Spanish reading

E is desperate to earn back some of her allowance. She already lost another dime for lying to mummy 2 days ago. Straight away, she wanted to know what she could do to reverse that penalty. She offered to be good, to help and to clean her room. I countered that these are all things she should be doing anyway and to do otherwise would penalize her more. She pressed for something and I told her that I would think about it. After sleeping on it the night before last, I figured out something that she could do, that she doesn't often do, that I would totally love for her to do: read her Spanish books.

When I told her this yesterday morning, she gave me an "aw mom" and a "how about I read French books instead?" to which I told her that reading her French books is homework and does not qualify for reinstatement of lost portions of her allowance. Spanish books will help her recognize Spanish words and improve her speech (she already reads out loud every time she reads a book which will be a huge benefit to her reclaiming her mother tongue). She protested a little more "but I don't know how to read in Spanish" to which I replied, "you have Spanish tag books and Spanish leappad books. Listen to them and learn how to pronounce the words."

This morning, before breakfast, E took out her Spanish books, turned on her tag reader and listened to them being read to her. She made a point of telling me at breakfast. We will go over some of the pages tonight and if that goes well, she will have earned back ten cents.