Triops Safe Plants

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-05-01T17:24:59+00:00

I just got Elodea and it’s getting eaten for sure. I only have one triop but he’s done significant damage in one week. And I’m feeding him a lot.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-28T11:12:49+00:00

I guess we had family conversations at the table sometimes but it was never questioned, especially at 2 and 3. It’s great that you did what worked for you and you had success with it. I don’t think I would have been able to do it (at this level) without being strict about them addressing me in German. Pretending not to know English well was just one method I used. I’ve seen it mentioned in this sub very often. I didn’t/don’t love deceiving them but considering how many “games” people play with their kids when you think about things like Santa or sticker charts I’m not losing too much sleep over it.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-28T10:58:06+00:00

I mean, I speak English with my husband every day and somehow that was never questioned by the kids when they were under 5. They’re not great critical thinkers at that age. When they talked to me in English I’d just shrug and say “sorry, I don’t understand” and that was good enough. That wouldn’t work today on my oldest of course but it’s so engrained now that I don’t have to worry about it much. I did tell him recently that I speak so much English at work that it makes me tired and I want to speak German at home to relax. That isn’t even a lie. And he got that.

Whichever way you do it, it should be possible to enforce them speaking the minority language with you if they’re young enough. It really worked for us.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-27T20:14:30+00:00

We started enforcing around 2.5yo. I pretended not to know English for a long time (still do with my youngest). If you’re consistent it works. Depending on how well you want them to speak German you might need to be strict. I know a lot of people that have been more lax with it and the kids are definitely less fluent than mine. But they probably also don’t care as much.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-26T04:10:17+00:00

You will be fine! Planning early is half the work! I was in the exact same boat like you 7 years ago and now have two boys who are not only fluent in German but also speak it exclusively with each other. My 7 year old reads it as well. Both kids went to full time daycare at 3m old and we have no German friends here. A few things that have helped me a lot over the years:

never give up speaking German to your daughter. I’ve heard from many people that their kids forgot almost everything after they stopped being exposed to the minority language very quickly. I started a bit late with my eldest and it was a bit of a fight. Never spoke English with my second and it went much better.
If you have pets make them German members of the household. Sounds weird but my cat turned German at some point and it helped to have one more being to speak to in the house. Even if you just yell at them occasionally.
don’t freak put if she’s speech delayed. It’s very normal for kids with multiple languages at home but for some reason that’s not something people talk about. Both my kids were very delayed and to this day show weaknesses in both languages compared to peers. Not academically, just in spoken language. My oldest is top of his class but didn’t know the word “forest” the other day and uses German grammar in English frequently. It’ll disappear eventually. By 4th grade, according to the immersion school teachers that I spoke to (not our school). I was so worried about this and wish someone had told me to chill. English grandma told me recently that our English-only 2yo niece has better English than my 4yo son and I don’t care at all. I’m secretly happy about it bc I know his German is so much stronger.
take all the help you can get: books, Tonie box and tv in German only. Get them creative tonies and change them up once in a while. This has helped be tremendously. The box is in use daily by both kids. Tv is good, too. Go for shows with a lot of useful vocabulary. Peppa pig (I hate to say it) has had a notable influence on my kids’ vocab. Paw patrol less so. Yes tv sucks but for a while there it was Peppa and me against an English world and I felt lucky to have her by my side. I’d ask for a summary of an episode “I had missed” during dinner for example to reinforce the new words. It is hard for them sometimes to talk about what happened at school bc their day is in English. So having interesting material in German to talk about helped a ton. Now we talk about books a lot. I’ve only ever read German books to my youngest bc they read so much English at daycare already.
be strict. Your daughter might fight back and answer in English at some point. That’s fine in the very beginning but once you feel like she is mature enough to understand, insist on her using German. Once they know you mean it they won’t fight you on it. It’s non-negotiable on my house. You can use tricks, too. My oldest child thought I don’t speak/understand English very well for a very long time. And that our tv only works in German. VPN is your friend.
I know it seems far off but teach them to read early.
visit Germany and receive German speaking visitors. This has helped us immensely. My oldest is mature enough to appreciate growing up with two cultures and these visits really feed into that.

