Hola T-Rex!

I'm a little behind writing lately and I apologize for that.  I'd like to blame a busy work schedule or Leili's potty training but the truth is last weekend I just plain forgot to do some writing.  I like to think my audience forgot to read as well, so we're even.  

I suppose that means I should make this blog extra looooooooong, to better to bore you with, but I don't think I'm gonna do that either.  Instead I'm gonna talk about the largest animals ever to walk the earth.  

Dinosaurs!  Spanish speaking Dinosaurs!

Como Estas Brontosaurus

Okay to my knowledge Dinosaurs do not speak Spanish, but they do seem to be a source of amusement for my little girl.  I'm pretty sure every child goes through a phase where they decide that  dinosaurs are the greatest thing ever,probably because they are big enough to eat Mom and Dad.  It seems both her day care (Montessori) and Language Stars have figured this out as both institutions have taken some time to use the large reptiles in their teaching.  That's not to say that Leili is learning the vocabulary, although she is, but that they are using a child's natural interests to help drive the teaching of more useful speaking.  After all saying "Tyrannosaurus" in Spanish may not be useful, but saying "The Brontosaurus is taller than the Tyrannosaurus" is. 

What this demonstrates to me is that all of Leili's teachers take reaching students very seriously.  I'm currently a Masters student, and many a professor could care less if you learn or not.  This is their prerogative and I'm an adult, but children aren't the same way.  Every Saturday Leilani needs to want to go to class, and she needs to feel like she's playing when she's learning.  If she's "playing" then she's paying attention, and the message will stick.  If she's associating words like bigger or shorter with one of her favorite things she's far more likely to remember.  This is far more effective than wrote memorization or repeating phrases that don't really interest her, such as "please" and "thank you."

Now hopefully this means they'll have the next classes about being an astronaut, or better yet a combination astronaut-princess.  That would really help.

Break's Happen, so does reading

I know I've written about this before, but it's worth emphasizing again, when Language Stars takes a break there are many ways to keep your child practicing during the break.  We just completed Spring Break and in Leilani's case she got an extra long one.   You see Leili's father is occasionally absent minded, and may have mixed up the day she didn't have class.  So she missed a day they did have class, and I took her on a day they didn't.

No I did not leave my daughter in an empty Language Stars.  How could I do such a thing?  The door was locked!

Okay I screwed up, so we've had to up our home practice a bit.  Fortunately my daughter has suddenly decided it's okay for me to read to her in Spanish again.  What have I been reading her?

Not this one.  It's worth a lot of money.

She tracked down some extremely old pop-up picture books with Spider-Man, the Hulk, Popeye and others, all in Spanish.  Why is this important?  Well with the combination of some Spanish, pictures, and of course nerd power I'm able to translate.  I don't of course, but occasionally my daughter will ask what's going on.  These books sometimes have phrases she wouldn't know in English.  Meanwhile I've learned some new Spanish:

Espinacas - Spinach
El Hombre Increible - The Incredible Hulk
Brutus - Bluto

So if I'm ever lost in a Spanish speaking country and have to fight The Incredible Hulk and Bluto, I'll just call out for "espanicas" and everything should be fine.