At Julian’s preschool, the two lead teachers speak a lot of Spanish to the kids. The program is loosely English in the morning, Spanish in the afternoon. Being in California, this is not some crazy special language program, it is just one aspect of our preschool that I see as a benefit.
I loved learning Spanish growing up. I completed a Spanish minor in college and spent two summers wandering around south of the border with friends, taking languages classes in Mexico and Guatemala. Julian’s first plane trip was to Mexico at 6 months, and he’s been back twice since then. I had been thinking that his exposure to Spanish at this age was both fun and effective.
He seems to think otherwise.
He has one nighttime babysitter who speaks mostly Spanish and little English. He has recently started to get frustrated by this. At first, he seemed to love playing “How do you say (insert word) in Spanish? ” with her. I was pleased. Before she came over, he would say, “When Ana gets here, I’m going to ask her how to say quesadilla in Spanish!” he would tell me excitedly. Then, it wore off. He became annoyed, perhaps because he was tired at the end of the day, with the difficulty they were having communicating. He told me he didn’t want her to come over because she speaks Spanish.
Yesterday, I popped in a Whistlefritz DVD, “Los Animales” targeted at ages 2-5. At first, Julian watched happily, I think not realizing the video was entirely in Spanish. I was enjoying it, understanding every word and thinking it would be fun to loan the DVD to my Spanish teacher friend. The narrator was very clear with her expressions and the animations, so it’s easy to catch on. After about 10 minutes, Julian said he wanted to watch something else. He was disappointed that the video was in Spanish.
To my chagrin, he is on an English-only kick. I should sign him up for one of those conservative groups that don’t want bilingual signs posted. The other night, I said something to him in Spanish, and he responded “You’re not a teacher or a babysitter!” in a snotty voice. Uh-oh. I had to immediately point out all the people we know who speak Spanish who are not teachers or babysitters. How embarrassed am I! I am a lover of all things Latin and my son is campaigning for English only! Que lastima.
I have to remind myself that he is three and just wants things his way. Just like girls have ponytails and boys don’t. He does not like me to point out boys that have ponytails or girls that have short hair.
I will try to be patient. And I will book us on another Mexican vacation ASAP.
PS On the way to school this morning, he did tell me, “You know how you say Blast Off in Spanish, Mommy? BLAST OFFFFFF!”
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Maybe other Parent Bloggers had better luck getting their kids to sit through Whistlefritz’s other Spanish for beginners videos. See what they have to say.
At the end of my “
My husband, Alec, and I were both engineers in college. We’re both fairly geeky compared to most parents and hope to raise kids with a healthy love of math and science. In my opinion, “healthy” means that Holden is too young for video games and chemistry sets, but he’s a great age to work the cd player and help in the kitchen. 
are dirty, I still resort to those ancient Avents.
