Linguistic Learning together

 

Yesterday after school Leen rang me up.  I always ask in Nederlandse "Wat doe jij vandaag?" First she wanted to do more sums, her addition is heel goed now.. Then we did some word flash cards as I am trying to see if she can read English & Dutch words.. she is though more quickly English with me.  So when we got to the flash card for Apple we looked at the word in Arabic... over skype we used the google Arabic keyboard on my laptop... not only was she telling me how to pronounce the words Tofah Arabic for Apple but she was with me as we found the Arabic letters on the keyboard! Truly a Professor of Linguistics No confusion but so much fun as we made it all a fun game together.. Then she ate an apple.. was so unplanned but she had apple patterned pjs on too !

APPLE was of the words of the day this week with NaTakallam I think Leen will be one of their teachers before long lol So magical sharing languages and learning together.  Here I am 66yrs Yorkshire born woman in Hayes West London and learning and sharing so much with 5yrs old Syrian Leen living in Belgium.  Family Link Up has really enriched my life. 

Sharing after school

 

The past 2 days Leen has called me after school so full of energy from the days lessons stimulation. Yesterday we tidied books in her room ( little sister made mess!) Lol tried to make tidying a game long distance tidying London/Belgium!!! and found one of the Nederlandse kinderen boeken... she took it to school today for the teacher docent to read... she said she would listen carefully to get the words in her head...hhh so cute. Then she can teach me!  Today she wanted to do more number magic... with my coloured buttons.. we looked at variations to make 10... 

Then we had a girlie time which will please Ella one of my zoom friends in the Wednesday Women together group. Ella feels empowered when wearing mascara...lol but we cheated using the effects on skype messenger ..so we had lashes, glitter lips and butterflies 

Sunday morning wake up

 

Adorable wake up call this Sunday morning Leen & Celine awake in Belgium messenger Skype calling me... yesterday they had called and I had promised to work on adding numbers today..how lovely they remembered and was excited to play numbers.  I have some fancy buttons that I use and this cute reaction from Celine is her WOWed by the owl button lol ..

We have been drawing and counting leaves. Observing leaves have veins and we have veins..my old lady veins on the back of my hand demonstrated this..lol ..we found a baby snail on a leaf that i picked up from my garden..that fascinated Leen..as it came out of its shell and slithered along the leaf. So a nice fun Sunday morning as I miss visiting them and don'f like being alone all the time. My family like updates on Family Link Up..and keep saying  "keep hope mum that you can visit next year when this coronavirus is more under control." So frustrating for us all but thank goodness for wifi & internet connections. This morning we made pancakes or I did while they watched..and Lulu & Pengu respond to Leen & Celine calling them. I get updates from Turkey and Germany too. So our link up continues for life as is my life. I am impressed how the Syrian community are helping one another too.  Lives need healing & rebuilding. They are ...day by day, month by month, year by year getting stronger, integrating and contributing to host countries.