Spanish Tutoring - Hannah

During this last month we've had the opportunity to work with some Spanish tutors. We had been looking for a while to find someone, but it took time. During December, there were a couple times we found someone, and things looked promising, but then they didn't show up or return our calls. I hear that December tends to be a vacation month--summer break and Christmas--and people like to take it easy; maybe that's why we had so much trouble.

But starting this month, we found Maria Elena and Armando.

Maria Elena comes over for an hour, a couple times a week. We all sit around the table and she speaks almost all Spanish with us. She asks us questions, taking turns with me and the other kids. Sometimes when I see how well the other kids do, I think, man I'm slow.

Talking about verb conjugation and past, present and future tense is a little above Jonah's head. So sometimes he tells me sadly that he doesn't know much Spanish. Yesterday he did his best effort to learn along with us. He was very proud of his cute paper.

The kids have also been going to a weekly language class in town. It's taught by a sweet, grandfatherly man named Armando, who lived in the States for a few years. All the kids in the class but mine are Spanish speakers learning English. I sit in and Armando has me say English phrases every now and then, so the kids can hear how a native English speaker pronounces things. Armando encourages the kids to talk to each other, which is super helpful for my kids and hopefully it will help build their confidence. It's also helpful to have the kids see that even though it's difficult for their classmates to learn English, they're trying.  

I'm hopeful than when school starts up again in a couple weeks, the kids will be better prepared than last year, and will be willing to speak a little more.