Blog entries tagged family activities

English in the game

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 12:07:00 +0100

I proposed Teona to play a game that we never played before. We used her kitchen set and 7 toys (a bear, a doll, a cat, two dogs, a cow, a deer) and we played "Lady cook in kindergarten". We agree on this name. One of the toy, Pluto, the dog, is a mediator. He helps her in the kitchen. The deer (one of the Santa's raindeers) is a visitor from the North Pole and he can only speaks English. The deer wants to know Teona's secret recipes for children in kindergarten.

Deer: Hello Teona!

Pluto: What does it mean?

Deer: (repeting) Hello!

Teona: Hello! He is saying "salut" (Romanian word).

Pluto: Hello deer.

Pluto: What should we cook for the kids today, Teona?

(everything is already arranged)

T: Let's see...The first one is Milka, the cow.

P: What does she eats?

T: Milka eats grass. But we don't have grass. We should have taken from the park.

P: What else can we do?

T: I don't know.

P: It's a baby cow. What else does she eats?

T: Milk.

Deer: Milk. Milk.

P: What is he saying?

Deer: Milk.

T: (repeats the word) Milk.

Me: He said "milk". It means "lapte" (the word in Romanian).

T: Let's boil the milk and put it in the pink glass.

Deer: Pink

Teona looks surprised and in a way "lost".

Deer: Pink.

Teona: Pink the girl? (She means the singer Pink)

Deer: (head denies) No

Teona: No means "nu" in Romanian.

Me: Pink means "roz" (Romanian word). The color.

Teona: (repeats) Pink.

Pluto: Who's next?

Deer: Who's next?

It is difficult for Teona to repeat exactly. But she tries.

T: Beethoven, the dog. we can give him a bone. But I don't have a bone in my fridge.

P: What do you have in the fridge that can be good for a dog?

T: Meat. I will heat the food at the microwave.

P: Let's use the cooker stove. It's more healthy.

Teona gives the plate to Beethoven.

T: The next one is Garfield, the cat.

Deer: Cat. Cat.

T: it means "pisica". (Romanian word) Cat.

P: Good Teona. What does a cat eat.

T: We still have chicken in the fridge. I will prepare it right away.

...

T: Next one is Ramona, the doll.

Deer: Girl. Girl.

T: A doll. It means a doll.

Me: No, it does not mean a doll. It is the English word for "fata" (Romanian word). Repeat the word Girl.

T: Girl. Girl.

P: What can we cook for Ramona?

T: She can eat anything. We can give her a cake with strawberries or grapes.

P: No sweets before meal.

T: I will cook her a soup.

P: I will take a pen and write the recipe.

T: You take a meat and cut it like this (showing)... You boil it. After that you put some noodles (she describes how her grandma makes them), salt and cabbage.

P: Cabbage? Why not any other vegetables?

T: This is the only vegetable I have on my fridge.

P: The next one is Lino, the bear.

T: He likes honey.
Deer: Honey. Honey.

T: I don't know what he is saying.

Me: Repeat the word. Honey. (she repeats) It means "miere" (Romanian word)

T: we don't have honey in my fridge. But I will imagine that we have.

P: What can we cook with honey that the bear would like?

T: I don't know. Maybe if we mix it with some milk. I still have milk...

Deer: Enjoy your meal! Enjoy your meal!

Me: It means "pofta buna" (Romanian word)

After she washes the dishes, Teona and Pluto do the same thing with giving them some desserts and something to drink. She does not want to share her muffins recipe with Pluto. The deer says often words like "water", "tea", "milk" etc.

Teona repets them correctly.

When the game was over I asked her if there was a word that she remember and she can repeat.

T: I don't remember.

Me: Try. For example he said a lot the English word for "apa" (water).

T: I don't remember.

After a few seconds she says: Let's go!

Me: The deer did not say this expression. Do you know it from the kindergarten?

T: No. I heard it at Baby TV. (it is in English)

It surprised me when she translated it correctly to me.

T: I know also "Good bye". Again she translated correctly

We will give it another try using other strategies.

About ingredients

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:08:00 +0100

While my daughter was eating her favorite soup made by her grandmother, I thought it will be a good opportunity to ask her about ingredients.

Me: Teona, this is your favorite soup. I never asked you if you know what makes it so delicious. Why do you like it so much?

T: Because it is my favorite. Grandma makes it for me.

Me: What do you think grandma puts in it?

My mother usually cuts the vegetables very finely so it takes her a little time to observe them.

T: She puts a lot of noodles. They are my favorite.

Me: Do you know how grandma makes the noodles?

T: I don't know.

Me: Let's give it a try. The spaghetti for example, they are made from...?

T: Flour.

Me: Do you think grandma uses also flour?

T: Yes and salt.

Me: Ok, what else?

T: I don't know (again).

I explained her the way grandma does the noodles.

Me: What else can you see and taste in this soup?

T: Carrots, tomatoes, cherry pepper, salt

Me: This green leaf, what is it?

T: Parsley.

Me: Good. There is something else that grandma puts in a soup at the beginning, but you don't have it now in your plate, what do you think it is?

T: Salt.

Me: No. Grandma boils it to give flavor.

T: Meat. Chicken meat.

Me: Good. Why do you think this soup has this color?

T: I don't know.

The next questions asked were givin' the same answer "I don't know". I let her eat.

I guess this was not so challenging to her.

