Our little Kez seems to be settling down perfectly fine. When I picked her up from the daycare last Friday, one of her teachers told me that she is starting to be much more confident around the other kids and teachers, and her character is finally coming out... The teacher also told me was that she is a makakka, which, according to dear old Mr Google Translator, it's a Maltese words which means that she is astute and "able to assess people and situations accurately". I wonder if I should be proud or absolutely terrified... Apparently there is a teacher who's got a soft spot for our little makakka and Kez goes to her every time she feels like a special treat, a biscuit, a popular toy... and most of the times she gets what she wants!
After just a few days in an English-speaking daycare Kez has already started saying a few words in English. Her favourite is "byeseeyou", all together and really fast, accompanied by her world-famous Queen-of-England hand wave. She is able to count from 1 to 10 in Spanish but most of the times she skips number 1 and starts at 2 ("doooos, treeees, cuaaatroooooo", always dragging the vowel sounds). The funniest thing is that now she has also started counting in English, and she also starts at two!! "One" is such an insignificant number that it does not seem to deserve her attention.
So far Kez seems to be coping very well with the multilingual environment she's being raised in, although the other day she made it clear to us that two languages is already enough for her! A friend of mine from the university of Leuven (hi Stephanie!) came for a diving holiday to The Rock (a.k.a Malta), and while we were having dinner she told Kez that water is called "water" in English. Kez looked at Stephanie with a very angry look in her face and she told her: "Nooooooooooooo! Ilma!!!" ("water" in Maltese). Stephanie tried to convince her to say water but Kez refused. Ilma it is, then. Or agua. But definitely not water.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Reverse psychology does NOT work
I've used reverse psychology with Kez many times and it usually works ("So you don't want to drink your juice? Ok, no problem! I''ll drink it myself. Mmmm it tastes good!" And Kez snatches the juice from my hands). The other day I tried to use a similar technique in class and it did not work. AT-ALL.
I was working with a group of 5 year-olds. We were all sitting on the carpet and I asked them: "Would you like to sing a song?". And they all went - "nooooooo!" Oh well, I thought to myself, let me challenge them. I told them: "OK, so if you don't want to sing a song let's just sit here quietly for five minutes", and I crossed my arms.
What did they do?
They sat on the carpet quietly for five minutes.
And, of course, they crossed their arms.
I was working with a group of 5 year-olds. We were all sitting on the carpet and I asked them: "Would you like to sing a song?". And they all went - "nooooooo!" Oh well, I thought to myself, let me challenge them. I told them: "OK, so if you don't want to sing a song let's just sit here quietly for five minutes", and I crossed my arms.
What did they do?
They sat on the carpet quietly for five minutes.
And, of course, they crossed their arms.
Save the earth
Today it was parents' day at school and I must say I enjoyed it! The parents I spoke to were extremely nice and polite, and they were all very excited about the fact that their children's teacher is a native speaker!!
When the kids (and parents!) were getting ready to leave, a little girl came up to me. She looked very worried and I thought something very bad had happened... She looked at me and she told me:
"Miss, there is a boy writing on the wall. I think he really doesn't care much about the earth".
:-) Kids are just great
When the kids (and parents!) were getting ready to leave, a little girl came up to me. She looked very worried and I thought something very bad had happened... She looked at me and she told me:
"Miss, there is a boy writing on the wall. I think he really doesn't care much about the earth".
:-) Kids are just great
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
I would wash them all!
Hi everybody!
I am exhausted and dying to go to bed, but I could not do it without first sharing with you something funny a Finnish girl told me today at school.
I was working with a group of 7 year-olds and I asked them all to draw their pets. This particular girl came up to me and told me that she did not have one, so I asked her to draw the pet she would love to have. A few minutes later I looked over her shoulder and I saw that she had drawn around 20 little dogs and cats. I went up to her and I told her - "Wow! So you would like to have many pets!" And she told me: "No miss, when I grow up I am going to collect all the cats and dogs that live in Malta, I will take them with me to Finland, wash them, and get them back".
I had to bite my tongue really hard not to laugh...
Good night everybody!!
I am exhausted and dying to go to bed, but I could not do it without first sharing with you something funny a Finnish girl told me today at school.
I was working with a group of 7 year-olds and I asked them all to draw their pets. This particular girl came up to me and told me that she did not have one, so I asked her to draw the pet she would love to have. A few minutes later I looked over her shoulder and I saw that she had drawn around 20 little dogs and cats. I went up to her and I told her - "Wow! So you would like to have many pets!" And she told me: "No miss, when I grow up I am going to collect all the cats and dogs that live in Malta, I will take them with me to Finland, wash them, and get them back".
I had to bite my tongue really hard not to laugh...
Good night everybody!!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Oh so hot!
Hi everybody!
First of all, my apologies for not having been in touch... Things are still pretty hectic and days are just flying by!!
