How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic?

Judit
Junior Keeper

Posts: 75

Country (residing now): Italy
Children, Ages: boy, 8 years old
Majority Language: Italian
Minority Language(s): ml1-Hungarian, ml2-English, passive-(Calabrian dialect)

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? Apr 25, 2020 1:19:26 GMT 9

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Post by Judit on Apr 25, 2020 1:19:26 GMT 9

Hello everyone,

I guess I’m long overdue with an update...life has been hectic, but I did manage to visit the forum from time to time to see what’s going on.

Well, my boy has just turned 8 – he’s in second elementary - and his trilingual journey is on a good track. At least the spoken language...reading is coming along but I haven’t really managed to practise writing in ml1 or ml2 regulary so far.

He’s not keen on reading or writing in ML, getting him to do his Italian homework is quite a struggle sometimes, so to avoid further conflicts, I decided to wait another year (he’ll be more confident in writing in ML by then, hopefully) to start introducing ml written homework.

I did start something fun with him these last two months that we’ve been home, that he enjoys. I came up with the idea of treasure hunting, I hide a small toy, a bar of chocolate or a lollypop somewhere in the house, then write clues for him in ml1 or ml2 to find it. It helped to improve his reading a lot, and he actually asks for it. Yeah, I’m hoping he is doing it for the sake of reading not for the small gift he gets at the end.

These clues are like: “Go to the room where you have your shower in the evening and look inside the washing machine.” “Now go to the kitchen, get a chair, climb up to get your favourite cereal box from the cupboard, and see what’s inside.” He is really enjoying these hunts, and for a while it became his favourite part of the day during the lockdown.

He took it quite badly at first, here in Italy we’ve been having a rough time for 2 months, we’re getting used it now, but it was really frightening at first. We got separated from my husband because of the virus, he got stuck in Milan and we are down in the south. We haven’t seen him for these two months and it’s still unclear when he can actually travel back to us.

The first few weeks were really hard emotionally, my son was having these panic attacks, he said he couldn’t breath, his heart hurt and so on... I was so worried about him but had to show a brave face in front of him anyway… I never watched the news when he was around but inevitably he overheard phone conversations, people asking about my husband, saw people wearing masks etc. Then one day I had an idea, I started making fake phone calls, not in front of him (not to get him suspicious) but within earshot anyway, saying “Yeah, I heard, great news, it’s nearly over, they found the cure, everyone is celebrating, people are getting better etc..” and it worked! The next day he only asked me about 3 times (instead of 50) to look inside his throat to see if anything was blocked in there...so I made a few more fake phone calls that day, sounding really happy and relieved and he finally calmed down! No more panic attacks!

He got into the routine of doing school work online in the morning, which is great ‘cos he can actually see his teachers and schoolmates, and he phones his friends regularly in the afternoon. He celebrated his 8th birthday last week on zoom!!

We also came up with the idea of making videos for his classmates to repeat everything they’ve done (should have done!) in English this year. They weren’t doing much during the year, they’re doing even less once a week online now. Then we made them in ml1 too. You can check them out here:

Of course being at home just the two of us gives us the opportunity to speak in ml1 all the time, and watch TV in ml2, so it’s a plus linguistically.

I hope everyone is safe and well.

I also hope to be able to participate more around here with you fellow zookeepers, have a good weekend!!

Mayken
Star Keeper

Cool in two languages!

Posts: 1,158

Country (residing now): France
Country (originally from): Germany
Children, Ages: Girl, 10½
Majority Language: French
Minority Language(s): German (and learning English now)

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? Apr 25, 2020 21:28:04 GMT 9

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Post by Mayken on Apr 25, 2020 21:28:04 GMT 9

Hello Judit , good to see you!

I'm sorry to hear you got separated from your husband and I hope that soon he'll be allowed to travel and can come home. (Over here in France we've been stuck at home too for well over a month now, but at least my family is all together.)

I'm glad you found a way to stop your son from having panic attacks (very ingenious!), and those treasure hunts sound excellent!

I love the video, what a brilliant idea! I hope his classmates are enjoying this and learning new English words! (I'm learning new Italian words!)

Stay safe and do check in at the zoo when you can!

Mayken

My guest post at Bilingual Monkeys on traveling to our minority language country

Adam Beck
Head Keeper

Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability is now 5 years old this month!