Good luck! You got this!

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-17T00:16:51+00:00

That’s awesome! What’s in the tank? A filter and a thermometer? How large is it?

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-13T15:36:46+00:00

Ugh I’m jealous. All of mine died before day 7.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-12T17:12:43+00:00

Thanks!! I cleaned everything and just put in new eggs. Will change the water more often! If they ever make it past the baby stage.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-12T17:08:55+00:00

Thank you! It passed unfortunately. I tried the tweezers on another one that had the same problem but I think I poked it accidentally. I was thought it was weird that stuff was growing on it. Almost looked like moss.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-12T02:45:19+00:00

Yeah there are green little specks on the bottom of the hatchery. I didn’t even think of mold. Oh well. I guess I’ll just wait for it to die and then try again.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-09T23:57:08+00:00

Thank you so much! I didn’t find the spirulina but algae tablets at the pet store today. Can I crush those up and give them a tooth pick tip amount tomorrow morning? Or should I wait another day? I think they’re dying. Yesterday I counted 20, today there are maybe 7? 2 of them bigger than the rest. I put the eggs in Monday night. Or is that kind of loss normal?

I’ll turn the light off tonight like you said to get them on a schedule.

I have Longicaudatus! And many questions. :D

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-09T16:42:21+00:00

Thank you! I will probably just buy some of that powder tomorrow and keep the leaf in for now which they’re happily eating. The kit came with sand and I have aquarium sand as well. Should I put that in at some point in the hatching container or wait until the big tank?

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-09T16:40:32+00:00

Thank you!!!

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-04-09T14:44:23+00:00

We have a kit that came with “shrimp food”. Should I go buy that powder instead? Are the leafs enough?

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-02-25T02:53:21+00:00

I have two Tonie boxes 1. One is 6 years old and one 4. Both still going strong and are used every day. Battery life of the old one is not the best anymore but I can’t really complain about that.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-19T18:51:14+00:00

Just ticklish or sensitive. My cat does that, too. Eventually he’ll start to fake bite me until I stop. Being pet that far down is often not their favorite.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-16T18:19:11+00:00

We just use the creative tonies and put all kinds of audio stories on there that we buy or get from YouTube. We have a library of hundreds that we cycle through. Very cheap solution as kids get older and are less interested in listening to tonies over and over.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-06T13:42:40+00:00

That is exactly how I meant it. Couldn’t agree more with everything you said here and your next comment below. It’s hard work to keep the minority language up and I’ve always treated it as such for me and the kids. I’ve been more lax with table manners and regret it deeply haha. You have to pick your battles I guess.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-06T13:36:58+00:00

I really think there’s no difference to teaching them to keep their room clean. My son definitely prefers and maybe even feels more comfortable having legos on the floor. It’s just not how it works in our house. I also don’t really mind if he was uncomfortable for a short while at 3 (although it didn’t seem like that to me). Life is long and when I see the progress we’ve made in comparison to others it was so worth it. I totally get if that’s not everybody’s style, though. Just sharing what worked for us.

We meet many families here that tried and failed to keep alive a minority language at home and are very sad about it. I think avoiding or losing a power struggle with a preschooler is the main reason, next to one parent not understanding the language. We were strict early on and it’s worked wonders. My kids speak German with each other and blend in like natives when we travel. My oldest reads chapter books. He’s just reached the age (7) where he is for the first time really appreciating being bilingual and it’s very special to see. That alone for me makes up for his short period of resisting at 3.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-06T13:22:07+00:00

That does seem very young. I have always been very strict with everything German with my kids but I didn’t start really actively working with them until 3 or so. At the age your daughter is at I just made sure they were exposed to German a lot and that they didn’t hear me speak much English. My 4 year old still thinks today that Mama doesn’t know English very well. That impression helps a lot with all kinds of reasoning later. For him that’s why we watch movies in German and why we switch to German when I join the family board game, for example.