So far we are doing great! I am enjoying my new job, even though by the time I finish I feel like a truck has run over me... Kez (that's the way she calls herself now) seems to be enjoying her new daycare too, although she still cries when I drop her off in the mornings and that makes me sad, but the teachers tell me that she stops crying as soon as I leave and she has a lot of fun playing with the other kids and bossing them around. She has already started saying a few words in English and her favourite one is "see you!" (waving her hand like the Queen of England).
Temperatures here are still around 32-35 degrees and that's also one of the reasons why I hardly ever log in - it is so extremely hot inside the house that I cannot bear to sit for longer than a couple of minutes! Instead of sending you all infrequent and short individual emails I thought it would make more sense to start this blog and try to update it as regularly as I can. I will also try to upload pictures, hoping to tempt you all to come and visit us one day!
My first impressions at school have been very good so far - the kids are polite and in general they are motivated, although I have a couple of groups of 10-12 year-olds who talk a lot and they DRAIN MY BLOOD! The kids are from all over the world, most of them from mixed couples. For the first lesson I prepared some flashcards with the names of the most common countries (I thought I got them all...) and asked the students to select their own, but many kids come from families with two, three, and even four nationalities so by the time the first three students had chosen their flashcards the table was nearly empty! :-S And I thought I was well prepared! One of the girls told me that she is one quarter Turkish, one quarter Serbian, one quarter American and one quarter British! And I thought we were an international family...
So far the groups I like best are the little ones. On my second day, while I was playing Twister with a group of 5-year-olds in order to teach them the colours, I overheard a girl telling her friend: "she's like the very best Spanish teacher I've ever had!". Later I found out from her class teacher that that particular girl had never taken Spanish before... ehm... Easy competition!! In the next class, also with young kids, I was trying really hard to help them learn the colours and I asked them: who can find something red? A girl put up her hand and I thought to myself - great! At least one kid understood what I am saying! And the girl goes: "Today I am getting a tortoise".
Today I took Kez to a Flamenco show in a shopping mall. At first she was a bit overwhelmed with the music, but after a few minutes she took off and ended up among the dancers, turning and turning, shaking her dress and moving her hands like a real Flamenco dancer. A couple of ladies approached us after the show and told us that Kez was the queen of the dance floor! She had a blast, and she ended up being photographed by a few tourists who found her very entertaining...
First of all, my apologies for not having been in touch... Things are still pretty hectic and days are just flying by!!
So far we are doing great! I am enjoying my new job, even though by the time I finish I feel like a truck has run over me... Kez (that's the way she calls herself now) seems to be enjoying her new daycare too, although she still cries when I drop her off in the mornings and that makes me sad, but the teachers tell me that she stops crying as soon as I leave and she has a lot of fun playing with the other kids and bossing them around. She has already started saying a few words in English and her favourite one is "see you!" (waving her hand like the Queen of England).
Temperatures here are still around 32-35 degrees and that's also one of the reasons why I hardly ever log in - it is so extremely hot inside the house that I cannot bear to sit for longer than a couple of minutes! Instead of sending you all infrequent and short individual emails I thought it would make more sense to start this blog and try to update it as regularly as I can. I will also try to upload pictures, hoping to tempt you all to come and visit us one day!
My first impressions at school have been very good so far - the kids are polite and in general they are motivated, although I have a couple of groups of 10-12 year-olds who talk a lot and they DRAIN MY BLOOD! The kids are from all over the world, most of them from mixed couples. For the first lesson I prepared some flashcards with the names of the most common countries (I thought I got them all...) and asked the students to select their own, but many kids come from families with two, three, and even four nationalities so by the time the first three students had chosen their flashcards the table was nearly empty! :-S And I thought I was well prepared! One of the girls told me that she is one quarter Turkish, one quarter Serbian, one quarter American and one quarter British! And I thought we were an international family...
So far the groups I like best are the little ones. On my second day, while I was playing Twister with a group of 5-year-olds in order to teach them the colours, I overheard a girl telling her friend: "she's like the very best Spanish teacher I've ever had!". Later I found out from her class teacher that that particular girl had never taken Spanish before... ehm... Easy competition!! In the next class, also with young kids, I was trying really hard to help them learn the colours and I asked them: who can find something red? A girl put up her hand and I thought to myself - great! At least one kid understood what I am saying! And the girl goes: "Today I am getting a tortoise".
Today I took Kez to a Flamenco show in a shopping mall. At first she was a bit overwhelmed with the music, but after a few minutes she took off and ended up among the dancers, turning and turning, shaking her dress and moving her hands like a real Flamenco dancer. A couple of ladies approached us after the show and told us that Kez was the queen of the dance floor! She had a blast, and she ended up being photographed by a few tourists who found her very entertaining...
Time to go - this room is starting to feel like a real sauna. If you have read this post, please leave a comment saying you were here - I'd love to hear from you all! I miss you!!!!
I leave you with a picture of Kez's new way to cool down!!!
I leave you with a picture of Kez's new way to cool down!!!
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| Kez enjoying herself in a fountain in Valletta |
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