Comments on: Sneaky Spanish Lessons

By: Giselle

Giselle — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 22:19:07 +0000

gracias por compartir tus experiencias!
vivo en Hawaii donde casi no se escucha el castellano, asi que a mi hija “le meto” el castellano con juegos ( ella tiene dos ahnos). contamos los escalones ( 1 al 21), digo los nombres de frutas en el supermercado, y cada vez que dice algo en ingles, yo lo repito en castellano.
trying to keep it “natural” while speaking with her… but I can see my battles in the future since my daugther is also a little “cabeza dura”!

By: Paquita

Paquita — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:01:01 +0000

I am biracial; my mother is black and my father is from santiago de cuba. despite having a desperately long cuban name my father did not want me to learn spanish. at first this bothered me quite a bit. however, i am to realize that he thought he was helping me. after my parents split, at 6, i never spoke spanish again. until one day i was attempting to understand a mexican immigrant. amazingly i begin to speak in broken conversational spanish. some words i did not even think i knew–especially the slang. lol.

im still not fluent. only mexicans & hondurans live around me so my family picks on me horribly about my mexican accent. i am desperately trying to become better. its quite difficult when you have little interaction besides phone conversations back home.

congrats on teaching ur children. i wish my father had done the same!

By: Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog

Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:00:59 +0000

You guys are all sneaky! And you give me great ideas.
Also, Jen…I have seen my girl get all proud when she helps translate for another kid, so perhaps she’s not as reluctant as I fear. Love your kid!

Thanks y’all and thanks to Ana and Roxana for the welcome mat! I love Spanglish Baby!

By: Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog

Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:58:37 +0000

Ody, my grandmother used to kick us out of the house if we spoke English…and in Miami, you don’t want to get kicked out in 95-degree temps, so all of the cousins and I spoke Spanish, for sure. My kid doesn’t get that from her Abuelitos…Ay.

By: Roxana S.

Roxana S. — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:44:14 +0000

I love board games. I’m going to have to check out your suggestions, though, because I think my daughter is at that age where she’s starting to understand how to play them. The only one we have is Zingo! and we bought it either at ToysRUs or Walmart – can’t remember.

Carrie, thanks for such a great vlog! I’m so happy for you that your daughter had such an awesome idea.

I can’t imagine how it’ll be when my daughter refuses to speak Spanish. She’s almost 4 and there are absolutely no signs of that yet. I imagine it’ll come when she starts school… and I’ll have all these great ideas to help me deal with it! Thanks to all!

By: Tricia

Tricia — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:34:11 +0000

Yes, yes! I agree. We like Manzanas con Manzanas, which you can find if you search for it by name on Amazon. We also like Derrota a los Padres, although that one has pretty frequent cultural references that go right over my head! Barnesandnoble.com has Cadoo and Conga in Spanish as well, both for 19.95. I haven’t tried either of those yet, but I have my eye on them!

By: Jen Manriquez

Jen Manriquez — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:08:14 +0000

Love this post Carrie! What a fun idea your daughter had at the beach!! My husband and I too, noticed a major shift in attitude with both of our kids at about age 3 or 4 with their willingness to speak Spansih. We too have resorted to sticker charts, bribes, etc at times. But I am happy to say that at age 8 1/2 my daughter is again excited about her ability to speak Spanish. I think she has an awareness that comes with this age, that being bilingual is really cool. Her monolingual friends and parents often ask her teach them and she is very proud of her skills. She also really is into listening and singing popular Latin music… her current faves are songs by Juanes, Shakira and Carlos Vives. My 5 year old son on the other hand is still ‘contra la corriente”. I know he too, eventually will come around. We are constantly speaking in Spanish, playing in Spanish, listening to music, and yes sneaking it in whenever we can! Thanks for a post that we can all relate to! Check my daughter out on my latest blog post (it was her idea to model the songs for our students. Yippee!). http://www.bilingualfun.blogspot.com.

By: Ana Lilian

Ana Lilian — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:36:18 +0000

Love this story because it just goes to prove that our kids do absorb everything we do and our efforts never go to waste.
Sneaky in the best way possible.

By: american and Hispanic latino couples on faceook

american and Hispanic latino couples on faceook — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:58:47 +0000

My husband speaks exclusively in Spanish, I speak in both English and Spanish all day long.
American and Hispanic Latino Couples on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=104100832536&ref=mf

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:09:32 +0000

Boardgames… I have found ¿Advina Quién? and Cadoo both at our local Walmart. Also, Amazon has several as well. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=spanish+board+games&x=0&y=0&sprefix=spanish+board Kids don’t even realize they’re speaking in Spanish because they’re having so much fun.