start learning any foreign languages earlier in life when my brain was more malleable for learning languages. Thus, I am teaching my daughter now when she is 3, but I also want it to be a joyful experience for her.
As far as languages go, German is a good beginner language for English speakers. Many of the words and sounds are similar to English. Since I do speak some German, it is the easiest language for me to start teaching my daughter. Here is the plan of what I plan to do with her.
The Plan
This plan uses 6 books, 1 audio and 1 set of audible talking flashcards off of Amazon, but each resource is introduced in a different month, so I can buy them all at the beginning, or along the way, and surprise my daughter each month with her ‘new book’. We will start slowly and work up to learning German for 10 to 15 minutes 4 days a week. The focus is on exposure to the language and gentle learning of German words.
This German language plan is for 9 months, but a plan for prekindergarten will come out next spring. You can transition straight from the preschool to prekindergarten plan without stopping for summer, as we will be doing. With learning a foreign language, continuous learning, rather than taking a 3-month break, is best. We started in July so that we would finish all 9 months by my daughter’s 4th birthday. We will be starting prekindergarten when she turns 4 and following a year-round schedule for languages.
Who is this plan for?
If your child has had moderate exposure to the German language, but is not really speaking it, or if your child has never heard German before, this slow language approach will work well for them. If your child is speaking more than 20 words or so of German already, another program would probably work better for them, or you may be able to adapt this plan for them. Feel free to adapt this for your specific child as I am for mine.
Teaching German Slowly with Exposure
For our first month, we will start small with reading Animal Counting Fun: Spaß beim Zählen (1-10) (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). If your child is not counting easily from 1 to 10 in English, skip this book, then come back later. I would also suggest checking out my preschool math curriculum.
I read this book to my child once a week for 5 minutes in German. She counted the animals in English while I counted them in German. We laughed over the different sounds and had fun with the German without requiring her to speak any of the German words. A few times she tried to say a German word, and I gave her praise for trying, but didn’t try to correct pronunciation, or make a huge deal about it. This is all we did for the first month and we will continue with this book for 2 months total before setting it aside to return to it in prekindergarten.
Tuning the Ear
For our second month of learning, I introduced some German children’s music. We listened to Amazon music using my phone or computer. We tried to listen for 5-10 minutes once a week to the music. Sometimes I sang along, or we danced together. This was to start tuning my daughter’s ear into another language. When she asked, I explained that this is another language called German. We will listen to these same songs for the full 8 months and down the line translate and learn them.
Amazon Music – Kinderlieder German Children’s Music & Nursery Rhymes (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Turning German into a Game
By month three, my child is losing interest in the number book, so we will be replacing it with the book Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). We will look through this book together twice a week for 10 minutes. I will also increase the music time to 10 minutes a week. I will set a timer, so we spend the full-time looking at German, but not so much time that my child loses interest.
We will look at each picture together and I will have my child guess the English word while I say the German word. I will make this like a game. Once again, there will be no pressure for my child to speak German. This is about making a foreign language accessible and fun for her. This book will be used for the entire school year, so I don’t need to rush through it. There should be lots of repetition and if my child wants to pretend to be an elefant along the way, we will have fun with it. I will take this opportunity to also gently relearn many German words.
Moving Forward to Speaking German
For month four, we will start with My First 100 German Words Coloring Book (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). One day a week we will spend 10 minutes coloring, or scribbling, one to two of the pages while we talk together about what the picture is in both English and German. We will then be at 10 minutes four days per week. If she is not in the mood for coloring, we may try using stamps or stickers in the book while reinforcing the words.
For the first time, I will be asking my child “Can you say …. in German?” There will be no pressure if she doesn’t want to, but my goal will be for both me and my child to each say each word 5 times. I want her to hear the word 5 times and I want her to try to say the word 5 times. I will make this a game. I will ask her to repeat after me while throwing in random words or sounds with just the one German word. We may play who can say the word the fastest, slowest, loudest, or quietest.
German through Literature
For our fifth month, we will start reading the book Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). It should take about 20 minutes to go through this entire book, so splitting it between two weeks should keep it fresh enough to be able to use this book for all of January and February. At this point, I will change Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary to 10 minutes once a week rather than twice a week.
This is a search and find book, so I will read each page in German and then see if my daughter can find the elephant with no English prompts, just listening to the German. This should be treated as a game. There is a full series of books by this author, but the Elephant one is the easiest one. If your child is 5 years old, or older, you might want to pick one of the other books from the series. Also, if your child really loves this book, feel free to buy some of the other books and continue using them to supplement your German learning.
Learning proper pronunciation
In our sixth month, we will be adding German and English Talking Flashcards, 510 Words (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) 10 minutes once a week so my daughter can hear the correct pronunciation of words. I will pick 5 to 10 words to focus on each week to reinforce our other materials. We will listen to the words together and see if my daughter knows what each word means. We will practice saying the words together loud, soft, slow or fast, then maybe try hopping around the room saying the words or clapping the words. It will be fun and we will try to say each word at least 5 times.
At this time, I will split our music time to 5 minutes twice a week. We will be learning German now for 10 minutes twice a week and 15 minutes twice a week.
More Literature Learning the Natural Way
In our seventh month, we will be replacing Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? with the book Cousins Forever – Für immer Cousinen (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). This is a bilingual book, so English is on top and German on the bottom. I will read this book in German only and ask my daughter if she recognizes any words. She might know a few German words, but I want to see if she can recognize the words that are similar between the two languages, like cousins and cousinen. This is about exposure to German and translation will happen down the line. We will focus on this book for two months.
In our final month of preschool, we will replace the cousins’ book with the book Am I small? Bin ich klein? (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). This book should take 30 minutes to read total, but I will split it into 3 parts, so I should read 10 minutes a week. This book will be just for reading and exposing my child to more German, rather than creating a game from it. I will keep this book and the other books for prekindergarten and kindergarten, because we will return to translate these books.
Summarizing How to Teach German
I put together a chart to better keep track of the structure of the plan better. It has already changed from my original plan. I am starting slow with my daughter so that learning a foreign language is not overwhelming, but fun and enjoyable. All of these books will be used again over the next two years, except for the coloring book, which will be completed in prekindergarten before starting a new coloring book.
My goal at the end of preschool is for my daughter to be able to speak about 20 German words reliably, mostly animals, numbers, colors and food, while understanding around 100 German words. If she is not there at the end of this year, that is okay. She may just need more time, or may be understanding more than I realize.
I would love any feedback you have about this plan if you also choose. I will make updates based on my experience with my child throughout the year, but this is my plan at this time for her and I would love to hear how it goes for other families as well.
For Those Who Love Charts
| Months | Mondays | Tuesdays | Wednesdays | Thursdays |
| 1st Month | 5 minutes Animal Counting Fun: Spaß beim Zählen (1-10) | |||
| 2nd Month | 5 minutes Animal Counting Fun: Spaß beim Zählen (1-10) | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | ||
| 3rd Month | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 10 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | |
| 4th Month | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 10 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| 5th Month | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 10 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | 10 minutes Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? | 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| 6th Month | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes Pocket Speech | 10 minutes Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| 7th Month | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes Pocket Speech | 10 minutes Cousins Forever – Für immer Cousinen | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| 8th Month | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes Pocket Speech | 10 minutes Cousins Forever – Für immer Cousinen | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| 9th Month | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes Pocket Speech | 10 minutes Am I small? Bin ich klein? | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
Happy Learning
Beautiful Summer Preschool Plan Invitation – hummingbirdhomelife.com
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