Gracias.

Nesta is finally trying to put together words-it really is an amazing thing to see, and hear. I've taken care of children Nesta's age in the past, but of course everything is different when it is your own child.

                                                      Nesta saying something to me, just not sure what!

He's always said 'mama' but he says it to other people. If I'm not around and sees a picture of me he knows that's 'mama.' If I'm around he won't call me 'mama,' if he needs me he grabs my hand and takes me where he wants me or hands me a book. However, recently he started repeating more often after me. Usually he likes to mimic animal sounds- his favorite is dog and lion. Still, those are not words just sounds. Like most moms, I sit here saying please and thank you over and over in hopes for my child to have some sort of manners. So the other day after handing him something I heard 'gashas.' I wasn't sure if I heard it, but just in case I said 'de nada.' Something else happened and I said to him this time 'gracias,' and he repeated after me 'gashas.' It was like the sun came out and shone brightly on us both. I believe he also says 'leche' but I am not sure of this one as he uses often and not when he wants milk. I am sure he says many other words but perhaps they don't sound like words to adult ears. All I know is that my kid may have manners after all- just maybe!  

Where are the books?

We have lots and lots of books for Nesta to read. Many of the books I bought I found on sale and are not board books. Board books are of course ideal for little hands. I am also a first time mom and didn't think of this when I bought him a pop-up book. When he was about 4-5 months he loved this book, and he still does but around 8-9 months he started ripping the snake's tail, the lion's paw and so on. So now we keep these books in a shelf where he cannot reach them. One of my favorite books One Love by Cedella Marley also has a page missing that I have yet to tape back. It seems he only likes to rip my favorite books. He did the same to his Frida book. He also chewed through La Oruga Muy Hambrienta, luckily I caught him and the caterpillar is fine thank you. 
However, now that he's not really interested in eating his books I've made some board books readily available for him to pull and read whenever he feels like it. I've also bought him books at Goodwill that cost about $1.00 and I won't feel so bad if he destroys them. One of them is his Elmo pop-up book and it is one of those with buttons and music. It is a good book for the car, but of course he has pulled Zoe's leg off already. 

This little crate is in his bedroom on his playmat. In the crate there are books we own, and in the basket there are library books. He mainly pulls from the basket since he's probably sick of the books in the crate. 

This book is in the kitchen, he likes looking at this book especially. I'm not sure why, but he loves taking these books off of the shelf and he actually looks through the Food Lover's Companion and the Mexican Anytime by Rick Bayless.

Books he hasn't ripped yet:)

Where do you keep your baby's books?

Translating on the spot... interpreter training.

It would be my wish that for every book in English we own, we could have it also in Spanish. It is not possible because the choices at B&N are not the best (especially in board books) and I am not a fan of buying books online. However, the Humboldt Park Branch of CPL just opened a little bit over a month ago and I could not be happier. Nesta spends a lot of time there. Today he went there with his dad, and dad reported that they had to leave shortly after getting all their books because Nesta kept going up to random people and screaming at them. I wonder what he said to them? I'm sure they wonder too.
Our library rules are as follow:
- Have fun!
- Get an equal number of books in English and Spanish.
- Get board books.
- Walk around, play with puzzles and make new friends.
- Read non-board books.
- Return books, renew books, check out new books.
I'm a book hoard, I have 15 books checked out right now. However, we have to have some in English and some in Spanish. Thankfully, there are bilingual books. Bilingual books usually not story books. They're the books that have one word with a picture. I am sure there are bilingual books that are stories but so far I've only seen one and I can't remember the title. It had something with sitting on mom's lap. 
Sometimes Nesta really attaches to a book in English. He brings it over and hands it to me, then sits on my lap and is ready to hear the book read. The first book in English that he really enjoyed was Where The Wild Things Are, luckily we had that one in Spanish. The next one he liked was Where's Spot? This book has flaps for Nesta to lift and find Spot. This book was the first book that I was translating on the spot (ha!) This book is very easy to translate. Each page is one sentence asking if Spot is under the stairs or piano etc. The next book was a bit more challenging. He really liked Color Kittens and this book is mainly read by dad. Dad does a really good job of reading this book, and Nesta enjoys it. However, one day dad was at work and the book was brought to me. This book is long, and it has paragraphs that rhyme. It's a cool book because it shows what colors can be mixed to get other colors like green, purple or brown. Because of all the rhyming I could not sit there and translate every single thing. At this point I just decided to shorten the story. I got to the point and took away some of the rhyming because as much as I translated literally it did not make sense, and it wasn't rhyming anyway. When dad heard me translating the book to Nesta he was appalled! He said "but that's the best part with the poem." I fully agreed with him, but I just couldn't do it justice in Spanish and so he took the book and read it to Nesta. I don't read in English to Nesta. Our one rule is that I speak in Spanish (or read) and dad speaks in English and reads the books in English. So, I will continue to translate books he likes to Spanish to keep up with that rule. I don't know if this is the right thing to do or not, but he doesn't seem to notice the difference. As long as his favorite book is being read to him he's happy. We've been lucky that many of the books he likes are bilingual. These are the books that are very simple, and he mainly likes that the pictures in the books are real pictures (not cartoonish). He also can't sit still to very long books. Color Kittens is probably the longest book he's been into. 
My rules for translating books:
-Translate literally as long as it makes sense.
- If the literal translation doesn't make sense, translate the main idea.
- Always translate it the same way (post its come in handy).
-Read the full sentence before translating.
I've taken Nesta to Story Time in Spanish and I noticed that some of the books they use for story time are in English, and the instructor translates on the spot as well. I think I can get away with doing this for a few more years until we start teaching him how to read. Hopefully by then he'll know when he's expected to speak Spanish and when he's expected to speak English so that I can also teach him to read in English.

