Suzanne Garcia Mateus is the proud mami of a one-plus-year old little girl whom she is ambitiously trying to raise with three languages. Her research interests as a doctoral student in bilingual and bicultural education and life experiences growing up with Mexican immigrant parents inspired her to create a blog, Interpretations of a Bilingual Life, in order to better understand the rich nuances that living with multiple languages offers.
Twitter: trilingualbaby
Our little multilingual family has some exciting news! We will be moving to South America (Ecuador) in 2014! This definitely poses new challenges and exciting opportunities as a family who has multilingualism at the center of mostly everything we do (i.e., doctors visits, children’s books). We are already thinking about how our linguistic interactions will change as we establish ourselves in our new home aka the middle of the world. For example, we have considered changing our use of Spanish forRead More ...
This reading product has been so much fun to use with my three year old who is considered a “pre-reader” which basically means she is developing reading skills. For example, she is “reading” by moving her little pointer finger across the letters as the sparkup reads the book. It’s such an interesting product because it’s like new technology (sparkup recorder) meets old technology (paper books) where your little one can hear some of her favorite books read by mommy, daddy,Read More ...
Ingenio’s Smart Play Pad is one of those toys your child will love tapping to discover new sounds that make up letters, colors, and words they may or may not already know. What I liked about this toy was that it had a bilingual switch where your child could hear these words in Spanish or English. The other thing that made this toy special for my nena was that she thought it felt like it was her very own “pad,”Read More ...
The U.S. does not have an official language. English certainly plays a vital role and I would be lying if I thought it wasn’t a necessary part of an individuals’ linguistic repertoire in order to succeed in this country. That being said, children at an early age pick up on the high status English carries in their everyday interactions. My nena, for example, already pegs anyone outside her home as “English-speaking.” I have very few friends and family that, inRead More ...
El Chavo may very well be one of the most well known Spanish-speaking characters (alongside Mafalda) in Latin America, Spain and the Caribbean. In the U.S. he is equally as popular among immigrant communities and children of immigrants like myself. To be honest I haven’t seen the show since I was kid, but receiving these toys in the mail brought back many memories. My three year old was thrilled to put the little “títeres” (or puppets) on her fingers andRead More ...
Some parents stop speaking to their children in their second language when the child seems “confused” because they use both languages simultaneously. The fact of the matter is that this is the way languages evolve when they come into contact. In fact, I have been meaning to record my 3-year-old’s colorful use of two languages. Just the other day she said, “Rafa (her older cousin), do you want to comer?” Another example is when she was asking me to buyRead More ...
Ana
Roxana
Just two mamás raising bilingual kids
