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.

My son is now so proud of his knowledge of Spanish that he has decided to start

coining new words and expressions of his own! He's somehow figured out a few true

grammar rules and he's now applying those rules to words he likes. "Que tomazo!" is

his latest invention. I don't need to ask him what it means: I see clearly that he has

taken the expression "Toma!" (Take that one!) and added the suffix -zo to turn it

into some kind of superlative, like in the expressions: ""Que porra‐zo!...que latazo!...

Que pelma‐zo!"

Unfortunately, the word "tomazo"doesn' t exist yet in the Spanish dictionary, and I

doubt it ever will!

We also have an ongoing battle with the neutral word "mejor" (the best). It's an

invariable word in Spanish but Nickey insists in adding an extra A to the ending

whenever he tells me that I'm the best: "mama, tu eres la mejora!" he'll say

whenever he' in a loving -or begging‐ mood. The problem is that he knows now

that most feminine Spanish words end in A and he's intent in following the rules

faithfully; no exceptions allowed. "Mama, tu eres una chica!"(And, Mom, you

are a girl!) is his final argument.

I usually give up after that. I' rather be la "major/a"than la "peor/a"(the worst) in

his eyes anytime!

‐

Websites for today:

http://www.montessorihome.com/ladybug_es_door.htm (body parts song)

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hispanic/pinata/game.htm

NOTE:  To comment on this or any other blog or forum on this site, you must first register and log in at the top right of the page.