Sorry and I know this is a big ask but any chance of a bootcamp I could take my twins to (they are 4 and are in a welsh school so understand more Welsh than I do). I would love to do a bootcamp but couldn’t survive a week without them.
S’mae vingr2000_yahoo_co_u?
Do not be concerned by a lack of response to your query. I happen to know than Aran is away in Cardiff currently, so I am sure he will respond as soon as he can, but it may be a while. If Iestyn drops by the forum, he will also be able to help.
Hwyl,
Stu
Diolch, Stu!
The family bootcamp idea is one that we have discussed and discussed over the years - and one that we’ve never really got to grips with from a logisitics point of view.
The problems are quite varied: if we have a bootcamp for families, then we will have parents and children in the dorm accomodation. Assuming that most families would want some kind of privacy / want their child(ren) to not be woken by other kids / not wake other families etc, we could fit 3, maybe four families in the female dorm, and the same in the male. If we have couples with children (which would be best for those where couples are learning together or are mixed Welsh / English language), there’s the extra complication of where couples sleep or if we still split them, who uses what toilets etc.
Bootcamp rules would have to be adjusted - it would suddenly be “try to speak Welsh at all times” rather than an iron rule - you can;t legislate for a 4 year old, and the power of habit is much stronger than a temporary rule. Don;t get me wrong - the kids could be an absolute godsend, both on bootcamp, and in keeping the parents speaking Welsh afterwards, but the potential is there for one difficult / confident / strongheaded child who, for instance wants to speak English with the other kids (I’m not looking at anyone in paticular here, but only because my 7 year old’s upstairs asleep, so i can;t see him…) to spoil the whole experience for the other parents.
Then we have activities - a lot of ar-y-bêl soft play / kids swimming activities / going to the beach etc, but we are talking another level of planning / guessing kids’ likes and dislikes etc, which makes a price considerably more difficult to keep down.
Not-going-to-the-pub of an evening would be a pity - I guess there could be a childcare rota for a couple of evenings etc - but not a deal breaker, because there’s always other ways of relaxing and enjoying.
So: there must be solutions, and if people have ideas, we’d be happy to consider anything that might work, but we have a young family ourselves, and just know that they would potentially be a nightmare!
So - parents with kids in Welsh school, or with a Welsh speaking partner - is there some way to get this to work? What do you think?
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I guess you could solve some of the privacy issues by making use of the flats in the cottage next door, although it would have cost and other implications. Just throwing in an idea.
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