It’s a wild new world for parents whose children are attending school from home these days, especially for parents whose children are in immersion programs. Here are some notes from the trenches from a mom near Boston whose children attend two Mandarin immersion schools. Their daughter, 2 is at a daycare center, Little Wagon. Their son, 5, is at the Boston Rainbow Bridge preschool.

Neither parent speaks Mandarin, though mom Jennifer says, “we are trying to learn – in spite of our fossilized brains!”

Here’s some of how the days go, from Jennifer:

After schools were closed around March 14, our daughter’s daycare immediately started a 1.5 hour (!!) Zoom session for any of the kids interested in joining.  There are stories, general conversation, and a daily project.  Because our daughter is so young and cannot maintain focus on the screen for so long, and because both us parents have demanding jobs that keep us on Zoom much of the day, we have only been able to participate in about 20-30 minutes of this program a few days a week.  But I give the teachers huge credit for their valiant attempts to maintain connection and to provide solid content and activities to continue the children’s education.

We’ve been making other small efforts with our daughter to maintain the language skills she gained in daycare: for example, we have the fun Food Superman reading pen and books and the excellent LeLe reading pen and books.  I use the pen (my son laughs at my awful pronunciation, so the pen is critically important!) to “read” 3-5 short stories a day.

We are also allowing a fair amount of YouTube time for both kids, which I’ve reconciled myself with because we just need to keep them quiet while we are in our endless work-related meetings! The majority of their screen time is in Chinese and it is the usual fare: Peppa Pig, Qiaohu, that sheep and wolf cartoon, etc. We have also found some fascinating gems that have hooked the kids. A CCTV production from 1986 of Journey to the West is really popular with both kids and another big hit is a reality show about a group of kids training at the Shaolin Temple.

My 5-year-old son’s school — following the news that school is now canceled through the end of June — is just now about to launch regular Zoom sessions led by his teachers. Before this, his main teacher kindly met with him a few times over Zoom to read some stories and catch up. While the schedule is still coming together, my sense is that these will be held several times a week for 30-45 minutes each time and will include stories, show and tell, conversation, short lessons, and even physical exercises.

In an attempt to fill some of the gap, we have been using a teacher via PandaTree.com for four 25-minute sessions per week. I really like our teacher and this system, which I’ve only learned about during the quarantine.  Our son loves his teacher and talking with her is a highlight of his day!  She has organized lessons that involve things like counting the number of vegetables at the market,  but my son most likes general conversation with her. And I don’t mind if they go off course because he is speaking Chinese a mile a minute and I am relieved that he has a chance to engage with an interested and engaging teacher.

Through trial-and-error, we’ve found that he is most able to concentrate and most excited for these sessions late in the afternoon – after he has had a  lot of time to run around and play. Get him started too early and he resents it and won’t freely talk with the teacher (who is wonderful and rolls with his grumpiness). PandaTree offers lessons for kids starting at 2, and we could do this with our daughter,  but I am hesitant to add more scheduled activities to our plates right now given the incessant drumbeat of meetings for work (you will want to supervise these lessons). Still, I think we will continue with PandaTree once school is back in session for added Chinese exposure. It is just so convenient.

We’ve also been trying to use this time at home to get my son to practice learning and writing some basic Chinese characters (which our daughter is also picking up by extension).  This has worked best after lunch when has he needs some quiet time.  We’ve been taking this quite slowly and he has been learning/writing one character for three days at a time.  It’s very gratifying for him to recognize characters in books. We’re also using the reading pens/books with him, through which he’s also learning/recognizing characters.

In short, we’re trying …but I cannot wait for school to start again!

Note from Beth — Nice work, Jennifer. And I welcome other parent’s stories of how it’s going with home learning.

If you happen to know of a teacher or Mandarin speaker who is interested in getting a bilingual authorization credential in either Mandarin or Cantonese, SFSU has launched a new program.

