Joshua Enters Kindergarten

In August, Joshua started Kindergarten in a Dual Immersion Spanish program at a local elementary school. A huge shift for our family. His instruction is 90% Spanish and 10% English. (This ratio of Spanish to English will gradually increase until it's 50/50 by 3rd grade and beyond in order to build biliteracy in both languages.) At first it was frustrating forJoshua, but his vocabularly quickly expanded and he's now rattling off thoughts in Spanish to Mommy and proud to translate words to Spanish or German for his little brother. Meanwhile, Jochen started an intensive Spanish course on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the local Junior College. Although Jochen and Joshua continue to speak to each other in German only (to the extent feasible) to reinforce the German, learning Spanish is something Jochen has wanted to do for a long time and this allows him to help Joshua with his homework, better communicate with Joshua's teacher, etc.