Vanessa has always had a hard time pronouncing the letter R. Lately, though, she’s become keenly aware that she can’t roll her Rs. Out of the blue, she’ll repeat words like perro and carro and rápido and ask me if she’s saying them right. Unfortunately, she’s not. But I’m not freaking out just yet because I’ve read this is normal since Spanish speaking children typically don’t learn to roll their R’s until they’re between 5 and 7 years old. ThisRead More ...
Drills to Help Your Child Roll Her R’s
How to Give Your Children an ‘Authentic’ Immersion Experience
“I want my kids to be immersed in REAL Mexican culture”…and “San Miguel has just so many ex-pats”; “it’s not ‘authentic’ enough…”. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard comments like these. My children and I are currently on a six-month stay in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and before it’s done, we will have been here an entire year. Needless to say, my response to these sorts of comments has definitely done a 180°. Admittedly, IRead More ...
Is Your Bilingual Kid Mixing Languages? No Worries, It’s Okay
One of the the things that can put parents who are raising bilingual children off the most – aside from their kid not responding back in the target language – is when they start mixing languages. Our first thought is that our child is falling “behind” in terms of language acquisition, but nothing can be further from the truth. My girl is almost five years old now and is very aware that she’s about to start a new stage inRead More ...
How Bilingual Parents Can Raise a Trilingual Child
A few months ago I let my Facebook friends know that Sabrina used three languages in one day for the first time! This, of course, was a milestone because we have been speaking entirely in Spanish to her, though she hears English daily, and is exposed to French in very contrived settings, like through read alouds and French children’s videos. Before our daughter was born, almost two years ago, we decided to attempt to raise her with three languages.Read More ...
Taking Our Bilingual Parenting Revolution to The White House
As some of you might know, Ana and I just got back from an amazing trip to Washington D.C. where we were honored to take part in LATISM’s first ever #TopBlogueras Retreat. As part of the event, we received a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to go to the White House to attend a special policy briefing about education, health and the economy, among other topics. As soon as we saw that one of the panelists was Andrea Ceja, the chief of staffRead More ...
Quiero mi Baby: Jenny & Flo Exclusive Preview!
MTV Tr3s’s new show, Quiero Mi Baby premiered on Monday April 16th – it’s a new series that shows the realities of cross-cultural parenting including language, religion and tradition clashes, in addition to many other issues unique to bi/multicultural families. Check out this exclusive preview (meaning YOU WILL ONLY SEE IT HERE!) of tonight’s episode and then see our interview with the couple, Jenny and Flo, below. Episode description: “Although Jenny & Flo are both Cubans, they are very differentRead More ...
Explaining Culture to my 4-Year-Old
What is culture? Marisol asked me that last week as we drove to preschool for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. I found myself saying something like, “Culture is something a group of people share, usually from the same place, like a country, like food and music and, well, you know, like we speak Spanish.” I know — explanation fail. I’m still not sure how to answer her question. We share a culture, stemmingRead More ...
A Glance at Bilingualism Across the U.S. {Infographic}
Via: BestCollegesOnline.com We’re totally loving this Bilingualism Across the U.S. infographic created by BestCollegesOnline.com! The graphic speaks for itself and we’re sure many of you are already aware of the info included, but we think it’s a great way to share with others why we consider bilingualism such an amazing benefit! ...