SpanglishBaby™ » Category: Must Reads

“Bilingual is Better” Now Available For Pre-Order!

Roxana A. Soto — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:39:46 +0000

Yesterday was one of those days that I really, really wished Ana and I didn’t live so far apart. I woke up to the news that though it won’t hit shelves until Sept. 4, our book, Bilingual is Better, published by Bilingual Readers, is already available for pre-order on Amazon! And all I wanted to do was run out and give Ana ¡un abrazo fuertísimo!

After all the sleepless nights and the many weekends spent encerrada in the library, I really don’t have the words to tell you how this feels! Seeing the cover of our book on Amazon made this all the more real! We are extremely proud of the work we’ve done and really can’t wait until we can finally share it with all of you.

The official title of our book is Bilingual is Better: Two Latina Moms on How the Bilingual Parenting Revolution is Changing the Face of America and, modestia aparte, we’re super happy with how it came out. With chapters on everything from why bilingual truly is better to identity and assimilation, our aim was to make sure there was something for everyone.

Oh, and we’re super happy to finally be able to publicly thank the awesome Jeannette Kaplun, of TodoBebé and Blogs de Mamás, for writing the perfect forward. ¡Mil gracias, amiga!

Since you are all part of this revolution, we can’t do this without you, ¡para nada! As first time authors we are barely learning what it takes to get a book on the shelves of bookstores. According to many articles we’ve read and advice we’ve received, Amazon pre-sales are extremely important since this is mostly what determines how many actual paperback prints get ordered by the likes of Barnes and Nobles.

If you are planning to one day buy the book, we urge you to consider taking advantage of the pre-order price of $17.99. Not only will this get the book in your hands as soon as it comes out, but you will also send a loud message to bookstores letting them know there’s a huge need for this book to be largely available in print.

Here are some easy ways you can send a loud and clear message that Bilingual IS Better!

1. Pre-order the book on Amazon HERE.

2. Share the link to pre-order Bilingual is Better on Amazon with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, by email, forums, etc. There are various share buttons on the book’s Amazon page to make it super easy for you. You can also just click and tweet the phrase below!

Example tweet: Pre-order SpanglishBaby’s book “Bilingual Is Better” on Amazon! Get it now & be part of the #bilingualkids revolution! http://bit.ly/HLXwvM

3. Click the LIKE button on the book’s Amazon page.

4. Do you have a blog or website? Share the news about the Bilingual is Better pre-order with your readers! If you have an Amazon Associates affiliate account you can add it to your store or share the affiliate link and be compensated for any sales through your link!

We can’t thank you enough for your support over the years! We’ve accomplished this together! ¡Gracias!

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The Best of SpanglishBaby in Spanish On Discovery Familia!

Ana Flores — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:00:27 +0000

This is a pretty huge and exciting announcement for us!

SpanglishBaby has partnered up with Discovery Familia to provide our content on their site en español! Discovery Familia–the only U.S. channel in Spanish dedicated to Latina moms and all that which is important to us–will be translating some of SpanglishBaby´s favorite and most useful articles and publishing them on their site on a special SpanglishBaby-branded blog called Mamás Latinas: Hijos Bilingües

In return, we will be sharing with you news and information about their special events and Spanish-language programs for both kids and mamás. We’ll also soon be putting our video producers hats back on to create clips featuring mamás latinas y sus hijos bilingües on the Discovery Familia blog. Maybe we could feature you?

Discovery Familia has a very rich lineup of kids programming in Spanish with shows such as Artzooka, Harry y Su Cubeta de Dinosaurios, Hi-5, Louie, Pocoyó, Princesas del Mar, WordWorld y mucho más!

The Discovery Kids section of the website is full with videos, games, activities, downloads and more and, sí, all in Spanish!

See how perfect of a fit this is for all of us?!

We´re thrilled to spread SpanglishBaby´s wings even further and bring more people into our collective movement of raising healthy, educated and loving bilingual and bicultural kids. We are just in awe and thankful that a multinational media company like Discovery recognizes our efforts and can distribute our content to more people.

We ask you to please Like the brand new Discovery Familia page on Facebook and tell them SpanglishBaby sent you…you know, just for fun!

