Sunday 26 May 2013

Little Chef

I don't mean the motorway service station that peddles distinctly average food to weary travellers.

The Little Chef, in this instance, is Lydia.

She has got into the habit of "helping" us when we are busy preparing meals in the kitchen, the point where she will say, "attend Daddy, je vais t'aider" (wait Daddy, I'm going to help you), then head off to her room to get her stool to stand on.

Of course, at her age the amount of help she can offer is debatable, and would more accurately be referred to as hindrance. Still, it's a nice gesture on her part to want to help us out.

As it was particularly rainy this weekend, I had a little think about what inside activities we could do, and I decided to get Lydia to make a chocolate cake (which actually came out more like biscuits or brownies).

BacklogI put an apron on and when Lydia saw this she immediately rushed off to her room and came back with her own apron (a play accessory we got from IKEA). Once she was properly dressed, we got to work on the cake.

I weighed out the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, milk and softened butter and put them in separate bowls, then got Lydia to tip each one into a big mixing bowl. She was very attentive and was careful to tip the bowls so that nothing fell on the floor.

Once this was in place, we mixed it all up using wooden spoons, although a fair amount of it was eaten before we managed to put it into the cake tray! It tasted delicious, and the fact that there were no eggs meant we didn't have to worry about Lydia eating raw cake mix. She loved it!

We popped it in the oven for about 45 minutes, then waited for it to cool down before tasting the finished product. It was nice, but I think I preferred eating the mixture before it was cooked!

At least all this means I have definitely found a rainy day activity that Lydia enjoys.

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Instilling Britishness

It's not easy being the sole English/British element of Lydia's daily life as she grows up in Switzerland. All day she is surrounded by French: my wife and her family and friends; the crèche she attends twice a week; the TV and most of her books, and of course everyone else she meets or interacts with in the outside world. Well, it's what you would expect really, given that we live in a French-speaking area of Switzerland.

So, the enormous task of instilling the British spirit into my daughter, from the traditional stiff-upper-lip and politeness to discussing the weather and standing patiently in queues, is all down to me. I am responsible for making sure Lydia knows her heritage, and that at least some of my own upbringing rubs off on her. I think my parents did a pretty good job in raising me, so if I can be at least half as good a parent to Lydia then I will be happy.

But how can you make sure the British influence is present in such a francophonic environment?

Well, it isn't easy. During the week I only see Lydia in the evenings after work, usually for around of 2 hours before she goes to bed. I try to spend the whole time engaged in conversation, asking her questions and prompting her responses in English.

I'm trying to teach her the difference between French and English, to help her understand why I don't use the same words as my wife, and to explain that her Daddy comes from a different country entirely. I think she has started to grasp the fact that England is not in Switzerland, and she knows that she has to get on an airplane when we want to go to see her Nanny and Grandad. When I ask her where Nanny and Grandad live, she says "England", so at least that's a start.

I have just recently started to try a new technique, working on the British identity. For her 2nd birthday a couple of weeks ago, Lydia was given a chalkboard by my parents, and we have spent a fair bit of time drawing different objects, kind of a guessing game for her to play. Whilst doing this the other day I doodled a castle, and then drew the Union Jack flag (bottom-left in the photo).

Lydia asked me, "C'est quoi?" (what's that?), and I replied that it was called the "Union Jack", and that it is the flag of the United Kingdom, where her Nanny and Grandad live. She seemed to grasp this idea quite well, as when we looked at the photo on my phone a couple of days later she said, "ça, c'est Nanny and Grandad". Step 1 complete.

We are already working hard on the politeness side of things, making sure Lydia says "please" and "thank you" when she wants something. This is part of normal growing up, but I can count it as part of her semi-British upbringing.

As she grows up I will start bringing in mini history lessons, discussing the rich tapestry of British history. When she is a little bit older I also plan to take her to some of the museums in London, as the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are fascinating places to spend the day. OK so this isn't entirely focused on Britain, but everything is written in English so at least she will get to practise that.

One thing is for sure, I will do whatever I can to make sure Lydia knows she is part-English, and that she understands where her Daddy comes from.

Monday 6 May 2013

Laugh of the Week

We were stood in the checkout queue at our local supermarket, our groceries edging forward on the conveyor as the till lady began scanning our items. My wife walked to the end of the till to start bagging up, while I waited in the queue with Lydia in my arms; not necessarily by choice but more out of necessity, as Lydia would never wait patiently in line without either grabbing at whatever she can reach or wandering off in search of adventure.

Lydia has, for some time now, shown a willingness to be polite to those around her, and regularly says a cheery "Bonjour!" to strangers walking by. This is not a social faux-pas in Switzerland, where politeness has long been part of the Swiss way of life, nor is it a worrying lack of awareness of "stranger-danger" in a world where this seems to be such a prevalent theme. Instead, it is simply Lydia's way of interacting with others as she continues her voyage of discovery in life.

So, as we inched our way forwards at the checkout and said "Bonjour" to the till lady, I fully expected Lydia to give the same greeting, given that children of her age are so inclined to copy those around them. What I did not expect, however, was that "bonjour" was not the only word she would say...

She followed her cheery greeting with the very English question, "How are you today?". Both Chris and I looked at each other and at Lydia in surprise, as we had never heard her ask this to anyone before that moment. The till lady, not being an English-speaker, simply replied "bonjour" and went back to scanning our groceries.

We laughed, Lydia laughed, and then carried on with our day. We are so used to hearing direct repetition of words and phrases that we say often, but I honestly don't remember asking the same question to Lydia. I will often ask, after returning home from work, questions along the lines of "how are you?" or "how was your day?", but it seems that in this case Lydia has managed to repeat my question and combine it with a reference to today.

To me, this is a clear sign that Lydia is really beginning to understand language a little better; she is almost constantly talking these days, and although she still has her own language - I call it "Lydian" - most of what she says is now composed of real words. Unfortunately for my English family, the majority of the real words are French, and I would estimate that only about 25% of what she says involves English words.

That's perhaps one of the reasons why we were so surprised to hear this little, unprompted English phrase coming out of the mouth of our little monkey, and why we found it so funny.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Funny and true!

I saw this picture shared on Facebook today and it made me smile:




English translation:
"Étre un bébé" = Being a baby
"Selon..." = according to...
"...ma mère" = my mother
"...mon père" = my father
"...mes grands-parents" = my grandparents
"...mes voisins" = my neighbours
"En rêve" = in dreams
"En réalité" = in reality