Mumsnet Little Italy 6

[Rosa]

Ciao , Hello , Welcome .

Brangelina, yes she started today. she does 1 h and a half for 2 days, she'll eat there on thurs and fri and starts full time next week. She was very excited today (looking forward to seeing her friend, she hasn't seen since menorca) and skipped all the way to the scuola materna.
how was it for your dd today bran?

After yesterday being all excited by the new toys and wanting to go back after lunch, today she didn't want to stay. She was fine once I left, I think she wanted to be home because nonna's here.

You DD does a short inserimento, is it because she's older and has already been?

They do tend to change their minds in the first days, don't they? One day they are excited, the other nonplussed .

I suppose that yes, her inserimento will be shorter because she's older and has had 6 months in another italian scuola materna. Will see how it goes, the teachers seem very nice and the atmosfera in the class very cozy and tranquilla. I hope she'll be all right.

ds reluctantly talks about his morning at school, he is a bit shy in a new situation and then gradually fits in.
I'm actually finding very hard to deal with him at home at the moment, as in these 3 months of summer he has become very competitive with his sister, and I'm tired of playing referee. Weird, as up until June they were getting along beautifully. Children ...

All ok - I was the only mum who did not get a huge hug when I came back in !!! - I was a bit shook up hormones - as I could see that she was 100% happy .Only thing is that with 6 kids at the mo ( in 2) they don't always hear when she says want a pipi- It concerns me a bit as she said it 3 times and then I got the attn of the teacher that was near me !!
Imagine when there are more think thurs a few more start - the regulars and then full on Monday. She gets so upset when she wets herself as it is only when she can't hold on - She has not done a wet pant for 3 mths ! and I am hoping that they do regular loo stops when they are in there full time. We have the incontro with teachers a week thurs so she will be fully in by then.
DO you think Franca your ds wants to prove that he is the 'big brother' therefore has to be the best at everything - I bet you are fed up of saying participating is just as good !! - Or maybe this summer there were bigger children that beat him so he is trying to prove something ????
Tom its 30 mins out the room I think then thurs an hour.
Getting humid again must go and put piedi x aria they are all puffy ......Have just done 2 hrs of conti , finding fatture and saving everything in 3 different places

Oh poor Rosa, it's awful isn't it when you go to collect them, expecting cuddles and they don't run into your arms! I bet tomorrow she'll want mummy's cuddles... . I think they have regular trips to the loo throughout the day. And as the days go on, she'll get to know the staff better and she'll be confident enough to go to one of them and say MI SCAPPA LA PIPI'!

Ds's testosterone must be on a high, and everything is a competition, but, while he has some "dignity" with the other children , he totally loses it with his sister. Dd has always been very patient and quite maternal with him, but I think that after 3 months of proximity, she's had enough!!!

when did all your dcs start speaking ladies? am getting my weekly "ma questo bambino non parla" hassle from FIL tomorrow night when we have the pleasure of his company for dinner. Give me some ammunition and facts anyone???
in anticipation of tomorrow night
bless mini rosa,its great she has adapted like that. at the idea that Francas ds already full of testosterone!

Gio, tell your FIL that bilingual children often are "late" to start talking.

Ds (the one full of testosterone) started to talk (in Italian) - building full sentences- when he turned two. Before that it was mamma papa' brum brum nam nao (gatto) and other funny words.

dd started earlier, but she is a girl (and it is said that girls start "earlier" and a second child).

your ds is not two yet, is he? totally normal to not speak at that age.

Gio, my DD still only had a few words at her 2nd birthday. certainly no sentences. Your DS is younger, isn't he? Anyway, now I can't shut her up

She was very good at animal noises though.

Gio, my DD still only had a few words at her 2nd birthday. certainly no sentences. Your DS is younger, isn't he? Anyway, now I can't shut her up

She was very good at animal noises though.

Franca, when you were in the UK did you all speak Italian at home? I ask because we only speak english as that's what we're all comfortable with (Italian is not DH's 1st language either), and DD is reluctant to speak Italian, though understands quite well.

Was wondering if you did, and whether it was ever a problem for your DCs at school etc.?

Sputnik, yes we did speak Italian at home in the UK, as me and dh are both Italian.

Ds started attending a nursery at 14 (maybe 15, can't remember) months for 2 days a week, building up to 5 days a week at 3, and that's when his English became more fluent.

dd started with 2 mornings at nursery when she was 10 months (evil franca), but never went full time, only 3 days a week, but her English was very good nevertheless.

I'd say that - by the time we left - (ds was 5.5, dd 3.5) they were 85% bilingual, if this means anything.... .

A friend of mine, who is specialized in linguistics and works with bilingual children, told me that English would have become dominant in another 2 yrs. When we left, they already played together speaking in English most of the times.

What do the teachers tell you about her Italian? I'm pretty sure it will incredibly improve this year, if she feel settled at school. 4 is a very important age

I thought your husband was Italian [nosy franca)!

