Bragging rights:

Today was the last day of my private classes. I am finished (except for a few who want summer classes) until late September or October. This coming year I want to organize myself better and have more of a "curriculum" for my little kid classes, but this year has been a good one despite being somewhat directionless. Even though all my education classes warn against not having objectives (they're right of course), I know that my kids have learned a lot; and more importantly they've had FUN in English. At the very least they're learning to like the language.

So I just have a few quick stories to share as proof that the rug rats have learned a thing or two:

One of the mothers shared a great story with me today. Apparently over the weekend they were thinking about beating the heat by getting ice cream, but didn't want to say "ice cream" (in Spanish) because their two-year-old son would start begging. The dad used English as code and said something along the lines of "yo quiero eye-cree". Their daughter (just turned five and has class with me), turned around on the couch and said, "yo quiero de nata, pero papá, así está mal dicho. No se dice 'eye-cree', es 'ice cream'!" (That is: "I want vanilla, but dad, that's not how you say it. It's not 'eye-cree', it's ICE CREAM!) Needless to say her dad was impressed.

I'm only slightly disappointed that she didn't bust out with "I want nata"...because I did teach them that, but I suppose you can only expect so much. ;)

In my classes we always do a little warm up asking "how are you?" and different random questions. Today I asked a little girl how she was and she answered, "hot". I chuckled (it's already pretty damned hot here...getting into the nineties every day) and answered, "me too." Another little girl, all of her own accord, piped up with "me three!". ;)

Isn't that cool?!

I have NEVER said, "me three" in class. I was impressed that she made the connection with the number two...even though obviously she doesn't know the difference between too and two, it still shows that a) she was listening to her classmate, and b) she understood that I was agreeing by saying "too/two" and that logically, three follows two and must therefore be what a third party would respond! :) I couldn't help laughing and giving a high five for that one.

So although my kids are all exceptionally bright (of course!), I still like to think that I'm doing a good job laying the foundation for their future in English. They're picking up basic, solid communication skills in class instead of just vocab. :)

That's all.