The second day, I changed the soup with one that she does not like, also made by my mother. It is a traditional soup "zer cu cartofi" (it is called in Romanian; a kind of buttermilk with potatoes). The vegetables are also cut finely. To make her eat it I challenged her. I said that if she can give me than 5 ingredients, I will try to give her another three and the one who said them correctly wins a chocolate croissant. We will also call grandma to ask about the correct ingredients.

I let her say first 5 ingredients because three of them were easily to see but the others were hard to guess... So, I wanted to encourage her even to win (and to eat the soup). Next time we will change the strategy.

Me: Let's hear the ingredients.

T: Potaoes. Salt. Tomatoes. Carrots.

Me: I don't think grandma put carrots. We will ask her.

So, you said three. I do not agree with the carrots. Anything else?

T: I can't see anything else.

Me: (I helped her) What's this green leaf?

T: Parsley.

Me: Ok! So you have four. Look at the color of the soup.

T: It looks a kind of orange.

Me: Ok. Good. What do you think gives this color?

T: Oranges (the fruit)?

Me: I don't think grandma put oranges in this soup.

T: Potatoes?

Me: Are potatoes orange? Don't guess, just think. It's something that I put sometimes also in soups.

T: Cream?

Me: Yes. It has cream and... To give this orange color...

T: I don't know.

Me: I mix sometimes cream with what? In a bowl with a fork...

T: Eggs?

Me: Yes. Cream and eggs. Anything else?

T: I said five. Your turn.

I said oil, dill and green onions.

We called grandma and she confirmed that there were no carrots in the soup. But also she said another ingredients that the soup have: lovage, celery and buttermilk.

An unfinished salad

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 08:49:00 +0100

I gave Teona the idea of making a salad on her own, to surprise her daddy. I also said that at the end she can give a name to her salad, because it would be her recipe. She took her little chair, open the fridge and selected the vegetables for the salad.

She chose: tomatoes, letucce, cucumbers, green onions and carrots (I don't usually put carrots in a salad, so it was something new). I suggested her to take also radishes, but she refused! :-) She does not like radishes.

I helped her wash and clean the vegetables. She took her little knife, the one she usually use when she helps me in the kitchen and starts to cut the carrots.

Me: So, you started to cut the carrots in this way (slices).
Why is that? Can you cut it differently?

T: I don't know. This is the way that you do it.

Me: Let's try differently.

T: Let me do it this way now.

She does the same thing with the tomatoes (diced), cucumbers (slices), green onion (also slices). She does not want to try it differently. She does the way she saw me doing it.

Regarding lettuce, she put her little knife down and started to tear lettuce by hand. Also the way I do it all the time.

Me: Why do you think I don't use a knife?

T: I don't know.

I explained to her why I tear the lettuce with my hands.

Me: What should you do next?

T: I don't know.

It was clearly that she was not in a mood for thinking or talking. Even though she was excited at the biginning.

Me: Let's look again in the fridge. What else can be mixed with the vegetables?

T: Cheese and olives.

Me: Ok. Perfect. Let's try.

Teona cuts the cheese (diced) and puts the olives in her salad.

Me: The next part?

T: (again) I don't know.

Me: What else do you have to put in your salad to be more tastier?

T: You can put some salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon, mommy. I am tired!

I said that if she wont finish her salad, it won't be her recipe and she can not give a name to this salad. She did not finished.

I was a little bit disappointed because I did not expected her to give up. I thought that making a surprise to her daddy and giving the salad a name would motivate her. But I am sure that it was no challenge for her. And the way she cut the vegetables, the way I do it, she did not want to try another way. Should I show her different ways to cut vegetables or try another time?

Our first attempt

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:39:00 +0100

We go to the park every day. It is very close to our home. From time to time we change the location and choose another park. Yesterday morning I decided to take her to the biggest park in our home town. I know she likes it. We had to take the bus. It was a good chance to do with my daughter thinking activities related to "being / going somewhere". I started to ask her questions (in Romanian, our language) in order to make some comparison between the two parks. I have to say that my daughter, T., is 4 years old.

Me: It's very nice in here, isn't it?

T: Yes, it is.

Me: What do you like about this park?

T. It is beautiful and it has more playgrounds than ours.

Me: Anything else? Why do you think it is beautiful?

T: Why do you ask?

She just looked at me seriously...

Me: I try to find out why do you like more this place.

T: (again seriously) Why do you ask?

...

So, I didn't say anything. I felt like I had failed somehow. I let her play.

...

On the way home, we took the bus. Suddenly I remembered another "game"- question about the surroundings (three properties given and guess). It was succesful. 20 minutes of playing on the bus plus another few hours at home... Exhausted me and my husband. But it felt good. And I am pretty sure that I gave this idea to people from the bus to play with their children. We had fun.

Playing this game, she discovered a lot of things on the bus that she hadn't seen before. At the beginning, while she thought at an object and started to describe it, she was looking at it, so it was very easy to guess. Also she used for a few times as a feature "beautiful". I explained to her that it is not a good criteria because people see things differently, not everything that it is beautiful to her is beautiful to others. I have noticed that she uses frequently aspects related to size, shape, color and it has difficulties when it comes about the material (wood, glass, plastic, iron etc) even though she knows about them. We have to still practice.

Even if I had some trouble with comparison things, I will try to do it later with her, with another topic, not parks.