A Special Time with Austin...

           

           “ALEXA,  how do you say owl in Spanish?”  asks Austin.

             ALEXA answers …búho which is correct. 

            “ALEXA, how do you say avestruz in English?”  asks Austin.

            “Ostrich,” replies ALEXA in the background.

            The first time Austin did this while we were having a Spanish session on Facetime, I was speechless …but just for a moment. Recovering quickly I thought, “why not?”  I have an ALEXA but most of the time I forget it’s there to ask what I want to know.  I use my library research skills to look things up on Google. Although it's faster to have Alexa give an answer, the truth is that Alexa makes it feel too easy. I can see that in the modern world the ease and quickness of everything is what counts. ( I wonder what Austin's Mundo Verde teacher would say about asking Alexa.)

            Realizing that Austin was missing out on his Spanish Language immersion at Mundo Verde Charter School during the pandemic, I suggested we should do some weekly sessions together  Now, meeting with Austin in Spanish on Facetime has become the most satisfying thing I do all week.  I welcome the chance to speak Spanish as I give Austin a half hour to 45 minute lesson all in Spanish.  Being home-schooled during the pandemic has put him in a world of all English except when he goes online to do some of the daily lessons on the Mundo Verde website. 

             I have watched his Mundo Verde teachers online greet their Kindergartners with warmth and enthusiasm as if they were all in a their regular classroom.  I have learned that immersion means just that….they do every lesson ALL in Spanish stopping to explain things and repeat several times but never switching to English.  Austin is quite comfortable with it all as he is with me although I am far less skilled than Ms. Gaby, his teacher.

            Some weeks have been challenging keeping him engaged for a lesson online.  Some days Austin is very focused and he is like a sponge responding to the activity I plan.  Other days he has his “wiggly” times and I know he needs to move around. 

            I started with teaching him some jokes and riddles in Spanish as I combed the Internet for easy ones for him to learn.  I know Austin, and he loves to tell jokes in English.  

            Question:  Porqué cruzó la calle, Superman?

            Answer:  Porqué tenia que ir al supermercado….

            Why did Superman cross the street?  Because he had to go to the supermarket!  This is just Austin’s level.  He learned it in Spanish a few weeks ago …. and giggled. So I knew he got it. 

            Today, Austin said , “Grandma I will tell you a riddle in Spanish.”  It was the Superman one he had learned a few weeks ago.  He got that one and still giggles delightedly when he tells it. 

            I have collected Spanish materials to work with him and it’s the nonfiction easy books he likes best.  I’ll read a few pages and ask him to draw a picture or two of  things he learned.  On his “wiggly” days Scavenger Hunts in Spanish work great.  I make a list of 10 things in Spanish and he has to go look for each thing, show it to me, and tell me about it in Spanish, of course. 

            “Austin, busca algo que empieza con la letra ‘l’, I tell him.

            He goes around the living room, dining room and kitchen thinking and then comes back with a book.

            “Es un libro,” he tells me.  Libro  starts with the letter l.

            “Busca una cuchara grande,” I tell him.  He comes back from looking in the kitchen with a big spoon in hand showing me it’s a cuchara grande. 

            “Busca algo con tu nombre” I direct him.  He thinks for a minute, gets excited and runs upstairs.  He’s back in a flash with his Austin’s World book, the photo book I make for him every year.

            “Aquí está mi nombre,” he says as he points to his name in big letters on the front cover. 

            Now I relax and have fun with him. Sometimes he takes me in directions I wasn’t planning to go.  Today as I read the book on animals with wings, he suddenly disappeared and came back with a big loose-leaf binder.  I learned that this is his Nature Journal he’s been keeping on his own.  He wanted to show me some of his drawings and read me his short stories about different animals.  It was ALL done in Spanish.  He delights in nature – animals, insects, plants of any sort but he also is very comfortable writing short sentences in Spanish.  

            I listened to his excitement not only for the creatures and natural habitats he was telling about but because he was doing it in Spanish.  I could tell he loves that extra challenge.

 Austin sharing his Nature Journal with me...

            School is almost out and he will have finished Kindergarten. The summer of unknowns because of the Coronavirus pandemic lies ahead.  I hope we can continue our Facetime fun each week while he’s home in Washington D.C. and I am here in Asheville. 

            When I next see Austin in person I will ask him,  “Porqué esta triste el cuaderno de matemáticas?

            I can hear him answer me,  “Porque tiene muchos problemas.”

            We learned that riddle a few weeks ago and knowing Austin, he will remember it as he does most jokes he likes to tell.

          I like knowing I'm Austin's Spanish speaking Grandma...it's a special thing we share and always will.