Tell us–¡nos morimos por saber!–what do you think about our content partnership with Discovery Familia? Do you get the channel? Would you like to? Do you love our cute banner ad on their site?

Disclosure: There is no monetary compensation involved in this partnership with Discovery Familia as it is solely a barter content exchange. As always, all our opinions are our own.

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3 Important Factors to Consider When Raising a Bilingual Child

Ana Flores — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:05:44 +0000

Photo by efleming

In the lasts months I´ve been buried in all types of research and studies regarding bilinguals because of all the material I needed for the book we´re writing. Not that I need to be any more convinced about raising my daughter bilingually, it´s just fascinating to read about studies that basically take pictures of the brain, called neuroimaging, to clearly map out how the brains of bilinguals are different from monolinguals. They say a picture tells a thousand words, and these do!

One such study was conducted last year at the University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. We told you all about it and the findings in this post- Bilingual Babies: The Sooner, The Better.

In a nutshell, their conclusions suggest that the brain of a baby who has heard more than one language since birth (or even in-utero) remains more receptive to learning more languages for a longer period of time than a monolingual brain. That´s why we always say that the sooner you learn a second language, the easier it will be for you to learn more down the road.

What I also found fascinating about this particular study is that while conducting the Bilingual Baby Project, researchers also found and pinpointed three things that are very important for a baby´s overall bilingual comprehension skills; all of which are up to the parents to be aware of and execute.

3 Important Factors to Consider When Raising a Bilingual Child

1. The amount of exposure to each language. Babies and children need to hear the minority language being spoken to them 50-60% percent of their waking hours. It´s important that this exposure comes from human interaction, and not as much from media usage. Media is an important complement, but not something to rely on. Talk to your baby all the time from the day he/she is born. Talk, read, sing-out-loud, immerse him in an all-Spanish environment which could be a playgroup where all the moms are speaking Spanish.

2.The strategies parents use to raise a bilingual child. The two most used and most effective strategies to raise bilingual kids are One Parent One Language (OPOL) and Minority Language at Home (mL@H.) OPOL is when one of the parents speaks one language and the other parent another, all the time. For OPOL to be effective, the commitment from the parents has to be very clear and they must stick to their assigned language all the time. For a deeper insight into the OPOL method, check out these posts.

The mL@H method is the one Roxana and I use because we speak only Spanish at home with our husbands, all the time. English is pretty much not allowed among the three of us in my house. We´ve purposely created a home environment where the minority language can thrive and so my girl can associate Spanish to the comfort of family and home.

In short, what´s really essential is to have a strategy and commit to it. Flexibility is important because you have to adapt with your child´s needs and changing family conditions, but try to be as committed as possible because children do thrive on routine and consistency.

3. The parents’ desires to raise bilingual children. I love this one! Rarely do scientific linguistic research touch upon desire, at least to my knowledge, and I certainly believe it´s one of the most important factors. Both you and your spouse (if there is one) need to truly want and desire for this child to be bilingual. The reasons are usually personal and have to do with nostalgia, family ties, and a cultural bond, and these are the best! It´s that burning desire and want which will constantly drive you to have a method and stick to it; it will also motivate you to find a playgroup, the right dual immersion school, to travel, etc. I will go on a limb and say that desire is the driving force behind a bilingual child. Your desire comes first and that will feed into her´s.

What do you think? What is the one factor that has been the most effective in your bilingual journey, and/or the one you wished you had more of?

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Our Search for a Dual Language Immersion Kindergarten

Ana Flores — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:30:00 +0000

It’s hard to believe that in just seven months my girl will be starting a whole new stage in life: kindergarten. That means that we are now deep in the process of touring dual language immersion programs, applications and crossing fingers to get a spot in one of our top choices.

Just three years ago when we launched this blog, I visited what was then Benjamin Franklin Elementary school in the Glendale Unified District in California. We wrote a series of posts about this school and the district because they were one of the few in the Los Angeles County area to successfully implement dual language, or two-way, immersion programs. This particular school, Franklin, had just launched with the German program and were already getting huge requests to launch a Spanish and an Italian program. Thanks to the parents and the district working closely together, the school has now become so wildly popular that in 2011 it received funding to become a language magnet school.

