Community Houses

Hello Community, Let's stay connected! So far, we've met a guitar teacher and a pottery teacher who loves murder mysteries Today, we will meet Veni, the Kids Spanish class teacher! Let's find out how she is doing and get some creative tips.

What are changes the Coronavirus(Covid-19) situation has brought to you? During this last week we have pretty much self-isolate ourselves in order to try to stop the spread of the virus. In addition, I am pregnant, therefore I need to take extra care for the whole family. My husband is also working from home, which has been challenging as our son (soon to be 3) would not accept that dad is at home to work and not to play.

Any tips on spending time at home? As the weather has been really nice the last week we were trying to spend time in the garden, either building plains out of boxes or painting pasta or just painting. We are trying to do fun activities such as singing, backing, playing with trains, legos, reading books, cleaning (he loves riding on the vacuum cleaner with the guitar), playing supermarket, etc. We also tend to go to Coburg High School when the students are not there (either on the weekend or after 4:30pm) and we visit Gigi (the pig) and the ladies (the chickens) and play a bit on the school grounds with a ball. The other thing we did last week and it was very nice, was to have a picnic close to the merri creek. We stay there for over an hour and we didn’t see a single person.  It was very nice to go out and after the picnic to collect some small rocks to throw into the creek. Also we went to the airport to see planes taking off and landing, there is a viewing area close to the golf club on the western side of the airport very close to the runway. (Note that the interview was done on 22nd March – when the airport was still busy)

Any contents you'd recommend? In this regard I am a bit old fashioned and we don’t watch TV or programs much. We also try as much as we can to reduce the screen time for our son. Every now and then he watches a simple German cartoon (Die Sendung  mit der Maus).   I personally enjoy reading a lot so I got a few good books for the evenings before going to bed. At the moment I am reading "I, Julia" it is a book in Spanish about the wife if a Roman emperor (Severo), it is based in the year 192 AD. I enjoy reading historical novels from which I can learn a bit about the time from which the novel takes place. I can strongly recommend two trilogies from Ken Follett: The Kingsbridge series and The Century. Also I personally liked from Robert Harris the book Pompeii.

Your Kids Spanish classes are cancelled. What can people do on their own? Try to listen to some of the songs that we listen to in class, such as: El monstruo de la laguna, el Viejo MacDonald tiene una Granja, pie pie pie, ABC in Spanish, etc. Another idea would be to see movies in Spanish, so for example if someone likes “Frozen” you can see if you can switch the language to Spanish. Also there are plenty of videos on Youtube that you can watch, but please see the video with the kids or before so that you are sure that the content is appropriate for their age.   There are some Audio books in Spanish: https://stories.audible.com/

A message to your class participants Make the most out of this uncertain and hard time, despite all the craziness out there try to enjoy this time as a family and spending time with the little ones.

About Veni: Veni is really kind and funny. Kids get really excited around her! She teaches Kids Spanish (aged 2-4) at Newlands Neighbourhood House. In class, kids and parents listen to Spanish songs, we read books in Spanish and we have fun. The program is designed in a way that kids will have many different activities but many of them repetitive. In class, we play games in Spanish, Veny says: I am a Spanish native speaker from Argentina who has been living in Australia for almost 15 years. I am also a Geologist who loves investigating volcanoes and their chemical characteristics as well as trying to determine when they were last active. Before moving to Melbourne almost 3 years ago, I lived in Germany for 2 years where my son was born, he is almost 3 now. We do a whole range of activities at home which I use as a practice to the real Spanish class.

What do you think? If you're inspired, go ahead, and share with us! Let us know what movies you watched in Spanish, whether your kids liked the activities Veni suggested, or if you are into any historic novels. You are not alone. Let's stay connected. We are all in this together :) From the NECCHi team