What nationality is he then? Is he a Russian cosmonaut (hence your name)?

am nosey as well, where is he from sputnik?
ds is 23 months. So far says papa, mamma/mum-mum, more, his name and just started saying yes (with a slight lisp!! yesterday.
FIL insists in his child development book he consults when he wants to tell us we are doing a crap job it says that at 2 they should have 200 words , surely not!
Can't wait til ds is fully bilingual and tells nonno in English that he can't believe nonno can only speak Italian! And maybe I will also teach him to say he is an interfering git....
Going back to UK for a week on Fri for a wedding, don't know what clothes to take - may just go for winter ones as my parents assure me there is a november gale blowing. One extreme to the other. Got some fab shoes for wedding yesterday but they are so high, I don't do high anymore! Scared about the whole walking in them

Gio, don't worry about your DS's speech, really. DD had quite a few words at 23mo but a lot of them were made up (eg. too-too for car etc.) and valid for both languages, so a bit of a cop out on her part. She realy only began separating the odd word into 2 languages at around then - eg. She said Mummy and Daddy when speaking to me then Mamma and Papà when speaking to her Dad - but it wasn't much. She seemed to be behind her peers at nursery but it turned out that it wasn't true, there were other monolingual kids slower than her. Now she chatters away 19 to the dozen and both languages are relatively grammatically correct.

Can you DS understand instructions well in both languages? Then I wouldn't worry, active speech and getting his tongue around words is much harder than listening.

Here's a letter from an Italian linguistic specialist - you can go to her web page but it's all in English. I'll try and find some Italian articles so you can read them out to FIL.

Here's another one but the child in question is an early talker, so you might not want to show your FIL.

Gio, you should really tell your fil to mind his own business !!!

LOL at the shoes Gio - I can manage flat raised flat , and have 1 pair of 'heels' that I wear for weddings, christenings etc and have a flat reserve pair afterwards.
Your FIL is a pain - Our paed said that it was probable that dd would talk later than others - ok he was wrong but I have friends children who were so much more behind than dd and they have caught up - tell him that all children learn differently to do everything and I reckon by the age of 5 they have all just caught up and then they start school.
Today she was fine when I went baci baci but when we all came back in I was the last mum and she was a bit Mamma, Mamma. But that lasted 5 seconds and then it was play more mummy ?
Tom I think its like 5 / 10 mins in and then we all go . I have just finished sewing tags on bibs,towels etc- BUt surely not pants ??

You have to sew tags? Lazy me just went with a felt tip pen. I did pants too, but just her name on the washing label as they did get mixed up once.

Rosa's right Gio, at 5yo you're never going to tell who was the late talker and who wasn't. Not many 5yos will be bilingual though. Is your FIL making comments just for the sake of having something to complain about? He does seem the sort, judging from your other posts about him. You definitely need to get him on that old fogey's dating site.

I have sewed dd's name in punto croce on her towel !! .

Yes, we need to find gio's FIL a hobby

Lol at punto croce, I haven't done that since I was at primary school. Did you do name and surname? I am impressed by all this effort you guys put in, but then it's known that I'm a domestic slattern.

Yes, we need a hobby for Gio's FIL. Something all-consuming that doesn't leave him much time to get out of the house, or else something that'll keep him out all day and wear him out. Would he be into pottery do you think Gio? No, cancel that, you might be forced into accepting his creations. Hmmm, will have to think hard.

Name and initial of surname.
We could give him a puzzle of 2000 pieces. That's quite addictive.

Or get him onto MN.... he'll never find the time to leave the house

Is there a suoceronet?

How about a matchstick farm kit (inc. all of the outhouses, tractors and animals)? My Dad had a period of doing those, amazing what can be created from a pile of burnt out matchsticks.

Well I beat even you Brange, I haven't put DD's name on anything, they never asked. Neither have they asked for a towel etc. It probably would be better if they washed their hands a bit more though, given DD picks up and brings home every germ going.

I was chatting to someone I know vaguely at the post office, she said at DD's school they were "tenuti un po allo stato brado", to which I replied, yes, that was what I liked about it, though maybe not the right answer.

They spend a lot of time outside, whereas at the other materna they don't even have an outside area. The one here in the village there is an outside area but they don't use it as no one to supervise.

LOL at everyone's curiosity, my DH was born here but his parents are from the middle east and they speak english to each other.

Re the bilingual thing, DD has been going regularly to nursery since she was a year and a half, she understands Italian very well, just won't speak it much. In fact she went through a phase of not wanting anything to do with people speaking italian. I'm just a bit worried she'll get left out, as she's also a bit shy. She had a friend at nursery but he went to a different materna. Anyway, I'm hoping she'll bloom a bit this year as you say Franca. She has lost some of her shyness over the summer.

We are off to Ischia tomorrow, I'd better finish the packing!

at you going to Ischia, how long for?

I would have agreed with you Sputnik, I think it is great to keep bambini allo stato brado. Unfortunately, the average Italian mother is a bit of a control freak and likes her children nice and tidy . And fears correnti d'aria !

Shyness plays of course a big part in anyone's will to speak a second language. Dd at the moment refuses to speak English partly because it doesn't come as natural as it used to, partly because she cannot stand to make any mistake, for instance.

I'm sure that when your dd starts making closer friends (which it is quite likely to happen at 4), she'll be eager to speak Italian. Are there any after school corsi you'd like her to have? It might be another occasion to speak more Italian, esp if it's some kind of musical class.

She'll get there, and sooner than you think she'll speak more Italian than you wished .

Have a fantastic time in Ischia!!!