Daily Blog

While the majority of children in the United States will be going back to school this week, Vanessa just finished her third week in first grade. Recently, my husband and I were invited to a sort of parent/teacher conference so Vanessa could get an assessment in terms of her reading, writing and math skills. It was an opportunity for us to let her teacher know about Vanessa’s learning style, her likes and dislikes, and also for us to get toRead More ...

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!!! I have to admit I never, ever thought that it would feel this good! Touching it, feeling how soft and silky the cover feels, flipping through the pages and seeing my picture in the back flap just made all those endless hours and weekends at home trying to put this together make it all worth it. A huge ¡GRACIAS! to our publishers, Bilingual Readers, for putting out a beautiful design and just aRead More ...

Ask my mother-in-law about U.S. Geography and she throws her hands up in defeat. In her elementary school, geography was taught in the third grade — the year she arrived from Cuba. Instead of memorizing state capitals, she was busy learning a new language, culture and city. Academically, third grade was a bust. I’ve been thinking a lot about that story recently as I prepare to send my youngest to a preschool. He’s a rambunctious child whose English vocabulary isRead More ...

Playing is one of the activities that influences kids’ imaginations the most. I know that a lot of kids nowadays play with electronic gadgets, but some still like to play with the same toys that their parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents used to play with. I am talking about “traditional” toys such as balls, ropes, bicycles, “baleros” or dolls. Most Mexican traditional toys are made of pleasant materials and painted in lively colors, as most good toys are. Of allRead More ...

I was one of those very lucky kids who attended a dual language immersion school. Although I moved around a lot as a child — living in 5 countries in 3 continents by the time I was 14 — I spent five solid years at my mother’s alma mater back in Peru and I was instructed mostly in English from 4th to 8th grade. As far as I remember, I only had a handful of courses, including Historia and GeografíaRead More ...

Back in the spring, I was invited by New Futuro to participate in a really cool event hosted by Que Rica Vida in Chicago with the purpose of providing information and tools to Latino parents to be able to help their kids succeed. Aptly named Infórmate y Edúcate, the free event conducted solely in Spanish was a huge success with over 500 people in attendance. I must say I was honored to be in the company of some great LatinaRead More ...

  It has been a great first week for SpanglishBabyPlayground. We’ve had an amazing response from all over the US and the world! Thank you for joining us in this space for parents raising bilingual and bicultural children to connect and interact directly with each other. The Playground was launched with a BTS Giveaway that has not ended, if you haven’t participated, you still have 5 days for a chance to win $250 worth of school supplies, we encourage youRead More ...

I might just have to move to Illinois. In case you didn’t know, earlier this month, Gov. Pat Quinn, signed a bill, which aspires to strengthen bilingual education in that state. Illinois plans to do that by first evaluating the state of bilingual education in its schools and then presenting a report to lawmakers and state education officials by Jan. 1 with their findings and recommendations. I’m not going to lie, listening to Gov. Quinn make the following remarks during theRead More ...