Must Reads

I used to be pretty harsh on myself if I couldn’t finish a sentence without going back and forth between English and Spanish when speaking with other bilinguals, an action commonly known as code-switching among linguists. Like many bilinguals and monolinguals alike, I simply believed this was wrong. I thought it meant I wasn’t really proficient in either language—even when I knew this not to be the case—or that I was simply forgetting my Spanish. I was wrong! In theRead More ...

After almost 18 months nurturing SpanglishBaby into the incredible useful online resource for those raising bilingual and bicultural children it has become thanks to all our readers, I tend to think that everyone knows about the myths and misconceptions associated with bilingualism (or multilingualism). I guess after such a long time reading, researching and learning about the benefits of bilingualism, it’s easy to forget that not everybody is aware of them. So I was bit surprised last week when IRead More ...

We hope you’ve enjoyed and learned a few things during our bilingual homeschooling week. As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, although there are tons of resources for those homeschooling their children, there are not a whole lot when it comes to doing it in two languages. Either way, we’ve put together a list of links that we hope will be of some use to you. Some of them are just great links of homeschooling in general, othersRead More ...

When I was ten years old, after eating breakfast and saying good-bye to my older siblings who headed out for high school, it was time for Spanish dialogue class with my dad.  He had a book of dialogues he had used while learning Spanish to be a missionary in Mexico.  We memorized dialogues and I had to put dramatic expression and movements to them.  I still remember the dialogue about waiting in line for a buffet lunch, “Ay, que colaRead More ...

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” — Mark Twain One of the main purposes of SpanglishBaby’s existence is to share with our readers the kind of useful information that can make the journey to raising bilingual children a bit less daunting. Education is not a new topic to this blog. We write about it often and, in fact, we’ve even dedicated a whole week to exploring the topic of bilingual education. If you’d like your childrenRead More ...

Although we know it’s never too late to learn a new language, we are firm believers that the earlier you start, the better it is. Did you know that for the most part U.S. students begin studying a second language at age 14? Meanwhile the majority of the top 25 industrialized nations begin the study of world languages in grades K-5. It’s not surprising then that 80% of students in Europe speak at least two languages while only 14% ofRead More ...

A curious thing happened this weekend as I was paying for a sandwich at a local eatery. The cashiers had been cooing at my baby son, marveling at his big, expressive brown eyes when all of a sudden one of them asked me: “What nationality is he?” I was so taken by surprise that it took me a while to respond.”American,” I said, but her puzzled look made me feel it was necessary to explain further. So I added, “HisRead More ...

In the last year, both Ana Lilian and I have shared a lot with you about how we’re raising our children bilingual + bicultural—joys and challenges included. Although we’ve shared some details, one thing we have not really done is tell you the how we grew up bilingual ourselves. In honor of SpanglishBaby’s first anniversary, we figured we’d get a bit more personal and allow you to get to know us a little bit better… Roxana’s Story: A Multicultural UpbringingRead More ...