Some cool bilingual books that we like are: Ruedas, ruedas a rodar/Wheels, wheels let's roll, Insectos/Bugs, Asi me siento/This Is How I feel, Casa/Home, Crias de animales/Baby Animals, Los germenes no son para compartir/Germs Are Not For Sharing, Mi mama me quiere porque.../My mom loves me because.
Some books in Spanish we like: Un dia ajetreado, Las lechucitas, Buenas noches a todos, Adivina cuanto te quiero?

Of course when it comes to books I have my favorites, and so does everyone else. One good thing is that lately Nesta has been more open to reading new books. He still misses his old books sometimes though. The adults in the house are the ones who get sick of reading the same books, so we're the ones who go to the library and get a bunch of new ones. Nesta doesn't get that yet. At first we would be too excited and we would want to read all the new library books in one night, until one night when Nesta had had it with the new books and went to the book shelf and got two of his old books and showed him to his dad. POINT TAKEN KID! Now we mix the books we own with the library books. Duh! 
Something else that is fun is how he now loves to read during the day. It isn't just a night time routine anymore. Yes I do get sick of reading Ruedas, ruedas a rodar ten times, but I also love that he wakes up in the morning and goes looking for a book. He looks at his books throughout the day, and sometimes you can hear him 'reading.' It's super cute. I just hope this book loving lasts forever!

Check out this blog

http://www.multilingualchicago.com/blog/

Lots of good information on learning a new language.

A third language???!!

I recently saw this in facebook, and I loved it. 
Something I just recently experienced is connected to this part on the poster "Bilinguals find it easier to learn a third language than monolinguals do to learn a second."  As you know I work with kids. Let me rephrase that: I play, sing and dance with kids in Spanish. I do this once a week at a pre-school near downtown. When I first got the job the director told me that there were a lot of children in that school that were bilingual, and that Spanish was going to be their third language. I wondered how that would turn out. When I was in college I tutored a high-school freshman in Spanish. He hated Spanish. He was already bilingual, he spoke English and Greek. He was also really good at Spanish but didn't want to do the work. He was a little bit lazy. His excuse was "I am already bilingual, I don't need Spanish." Yet, he was so good at it. I did what I could. Now, working with 2-5 year olds the story is very different. In the second class I taught on Monday morning there was a little boy who speaks Italian at home. He was so eager to learn Spanish, and he was no afraid to pronounce words incorrectly. Yes he would sometimes add a little Italian spice to the Spanish words. His accent was great, and he wanted to participate and help others. In the next class I met his younger brother. I found that this little boy was also not afraid to try new words and participate. The little one was only 2 years-old. Many 2 year-olds remain quiet the entire class, and only participate when I ask them to dance or move their hands. Then in my last class another boy who spoke Hindi at home, was also very eager to learn Spanish. He was the first one with his hand up, and would say the new learned words over and over quietly to himself before saying them aloud. 
Of course, many of the other kids who were not bilingual were very eager to participate and try on the new words. It just struck me as interesting that the ones that were the most eager, loudest and excited were the ones who already spoke and heard two languages at home. Not only is it easier for them to learn a third language, but it also helps their confidence and self-esteem. I see 2 year olds three times a week, and for the most part they are quiet and careful. If their parents or caregivers are with them then they open up some. However, if they are in class with a bunch of kids their age they tend to be more careful. It's funny, because my 2 year-old class is my best class. They are the best listeners I could ever ask for. As for my 4 year-olds... well let's just say I'm going out and buying lots and lots of stickers.

