Bilingual Frustrations

I am really pulling my hair out! Here I am a conscientious middle class parent trying to make sure that my kids (in the immediate term Lorelei and then later on the two younger ones) have what they need to be successful academically. First of all, I am trying to find resources to educate myself on how to raise and support readers of Spanish. There are differences between English and Spanish and how literacy is taught and learned natively. I'm not having much luck with that. What else am I trying to have at ready for them? High quality books. I am absolutely astounded at the limited options - let alone high quality. I am irritated that most of what I can find are English books translated to Spanish. I don't have any research (yet) to support my belief, only my own experience as a reader in both English and Spanish, that translations read like  a translation. While grammatically correct and thematically the message is conveyed through translation, there is the lyrical aspect missing. Frankly books written in English, translated to Spanish and then read by me - are always easier to follow because they have the English rhythm. Where are the original Spanish books? Hello?! Is anyone listening?! I don't want to dish up recycled leftovers of English books - I want to deliver authentic stories with original themes. No wonder so many Spanish speaking kids in the US don't ever fully embrace the literate side of the language. Besides the lack of easily available resources, they are second rate batardizations! The message rings loud and clear to me that we can dish up our American fare with a twist for Spanish speakers and they should be happy with that. Damn our arrogance.

A short note on a separate but related frustration - learning to read and write in the native fashion is very different from how most programs are structured for second language learning. Forget about the authentic nature of learning a language. Most of the resources that are available are aimed at this segment of the population - the English speaking kids who are trying to pick up some Spanish vocabulary. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Confession

Yesterday in a very casual conversation I learned about an older couple with a daughter already graduated from college. One daughter. No other children. My very first thought was - I wonder if they couldn't have more children or if the one child was adopted. Clearly it doesn't fit in my world order that someone would choose to have just one child. Hmmmm......

There's No Right Way

I'm sure that I am not the only one that occasionally falls into fantasizes about what it would be like to inhabit someone else's life - usually one about my age but without kids. Mostly I think about the difference in money and freedom to be far more selfish. If we didn't have children right now we would be making pretty good money and have plenty of money to spend on traveling the world, a house, scrapbooking (you get a sense of what's important to me!)

The weird thing is that not having my first child until I was 29 seemed like I was waiting, but now at Lorelei's preschool functions, I feel like we are the youngest parents in the crowd. I wonder what the 40 somethings with really young kids are dreaming about? Did they have a great period of selfishness (and let me emphasize that this is not a negative thing but when you only have to consider yourself in decisions that is by definition the luxury of thinking only about oneself) and now they are on to a new chapter without regrets? Do they look at younger parents and think about the differences between what our lives will be like at 50?

There is definitely no one right way to plan out and live one's life, but it is fascinating to think about all the various paths people take from cradle to grave.

John Mayer Concert

Andres' recruiter invited us to enjoy the John Mayer concert from a box last week. It was a wonderful evening out for us. John Mayer is in my top three favorite singers. I love the guitar playing, the pitch and tone of his voice and his lyrics. It was a nice time. It certainly inspired the desire to buy his most recent album! And we couldn't have pulled the evening off so easily if it weren't for our dear friends, Juan and Jenna who took in our daughters for the entire night (this on top of the 1 year old and 3 week old of their own!). Truly great friends.

Allergies?

Lorelei was coughing for several days, but hey it is that time of year and it wasn't anything grave. Then it became more frequent and more spastic. So I took her to the pediatrician so that I wouldn't have to second guess my belief that she wasn't truly sick. I was right - kind of. She wasn't sick but her doctor said that she appeared to be reacting to some kind of allergy - most likely something in the air. So now she has an inhaler, nose drops and something to take orally. I think it is starting to take affect. After tomorrow we'll drop down to just the drops and see if she is okay.