The School We Really Want

Beautiful for them, not the best news for us since we had moved to the Glendale district two years ago just to be eligible to enter Franklin. Now, we will have to join the hundreds of parents praying that luck is with them on February 9th when the public lottery is held to fill the 24 or so spots available in the Spanish DL program in what’s now known as the Franklin Elementary Magnet School.

As you can imagine, we really, really want to get into this school. Not only because it’s a four minute drive from our house, but because the quality of parent and teacher involvement is amazing. Since the school is now only a language magnet (German, Italian, Spanish and, starting in 2012, French), every single parent there is completely invested in making the program a success, and many have emotional and cultural ties to their children being educated in their native languages.

The Draw of the Luck

The way the lottery works is that the first priority goes to siblings. Every single sibling has the right to be placed. Once those slots are taken (and apparently there are a lot of siblings entering this year, much to our chagrin), then the second priority goes to balance out the proportion of native English-language speakers versus Spanish speakers to maintain the 50/50 proportion, as much as possible.

Camila had to attend a language proficiency test in order to place her in the fluent category. I was so nervous because I felt this is our best chance at securing a spot. Thankfully, she totally passed as fluent; marking this as a milestone of the first time her bilingual skills opened up a door for her.

On February 9th we’ll know if she’ll make it in or not. For us, this also means that we’ll know if we’ll have to move or not. Yes, move. We know it’s drastic, but we really want her to attend a dual language immersion program. Luckily, there have been so many DL programs launched in the Los Angeles County area in the last years, but they are scattered all around and most of them are charters or magnets, meaning our girl’s bilingual education and our next neighborhood is bound to be decided by sheer luck.

I’ll keep you posted as to what happens the day of the lottery and which are the other schools on our radar if we don’t get picked for Franklin Elementary Magnet. I’ll also remind you on Feb. 9th to help us with your positive thoughts to get that lottery to pick our name!!

Share: Would love to read your kindergarten-enrollment stories, especially if your child made it into a charter or magnet.

UPDATE (2/9/12): We got in!!!!

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The Bilingual Rebellion Begins

Ana Flores — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:46:07 +0000

“Mamá, yo solo hablo inglés,” were the words I had been dreading for four years and that inevitably came out of my girl’s mouth a few days ago.

Did you catch the irony in it?

She said “Mom, I only speak English” but she said it in Spanish!

I calmly responded to her, en español, “Ah, ¿si? Y, ¿Porqué?”(“Oh, yeah? Why?”)

She responde, en espanol, “Porque cuando estoy sola solo hablo en inglés.” (“Because when I’m alone I only speak English”)

Okay, fair enough. Right? It still bugged the heck out of me and I”ll tell you why.

She was very upset with me when she told me this. It had been a rough morning for her and we were already running late to preschool. We were in the car when this lovely conversation occurred and she was not in a good mood at all. So, she hit me where she knew it would hurt.

For the last month her English has clearly taken off and she is using it more and more at home. I am thrilled that she is at a great bilingualism stage where she can handle both languags well. She goes to an all-English Montessori school and spends a good chunk of her day there, so it’s to be expected she’s using English when she plays, sings and talks about school-related things.

However, both my husband and I have hit the panic button and have been telling her more and more at home that we only speak Spanish. We’ve been repeating it a lot, so much so that she’s obvioulsy grasped it’s a pasion point for me. This became obvious when she told me she only speaks English; like that, so out of the blue, and while speaking Spanish.

Am I crazy to think we’ve hit the rebellion point or are very close to it?

So now, I’ve stepped back and am reevaluating our approach to the Spanish at home rule. I need to be careful that it’s not a mandate, but something she will want. I need to make it so much a part of her life that she, all on her own, will not let go of it.

She still prefers to be read in Spanish and to watch movies in Spanish.

