The Spanish Girls

We've had a low key summer around here- mostly because Isla is so brand new and we wanted to be at home as much as possible so she could sleep and we could enjoy her.  It's been wonderful to sleep in and be lazy and just have family time.  But of course we couldn't just stop the boy's learning entirely so we set up a few weekly/daily events to keep their skills up.

First:  Daily reading together and separately.

Second:  Math and reading workbooks.

Third: Spanish Girls!!!

The past 2 summers, Ethan has attended his spanish preschool a few afternoons each week.  But since I didn't want to be tied to a driving schedule and since Ethan was really NOT excited to go back to a preschool after being a 1st grader, and especially since we didn't want to pay for 2 boys to attend, Taylor came up with another idea.  

The whole premise behind immersion is that you learn just by talking and experiencing things.  So the boys didn't really need to be in a classroom to learn.  Taylor's mother runs a charter high school here in Salt Lake so we asked her if she'd recommend some girls who are native spanish speakers who might like to earn a little extra cash.  She found the perfect girls- sisters in fact- Yanelli and Durelli.  How cute is that?  Their names rhyme.  

They came to us (yeah!  no driving) two afternoons a week and worked one on one and in a group with Ethan and Isaac.  Every day I gave them a short outline of books to read together in spanish, puzzles to put together, games to play, art projects to do, sports to play outside, and crafts to make.  Really it wasn't too hard since the dollar store is chalk full of fun, cheap little activities.
The boys LOVED it!  And I LOVED it!  They spoke spanish for 2 hours straight- mostly and they had fun.  Often the girls would bring them treats which they of course loved.

I tried to stay out of the way mostly and didn't take any pictures besides the first one.  Here's a few of their art projects though.
Creating a pirate scene with crayons and stickers.  Each day had a new theme:  firemen, shapes, pirates, knights, vehicles, art, music, cooking, animals, athletes, dinosaurs, workers (police, etc), gardens and insects, construction, teachers and school, space, aliens, airplanes.  I think it really helped their vocabulary to grow by spending a day doing projects around each theme.

And making their names by first using masking tape and then painting on top and then peeling it off.

Miles called them the "spanis gu-wools" and was sad every day when I put him down for a nap and he realized he was missing out on the fun.  Towards the end of July he even started insisting that he wanted to come and that he COULD "speak spanis" so he should be able to go.  Maybe next summer bucko!