Field Trip

I drove La Nina's class yesterday on a field trip to the Lindsey Wildlife Museum.  I hadn't been there since I was a child and it was fun to revisit the place.  We saw all sorts of raptors, reptiles and even a few mammals.  We even watched a bob cat eat his lunch, a live rat.  One boy turned really white at the sight, but the rest of the kids did fine.  I don't think they realized the rat was real.  

The best moment of the day came in the car on the way back.  I had 4 girls in my car: two latinas and two non-latinas.  The girls were having a perfectly natural six year old conversation, but I only understood half of it.  The latina girls were speaking Spanish, and the non-latinas were answering them in English.  I don't think it occurred to the kids that they were speaking different languages.  I asked La Nina last night if she understood her friends and she gave me a blank look.

When I explained that it was an unusual conversation, she shrugged her shoulders.  "But Mom," she said.  "We always talk that way.  It's easier."  

So I asked Maggie if kids spoke Spanish to each other in school.  Given that seven of the kids in her class spoke very little English when school started, I assumed they did.   She said that in fact the kids did speak Spanish in her class, and I asked if she understood them.  She wrinkled her nose, "I don't listen to them, Mom."  

"Why?" I asked.  

Maggie rolled her eyes and shook her head.   "I don't talk to the boys, Mom."

Let's hope that trend keeps up for the next 25 years.