Daily Blog

I have to admit the first time I saw a brown Santa Claus I was taken aback. He didn’t seem right. He didn’t fit into the mold of the Coca-Cola envisioned Santa Claus we’ve all grown up with. This was years ago, and I had honestly not given Santa’s skin color any more thought until a couple of weeks ago when a friend asked a group of us (almost all Latinas) if we cared if the jolly man was brownRead More ...

The Christmas season/la Navidad is finally here! The air is quickly filling up with the holiday cheer that our familia and all that great food brings. Along with all of the great traditions that come with the holidays, we cannot forget about music! So let´s get ready to practice our villancicos. Villancicos? Some of you might  know exactly what I’m talking about, and for the rest, you might be more familiar with them than the name leads you to believe.Read More ...

If learning more than one language were a product, and some would argue that it is, I think the label would read something like this, Trilingualism: the key to the past, present, and future! My bebita has reached the phase (17+ months) where the use of language is supposed to take off. That being said, I have gotten a little obsessed with trying to count the number of words she can say or comprehend but does not verbalize, yet. IRead More ...

These days, it seems that the terms “Latino,” “Hispanic,” and “Spanish” are interchangeable in colloquial speech. Few people know the difference, including those who fit into these categories. Much like other racial and ethnic terminology, the words we use to describe Spanish speakers and those of Hispanic origin are confusing, inadequate, and often inapplicable. My son, for example, could be categorized as a white Hispanic. Yet, that’s only because he is part white and he looks white like me; inRead More ...

Embracing your culture can be really good for you – especially if you’re a student. A recent study titled “Culture Predicts Mexican-Americans’ College Self-Efficacy and College Performance” found that Mexican immigrant students who identify and practice speaking their native language have higher grade point averages than those who are put in English-only environments in their schools. The reason? David Aguayo, the doctoral student who conducted the study, found that the stress levels of those students who found themselves in aRead More ...

Growing up, gifts or money enclosed in a greeting card meant I knew what I would be doing the next day – writing “thank you” letters. My mother wasn’t strict with my sisters and I in many ways – but when it came to etiquette, we knew what was expected of us. Fortunately, writing the “thank you” letters never felt like an obligation to me because I loved to write, I loved everything about the process of sending mail, andRead More ...

Do you live in Central Florida? Do you love SpanglishBaby and want to be even more connected to your local bilingual parenting community? Come meet me (Chelsea) and some of your other bilingual neighbors at Lake Eola Park (playground) on Sunday, December 4th, at 1 PM. I hope to make some new Spanglish-speaking friends for me and my family! If you plan to attend, please send an email to chelsea@spanglishbaby.com or leave a quick comment. I look forward to meetingRead More ...

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you’re spending time with your family and friends, eating delicious food and feeling loved. Today, I want to take the time to thank the two little people responsible for the existence of SpanglishBaby, our daughters, Camila and Vanessa. In the past three years, we’ve shared stories about them and our journey to raise them bilingual and bicultural. But I don’t think we’ve ever really stopped to tell you that without them, this blog wouldn’t exist. ItRead More ...