bilingual? trilingual? try triliterate! and throw in some trying behaviors.

Friends near and far, in person and online, have asked me how Griffin is doing at Escuela Bilingue Pioneer, his English/Spanish dual language immersion school, and what that means for his French.  I'll tell you (and it might sound like we're showing off--but then you'll see that I'm not).

a trilingual letter for me in February 2014: "I love you a lot mom thank you for leving me notes in my lunch box.  gracias  Love, Griffin  P.S. Hope you have a graete day.  je teme mamon."  I think I'll leave this on the fridge until he graduates from high school!

Two-thirds of the way through his kindergarten year, he communicates clearly in Spanish, both orally and in writing.  He reads at nearly the second grade level--in his third language, mind you!--and understands his teachers and classmates as well as he reads, maybe better, although I'm not sure how he would handle, say, watching cartoons in Spanish, or conversing with people he doesn't know.

He can also communicate in writing in Spanish:

"I like to play with my friends at recess.  I like to watch Broncos games.  I like to read with my family."

This school year, Griffin has read 95 books in Spanish at home (easy readers at the G, H, I levels, plus some picture books) and written one, two, or three sentences about them using prompts from the teacher (mostly "what this book reminds me of") in his reading journal.

(Griffin goes to a first grade class for literacy instruction each day--the school doesn't actually expect kindergarteners to do reading and writing homework!)

90% of his instruction is in Spanish--the school teaches the kids to read and write in Spanish first, English later--so I don't actually know what his English reading level is.  But he devours books, both fiction and nonfiction, with the Magic Treehouse series being his hands-down favorite.

Griffin's first chapter book!  He picked it out as a prize at the library last summer and then started reading it to himself.

He also has started participating in my Reading Buddies program at the public library and meeting monthly for a parent-led book club!  (Both in English.)

Brainstorming at book club before acting out a readers' theatre version of The Stinky Cheese Man

His teacher has been giving him one-on-one math instruction in multiplication and division in Spanish, but he does the problems in English.  He and I play math games in French on my iPad, and he talks about these in English, too.  His numbers in French are weaker than his numbers in the other two languages, especially above 60.

In fact, it is fair to say that all his skills, except perhaps listening comprehension, are stronger in Spanish than in French at this point (and strongest in English, obviously).  However, he does read in French too, and he has even attempted to write in French:

a thank-you note to a francophone friend, February 2014

"Emile meci pur le livre de magic tree house jeme bucues les lir ton amis Griffin."  ("Merci pour le livre.  J'aime beaucoup les lire.  Ton ami Griffin.")

English is where he excels, though:

apology letter to a classmate, March 2014

"Dear Jorge, Sorry I hit you in the library.  I was trying to get to the palitos.  I should have waited for you to get out of the way.  And I am not supposd to run in the library or inside.  And David [the librarian] should pick who takes the palitos.  I am also sorry for when I tagged you too hard in china [a recess game] and the other times I hit you.  I wont do that again.  From Griffin."

"All the other times I hit you"???!!!

This is why I haven't written much about his schooling this year; we have been too busy dealing with his unexpected behavior challenges.  And this is why I can promise you that this post is not intended to brag about Griffin's school skills--because if he can't share markers with his classmates, chat with them in the lunch line, or ask to join their games at recess, it doesn't matter how many languages my son speaks.