My new plan of attack includes:

Continue speaking to her only in Spanish at home. All the time. No exceptions.
When she does reply in English, I will rephrase what she said in Spanish and encourage her to repeat it.
Read, read, read a lot more and in Spanish. She’s getting plenty of exposure to English-language books at school.
Hang out more with our Spanish-speaking amigos which we have plenty of, but live all over the Greater L.A. area and it’s getting harder and harder to meet up as often as we’d all like.
Skype a lot more frequently with her tía, prima and abuelita in El Salvador and family in Mexico. She crazy adores her cousin who’s 2 years older than her. They spent two weeks together in LA during the summer and a whole month in El Salvador last year. Everytime I tell her “Si no hablas español, no vas a poder platicar con tu prima,” (“If you don’t speak Spanish, you won’t be able to talk to your cousin.”) she immediately switches to Spanish. That’s my Ace right there.
Continue on our search for the ideal dual language immersion program. This point is not up for negotiation. Starting next year she will attend a DL program even if it means we have to move to another neighborhood.
Travel to Mexico and El Salvador more often! I am lucky that I’ve carved out a life where I can take my laptop with me anywhere and work from there. It does have its implications, but it’s worth it. This Holiday season we’re spending three weeks in El Salvador and my girl will stay at my sister’s house so she can spend a lot of play time with her cousin…en español!

Share: Have you had to deal with the bilingual rebellion stage yet? What did you learn from it and what tips can you share? I’d love to know I’m not alone….I know I’m not!

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Bilingual Babies: The Sooner, The Better

Ana Flores — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:52:38 +0000

We always get asked if there’s a window of opportunity when it’s the ideal age to raise bilingual kids. There are actually several windows, or critical periods, for language learning when our brain is more adaptive to absorbing the new language(s), the broadest being from 0 to seven years of age, even before we learn to talk.

Bilingual Baby Project–a study presented by researchers of the University of Washington and the University of Texas at San Antonio–concluded that the earlier we start exposing babies to a second language, the more flexible their bilingual brains will be and the more they can identify and separate the sounds of the different languages they are exposed to.

The key, researchers say, is that during their first year of life, babies should be exposed through rich interactions to the two languages at home so their brains can absorb all the sounds and retain them by the time this first window starts to close once they turn one year old. In fact, “the researchers also show that the relative amount of each language — English and Spanish — babies were exposed to affected their vocabulary as toddlers.”

This study is significant because it is the first one to measure brain activity in the first year of age and relate it directly to language learning in babies exposed to both English and Spanish at home.

Knowing this, we give you three strategies parents raising bilingual babies can use as soon as their child is born {or even in the womb!}:

1. Habla, habla, habla! Researchers also found that exposure to the language does matter. Meaning, the more a baby hears the sounds of a particular language, the larger his vocabulary in it will be. Talk to your baby all the time in Spanish, or your second language, even if you think she has no idea what you are saying; she’s absorbing every little sound and it will be the building blocks to her own speech acquisition. Reading and singing in Spanish will also enrich their bilingual environment and get them used to hearing books and songs in Spanish.

You can also organize playdates with other Spanish-speaking amigas with babies so that your kids listen to the chatter in Spanish while you’re all entertained.

2. Have a plan, be consistent and stick to it. The personal strategies parents adopt to raise their child bilingually are fundamental to creating a rich and consistent environment to learn multiple languages. As a couple, decide early on which of the proven methods to raise a bilingual child you will use in your home: Minority Language at Home{ml@h}, One Parent, One Language {OPOL}, or Time and Place. Once you decide, have a game plan and stick to it to create familiarity and consistency in the baby’s environment. For example, if the dad will be the Spanish speaker, he will always be the Spanish speaker, sin excusas.

3. Commit to your decision. The study also showed that the parents’ desires to raise bilingual children is of utmost importance. Committing to the bilingual journey requires a real passion and desire to follow through. Be sure of what your reasons are and let that passion filter through your daily actions to ensure a fun and immersive bilingual home environment for your baby.

The research is clearly on our side, we really have no excuse to not promote bilingualism in our kids as soon as they are born. Just think about it, they have no idea of the gift you are giving them and of the incredible ways it will manifest as benefits in their lives, and, the best part is they can’t even complain or argue against it yet.

I do need to add that even though this Bilingual Baby Project finds that the first year of age is the best time to start learning a second language, this in no way means it’s our only window of opportunity. It is the first one and will set a solid base for a flexible brain, but children until the age of seven are clearly well suited, neurolagically speaking, to easily become fluently bi and multilingual.

Share: How early did you start exposing your child to a second language?

