Bulgarian/English translation toys?

ItsGoingToWorkOut

A friend of mine recently received news that her adoption of a three-year-old Bulgarian girl is final. She's visited the child twice and will bring her home in a few weeks. One of her fears is the initial ability to communicate because she'll be a single mom and the little girl will be going to daycare a few weeks after arrival. 

Does anyone have any advice for finding great toys, flashcards, games, workbooks, videos, etc. that could help the little girl learn English and ease this new mom's mind? 

Thanks!

Mrs.Slick

How old is the little girl?

We just brought LO home from Russia and he's 2.5 and before we came home from Russia I'd say he understood 80 percent of what we said to him and within a few weeks he was speaking mostly English.

That being said, a couple we were over there with we're adopting a 9 year old little girl, and while communication was much more limited, they were still able to communicate just fine.

Our agency, sw, and several of the books we read said full immersion is the best way to learn.

I did make picture boards though. I ha a picture of our house, dh's work, the pediatrician's office, etc. and would show LO these before we'd go or when dh left for work.

We also had a few little albums while in Russoa with pictures of his room, parts of our house, our dog, etc. that we went trough with him everyday.

GL to your friend and congrats to her!

CaptainSerious

Get the American English Muzzy kit (https://www.early-advantage.com/)!  It worked really well to give the boys a start at English.  We all watched them together, over and over, so it was bonding time.  (We severely limited TV, but all watching was in English.)  M learned the word "hungry" pretty much immediately, and anytime he wanted attention or to be reassured his needs would be met, he'd tell us, "I'm hungry."  It became so common (at least 30-40 times a day), I started to respond, "Hello Hungry, nice to meet you!  I'm sleepy/happy/silly/my name/whatever.  What would you like to do today?"  It became a launch for further playfulness.

Other than that, though, I think you just have to give them time.  Does your friend speak any Bulgarian?  I found that if I would say something in Spanish, then repeat it in English, the kids would equate the two.  In time, I'd be able to drop the Spanish.  Now, my Spanish is awful and not remotely grammatically correct, but the kids could understand me (not so much with adults, most the time) because they wanted to and made the effort.  Of course there were times early on with M when I wondered what the heck I was thinking imagining I could raise a child who I didn't share a language with.  But we made it through, and if I could do it, so can your friend.

The key is being patient and letting them learn on their own, because they want to understand you.  If you pressure them, they may feel overwhelmed and like they can't possibly meet your expectations, and just quit.

Oh, and another thing we did with M that really made a huge difference is that we sat down with him and our lawyer on the first day he came to live with us and had a conversation about the rules and our expectations of him (the lawyer translated for us, to make sure everyone was on the same page).  We told him the basic rules and gave him examples of what kinds of consequences would follow from bad behavior.  He asked us questions (he was concerned about what would happen if he broke something), and after we answered them, he was much more at ease. Throughout the rest of our time there, we used the lawyer as a translator with M, so he could understand anything important that we couldn't fully explain ourselves.  When we returned home, our English-Spanish bilingual therapist filled that role.  But having him understand the rules and discipline structure right form the start really helped him feel less frightened and made the transition much easier on all of us.