I am in some need of help! I am the (only) Spanish teacher at a private PK- 6th school. I see students starting in K (once a week for 30 minutes), 1st (2x week for 30 minutes), and 3rd-6th (2x out of a 6 day rotation for 30 minutes). I have a number of bilingual students and am at a loss with what to do with them during class. We use the Symtalk program for grades K-4 and a MSRead More ...
I’m trying to raise bilungual kids as well. I have a 4yr old daughter and a 1yr old son. I feel like a total failure when it comes to my daughter speaking Spanish. She’s fallen behind and she’s also extremely strong willed so it’s tough for me to teach her. She understands Spanish and will say single words. As for forming sentences, well that’s the issue. I know the best way for her to learn is by applying games and making it fun. I just don’t knowRead More ...
My son is 18 months old, and he’s been in daycare since he was 4 months. His daycare is mostly English, but they also do sign language. At home we speak 90%+ Spanish, but we work full time. My struggle: his vocabulary is expanding and it’s becoming a lot harder to focus on Spanish at home when he comes home saying “hat” and pointing, or “ball,” etc. We are so excited to hear these new words but want to reinforce SpanishRead More ...
My husband and I are trying the one parent, one language method with our 1 year old daughter in Atlanta. I speak to her in Spanish, while he speaks to her in English. She also goes to a trilingual (Spanish, French and Mandarin) preschool three days a week in Atlanta. I consider myself a near-native Spanish speaker, having lived and gone to school in Spain and Chile for 8+ years while growing up. However, while my accent may be indistinguishableRead More ...
“Hello and how are you? I just happened upon your site and love it. I have an older child now who is learning Spanish in middle-school, after French immersion in elementary, but am emailing to you as a Spanish teacher for young children. I have spent my professional career teaching Spanish to high school-aged students and older. However, now I am working with a few friends’ children; their parents want them to be exposed to Spanish and to become possiblyRead More ...
Hi, my name is Erin, and my husband and I are raising our almost-2-year-old bilingual, using no real method. My native language is English, my husband’s is Spanish. We decided against OPOL because I am a SAHM and I spend the most time with our son (my husband is often gone for weeks at a time for work). My native language is English, so if we did OPOL, my son would get VERY little exposure to Spanish. For the mostRead More ...
Dear Expert, My husband and I are native Chinese. My son goes to an English environment daycare/preschool since he was 18 month. Now he is 4 years old and speaks both Chinese and English. Next year we have an opportunity to go to a Spanish Immersion elementary (K-5) school. Students in the Spanish immersion school receive the majority of their instruction in Spanish. English is introduced in third grade for one hour a day. We think Spanish will be veryRead More ...
Editors Note: This post was originally published January 13,2010. Today´s question was sent by Chris Cannon: “What are the advantages/disadvantages of full immersion school versus half-immersion school? Background: We have boy/girl twins who have attended (full) Spanish immersion preschool for the last two years (totalling 4-7 hours/week of exposure). Neither my husband nor I are bilingual, though I do know some Spanish and have been improving on it and using it more“ Dear Chris: If your long-term goal is thatRead More ...
