Soultravelers—thank you for taking the time to provide lots of tips. I have been thinking about joining a play group in about a month when Sabrina is 3 months. It was really encouraging to hear your particular case…so thank you.

xoxo

We are monolinguals raising a very fluent trilingual/triliterate and the language challenges continue daily ( even though we have helped it greatly by spending time in Spain and soon Asia for her Mandarin).

If you want your child to be fluently bilingual ( not just semi receptive and understanding the spoken language) it will be many years of hard work ( added to the hard work of just parenting). Even native speakers who try often fail at this ( My sister in law was one who tried but didn’t succeed in an all English environment despite having parents that they visited at home country often who did not speak English!) , so give yourself credit.

It is funny how the idea of raising a bilingual or trilingual child is a lot easier than actually doing it. Many try and fail because it is not easy and takes many years of consistent work. I knew I always wanted to raise a multi-lingual child from birth and one that played music ( ours has played piano and violin since 2 and 3 years old) , but I had no idea how much added daily work that would take.

We are traveling through France now, so my daughter is picking up some French just for fun, but we do work daily on her Spanish, Chinese, piano and violin. It’s just become part of our family routine.

The first year with a baby can be very challenging ( ours took over two years to sleep through the night and was never much of a napper). Adding language with consistency will add to your challenge ( my husband did it with our child while I spoke English and it was hard for him as he is not fluent).

BUT it is ALL so worth the hard work and pays off in the end. Day by day, just do what the best you can. We see daily how our efforts and her 3 languages support our child in our travels. She often acts as a bridge between kids who speak different languages and understands different cultures as only someone fluent can.

The good news is you live in an area where there are many who speak the second language and you will have easy access to native speakers. Look for a Spanish speaking baby group. We did that weekly from birth ( with all native Spanish speakers except me, so I was mostly lost in the conversation, but my baby was deeply immersed in an all Spanish environment and gained friends and connections to support her 2nd language).

Good luck and enjoy the great blessing of motherhood!

Don’t forget your language goals, but continue being flexible with them. Especially right now that you’re still in the initial “survival stage.” Right now it’s about sleeping, eating, taking care our yourselves.

What you can start doing to ease you into the Spanish transition is to read and sing to her. Play Spanish music in the background and sing-a-long.

Enjoy the motherhood ride!