Making progress.

One of the hardest things as a language teacher is to know whether your students are learning. I remember teaching ESL to beginners my 2nd year as a teacher and thinking that I was an absolute failure. As I mentioned before, I believe immersion is the best way to learn a language. So, I used immersion with the beginner ELLs (English Language Learners). From September until May I spoke only in English to 34 ELLs. I could see some progress in their writing, but I still wasn't sure if they could speak it. The silent period lasts for about a month. There I was thinking that I was awful, and wondering what to change. Then May came and so did another birthday. Along with this birthday there were many birthday cards from almost all 34 of my beginner ELLs which were all written in English and then they wished me happy birthday in English, and from then on, until June 28th all our conversations (and there were many) were in English. It was so great to know that they had learned from all my crazy plans, and that they could actually understand my instructions. This is what keeps me sane on days when I am teaching a 1-year-old something new. A 1-year-old who doesn't speak .
Like any parent, I've been teaching Nesta new words, how to say thank you and please, body parts and so on. It's hard to know if he understands me, because he does respond to me it's just jibberish. And, yes I do respond to his jibberish- I encourage him to communicate in which ever way works for him. As he grows he is able to do more things. He likes to mimic and point. Lately that is how I know he's making progress and he does understand me when I speak to him in Spanish and he understands his dad who speaks to him in English. For example, I have been teaching him where his head, eyes, nose and teeth are. He's always pointed to his head, but I wasn't sure if he was pointing to it because he knew that was his head or because he felt like pointing to his head. After all he's a kid and he's got many ideas going in his brain; one minute he's dancing the next one he's decided he needs a spatula to mix his legos. Now, we play a game in the car when I say (in Spanish) "Where is your head?" and so on. He usually points correctly to his head, nose, eye, feet, teeth and tongue. He also knows many other things that often surprise me, and he's now trying to repeat words after I say them to him (over and over). Today he tried to say "gracias." The other day he tried to say "nariz." I am pretty sure he tried saying "tongue" as well. It's hard to know because he still is just speaking jibberish. 
All I know is that I don't feel so crazy now when I am explaining, showing, repeating and holding conversations with him. Now I know he's responding to me in his own way. I also know that he's responding to me in Spanish and to his dad in English. Call me crazy, but I just know it!

Bilingual dogs?

Recently I was co-teaching a class with a woman whose native tongue is Spanish. She speaks English as a second language and has been in the United States for three years. She was trying to get a kid to play with some toys, and she kept making the animal noises to get the 2-year-old's attention. I joined in with her, and suddenly we were both barking and ribbit-ing. The funny thing is that she took a toy dog and said "guau-guau" and I said "ruff, ruff." We looked at each other and laughed. She then said to me, "you know that animals speak different in English and in Spanish." 
Then I suddenly remembered having that conversation in the past, and now I realize that my animals speak mostly English! This does not bode well for someone who is teaching her son Spanish. It really doesn't matter, I just find it funny and interesting. The reason most of my animals speak English is because I have learned my animal noises from Gram. His animals are very sophisticated sounding- almost like the animal itself. It's weird how good he is at that. I am not, but I do try. I cannot even spell out what a rooster sounds like in English-but I know in Spanish is "qui-qui-riqui." Baby chicks say "peep-peep" in English and "pio-pio-pio" in Spanish. Gram now says "pio-pio" though. Does this mean he's learning Spanish? 
I went searching in Nesta's books the different noises that animals make, and I found a few that support the fact that animals do sound different in different languages.

One of the few bilingual books.

 
 "The baby chicks are singing peep peep peep"               "Los pollitos dicen pio, pio, pio."

                                          Lions growl.

                                          El leon dice GRRR.

                                                     El perro dice "guau-guau."

                                                      El gallo dice "qui-quiri-qui."

What do animals say in other languages?