Lana Privitera is the proud Mom of a fun-loving, bilingual "chatterboy" that likes to spice his speeches in English with long-winded Spanish words. Her goal for 2008 is to pack also some French and Italian in his very expandable 3.5 year old brain. Lana still qualifies as a SAHM but uses her "spare" time working as a watercolor artist and Spanish/art teacher.

I’m so, so proud of my son! His Spanish is progressing now at kangaroo jumps  as

opposed to the leaping frog pace of past months ‐I’m spending more time teaching  him and that’s really shows. 

Every sentence he has uttered the last 7 days has one or more Spanish words in it:

“Mama, I like gusanitos. We can buy them una casa grande and they’ll turn into

mariposas.” (That was after watching a commercial where they sell caterpillars that

turn into butterflies)  He’s also starting to talk to himself in Spanish when playing alone. He either sings

the alphabet or counts to 20 while jumping on the couch, or makes his cars talk to

each other: “Para, para! You abajo! No, you arriba!” No need to say that I’m totally

thrilled!  But the best of all is that he’s actually starting to ask me for new words in Spanish so

he can use them in his sentences.  My son thrives in praise so I make sure he gets plenty of it when he uses Spanish

voluntarily. He even gets an occasional Jelly Bean after a specially difficult word

combination  (I was able to completely potty‐train him at 30 months because of his

love for Jelly beans).  For him they are as priceless as free time is for me.

Not two kids are alike and parents might have to use different techniques with each

of their offspring.