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5 ‘Must-Read’ Books for Parents Raising Bilingual Children

Roxana A. Soto — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 07:01:49 +0000

Recently, I realized that we haven’t updated our list of recommended reference books for parents raising bilingual children in more than two years. Unlike other parenting topics, books on bilingualism do not abound. So, whenever a book in this subject comes out, we try to get our hands on it both for our own research and to share it with all of you.

Last time we wrote about this subject matter, I gave you a list of 10 books I recommended. This time around, there’s only five. I haven’t read all of them, but I figured I’d include the last two because they’re written by highly respected experts in the field of bilingualism. Around this time next year, as we recently announced, we’ll be so honored to be able to add our own book to the list of recommended reading for parents raising bilingual kids.

1) Bilingual: Life and Reality Francois Grosjean – Professor Grosjean is no stranger to bilingualism. Not only is he one (English/French), but he has basically dedicated his career to this topic and his expertise includes code-switching and borrowing – two of my favorite areas when it comes to bilingualism. He’s written two other books, Life with Two Languages and Studying Bilinguals. I’ve only read this last one which came out last year. I devoured it as soon as I got my hands on it because I was able to relate to so many of the things he wrote about. His blog, Life as a Bilingual, which I’ve linked to many times on our Facebook fan page, is an extension of his book and all his work. Highly recommended!

2) Consigue que tu hijo sea bilingüe by Barbara Zurer Pearson – The Spanish translation of Raising a Bilingual Child, written by our very own expert and translated and published by Bilingual Readers – who will publish our own book in the Fall 2012, this was like our bible when we first started trying to figure out how to raise bilingual children. Pearson definitely knows this subject well and now that it is available in Spanish, more parents can take advantage of her knowledge. If you’re raising bilingual children, you need to read this book.

3) Bilingual by Choice by Virginie Raguenaud – This is another great book to read if you’re raising children with more than one language. It is extremely easy to read and has tons of useful resources including activities and techniques for making sure your children stay bilingual. I particularly enjoyed the uncommon ideas she shares for exposing your bilingual children to the minority language. Raguenaud is bilingual and is raising bilingual (English/French) twins.

4) Multilinguals are …? by Madalena Cruz-Ferreira – While I haven’t read this book yet, it’s definitely on my must-read list because it deals with myths, paradoxes and misconceptions about multilingualism, which, as we all know, are so prevalent, especially in this country. I strongly believe that if we’re able to eradicate all the unfounded beliefs surrounding bilingualism, lots of things will change in this country when it comes to raising children with more than one language. You can find additional information about Cruz-Ferreira’s latest book, as well as several reviews, on her blog, Being Multilingual.

5) Bilingual Siblings: Language Use in Families by Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert. This one I haven’t read either, but I have read several articles written by Barron-Hauwaert and I remember actually getting in touch with her when I was researching the topic of raising a second child when I was pregnant with Santiago. At the time, she was working on this book and I’ve really been waiting for it to be ready because this is another one of those bilingualism topics which interest me for obvious reasons. I’ve often wonder if English will be the common language between Vanessa and Santiago as they get older because they currently speak in Spanish. Barron-Hauwaert is not only a researcher, but also the mother of three bilingual children. Should be interesting!

Do you have any recommendations for the rest of us? We’d love to add them to our list, so please share in the comments below or add a link to our guide below.

Must Read Books For Parents Raising Bilingual Children

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Why We Chose San Miguel de Allende for Our Summer Abroad

Guest — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 07:01:57 +0000

I’m not sure at what moment it hit me, but this summer I was determined to take my three kids, ages 9, 6, and 5 abroad for a cultural immersion experience. I wasn’t sure where we were going yet, I only knew that I wanted to be immersed in either the French or Spanish language and culture.

Why did I want to do this? Well, 34 years ago I was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to a Mexican mother and a Haitian father. We left Mexico for Haiti when I was still a baby. Around the age of 3, we moved to New York City and have been in the States since then. While I grew up listening to Selena, eating mole on special occasions, and hearing my parents speak Spanish at home, my brother and I spoke only English. My parents wanted us to help them learn English so we focused on learning English and eventually forgot how to speak Spanish and French. Even though we spoke English with my parents, my parents taught us about the Mexican and Haitian traditions.

