Back to {Bilingual} School Week

{© SpanglishBaby Media}

By tomorrow, the majority of school-aged children in this country will be back in school. My daughter has already been back for more than a month, since her school follows a modified school calendar which means she gets more time off during the year and has a shorter summer. Most kids went back in mid-August, but many of them are relishing their last few hours of summer break.

While back to school tends to make a lot of moms – and many kids, depending on their age – very happy, it can also be a very difficult time for those of us unable to send our children to a dual language immersion school. Therefore, we’ve decided to dedicate this whole week to the topic of what going back to school means for those of us raising bilingual children.

In my house, back to school was pretty momentous because Vanessa entered Kindergarten. A milestone for sure, but one that comes with many challenges because for the first time in her short life she is exposed to English the majority of her waking hours. In the past month, her English vocabulary has definitely expanded, but I can’t really say I’ve seen any huge changes just yet. I’m not naive enough to think they’re not coming, though.

I imagine I’ll be doing a lot of writing this school year as English continues to permeate Vanessa’s life and I work to make sure Spanish continues to be her daily bread.

In the next few days, we’ll have something for everyone from homeschooling to older kids with tips for succeeding in a dual language program in between! We’ll even have a Back to School recipe and a giveaway every day this week, including a huge one for an HP Pavillion dv6 laptop which starts today!