soaps & telenovelas
To learn a new language, immersion is the key. For me, immersing myself in Spanish is just not going to happen unless I live in a different country. But there are things I can do to help. One of those things is watching some Spanish language TV. Something full of body language is right about [...]
a little extra? or too much?
Last fall Violet’s teacher called me. She wanted to know if we would let Violet move into Spanish Language Arts. ”Yes!” I nearly shouted into the phone. After all, full immersion is the program we originally wanted for the kids. But the way AISD’s program works, Language Arts is taught in the child’s first language [...]
Rosetta Stone
Whew. I just finished my first “live session” on the Rosetta Stone language learning program. I got Level 1 for Mother’s Day because, as I’ve said, nothing else has been working for me. Classes are expensive, time consuming, far away and only moderately useful. With Rosetta Stone on my computer I’ve been able to sit down [...]
1st year wrap-up
“So say something to me in Spanish.” That’s what most people ask Violet when they find out she has finished a year in a dual-language Spanish immersion program. After that, my generally loud outgoing daughter shrinks back behind me and whispers, “I can’t.” At this point I get a confused or pitying look from the [...]
nota roja
I can’t say I was thrilled about this: However, I am happy the staff are implementing the dual language program with fidelity, even when assigning “sentences”. Violet insists that she was NOT involved in this alleged comida throwing incident. But the whole table had to be punished. Her lunch box was empty, though…
tired of fighting
Well, there is a good reason I haven’t been writing; school closure threats. Ugh… state budget crisis, school district budget crisis, everyone looking to cut cut cut. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say that our free time has been consumed by meetings, writing, meetings, outreach, meetings, phone calls, meetings, building websites, meetings, [...]
Uh oh
This is what Violet brought home last month. The teacher usually translates the directions, but not this time. I pieced together most of it, but had to consult Google Translate for conformation. And if I have to do that for kindergarten homework, I’m in trouble for the coming years. But, for me, studying Spanish has [...]
first week of school — primer semana de clases
With all the emotions that go along with starting kindergarten, the whole dual language aspect has kind of been pushed to the back of my mind. But since the first few days went well I’ve been able to take a breath and evaluate where we are. Violet recently asked me, nervously, how she’s going to [...]
the number of languages we can speak now:
One. Monolingual. Pretty much. Here is where we all are at the start of this linguistic adventure: Cheris: I took a couple years of Spanish in high school. Do I have to tell anyone that high school is probably the WORST time to learn a language? It didn’t help that one of my teachers taught [...]
She got in!
Violet is starting dual language kindergarten this fall! This is the culmination of three years of hard work and, while it didn’t turn out exactly how I’d hoped, I am SO excited. And terrified. And relieved. And… well… let’s just say there is a lot to think about. Here’s our journey in a nutshell: We [...]