You searched for: OPOL METHOD

Editor’s note: Today, we introduce you to Becky Morales, the mastermind behind the cool blog Kid World Citizen, which is full of “global activities” and our newest SpanglishBaby contributor. Please help us welcome her into our Familia. ¡Bienvenida, Becky! Much to our delight, when our son Toñito was 3.5 he said his first word in Spanish: “coche!” pointing at the cars zooming past our hotel in Guangzhou, China. That’s right, we were finishing his adoption proceedings in China. We hadRead More ...

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, andRead More ...

My son is 18 months old, and he’s been in daycare since he was 4 months. His daycare is mostly English, but they also do sign language.  At home we speak 90%+ Spanish, but we work full time. My struggle: his vocabulary is expanding and it’s becoming a lot harder to focus on Spanish at home when he comes home saying “hat” and pointing, or “ball,” etc. We are so excited to hear these new words but want to reinforce SpanishRead More ...

Growing up, I had always been proud of my Mexican heritage. I spoke Spanish at home, and I based many of my school projects on Mexican history and folklore. That all changed in fourth grade… when we studied the Mexican-American war. I proudly exclaimed that I was Mexican, and Brian Wedemeyer and the rest of the boys in my class began to tease me. In the 1980s, Leesburg, Virginia did not boast a lot of diversity, and in that moment,Read More ...

We were given some great news yesterday: SpanglishBaby made it to Babble’s Top 100 Mom Blogs of 2011. We are honored and humbled to end an already blessed year on such a high note. And we have to thank all of you, our supportive community, for all the accolades we’ve received. Although the work is hard, your feedback tells us it’s all worth it. Thank you for believing in what we’re doing here and for helping us grow into suchRead More ...

Before Vanessa started preschool a couple of months after she turned two, I often wondered how she was going to survive for four hours surrounded solely by English. I worried that others would think she had no manners because even though she already understood the concept of “gracias” and “por favor,” she knew nothing about “thanks” and “please.” I explained the situation to her teachers and they reassured me everything would be fine. You see, up until then, her lifeRead More ...

Hi, my name is Erin, and my husband and I are raising our almost-2-year-old bilingual, using no real method.  My native language is English, my husband’s is Spanish.  We decided against OPOL because I am a SAHM and I spend the most time with our son (my husband is often gone for weeks at a time for work).  My native language is English, so if we did OPOL, my son would get VERY little exposure to Spanish.  For the mostRead More ...