Daily Blog

It’s obvious that summer is right around the corner because it was a bit of a slow week in terms of news in the world of bilingualism. What we did find, though, is definitely worth reading: Educators once opposed raising bilingual children. Experts now say it’s beneficial from the Washington Post — The majority of the info in this article is not totally new, but I like that it’s all together in one place and written in a way that isRead More ...

I really admire my mother-in-law for raising two bilingual children. Her task was especially challenging since she did so in an era when it was not popular to use a language other than English. In fact, she was actually told to stop speaking to her sons in German, her native language. Teachers, and even doctors, said that it would confuse them in school, but she knew better and continued to speak to her sons in German. Her persistence is whyRead More ...

BabyCenter en Español has released the results of yet another survey. This particular survey was about fathers and how they interact with their children. Here is the data that caught my eye: Actividades preferidas que los papás disfrutan hacer con sus niños: • Jugar con él: 60% • Dormir con él: 18% • Bañarlo: 13% • Leerle un cuento: 1% • Otra cosa: 9% Source: BabyCenter en Español Do you see that? Favorite activities for fathers to do with theirRead More ...

I love having a child who’s a perfect example of how well the Minority Language at Home method (or mL@H) really works. If you’ve been following SpanglishBaby for a while, you know that, at this point, my daughter Vanessa, who’s almost 6-years-old, is fully bilingual and biliterate. Although the days of me worrying that Vanessa wouldn’t get enough exposure to English because we’ve only spoken to her in Spanish since the day she was born are long gone, the funny thingRead More ...

It feels like a really long time since we’ve done this, but since bilingualism is becoming more and more prevalent in the news, we’ve decided to bring it back. The idea is to gather all the links related to bilingualism, bilingual education, Latino culture and anything related to raising bilingual and bicultural kids in one post every week so you don’t have to go searching for them yourselves. All you have to do is come to SpanglishBaby at the endRead More ...

Editor’s note: Today, we introduce you to Becky Morales, the mastermind behind the cool blog Kid World Citizen, which is full of “global activities” and our newest SpanglishBaby contributor. Please help us welcome her into our Familia. ¡Bienvenida, Becky! Much to our delight, when our son Toñito was 3.5 he said his first word in Spanish: “coche!” pointing at the cars zooming past our hotel in Guangzhou, China. That’s right, we were finishing his adoption proceedings in China. We hadRead More ...

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz in the media, and especially the blogosphere, that has reignited the so-called “Mommy Wars.” If you’re not familiar with the term, it refers to the battle between moms over nearly every little parenting decision, in particular the decision to work or stay home. The controversial TIME Magazine cover on breastfeeding, the new book on modern motherhood by Elizabeth Badinter, and other debates of recent years have me contemplating how this all appliesRead More ...

I feel like such a wimp, but I’ve been crying like a baby the last few days. They’re mostly tears of happiness, but they’re tinged with a bit of sadness too, for time come and gone. Vanessa graduated from kindergarten yesterday and I’m so happy to report that it’s been an incredible first year of school for her — and for me. For starters, all my worries about my daughter’s English abilities (since we only speak to her in Spanish)Read More ...