All good points here Iestyn. I thought I would start a new topic to avoid further disrupting the one about June 2017 bootcamp. Plus the more parents in one place the more chance of incompatible parenting. Children (and adults) vary so much, some can play all day with a piece of string and others need bleeping electronic devices {eta – or outside running around] 8 hours a day, some are too overwhelmed by a few new people to concentrate on eating their lunch and others relish a whole day out at a packed noisy attraction venue.
I think it would be better for our family to go to a shorter immersion experience, maybe one designed for families. At the moment we have one nearly 2 and one 8 years old. 2 year old mainly babbling and some echoing, but does produce clear words, some welsh as well as english. 8 year old is learning well but does get tired of working on welsh. I had imagined perhaps husband and I would take it in turns to take child away from the group if they couldn’t manage welsh only, but as you say this does mean less immersion for the parent who is doing that.
This isn’t going to help in this case, but discussing this issue with the Urdd might be something worth doing. Older kids do go on residential courses to places like Llangrannog, which I don’t think is that far from Tresaith. It seems to me that the expertise for making learning Welsh enjoyable for kids is something they are experts in and I suspect that they might have the opposite problem of what to do about parents who might like to be more involved, but would probably only get in the way and be a distraction - the answer could be to offer them the chance to join a bootcamp nearby and it could be a chance for the youger kids to go to places like that, while staying with their parents overnight after a full days immersion in activities through the medium of Welsh?
Also Llangrannog and similar are things that can be done in term time as part of a child’s education and outside of normal holiday times etc - so a cheaper holiday break for the family in term time?
There is a Welsh for the Family weekend 24-26/2/2017 at Llangrannog. The closing date is fairly soon so if you want more information or to book the telephone number for the Welsh for Adults section in Coleg Gwent is - 01495 333710. You can use Welsh or English.
There is also a family fun week being held in Llangrannog on August 14th-18th which looks great. I was looking forward to going to it but have been told that I can’t have that week off work now
Maybe, rather than trying to ‘work children into’ the existing format of boot camp, it might be an idea to start with the kids and work backwards.
If there are children of varying ages, and parents with different styles, then what would everyone want to get out of a bootcamp? I could imagine there might be parents who can speak less welsh than their children and visa versa. So, maybe the point of the bootcamp could be to shiw/ experience how learning a language can be great fun for all, say, rather than to improve skills by not speaking any English all week.
Just a thought.
I was out walking the dog today and my mind turned to the idea of family boot camps, for some reason. I do my most creative thinking when walking.
I’ve been chewing over the whole language issue - what kind of bootcamp I’d like to attend with my family. I’d want one that was inclusive. I.e. one that served the needs of various family bi- lingual / mono lingual combinations but which has fun at its core. So, how to make a bootcamp work for fluent -non speakers (both children and adults). All these ideas suddenly came to me. Too many to write here, but I think the principles are sound.
It would mean, I think, that the ‘welsh only’ rule would work against, rather than for, bringing families with diverse welsh speaking skills together, but I think it is possible to do loads of fun things through the Welsh language, things that are fun learning experiences for everyone. Because it would be lots of fun it could really help foster a positive, fun way of families growing together through learning together, and everyone should go away with more tools to use the Welsh they learned to continue the fun at home.
Really happy to share ideas with @aran@CatrinLliarJones@lestynl@Toffidil@alice9 or anyone who’s seriously looking into the idea of family Bootcamps as I’m a bit fired up atm.
And I would be happy to help run one (as someone who has a reputation for being ‘quite good with children’). Also happy to deal with the tears and tantrums that are an inevitable part of any family fun events - (and that’s just from the adults!)
My 7 year olds would have no problem with a Welsh only rule it’s what they do all day at school! It’s their mother who isn’t fluent.
We do the Llangrannog weekend most years but there is little else suitable for families.
No really bright ideas but if you can organise anything we will be there with bells on.
Plus I own a little campsite (we usually take 30 odd people) near Glynneath. With notice so I don’t already have anyone booked I would be happy to provide a venue for free if you wanted.
