RRRRRRRRRoll your RRRRResh!!!

As you know, I am soooo proud of my boys and the Hebrew that they have learned in the past year. "They" say (whoever they is) that kids are like sponges and that they learn so quickly, and I must say, 'they' were right! We got here last July, school started Sept., and by December, the kids were proudly parading in their ganim singing their little hearts out. We were so sick of "Banu choshech...." we used to run when they started to even hum the tune. They've started to incorporate many more Hebrew words into their English. "Matay is Grandma coming?" ,(matay is the hebrew word for when). OH, and their English sentence structure occasionally mimicks hebrew. My big one recently was getting up to go throw something away, "I'm already back!" he told me as he was getting up. Which..........if you translate it directly into hebrew, is correct. But in English, we say of course, "I'll be right back!"

I don't remember when they started correcting my hebrew, but that has started too. "Emah, it's not 'cottage cheese', it's KOHT-edge" the little one has told me many times. I've also been advised by my 6 year old that I don't say my RRRESHs properly. And when hubby told him that I was going to read his story last night (he picked one in hebrew), my son replied, "OH, Emah has learned more now?" gee thanks.

It's amazing though how the kids have acclimated and truly taken on the Israeli accent in their speech, and that ugh, it is starting to mesh into their English. Here are a few examples, mostly from my 4 year old: (author's note: when you see multiple rrrrrrs in a word, read them with an Israeli accent if possible........not as a bunch of R's but instead as a rolled RRRESH)

• my favorite dinosaur is the T-rrrrrex
• don't worry Emah, I'm brrrrrave!
• Abbah, read me the drrrrragon story

and on and on...............

So what's a parent to do??? I mean really, is it healthy to constantly be correcting the kids' speech? I hope so, cuz I give reminders all day, every day. I refuse to think it's hopeless. But I must say with the little one, it is truly COMICAL!!! At 4, he has started to understand fully the differences between speaking "B'anglit" (in English) and "B'ivrit" (in Hebrew). He can correct himself when prompted IF THE DESIRE IS THERE! And lately, he has started to turn it into a joke. Hubby was correcting one of his rrrrrrrrresh-es this evening and reminding him that if he is speaking in English, that he needs to say English words the way they are meant to be said. So, the little one being the clown that he is took this as an opportunity for a laugh and began making up his own words...................

---what's the fire breathing animal in the story? a drrrrrragon
---what's the color of a fire engine? Drrrrrred!
---it's time to go to bed.......... but I'm not Drrrrrrrrr-ired
---ok, give me a kiss goodnight.............. ok, I'll give you a Drrrrrrriss!!!

Such a cutie!!! Or should I say a Drrrrrrrrrrrrutie??? :)