Comments on: Two Languages, Many Methods

By: Melany

Melany — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:08:09 +0000

Hola! I have just found this fantastic site, I am a mother of two, a 4 year old boy and a 2 year old girl soon to be mum of 3. We live in Australia and as you can imagine the exposure to spanish here is zero to none. I have been living in australia now for 20 years so even if spanish is my first language and I speak it perfectly I have really struggled to teach it to my kids it just doesn’t seem to come natural to me anymore. my husband can say a few words 50 or so and is really encouraging but my main issue now is my family back in peru can’t communicate with the kids. I always felt they would pick up bits and pieces from trips over there but its not enough. the kids can say a few words count to 10 and the basic animals, family members. my main issue is I can’t really find any information on how start pushing spanish more now for older kids, i try sometimes like i might say “porfavor cierra la puerta” and my four year old is like whats that! I know I’ve left it late but I guess never late than never just not sure if there is any information on slowly introducing a minority language at home for children over 2. there is no school, kindy or anything relating to spanish here in perth, you can’t even study spanish in high school as an elective which I think is really sad. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, I know I have created this problem by not starting sooner but I am willing to try now.

By: Ana Flores

Ana Flores — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:41:57 +0000

So glad you found us and definitely looking forward to connecting more and sharing our experiences. ¡Bienvenida a la familia!

By: NADIA

NADIA — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:37:10 +0000

I found Spanglish baby a few weeks ago and I’m so glad I did. I have two boys, a 7 year-old and a 10 month-old, and I want them both to be bilingual. My husband is American and doesn’t speak Spanish. This a great site to come for advice and tips. Looking forward to reading more!

By: gonorrhea

gonorrhea — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:55:10 +0000

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By: carla

carla — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:03:45 +0000

As a parent and a bilingual educator these ideas are definitely close to my heart. Both my husband and I are Spanish speakers (his first language, my second language) and were determined to bring up our daughters bilingually, and did. When the older one turned 4 and went to school in English (we opted for a public Montessori school without bilingual education but were committed to Spanish at home) she came back telling her stories in English, we stuck to Spanish. By the time the second daughter went to school (2 years later) we were starting to drift into English more and more. What we decided to do was step up the opportunities in Spanish in our home and travels, rather than feel like we were forcing something. Now my older daughter is in college and younger is a junior in HS. They are both bilingual, although the older one is less fluent (surprising to me!). We’ve tried to maintain the opportunities for them. For example, travelling only to Spanish speaking countries (Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador) and we started a “family band” that plays Venezuelan folk music, etc. It’s worked pretty well for us, I know they both have enough Spanish that if an opportunity comes in life for them to strengthen it (a bilingual job, overseas work experience) they will flourish.

In my work with low income families I have often had to explain to parents that they are in no way hurting their child by speaking exclusively in their native language to them. I guarantee them that their child will learn English in school, and will be much readier for that transition and success in school if they enter with strong native language skills. We always give them the option to do our program http://www.unt.edu/hippy in English or Spanish and it’s always painful to see a parent choose English when their own English is not strong enough to make it successful. We give them the opportunity to experience that on their own though, refer them to ESL classes and just support them in any way we can.

Thanks for the great discussion and blog!

By: Beth Ortuño

Beth Ortuño — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:34:07 +0000

Ines and Lucho, I think Amy’s post has the key. My daughter has gone to middle school and high school here in Houston, Texas where she’s had many Hispanic friends. I think there’s an incredible variety of Spanish fluency — or not. There are some who arrived in the USA when they were already school age and were exposed to zero English before then, but then at some point they stopped actually speaking Spanish, and never learned to read and write it correctly. There are others who were born in the USA but are fully bilingual and would be ready if they want to go to college in Spain and study literature. The difference from what I’ve seen was not the school or the neighborhood, but rather the family.

By: SpanglishBaby-Simple Tips for when Your Child Refuses to Use Minority Language

SpanglishBaby-Simple Tips for when Your Child Refuses to Use Minority Language — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:55:33 +0000

[...] we live in Colorado! As I’ve mentioned in the past, I helped raise my now 18-year-old stepson using the mL@H method, but we actually lived in Miami where you are truly surrounded by all things Hispanic, including [...]

By: Ask, Share, Explore at the New SpanglishBaby Forums!

Ask, Share, Explore at the New SpanglishBaby Forums! — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:28:16 +0000

[...] and share with other parents that are using the same or similar methods as your family. We all learn from each other so much..so let’s [...]

By: We Must Be Doing Something Right…

We Must Be Doing Something Right… — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:25:39 +0000

[...] than many of our SpanglishBaby’s readers. As I’ve said in the past, although we use the mL@H method, we don’t really do it in a conscious effort to teach our daughter Spanish, but because this [...]

By: SpanglishBaby-Ask an Expert: Does my Son Have a Speech Delay Because He's Bilingual?

Tue, 05 May 2009 07:07:41 +0000

[...] question was sent by Claudia McGlothlin who´s raising two children using the OPOL (One-parent-one-language) [...]