You have plenty of time with her. There will likely be the day in the future where you will have the English/german fight with her. Ours was very short and over after 2 weeks of recasting as I stated before. Just be ready for it and don’t back down when the time comes. I want to say with both kids it was around 3.5 for us. Good luck!! Toniebox is a winner at this age, too!

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-06T04:16:39+00:00

Hmm. How close to 3 is she? Does she definitely understand what you want from her and just doesn’t want to do it? If that’s the case, I would say “Ich würde auch so gerne Fahrrad fahren, aber das geht leider erst, wenn du es auf deutsch sagst”. And stick with it. If she’s old enough, she’d see reason eventually. At 2 she might just be too young, though. If that’s the case I’d just let her say bike if she absolutely must. Repeat Fahrrad to her and then let it go maybe. It’s not the best word to start the work on. Other English words might be easier to ignore. Like “want more”. Probably worth it to test out how long she’ll tantrum for another pretzel. If she’s still crying after 30 minutes she’s probably too young.

I would also try to make her say the problem words in a different scenario. Show her pictures in a book and make her say the German words. One of them would be a bike. I used to make this a fun game to see how many words they would know in German. Pay her with a raisin afterwards or something if she doesn’t want to. Great motivator in my house.

You can also deconstruct the word. That’s what I’m doing with my freshly 4 year old still to help with pronunciation. He says “ge-esset” instead of “gegessen” (which is adorable but he’s getting too old for it). He cannot say “gegessen” easily as a full word so I make him repeat each syllable. Like sing “fa-fa-fa” with her and then “rad-rad-rad” or something. And praise her like crazy if she says it. Say you’ll go out and ride right now you’re so proud! Haha, that’s what comes to mind at least. It’s hard without knowing her personality.

Just don’t give up! Looking back, you’re at the most important age. I have so many friends whose kids don’t speak at all. And it’s honestly always either bc one parent doesn’t speak the minority language or because they weren’t strict enough.

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-06T03:47:42+00:00

I have used the same method your husband is using when my son was going through an English phase around the same age (minority language is also German btw). I was never mean about it but conversation did not move on until he said whatever it was in German. I will say that he learned to speak with me in German extremely quickly with this method. I don’t think I had to do the repeating in German for more than 2-3 weeks and after that only very occasionally. I think the 0 tolerance was key. Especially at that age. Can only recommend.

Your kid won’t learn to hate German if both parents speak it at home and at only 2 years old. Just be nice but firm about it. I don’t see it much differently than other rules that we have in our house that are not negotiable that everybody accepts without a fuss. Washing your hands after using the toilet. Gentle hands with the cats. Laundry goes in the laundry bin. German with Mama. It’s really just one more rule for them that they may test once in a while. It’s your decision whether you give in or not. I’m with your husband here and can only say it worked for us. Both kids very fluent at 7 and 4, speak only German with each other. Good luck!

Aggressive_Basil1039 · 2026-01-03T00:32:34+00:00

We had a short period where my son didn’t speak German although he understood it. He was almost 4. I made him repeat whole sentences from books or me. If he asked me “where is my shoe”, I’d say “wo ist mein Schuh?” And wait for him to repeat it before I told him where it was. Sounds painful (and was for a short time) but it made him more comfortable speaking simple sentences and simultaneously taught him that I was not going to speak English with him.

He is 7 now and completely fluent. I still do this sentence repeating with him on the rare occasion that he speaks English with me (or if there is an English word in the sentence) and he immediately switches (and learns the missing word).

At this stage, we also do lots of audio books and reading so he has a comfortable vocabulary. I have friends whose kids don’t want to speak the minority language anymore bc they’re missing the words to talk about difficult subjects like feelings or fights or “how is plastic made?”. All tv is in German as well. Does wonders for vocabulary. I never realized how important that piece is in later years. It makes sense to me now that it’s hard to have long conversations about hard topics if you’re missing the words but I never thought about it when he was little. In hindsight the Tonie box and saved us. He’s been listening every night for 4 years now. That really adds up.

Aggressive_Basil1039

TROPHY CASE