@vingr2000_yahoo_co_u. That a lovely offer. I’m just in from the garden, where I do my second best thinking.
Thought it might be useful to find out who/what and why people might want to take part in, say a fun day or fun w/end.
Also, what combinations of languages your family unit might bring along.
So, I’m thinking the possible combinations could be these, where FW means you are fluent welsh speaker, L means you are learning Welsh and N means no Welsh at all. ( was going to use C for Cymraeg but then thought need C child and if had P for child and you were reading this without knowing enough Cymraeg it might lead to terrible confusion. Given this is a site for learners, decided best to stick with English).
Then add a C for child, or an A for adult.
So, my family unit might be
LA + NA + EWC = me, as a learner, my partner a non learner and a child who is a bilingual toddler.
@vingr2000_yahoo_co_u , from the info in your post would be
LA + FWC = learner adult and fluent Welsh speaking child.
If people want to add their potential family unit combos here, it will test out my first thoughts, which are the whole thing needs to be bilingual + lots and lots of fun activities that help adults learn some useful phrases and kids get to feel even cleverer Welsh speakers than they are already!
(More on activities if we get past the first bit of finding out if people are interested and what their family units might be. Obviously, If you want to add what you’d like together out of the time spent on such a mad-cap time, please do. For me it would be two things. Having a fun time with my grandson and learning lots of useful child- centered new phrases in Welsh to use with him later. Oh, and to be able to tune into what he is saying in Welsh as he grows into being a fluent Welsh speaker! )
I’d be interested in this too! I’m from Wales (Pembrokeshire), living in England but spending quite a bit of time in Pembs still. Yesterday I completed the final SSiW lesson from the original course (yay!) and am about to work through the new course. I haven’t yet had any practice with speaking Welsh. My children are 7 and 5 and very envious of their cousin who learns Welsh at school - I think they’d love something like this. I teach them the odd expression in Welsh, which they’re interested in, but I think they’d learn more from other children.
Also, a family-centred bootcamp would be great for single parents (as I am). I would love to try the existing bootcamp but it raises a childcare problem for me.
I think this is a great idea and one I’d like to see develop further. I have a 7yr old who attends a Welsh medium school and a 2yr old in a Meithrin, but I’d most likely come down with just my 7yr and myself and would be happy to give this a trial run over a weekend or something. My son and I speak around 50/50 English & Welsh together, but with my wife and other family it’s always English. This boot camp for families would be a nice oppprtunity for us to spend time using predominantly Welsh over a significant period and meet other families who are on their Welsh journey!
I love the idea of a family bootcamp. I have a non Welsh Speaking husband and three children in English medium schools who have a smattering of Welsh words because they like earwigging on my SSIW! I would dearly love to go to a real bootcamp, but that would mean me going off and having a lovely time, my husband doing all the work, and no one going on holiday except ME! And I would spend all our pocket money doing it. A family bootcamp would probably have to be our annual holiday. The difficulty might be balancing the family’s need to go and do holiday stuff and my need to bathe in yr hen iaith!
Summer camp out anyone?
Sounds like people will come with a huge range of language skills and age ranges, whicc means the focus has to be on lots of fun and inclusive activities.
I feel the best way for this to work for everyone and for all ages is to do lots of team events with different ages and language skills in each team.
The other thought I had was what language to focus on and how to make games to make the learning fun.
So, food, drink, getting dressed, journeys and stories all seem good starting points.
Here are some thoughts on games.
Team twister - good for learning body parts, colours and left and right. (And a chance for the young ones to earn lots of points, in a twister knock out)
Dressing up Bingo - in teams. Good for naming clothes and body parts and colours. Will explain more if anyone wants to know.
Treasure hunt in teams
Shared meal, but preparation made into game/competition
Simon says - or a variation to include lots of actions and turn taking and pleases and thank your
Children instructing parents how to get ready for bed with toothbrushes, stories and jim jams and a nice amount of water to help them on thier way!