Posts: 2,006
Country (residing now): Japan
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: Girl, 16 and Boy, 14
Majority Language: Japanese
Minority Language(s): English, Spanish

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? Apr 26, 2020 14:53:39 GMT 9

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Post by Adam Beck on Apr 26, 2020 14:53:39 GMT 9

Apr 25, 2020 1:19:26 GMT 9 Judit said:

I did start something fun with him these last two months that we’ve been home, that he enjoys. I came up with the idea of treasure hunting, I hide a small toy, a bar of chocolate or a lollypop somewhere in the house, then write clues for him in ml1 or ml2 to find it. It helped to improve his reading a lot, and he actually asks for it. Yeah, I’m hoping he is doing it for the sake of reading not for the small gift he gets at the end.

Judit, it was great to hear from you! And I really enjoyed seeing the charming video of your son. It looks like his bilingual ability is progressing well, and I bet his classmates are enjoying these videos. What a nice idea!

And speaking of nice ideas, I think every family with a child who can read would find that a "treasure hunt" is not only great fun, it's ideal for reading practice. I have such good memories of doing this activity with my own kids when they were younger. Even though they're now teens (15 and 13), I should try it again! I bet they'd enjoy it!

So I'm glad to hear that you and your son are now doing well, all things considered, though it sounds like it was much tougher at first. But you've persevered, things are better with your son, and hopefully your husband will be able to join you again very soon.

Take good care in Italy! I send warm wishes from Japan!

Adam Beck is the founder of Bilingual Monkeys and The Bilingual Zoo and the author of "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability"; "I WANT TO BE BILINGUAL!"; "28 Bilingual English-Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables"; and the award-winning humorous novel "How I Lost My Ear".

Adam Beck
Head Keeper

Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability is now 5 years old this month!

Posts: 2,006
Country (residing now): Japan
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: Girl, 16 and Boy, 14
Majority Language: Japanese
Minority Language(s): English, Spanish

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? Apr 26, 2020 15:40:40 GMT 9

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Post by Adam Beck on Apr 26, 2020 15:40:40 GMT 9

Here in Hiroshima, my kids have been home now for nearly two months...except for a few days in early April when the schools reopened to start the new school year.

The situation has been especially difficult for my daughter because she worked so hard throughout junior high school to get into the high school she wanted...and now she can't even go. At least she was able to meet her new schoolmates earlier this month, and she's now cultivating these connections online, but I know it's very frustrating for her. Still, she's soldiering on and staying (mostly) cheerful. (Understandably, there have been some tears.)

My son, in his second year of junior high, is more torn about not having school. His daily routine in his first year was really tough: a long day of school followed by a long practice with the soccer team then homework in the evening, both from school and from his "demanding" father. (I could only give him a little, day by day, because he was so busy!) While I know he misses his friends, he still goes jogging with a few of them several times a week and he seems very glad to live at a less hectic pace these days.

When the schools finally reopen again (we'll see how things unfold from here, but this may not happen until at least the fall), she'll be far more eager to go than he will!

While, on one hand, the school routine is good for us all, it's also true that this has prevented me from spending much time with them over the past couple of years. So, although the coronavirus outbreak is a terrible thing, in this way at least, it's been kind of a blessing. I have to continue with my own work, of course, but because they're at home, and not nearly as busy as they normally would be (they did get *a lot* of homework from school, however!), there's now time for more English reading and writing, more English games, more shared activities (like the book project I'm pursuing with my son), and more interaction in general. In short, this time is benefiting both their language development and our relationship.

For me, that's the bright silver lining in an otherwise very dark cloud. And though I do hope that conditions in Japan, and in the world, will improve as soon as possible, I know I'll also be a little sad when the school routine resumes and this time comes to an end. So I want to appreciate it, and make the most of it, while I can.

DB
New Keeper

Posts: 9
Country (residing now): USA
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: 2 years
Majority Language: English
Minority Language(s): Italian

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? May 1, 2020 0:26:46 GMT 9

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Post by DB on May 1, 2020 0:26:46 GMT 9

Hi friends,

We live in New York where sadly our city has been so devastated by this pandemic. Everyone has friends or family who have been sick and many know others who have been felled by this pandemic. It has been a very challenging time emotionally; I'm heartbroken to see what is happening in our city (and the broader world).

Personally we feel very fortunate to be healthy and in isolation. We have been at our family home in the countryside for 7 weeks now. Our son, M, who is nearly 2-1/2 years old, first had a hard time being away from our usual home but has adapted especially since we introduced a schedule that gives some routine to the day. We are very fortunate that his nanny is able to stay here with us and take care of him. She is a native Italian speaker and that is the ml that our son speaks.

