¡Saludos todos!
I'm inviting you all to check out a video/slideshow my daughter and I did and put up on You Tube. This was our first multimedia project for Spanish. Please write a comment and let us know what you think.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Dual-Language School, Aquí Vienen!
In September, my 3 girls will be off to school-FULL TIME. This is an exciting year for our family because the twins will be starting kindergarten, and now all of them will be in a dual language school.
My eldest daughter will be entering 2nd grade and she'll be continuing the bilingual model of one day English, next day Spanish.
The kindergarten classes operate differently. As of last year, the school day is conducted in English with a portion of day in Spanish with a Spanish teacher. I had spoken with the dual language coordinator who said they're thinking about changing the model to 90/10 - Spanish/English. I told her that I am for that because I do believe immersion is the way to go.
So, I will find out later this month how the K class will be handled.
As an aside:
Even though I believe immersion is the way to go, it was a challenge for my family to do that totally for even 30 minutes. And immersion schools were out of the question because of the cost. That's why I sought other ways to create a bilingual environment in our home. And I'm proud to say that everything we've done and are doing at home have been good for the girls and my son: they embrace Spanish, they're familiar with the language, they question how to say words in Spanish, and they have fun with it.
If you like to learn more about what I've done with my children so that you can do it too with yours, visit www.ourspanishlessonplansonline.com
¡Hasta pronto!
My eldest daughter will be entering 2nd grade and she'll be continuing the bilingual model of one day English, next day Spanish.
The kindergarten classes operate differently. As of last year, the school day is conducted in English with a portion of day in Spanish with a Spanish teacher. I had spoken with the dual language coordinator who said they're thinking about changing the model to 90/10 - Spanish/English. I told her that I am for that because I do believe immersion is the way to go.
So, I will find out later this month how the K class will be handled.
As an aside:
Even though I believe immersion is the way to go, it was a challenge for my family to do that totally for even 30 minutes. And immersion schools were out of the question because of the cost. That's why I sought other ways to create a bilingual environment in our home. And I'm proud to say that everything we've done and are doing at home have been good for the girls and my son: they embrace Spanish, they're familiar with the language, they question how to say words in Spanish, and they have fun with it.
If you like to learn more about what I've done with my children so that you can do it too with yours, visit www.ourspanishlessonplansonline.com
¡Hasta pronto!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
How I'm Improving My Spanish in 15 Minutes with a Study Partn
I have a Spanish study partner. Her name is Ino. She's from Puerto Rico. She's a friend I've known for a long time through my husband's friend. I've been very slow going in calling her just to practice Spanish.
Last Saturday I called her. We talked about our kids, she mentioned that she took them to the circus, and she talked about plans for a birthday party for her daughter. The conversation was great, but it was all in English. I told her, "Ok, how are we going to do this Spanish practice. I would not have a clue on how to talk about what we just talked about in Spanish."
So, she reviewed everything we talked about in Spanish and had me repeat words and phrases. If I didn't understand what she wanted me to repeat, I said, "No entiendo." Then she helped.
I enjoyed it.
She also gave me study and practice help:
1. Watch the news in Spanish or telenovelas. She said that's what she did when she was learning English, and that's all she would watch.
2. Have a Spanish word of the day and create as many sentences I can using that word. For example, house. The big house. The little house. The pink house. The house is over there. Come to my house. So, in Spanish this exercise would be casa. La casa grande. La casa pequeña. La casa rosa. La casa está allí. Ven a mi casa. (The next time I speak with her I'd ask her about using allá and aquella for over there.)
3. She also recommended a website called Live Mocha - where you can study Spanish (or any other language) for free and have community members help correct your usage. I'm trying it now, and will write a post about it later.
¡Hasta luego!
Last Saturday I called her. We talked about our kids, she mentioned that she took them to the circus, and she talked about plans for a birthday party for her daughter. The conversation was great, but it was all in English. I told her, "Ok, how are we going to do this Spanish practice. I would not have a clue on how to talk about what we just talked about in Spanish."
So, she reviewed everything we talked about in Spanish and had me repeat words and phrases. If I didn't understand what she wanted me to repeat, I said, "No entiendo." Then she helped.
I enjoyed it.
She also gave me study and practice help:
1. Watch the news in Spanish or telenovelas. She said that's what she did when she was learning English, and that's all she would watch.
2. Have a Spanish word of the day and create as many sentences I can using that word. For example, house. The big house. The little house. The pink house. The house is over there. Come to my house. So, in Spanish this exercise would be casa. La casa grande. La casa pequeña. La casa rosa. La casa está allí. Ven a mi casa. (The next time I speak with her I'd ask her about using allá and aquella for over there.)
3. She also recommended a website called Live Mocha - where you can study Spanish (or any other language) for free and have community members help correct your usage. I'm trying it now, and will write a post about it later.
¡Hasta luego!
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