A few weeks ago, Ana informed me that she had “moved up a level” in her Spanish class.

I, of course, had no idea what this meant, as I have no idea what anything regarding her Spanish class means seeing how it’s all in (you guessed it!) Spanish.

A little research, however, revealed that Ana has gone from acquiring the skills to speak Spanish to actually starting to speak Spanish. Of course, when I asked her to speak some Spanish for me, she clammed up and gave me a deer in the headlights look. Perhaps this evaluation she’d been given wasn’t so accurate after all.

I took the girls to Strawberry Park one day after school, letting them run off some energy in the nice weather before we went home to tackle homework and get dinner ready for Papi. While we were there, the girls went over to play with a couple of little girls who had their toddler brother with them. The girls spoke English to my girls and Spanish to their own brother… until Espanol Ana showed up and started speaking Spanish! The girls didn’t seem at all surprised by this (because kids are awesome like that), but their mother and I were both pretty shocked. I mean, there was my tiny white girl, speaking Spanish as if she’d known it from birth! And her accent? Totally not a white girl accent! Unbelievable!

We’re now getting to the point here at home where she’ll write notes to classmates in Spanish, then bring them over to read them to me, in that tiny girl voice, with that perfect little Spanish accent. And Emma, who is not speaking as much as Ana, is understanding just as much, as evidenced by the way she sometimes corrects Ana or offers up a word that Ana has trouble thinking of.

Just mentioning all of this for those who are always asking how it’s going. Anyone know what in the world I can do this summer to keep them hearing and speaking Spanish?