Online playdates
Jan 9, 2018 0:57:25 GMT 9
Post by Sam on Jan 9, 2018 0:57:25 GMT 9
Hi,
Have any of you organized online playdates with ml-speaking kids who don't live nearby?
We don't know any Yiddish-speaking toddlers our son's age within driving distance, and all of my friends who do have kids he could play with are so far away. So we thought about having online playdates. This raises a couple of challenges:
1) Time differences: I'm in Rhode Island, another family is in California, and another family is in England. California is three hours behind us, and England is five hours ahead -- so England is 8 hours ahead of California! Especially considering that we all have our kids in daycare, it's very challenging to find times that work for all three of our families, let alone just two of us.
2) What do we do during the playdate? How do the kids interact, if they can't physically play with toys or run around together?
Yesterday, we had our first online playdate with one of these families, through a website called appear.in. It was fun; our son was eating dinner, and his friend was eating a snack, so we had them strapped into their highchairs with the computers on the table in front of them. We asked them to tell each other what they were eating, what they did that day, etc. They showed each other their hats and made silly faces. And we read a book and sang some songs. It was a little tedious at times, because 2-year-olds aren't necessarily used to chatting up storms with each other, and because they didn't know each other so well. But it was encouraging. I'm hoping we can repeat this often. This week, I'm trying to arrange a similar online playdate with the other family.
Fortunately, we do have an opportunity to see each other in person at an annual Yiddish-speaking summer retreat that we all like going to, but I'm trying to find ways that they could develop their friendships and peer-related language experiences during the rest of the year, too.
Have any of you organized online playdates with ml-speaking kids who don't live nearby?
We don't know any Yiddish-speaking toddlers our son's age within driving distance, and all of my friends who do have kids he could play with are so far away. So we thought about having online playdates. This raises a couple of challenges:
1) Time differences: I'm in Rhode Island, another family is in California, and another family is in England. California is three hours behind us, and England is five hours ahead -- so England is 8 hours ahead of California! Especially considering that we all have our kids in daycare, it's very challenging to find times that work for all three of our families, let alone just two of us.
2) What do we do during the playdate? How do the kids interact, if they can't physically play with toys or run around together?
Yesterday, we had our first online playdate with one of these families, through a website called appear.in. It was fun; our son was eating dinner, and his friend was eating a snack, so we had them strapped into their highchairs with the computers on the table in front of them. We asked them to tell each other what they were eating, what they did that day, etc. They showed each other their hats and made silly faces. And we read a book and sang some songs. It was a little tedious at times, because 2-year-olds aren't necessarily used to chatting up storms with each other, and because they didn't know each other so well. But it was encouraging. I'm hoping we can repeat this often. This week, I'm trying to arrange a similar online playdate with the other family.
Fortunately, we do have an opportunity to see each other in person at an annual Yiddish-speaking summer retreat that we all like going to, but I'm trying to find ways that they could develop their friendships and peer-related language experiences during the rest of the year, too.
Very positive podcast review of my book Bilingual Success Stories Around the World at Kletsheads 
