Must Reads

It’s been five months since the official launch of SpanglishBaby. In this time we’ve come to the realization that, although it’s not the one Ana and I use, the majority of you out there are raising your kiddos bilingual by means of the One Parent-One Language (OPOL) method. We first started noticing the trend from the questions and comments we got from all our readers and then through the answers to a survey we recently conducted. Out of the responsesRead More ...

I just don’t get it. The video is about whether or not bilingual education should be the way to go for Latino children trying to learn English. Pretty simple premise, yet from the dozens of comments made on NBC Today’s website after the broadcast of this video, most people didn’t get it. For the majority it’s the same old argument, this is AMERICA (so is México, by the way – and all the other countries in the continents that compriseRead More ...

A day summer camp is exactly what the name implies. Your child attends camp daily for however many weeks you're interested in (or you can afford.) Obviously, the longer your child attends, the better the end result. As far as I understand, the daily curriculum is taught in the target language, which depending on the program you choose, can range from Spanish to Arabic. Normally, age requirements are a bit more lax in this type of setting. At the one I've been looking into for Vanessa - the Denver Montclair International School - for example, they accept kids as young as three. By the way, their Spanish program is so popular, it's pretty much sold out for the entire summer! "Day camps work really well for really young kids," says Carl-Martin Nelson, the director of communications at Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota. "We find that half the time it's the parents who are not ready for regular summer camps and the other half it's the children" ...

From all the reading I’ve done since the creation of SpanglishBaby, it seems to be that one of the biggest issues parents who are raising bilingual children eventually face is that their kids won’t answer back in the minority language – particularly after they start school. Although I really can’t envision this being a problem for us, I know I’m delusional – especially now that we live in Colorado! As I’ve mentioned in the past, I helped raise my nowRead More ...

To continue the celebration of books, today we’d like to share with you a list of ten resourceful books to keep inspiring your bilingual journey.  OK, we know just the thought of reading A book these days is a daunting task, much less ten.  Don´t panic, this is just a list for you to keep in your personal archive and refer to when you need some extra advice and/or expert encouragement. ...

The following is a guest post by bilingual English/Spanish speech language professional, Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP.  We are excited to announce that, starting next Monday, Dr. Kester joins our impressive panel of bilingual experts in our weekly series-Ask an Expert.  Click here to send her your questions regarding speech development in bilingual children.  We invite you to visit Dr. Kester’s website, Bilinguistics, to learn more about her and her team. Is bilingualism bad for your kids? Do bilinguals learnRead More ...

Thanks for stopping by and being part of this special week where we gathered useful information for parents who are choosing the bilingual homeschool, or even afterschool, route. You can visit the whole series with the links below: An Introduction to Bilingual Homeschooling Ask an Expert: What is a good resource for homeschooling parents? Your Story: A Generation of Bilingual Homeschoolers A Creative Activity for Bilingual Homeschoolers Celebrating Día, Libraries and Bilingual Homeschooling Resources for Bilingual Homeschoolers We invite youRead More ...

I recently read something which left me livid. I posted the link on Sunday as part of our weekly Yo Quiero Links and promised I would write about it, so here we are. To truly understand what I’m talking about, however;  I think you need to read it yourself. Here’s a recap, just in case… Published last week, “A Child of Two Worlds,” is  a guest post on The New York Times‘ blog, Motherload: Adventures in Parenting. In it, theRead More ...