As a bi-cultural mother married to an African-American, I have a big job ahead of me. I have three different cultures to teach my children. Even though I cook food my mother and aunts have taught me to cook, and my iPod has both new and traditional artists from Haiti and Mexico, I knew that something was missing. It wasn’t just that we didn’t speak Spanish at home, it was much more than that. It was the experience of going home and being totally immersed in the culture and the language, smelling the air, touching the soil.

When we were children, my brother and I visited Mexico and Haiti several times. The earliest memory I have was going to Haiti the summer before I entered second grade. One morning, we were in Miami, Florida and by lunch we were in Port au Prince, Haiti. Even though I was only 7, I still have many memories from that trip and our subsequent trips to Mexico. Those trips defined who I was and where I came from. I had a better understanding of my culture and family traditions.

It was this sort of experience that I wanted for my children. After careful planning, we chose Mexico over Haiti. We would spend a few days in Mexico City to visit with family and the rest of our time would be in San Miguel de Allende. San Miguel is a small colonial town located 180 miles north of Mexico City. It is rich in history, culture, and the arts. There is a small population of Americans that live there either full or part-time and, as a result, there are many great bilingual summer programs for international kids. The programs offer cooking classes, crafts and arts, Mexican history, and of course, Spanish.

In preparation for our trip, I checked out a number of different books on Mexico for children. We learned about the history, I showed the kids a map of where we were going, what we would see, and what we would do. I wanted to prepare them as much as possible to eliminate some of their natural fears they had about going away for a month. They were going to miss their friends at home, their rooms, and were scared about not knowing anyone of the language. I was also scared about going, not sure how they would react, whether our rental home would be suitable, or if we would make any friends.

Now, that we are back home, I can say that the experience well exceeded my expectations. We made many friends, we learned more than I could’ve learned in books and videos about Mexico, and the children are now speaking a little Spanish. Sure there were moments where they missed home, missed their daddy (who was only able to stay for a week with us due to work), and wanted to eat “plain food.” My son learned how to make tortillas from scratch, the children made beautiful piñatas, and met other children from Switzerland to California. I have no regrets about our trip and know that I hope to be able to return next summer. We promised our new friends that we would be back, gave kisses to our new teachers, and promised to Skype from America and stay in touch.

*** All images courtesy and copyright Justice Jonesie.

Justice Jonesie is a recovering lawyer, mother of three beautiful children, and blogger at JusticeJonesie.com and Mamalaw.com. She blogs about travel, fitness, and the joys and challenges of motherhood. In 2009, Jonesie founded the Blogalicious Weekend conferences. Born in Mexico City, Mexico to a Mexican mother and a Haitian father, Jonesie is on a journey to raise her children biculturally in the Southern town of Jacksonville, Florida.

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Extra! Extra! We Have Some Awesome News to Share!!

Roxana A. Soto — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:19:04 +0000

{Ana and I in San Diego}

Ana and I have a big announcement to make today: SpanglishBaby will soon be a book! We’re writing un libro!

A couple of months ago, we were approached by Bilingual Readers – a bilingual publishing house based in Spain which we highly respect and whose bilingual children’s books we’ve reviewed in the past – to see if we’d be interested in taking SpanglishBaby to yet another level by publishing a book about raising bilingual and bicultural children in the United States today. Our response was a resounding: ¡claro que sí!

SpanglishBaby turns 2 1/2 years old tomorrow – yes, we published our first post Feb. 9, 2009 and you can click here to read it), but it feels like we’ve been at it for much longer. Maybe it’s all the hours and hours of work we’ve put into it or the amazingly supportive community we’ve become. And, although Ana and I had talked about the possibility of one day turning the blog into a book, we didn’t think the opportunity would arise only two years after we launched. It´s set to be published on Fall 2012 and we are set to deliver!

Ana and I got to spend the last few days together in San Diego. A rarity we fully took advantage of by talking not only about the future of SpanglishBaby but with an incredibly productive breakfast meeting to organize ourselves as we venture into the exciting realm of writing our first book. We were able to figure out a lot of things, but other things are still pending.

So, as we jump into this new adventure, we hope you won’t mind that, along the way, we may ask for your opinion on certain topics. We’d like for this book to be an extension of the blog and we know that without your input, it would make no sense. If you have any particular ideas about what you’d like to see in the book or just questions you think need to be answered to make this bilingual and bicultural journey a bit easier or more realistic, you know how to reach us!

