Do you remember the school holidays when you were a kid, Georgina?
乔治娜，你还记得小时候的学校假期吗？
Georgina(乔治娜)
Ah, yes, I remember. Six whole weeks without school! I used to go to the seaside on holiday with my family - sometimes to the coast in England and sometimes abroad to France or Spain.
Yes. I remember my dad driving us down to the seaside, looking out the car window and playing I-spy with my sister.
是的。我记得我爸爸开车带我们去海边，看着车窗外，和姐姐一起玩I-spy。
Georgina(乔治娜)
But with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic many children are having to take an extended and unplanned break from school.
但随着冠状病毒大流行的爆发，许多儿童不得不长时间和计划外地休学。
Neil(尼尔)
And with schools now shut for the foreseeable future, this is creating challenges - both for children who can no longer meet their friends to play outdoors…
…and for parents who want to keep their children occupied and focused without spending hours watching TV or playing on mobile phones.
…对于那些想让孩子保持忙碌和专注而不花几个小时看电视或玩手机的父母。
Neil(尼尔)
In this programme, we’ll be discussing some advice for parents trying to keep their children educated and entertained at home in these unusual times. But first, today’s quiz question: Under normal circumstances, which country has the longest school summer holidays? Is it: A) Australia B) Argentina, or C) Italy?
Hmmm, they have really hot summers in Australia, right? I think maybe they also have long holidays, so I’ll say a) Australia.
嗯，他们在澳大利亚的夏天真的很热，对吧？我想也许他们也有长假，所以我会说 a） 澳大利亚。
Neil(尼尔)
OK, Georgina. We’ll find out later whether you were right. Of course, what’s happening right now is very different from normal school holidays. Parents and children may be living together under lockdown for weeks on end and this can be stressful as BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours discovered when they spoke to parenting expert, Elizabeth O’Shea.
好的，乔治娜。我们稍后会知道你是否正确。当然，现在发生的事情与正常的学校假期有很大不同。父母和孩子可能连续数周在封锁下生活在一起，这可能会带来压力，正如 BBC Radio 4 的 You and Yours 在与育儿专家 Elizabeth O'Shea 交谈时发现的那样。
Elizabeth O’Shea(伊丽莎白·奥谢)
The most important thing is see this as an opportunity. It’s unprecedented what’s going on but you may have a chance to have two or more weeks with your children and if you can change your attitude towards that you can actually enjoy this time and teach your children amazing coping skills for dealing with difficulties in the future.
Elizabeth thinks that having a positive attitude by seeing the lockdown as an opportunity will help in this unprecedented situation – a situation which has never happened before.
Adults are full of life experience and parents can teach their children things they wouldn’t get to learn at school. Being able to spend time at home with your children can be a great opportunity to teach them coping skills - skills they can use to cope, or deal with, stressful situations.
One of Elizabeth’s main ideas is that parents shouldn’t try to re-create a school classroom at home. Instead, it might be better to work with your children as a team and decide together what you’d like to do.
Here she is talking about keeping kids entertained at home.
在这里，她谈论的是让孩子们在家娱乐。
Elizabeth O’Shea(伊丽莎白·奥谢)
I would brainstorm ideas and then draw up timetables of what you’re going to do each day. Include a nice chunk of time, normally after lunch, for a bit of downtime - quiet reading or quiet play but then, the rest of the time, build in activities. So playing with your children is wonderful – ball games, board games, card games, word games, anything – doing a family disco – anything that is fun and entertaining for them.
If you lack ideas for what to do during the day, Elizabeth recommends brainstorming - talking to your children to produce ideas and suggestions for things to do.
Of course, games and activities are fun ways of keeping children entertained and she suggests spending a chunk – or large part of time - on those.
当然，游戏和活动是让孩子们开心的有趣方式，她建议花一大块或大部分时间在这些方面。
Neil(尼尔)
But it’s difficult to find the energy to keep playing games all day long. It’s also important to timetable in downtime - time when you relax and do not do much, for example quiet reading.
And if it all starts going wrong, here’s Elizabeth again with a final tip.
如果一切都开始出错，伊丽莎白又来了最后一个提示。
Elizabeth O’Shea(伊丽莎白·奥谢)
Pillow fights are also a great way to let off stream.
枕头大战也是发泄的好方法。
Neil(尼尔)
If the situation becomes stressful then it’s good to let off steam - do something to get rid of strong feelings by expressing them without harming anyone. You could let off steam in many ways – anything from going for a run to having a pillow fight!
I think I’m going to need a holiday to get over this lockdown.
我想我需要一个假期来克服这次封锁。
Neil(尼尔)
Which reminds me... it’s time to reveal the correct answer to this week’s quiz question. I asked you which country’s schools usually have the longest summer holidays.
这让我想起了......是时候揭晓本周测验问题的正确答案了。我问你哪个国家的学校通常暑假最长。
Georgina(乔治娜)
I said a) Australia.
我说a）澳大利亚。
Neil(尼尔)
Good try, Georgina, but the correct answer was c) Italy. They have up to 13 weeks’ holidays in the summer! Imagine how much fun you could have!
Today we’ve been giving some tips to parents for surviving the coronavirus lockdown, an unprecedented situation – meaning a situation which has never happened before.
One parenting expert recommends keeping a positive attitude by focusing on the useful things parents can teach their children at home, like coping skills - skills to cope with stressful situations, like being locked down.
A good way to generate ideas for things to do is brainstorming – talking with your children to come up with ideas and suggestions for fun learning activities. A large chunk - or part - of the day could be spent in fun ways like playing games or finding things out together on the internet.
…Or having a pillow fight! Come on, Neil, I always have a pillow handy, just in case!
…或者来一场枕头大战！来吧，尼尔，我总是有一个枕头，以防万一！
Neil(尼尔)
Well, unfortunately, we’ve run out of time. Unfortunately, we’ve run out of time. Search BBC Learning English for more language learning programmes as well as English activities for your children during the lockdown. Bye for now!
好吧，不幸的是，我们的时间不多了。不幸的是，我们的时间已经不多了。搜索 BBC Learning English，了解更多语言学习节目以及在封锁期间为您的孩子提供的英语活动。再见！
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