EED 711_Chinese language for bilingual teachers

Standalone Chinese Bilingual Authorization Program

Standalone Chinese Bilingual Authorization Program Application Guidelines

Millions of parents across the United States find themselves effectively homeschooling their children during the shelter in place orders necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s doubly hard for parents whose native language isn’t English, of course, and much has been written on that.

But for parents with children in Mandarin immersion who don’t themselves speak Mandarin, it’s also a real confounder.

It’s even an issue for parents who do speak Mandarin but who grew up in the United States and don’t actually read and write Chinese, especially as written Mandarin becomes more complex in the higher grades.

I would like to run a series of looks at how this is going for families at home. What is your program doing? How do you keep up your child’s Mandarin? Can you? And how well can immersion work when students are no longer truly immersed?

Feel free to email me at weise at well dot com if you’d like to take part. Hopefully we can learn from one and other, or at least stop feeling so guilty that we’re not doing enough….

You’re for a vaccine-filled future!

Beth

 

From The Lexington Ledger

April 6, 2020

East Point Academy P.E. Teacher surprises students during time of social distancing

West Columbia, SC – Wearing a panda onesie, and playing upbeat music from a speaker, East Point Academy P.E.Coach, Elease Anderson, surprises students from a safe distance on their birthdays.

One such student was 10-year old Lilly Wilson, “I was so surprised to see Coach Anderson!…When she started dancing I could not stop laughing! I loved it so much!”.

Lilly’s mom, Katie, was grateful for the visit as she was struggling to make the day special. “Turning 10 is a pretty big deal…COVID-19 took the ability to have a birthday party with friends, but Coach Anderson to the rescue!..she is an amazing person with a heart of gold for these children.”

Kayela Greene was also feeling helpless amidst her daughter’s birthday disappointment.

At 5 years old, it was difficult for Lilo to understand why everything was canceled. “She was very upset…Coach Anderson came to sing to Lilo from the street in front of our house. Lilo was so excited; her visit absolutely made her day” Greene recounted.

Please read more here.

 

As we’re all sheltering in place and trying to tele-school our kids, here’s a story from a few months ago about what Mandarin immersion looks like in Singapore.

While students who come from Mandarin-speaking families study Mandarin in school as a class, but the kind of immersion we have in the U.S. isn’t a part of the public school system there. Here’s a preschool that costs about $21,000 US a year.

Also, “kiasu” is a Singaporean word that means “the fear of missing out” but often gets applied to parents anxious that their kids have the most chance and options by pushing them into lots of extracurricular activities or studies.

A Silicon Valley-inspired, S$30,000 per year preschool is opening in Funan mall – and it’s promising to teach toddlers 21st century skills like coding and ‘grit’

From: Business Insider

Kiasu parents, at the ready: an exclusive preschool in Singapore is promising to teach your precious tots soft skills like grit, adaptability and empathy to survive the digital age.

Trehaus preschool, which accepts children between 2 months and 6 years old, will start its first intake of students in September, it said on Wednesday (Sept 11).

It costs S$2,568 per month for a full-day programme and S$2,354 for a half-day programme.

Please read more here.

It’s hard enough for parents who are suddenly in charge of their kid’s education at home. Even harder when that education is in a language they don’t necessarily speak.

By Blythe Bernhard

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

From Patch, Nov. 1, 2019

HOBOKEN, NJ — An international school in Hoboken where 80 percent of the daily lessons are taught in a foreign language recently gave a big shout-out to diversity, peace and justice at an on-campus event.

On Oct. 24, Tessa International School celebrated United Nations Day, which acknowledges the U.N. charter initially signed by 50 countries in October 1945.

Each year, Tessa School celebrates with student performances in Spanish and French and other activities related to various countries of the world. Students and teachers dress in traditional clothes, representing more than 20 countries. This year’s event also included a performance of Irish folk music and international music by Shan and Dan.

Please read more here.