Monthly Archives: December 2009

Photo by Nikstarter This post was originally published on February 18, 2009. One of the biggest challenges we face in our bilingual journey is being consistent and finding ways to nurture the minority language outside the home. No matter which method your family chooses to use–OPOL (One Parent, One Language) or mL@H (Minority Language at Home)–it’s important to have resources and strategies to immerse your child in the second language in fun and playful ways. I know, for a fact,Read More ...

Photo by AndrewEick This post was originally published on July 16, 2009. I absolutely love summer…for a lot of reasons, but mainly because my daughter is a summer baby which means we get to celebrate her cumpleaños outdoors in the melting heat (as opposed to indoors hiding from the snow.) In fact, both Vanessa and Camila were born pretty much in the middle of the summer, so both Ana and I will be celebrating their birthdays pretty soon. This gotRead More ...

The following is a guest post by Marcela Hede and is part of the Your Bicultural Holiday Traditions series. We love Las Navidades! Typically we celebrate the best of both worlds-the American and the Hispanic one.  I try to introduce our Colombian traditions in a fun way for our son Ian to have great memories of them. At home we place a lot of emphasis on three things that help us celebrate Hispanic style. 1.  Building the pesebre or nativityRead More ...

The following is a guest post by Silvia and is part of the Your Bicultural Holiday Traditions series. In a perfect world we would spend every year in Mexico during the Christmas Season. I have wonderful memories of getting together each year at my abuelita’s house, of playing with my cousins, enjoying the posadas, drinking the ponche, smacking the piñatas, praying, rocking baby Jesus, hugging everybody, eating after midnight, and coming back the next day for leftovers. Unfortunately, we haven’tRead More ...

The following is a guest post by Dariela and is part of the Your Bicultural Holiday Traditions series. This year I have a list of traditions and activities I want to make that will help bring together the two cultures we have in our family: Venezuelan and American. Since our son is 3 years old and we have a girl on the way, it is already proving to be fun to start these traditions through the holidays: Christmas Books inRead More ...

The following is a guest post by Adriana Villalobos and is part of the Your Bicultural Holiday Traditions series. We are a bilingual and bicultural family.  I am a “gringa” born and raised in the mid-west to English-speaking parents.  I fell in love with the Spanish language and Hispanic culture while studying in Mexico and Spain during college.  Years later I even became a high school Spanish teacher.  Five years ago I married my wonderful Mexican-American husband.  He was theRead More ...

The following is a guest post from Melissa and is part of Your Bicultural Holiday Traditions series. Alegre vengo de la montaña de mi cabaña que alegre está y a mis amigos les traigo flores de las mejores de mi rosal. Y a mis amigos les traigo flores de las mejores de mi rosal. This song plays in loop in my head all Christmas season long. I learned it in third grade and it takes me back to a veryRead More ...

The following is a guest post by Señora López and is part of the Your Bicultural Holiday Traditions series. Keeping traditions alive in the Familia López poses a unique challenge. I am an Anglo-American, born and raised in the United States with both my father’s Jewish traditions and my mother’s Protestant ones. My husband is Latino, raised in a muy Católico household in El Salvador. As a result, our niños play dreidel on Hanukkah, sing Las Mañanitas to the VirginRead More ...