Must Reads

Just the other day, Vanessa announced to both her father and I that she likes Spanish better than English. I just stood there as proud a mamá as can be and then I wondered: “How long will that last?” She is, after all, only 3 1/2 years old and hasn’t really been exposed to her reality: English is dominant and Spanish still isn’t given the value it deserves. (More on that in a later post…) I hope that as longRead More ...

Happy 2010 to all of you! After a much needed break, SpanglishBaby is back in full force! Since we’re starting a new decade and will be celebrating our first anniversary next month, we’ve decided to make a few changes to our growing online community. Although we’ll reveal most of them at a later time, we are at this time announcing our call for monthly paid contributors. What we’re looking for: Whether you’ve been following us since we published our firstRead More ...

This post was originally published on February 18, 2009. One of the biggest challenges we face in our bilingual journey is being consistent and finding ways to nurture the minority language outside the home. No matter which method your family chooses to use–OPOL (One Parent, One Language) or mL@H (Minority Language at Home)–it’s important to have resources and strategies to immerse your child in the second language in fun and playful ways. I know, for a fact, that my daughter,Read More ...

Nothing like the holiday season to fill up your spirit with nostalgic memories full of aromas, tastes, colors and sounds.  Once we own up to them, those same memories are the ones that become traditions.  In our case, these memories turned traditions are a mix of the old and the new, un poco de aquí y un poco de allá. In honor of the complexity of our heritage and the constant blending of our cultures, that reaches a max duringRead More ...

Although sometimes I long for a few minutes of silence, the reality is that I love the fact that my three-year-old daughter, Vanessa, talks non-stop. Her vocabulary in Spanish is extensive and I know it has to do with the fact that I’ve talked to her since she was in my belly. In fact, many studies show that the amount of conversations and the variety of words that children listen to have a direct influence on the pace at whichRead More ...

I was recently talking to somebody of Hispanic descent who wasn’t taught Spanish at home, but learned it later on in life. She vowed she wouldn’t follow her parents’ footsteps, but ended up doing exactly the same thing with her kids who are now elementary school-aged. “And, now it’s too late!” she lamented. I immediately reassured her that it’s never too late – that’s just a common myth. It is, however, definitely much easier the younger they are. If you’reRead More ...

This post was originally published on June 22nd, 2009. One of the most helpful and resourceful experts we met while doing research for these articles on language immersion programs was Cristina Aguilar Allen. She is the Dual Immersion Facilitator for the Glendale (California) Unified School District’s Foreign Language Academies of Glendale (FLAG) which offers elementary language programs in Spanish, Korean, Italian, German and Armenian. Cristina has 25 years of experience as a Spanish bilingual teacher and a Master’s Degree inRead More ...

The following is a guest post by bilingualism expert, Dr. Fred Genesee, Professor of Psychology at McGill University in Canada. There are many good reasons for raising children bilingually. First and foremost are personal and family reasons. If members of the immediate family or extended family include people who speak other languages, then it is a benefit for everyone if your child speaks their languages. This is especially true if some family members speak only one language and might beRead More ...