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Anyhoo, Monday August 18, 2014 the second half of Mason's day was taught in Spanish. I was anxious to ask him how his day was after picking him up. As with any 5yr old I didn't get the detailed response I was looking for. Me: "Mason did you hear Spanish today?" Mason: "Yes". Me: "Did you like it?" , Mason: "Yes". There you have it. His first set of homework was brought home. Homework is sent home on Monday and due Friday. So I still had to get home and open his backpack where I was hoping to find out more details of his day. So far his homework has consisted of Spanish alphabet sounds and counting to 30 in Spanish, tracing numbers 1-20, tracing his name and lunch number. The newsletter stated that starting next month they would start site words and we could go ahead and get a head start. The English site words are: am, an, at, has, had, can, and, and said. His Spanish site words are: rojo (red), verde (green), morado (purple), blanco (white), Rosado (pink).
My thoughts on this...well, those are an odd combination. But I guess Spanish site words are different. I thought these were hard words for site words. I was expecting more like: gato (cat), casa (house), eres (are). I don't know...just shorter words. For the English site words these seem normal to me. Our other homework was/is to read 20 minutes every night. This is an easy one for us. We have read to Mason nearly every night since he was 4 months old. His binder he brought home also has a colorful sheet of months, season, time, days of week, colors, etc. that are in English and Spanish. I think the one thing that hasn't been made clear is what homework to do. Are we supposed to be doing the English and Spanish? What if you have a parent that knows NO Spanish? Luckily, I had 3 yrs of Spanish in high school, 1 semester in college and have easily retained much of it due to practicing all the time with Hispanic coworkers. So I'm comfortable with this level of Spanish. When I first started inquiring about the program I was told by the director that we didn't need to know any Spanish to enter this program. I wonder if the Spanish parents who don't speak English are a little confused to. I haven't emailed the teacher about this because I figure it can't hurt to do both as long as I feel like I can supply him with the correct Spanish translation. Youtube is very helpful. Some of the videos we watched at home for the Spanish Alphabet and numbers they had watched in class. Smart boards! I'm so jealous we didn't have that in school. Oh, not to mention they have an app that you can download that the teacher records behavior on throughout the day called ClassDojo. Sorry that was off subject a little.
On Tuesday Mason came home and said, "Si means yes in Spanish". This excited me even though it was just "yes".
Wednesday, Mason randomly chanted children's songs in Spanish during his playtime and bath time. I am huge fan of putting music to anything you need to remember. It made a big difference in my Spanish learning. In the 10th grade we had to memorize the preamble to the constitution. That old School Rock version was horrible. I used the Brady Bunch theme song and it worked great! I still remember it today at age 35. I need to Youtube myself doing that. In my Spanish class we did head, shoulder, knees, and toes in Spanish. Loved it!
Thursday, the same. Lot's of singing the songs he learned in class. We spent all Summer talking about Spanish and what it was. Watching Dora the Explorer which had already taught him some words. Our neighbors are at the same school and they are from Mexico and he got to hit a piñata before school started back. I love the piñata song...."Dale, Dale, Dale..."
So as far as regular Kindergarten stuff. Picture day was today. He chose his Lego Batman T-shirt. I turned in his form for Road Runners. It's a short season and it's exercise. Plus it's an opportunity for me to volunteer my time. My Hispanic neighbor, Betty, told me that a lot of Mexican parents just don't care. I hope that the language barrier made her say that wrong. She shouldn't say that. Lot's of American parents don't care either! So I'm glad that she is an involved parent as well. Unfortunately there are a lot of parents who don't care about their child's day or their education. Or maybe they just don't know to be involved because that's not how they grew up. I didn't have involved parents. I was told to bother them and graduate. I was on my own. When I had an extra curricular activity I was on my own. I never had the right clothes on field trips or picture days. I was the only kid who didn't know it was red shirt day. I needed help with homework and couldn't get it. My mom could barely read and write and my father had PTSD from Vietnam War. I could have deeply benefited from an involved parent. My mom didn't even work. But I know that they did the best they could with what they knew so I forgive them. So I learned independence and accountably the hard way, maybe the only way you can learn it. I've learned what not to do with my son. His education is my number one priority. I will be there for him as much as I can. I will always make sure he is engaged. And if he is not, then I will find out how to get him there.
Overall, I would say week one went well. Just glad it's over. I was actually worried that my son might act out in class if he couldn't understand anything. I guess they have all that figured out. From this point on it's just getting into a groove I think. Getting used to getting up early and having to do homework will take a little while longer. So far it hasn't been too bad. My job demands go up and down. One week I might work everyday and another week I may have off. I'm trying balance myself. I want this enthusiasm to last.
I'm going to try to update this every week if there is something interesting to me. If not I will try to update my post bi-weekly or monthly. Below I added the homework the teacher sent home and schedule.
Mandy
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