On the language front we also seem to have shifted our strategy. M is quite verbal and for his age seems advanced in Italian (he recently began using some subjunctive tenses that can trip me up -- I'm a C1 speaker who learned Italian as an adult; my husband, M's other father, is a native Italian speaker). But over the past 7 weeks we've had an evolution with M's bilingual journey.

My parents (M's grandparents) are here, too, and they don't speak Italian. So they've been speaking to M in English and he's really been quick at picking it up. It got a bit awkward for me to keep shifting between English with my parents/M's grandparents and Italian with my husband/son/his nanny. Given this, my husband and I decided to shift to the OPOL model -- with me speaking English to M, my husband Italian to M, and if we're all together defaulting to Italian. It's been an adjustment. Even when I talk to M in English, he will often answer me in Italian. M also asks me often (in Italian) "What does [word] mean in Italian?" I am trying to explain the meaning in English rather than rote translation, but am still figuring this out. The tricky part for me has been that M knows I speak Italian reasonably well. But he now knows that when I ask for him to bring me a book, he should choose an English one, while when his other father asks him to bring him a book, he does so in Italian.

So, in short, the pandemic accelerated our introduction of English for M and he's proceeding nicely (his comprehension is very strong, he's picked up many words and is starting to make short sentences). We don't know when things will return to somewhat normal, but are trying to remain calm and count our blessings.

Wishing this wonderful community our best!

Adam Beck
Head Keeper

Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability is now 5 years old this month!

Posts: 2,006
Country (residing now): Japan
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: Girl, 16 and Boy, 14
Majority Language: Japanese
Minority Language(s): English, Spanish

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? May 2, 2020 11:26:14 GMT 9

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Post by Adam Beck on May 2, 2020 11:26:14 GMT 9

May 1, 2020 0:26:46 GMT 9 DB said:

DB, it was good to hear from you! Though I'm really saddened by how hard New York has been hit by this pandemic. I spent my undergraduate years just outside the city (at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville) and was often in Manhattan. I still have many friends there.

I'm glad you were all able to shelter in the countryside. While the situation has forced your hand, in terms of language use as a family, it sounds like things will continue to go very well on your bilingual journey together.

Take good care, all of you! And please keep us posted!

Judit
Junior Keeper

Posts: 75

Country (residing now): Italy
Children, Ages: boy, 8 years old
Majority Language: Italian
Minority Language(s): ml1-Hungarian, ml2-English, passive-(Calabrian dialect)

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? May 11, 2020 23:37:40 GMT 9

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Post by Judit on May 11, 2020 23:37:40 GMT 9

Thank you, Mayken and Adam, the situation is getting a bit better, and hopefully we can reunite with my husband soon. In the meantime I'm grateful for all the family and friends around us.

We miss the school routine too, and tend to get lazy at times but as Adam said, we should all look for that bright silver lining in this situation, and make the most of the fact that we can spend more time with our kids.

My son's school friends are enjoying his videos and they actually started calling him online for "private lessons".

I don't think they realised until now that he could speak English and they ask him to do homework together and help with their pronunciation, it's really sweet.

Warm wishes to everyone from Italy.

Adam Beck
Head Keeper

Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability is now 5 years old this month!

Posts: 2,006
Country (residing now): Japan
Country (originally from): USA
Children, Ages: Girl, 16 and Boy, 14
Majority Language: Japanese
Minority Language(s): English, Spanish

How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? May 12, 2020 16:22:29 GMT 9

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Post by Adam Beck on May 12, 2020 16:22:29 GMT 9

May 11, 2020 23:37:40 GMT 9 Judit said:

My son's school friends are enjoying his videos and they actually started calling him online for "private lessons".

I don't think they realised until now that he could speak English and they ask him to do homework together and help with their pronunciation, it's really sweet.

That's lovely, Judit! And the fact that our kids have this "special talent" is also a source of strength and self-esteem. My daughter just got the results of an assessment test at her new high school (to gauge the abilities of incoming students), and though she's hardly the best at math or science or Japanese, she ranked first out of all 317 first-year students in English!

Judit Junior Keeper Posts: 75 Country (residing now): Italy Children, Ages: boy, 8 years old Majority Language: Italian Minority Language(s): ml1-Hungarian, ml2-English, passive-(Calabrian dialect)	How is your family coping with the coronavirus pandemic? May 13, 2020 1:30:49 GMT 9 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by Judit on May 13, 2020 1:30:49 GMT 9 That's fantastic news Adam, congratulations!

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