SPLASH Luncheon in Columbia

I drove all the way to Columbia listening to Tim Dorsey's Atomic Lobster. Them audiobooks sure make the driving go faster. I barely remember the trip at all except that there seemed to be a lot of cars in my way. Audiobook + cruise control = Little Old Lady from Pasadena. Gracious goodness, there was a parking place right in front of the State Library in the shade! Sure, I had to fill the meter with quarters, but it was right in front and in the shade!!!! For some reason it would not take the maximum amount of quarters and I figured I'd have to hop out towards the end of lunch or during a break and refeed. In the end, I didn't need to. It didn't last quite as long as I thought (or else I got more for my money than I expected) and when I returned to the car, I had two minutes left. I was tempted to sit there for it. Ha ha! Love getting my money's worth!

The program started with a sharing of ideaaaa of programmmm (to be fair, our speaker barely had time to cover her material in the amount of time given). Someone had done a Dora the Explorer themed program and had dressed up like her. Hmmm, sounds like a job for Bren. I was asked by my neighbor if there wasn't a copyright on that character that would be a problem and I opined that as it was PBS, they were probably more lenient than, say, Disney, who will hunt you down and squeeze the life out of you for painting Mickey on the wall of your daycare. Anyway, this program had dancing and exercise as a part of it. The kids were excited as all hell to see Dora. She hadn't realized the popularity of the character. Yes, well, Arthur was just about swamped when he was at our library.

The speaker at the luncheon was Oralia Garza de Cortés who had many recommendations for children's books in Spanish (quite a few of which we have already). She gave us the history of Día de los niños, which started during tenure of the most progressive of the Mexican presidents ... in 1924. I suppose Woodrow Wilson wasn't available to prevent it.

Garza shared with us things she has learned in her experiences with bi-lingual educations. Oh, sorry. We aren't allowed to use that term anymore because it's politically charged. Ahem, her experiences in Early English Learning. That's better. She went to school herself at a time when Spanish was forbidden in school. Hmm, I wonder how that worked in Spanish class. Studies Have Shown (I love that!) that language abilities transfer from one language to another. It is perfectly fine to use your native language in speaking to your young children because they will acquire language abilities along with the specific language. She regrets that the Every Child Ready to Read program does not translate to Spanish. She thinks ALA and PLA should work on that. That's not to say that the materials such as posters have not been translated into Spanish, but the practices used in storytimes are not adapted to the Spanish language and good books to use that are in Spanish or English/Spanish aren't listed.
A quick review of the ECRR practices in my head along with what little I know about Early Spanish Learning yields the following examples. In Spanish, you don't really separate consonants from vowels. Words are broken down by syllables: di -fí -cil. Rhymes in Spanish aren't quite the same as in English. You rhyme the vowel sounds, not the combination of vowel and consonant. Vida and encima rhyme. Besides, Spanish is just sooo much easier and more organized than English. There are actual spelling rules that are in force all the time. The letter "I" will always be pronounced the same way, like our long E. Spanish is almost understandable with 50% of the consonants missing: ¿’Omo e’tá u’té? Whereas in English, we can throw out most of the vowels: Djeet? Whadjeet? I had a German teacher who waved her hand airily and said that all you had to do was substitute some slightly different vowels to go from German to English and back. It doesn't quite work that easily, but every now and then I see what she meant. The point I'm making is that you're listening for different things in these languages. Translating ECRR into Spanish would require a whole separate system. Maybe they can just swipe something from Spanish education.
Garza adds that is it not just the home language that needs to be taken into account, but the cultural background and she directed us to the NAEYC statement which goes pretty much as follows:

The acquisition of language is essential to children’s cognitive
and social development. Regardless of what language
children speak, they still develop and learn. Educators recognize
that linguistically and culturally diverse children come to early
childhood programs with previously acquired knowledge and
learning based upon the language used in their home. For
young children, the language of the home is the language they
have used since birth, the language they use to make and
establish meaningful communicative relationships, and the
language they use to begin to construct their knowledge and test
their learning. The home language is tied to children’s culture,
and culture and language communicate traditions, values, and
attitudes (Chang 1993). Parents should be encouraged to use
and develop children’s home language; early childhood educators
should respect children’s linguistic and cultural backgrounds
and their diverse learning styles. In so doing, adults will enhance
children’s learning and development.
...
Each child’s way of learning a new language should be
viewed as acceptable, logical, and part of the ongoing
development and learning of any new language.
Responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity Recommendations for Effective Early Childhood Education A position statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children Adopted November 1995

Or something like that.

She suggested that we provide brochures on the Rights of Immigrants (because they do have them, no really) as well as information on financial literacy. The Bank of America no longer requires a driver's license to open an account. Something like that would be helpful for guests in our country to know.

She provided lists of books for "noches de cuentos" (evening storytimes), suggested "ferias del libros" (book fairs) and pointed out that a parent literacy workshop has to be café con cuentos and that the café part is essential. None of this filthy iced tea. (Hough!)

Interesting point: Because she knows Yuyi Morales, author of Just a Minute! that we used recently in our puppet show for Día de los niños, she was able to ask her where the idea for Grandma Beetle came from. I mean, why Beetle? Apparently, in Xalapa, where Morales is from, there is this large, dark beetle she wanted to commemorate. Silly me, I thought she was a ladybug and when I tried to translate the story a couple of years ago, I called her Mariquita.
And I'll end with a quote from Gabriela Mistral (not the one about "Cuando una espina me hiere ..." that I usually go on about) she shared with us:
"Many things can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is Today."

Notable books:
Family Pictures by Carmen Lomas Garza
Nochecita by Yuyi Morales
From Here to There by Margery Buyler
Cri Cri by Francisco Gabilondo Soler
The Pot that Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel