Today was Camila’s first day of 1st grade and I missed it. I’m in Houston due to a family emergency that I will share with all of you another day when the time is right, but for now I can share that I had to miss my girl’s first day of school, but am relishing all the beautiful moments we were able to create this summer.

Of course, I was all over my husband making sure he took pictures of this day and sent them to me immediately. And what I saw in those pictures was a very happy and smiley girl surrounded by a few of her best friends. It’s amazing how only one year after she first walked through the kindergarten gates into this new world of dual immersion in Spanish, new faces, rules and even new sounds of different languages all around her since her school has immersion in French, Spanish, German and Italian, she now walks into familiar territory.

I can’t wait to go back home in a few days and have her tell me in person all about her new maestra and how funny and nice she is. I also want to hear all about her amigas and who she ended up sitting next to. I’m even anxious to get back to our crazy routine of trying to get homework done without a few struggles and snuggling up to read our daily books.

I’m counting on her loving school to not only learn what she’s supposed to learn academically, but for it to continue being our ally in immersing her in Spanish. She had much exposure during the summer thanks to trips to México, visits from familia and the amazing Caja de Arte summer camp. She’s much more comfortable speaking Spanish now and it’s starting to come out more and more often and even feels like a preference. Maybe I failed in teaching her how to really read during the summer so she would have an advantage in first grade, but I did succeed in making sure she connected Spanish with many of the things adores: art, performing, familia and making new memories…like these below…

Camila became Frida and Frida became Camila. She learned all about her at the Caja de Arte camp and became seriously obsessed after they performed a play based on Jonah Winter’s children’s book, Frida.

Lucky for her, a few weeks after she performed Frida her Papi took her to México and they went to the Casa Azul, per Camila’s request!

The trip to México was all about the primos. She’s even talking with the same accent they have!

The prima from El Salvador came to visit with Abuelita. Many, many memories were made then.

We even managed to squeeze in live music with our favorite friends and performers like Sara!

Se nos acabó el verano and 1st grade is awaiting us with much more to learn, live and love…y todo con mucho español!

What are some of your best memories from the summer and are you all ready for back to school?

Photo courtesy: JAG Photography

My four-year-old daughter, Vanessa, just finished two weeks of an immersion language summer camp…in FRENCH! I’ve been wanting her to go there since last summer, but things didn’t really work out the way I’d plan them and so we had to wait until this year. And, I’m actually glad we did!

French is my third language and I’ve spoken to Vanessa in French in the past although not in a consistent or structured way. In fact, before her brother was born and when I used to stay home with her, I signed her up for toddler French lessons at our local Alliance Fraçaise. Although she was too little, I’m glad I did because she did get some exposure to the way the language sounds. So, she was not hearing it for the first time when she attended the French Summer Camp at Denver Montclair International School – the full immersion bilingual private elementary school in the city.

Each of the two weeks she spent immersed in French from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. had a different theme. The first week it was all about water – they even went on a field trip to the pool! Since I knew about the themes before hand, I made sure to incorporate the vocabulary she was learning each day on our way back home from camp. One of the things that stuck the most that first week was a song she was talk about a little boat. She also learned how to say “Bonjour”, “Aurevoir” and “Je m’appelle Vanessa.”

The second week, which was the last week of the camp, the theme was back-to-school. So it was perfect because she was taught the basics: numbers, colors, shapes and letters. What stuck the most this time around were the numbers.

I must say I was extremely proud of her when she announced, to no one in particular, at the end of the first week of camp: “Yo hablo tres idiomas. Españo, inglés y francés.” (“I speak three languages. Spanish, English and French.”).

Want her to prove it to you? Check her out in this video I took of her over the weekend:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l_LWuqrLPU

From the start, I knew she probably wouldn’t learn a lot because, after all, two weeks is really nothing when it comes to language learning. But, I did know that the exposure would be a great way for me to transition into a more formal situation where I’ll actually be more consistent about teaching Vanessa a third language. And, to that end, if you follow us on Twitter, you might have already learned that we are incredibly excited about our new partnership with Little Pim. I’ll let you know more of the details very, very soon, but for now, suffice it to say that I’ll be using all of Little Pim’s materials in my journey to start Vanessa on her third language and I’ll be documenting her progress right here during her first three months. Although I know it’s not going to be easy, I have a willing participant and I’m work hard to remember, above all, that we need to make it fun!

What do you think about the idea of exposing your children to a third language? Any tips for us as we embark on this incredibly exciting journey?