Raising bilingual and bicultural children is not something we only write passionately about, but also something we believe in wholeheartedly. This book represents another vehicle through which we can continue to spread the value and need behind raising our children so they can survive in this global society without forgetting sus raíces. Nothing could make us happier! We surely hope you feel the same way!

UPDATE: The book, Bilingual is Better, is now available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

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An Immersion Adventure in Mexico | Saying Goodbye

Amy Conroy — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:03:08 +0000

Editor’s note: This is Part 6 in a continuing series by Amy Conroy. To read the other parts, go here. Although this is the last one from San Miguel de Allende, Amy has promised one more post a few weeks after they’re back home in Los Angeles to share their impressions on their immersion adventure. We hope you’ve enjoyed living vicariously through Amy and her kids as much as we have!

This will be short and sweet as I am sad to leave, but we get on our flight tonight and admittedly, we’re excited about going home too. A beautiful nameplate on the side of a house that encapsulates my feelings about San Miguel…

True, we’re all thrilled by the prospect of living under one roof. My boys have already planned sleepovers with their best friends and we plan to celebrate our homecoming California style ~ on the beach!

But I will bring back mezcal to share along with my plans to return for 6 months in January! It was just too amazing to walk away from. And after you’ve had one of the best meals of your life at a particular restaurant – wouldn’t you go back? And order the same thing? On my honeymoon, I ordered tuna tartare at every meal.

Again, it’s the kids that are the clincher. Their Spanish grew and improved so rapidly that they were astonished, and a bit disgusted, when they needed to translate for me the other day. The schools were lovely – I have nothing but admiration for these teachers and administrators. The kids brim with flourishment – and how could I not want a second cup of that?

So, hasta pronto to Canada de la Virgen…

Hasta la proximo vez al D.F., Mexico City, Tenochtitlan…

The Jardin and Parroquia…

Parque Juarez…

Our beautiful home we’ve shared while here…

The fountains…

History…

La Gruta & hot springs…

Helados, nieves, elote y guacamole…

Thank you to all of our friends who introduced us to the magic here… who brought the warmth of friendship to the new and exciting, and kept it all personal in the exotic and different.

I am grateful to our friends at home for their support of our endeavor, and offer a mil gracias to my husband for all of his miles logged and time spent in LAX customs. Thank you, SpanglishBaby, for indulging my tales and for all of your encouragement.

We are leaving, but we’ll be back. I will be nervous to return I’m sure… because it’s not that I don’t see all the bugs, or smell the uncomfortable stench, or read the papers. This is a country built on passion and not for the faint of heart (i.e. blood and gore are regular aspects of all religious, political, and social life), yet still I am not dissuaded. And still, I am not yet satiated. It’s an Achilles heel…

~ random leftovers from the last 4 months ~

Favorite quotes:

“Why does Daddy speak like an English person?” – Calvin (5) to me, when Daddy pointed out “basura”… uh, bcuz he is American?

“¿Cómo estás, ojo de pescado?” – 5 to 7 year old jokesters after learning about plantars wart

“¡No le toca!” – Cecilia’s first Spanish phrase, that she repeated over & over & over

“If you’re not nice, nobody will want to sleep with you” – me to 3 kids, because we all slept in one bed for the first month. Prophetic, no?

“What is his name? Cowboy?” – new preschool mini-friend asking me Calvin’s name (unusual in Spanish)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain

Spanish words that, when confused, can be either a) amusing or b) alarming:

embarazada vs. vergüenza (pregnant vs. embarrassed)
borracho vs. berrinche (drunk vs. tantrum)
chulo vs. chula (pimp vs. cute)

Other things we’re bringing back (aside from Spanish):

new name for a fish: ‘ojo de pescado’
stronger stomach
sparkly 10 lb geode found on canyon floor
baby/individual sized Tajin’s
‘Wizard’ costume designed by Jack and hand-sewn
several pair of cowboy boots
new appreciation for plumbing and electricity
laissez-faire attitude toward fireworks
princess love by Cecilia; my acceptance of said state
naranjada mineral!!!
the mexi-dog we’ve always wanted, named “Hola Ricky Fuente”, who followed my kids home one day http://www.saveamexicanmutt.org/

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