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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Editor’s note: We’re dedicating this whole week to Back to {Bilingual} School. We have a variety of posts that we hope will make the transition easier regardless of what your kids’ schooling situation is. We hope you come back all week to read the posts by our amazing guests and to enter the awesome giveaways we’ve put together for you! Unlike most parents who feel that the start of school actually means a step back in their children’s ability toRead More ...

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 weRead More ...

How do I build my own proficiency in my non-native language to help my daughter become bilingual? My husband and I are trying the One Parent, One Language method with our 1 year old daughter in Atlanta. I speak to her in Spanish, while he speaks to her in English. She also goes to a trilingual (Spanish, French and Mandarin) preschool three days a week in Atlanta. I consider myself a near-native Spanish speaker, having lived and gone to schoolRead More ...

  Editor’s note: This is Part 4 in a continuing series by Amy Conroy. To read the other parts, go here. I have never lived in such a celebratory environment in my life – the ‘fiesta culture’ here never stops! There are citywide parades and festivals all the time, fiestas and social gatherings for every reason, and childrens’ birthday parties that joyfully extend well past bedtimes. Fireworks are an everyday all-the-time occurrence, which is not easy to imagine until youRead More ...