Where to Start? We’re celebrating our first anniversary this week with lots of new features and awesome giveaways. We know many of you have been following us from the beginning—and for that, we are extremely grateful—but for some, SpanglishBaby is a recent discovery. Regardless of which category best describes you, it’s never a bad idea to get a refresher on some of the great content we’ve covered since inception—after all, it has been a whole 12 months! If you’re brandRead More ...
The Beginner’s Guide to SpanglishBaby
Introducing Our Contributors: Kimberly
We hope you’ve been enjoying reading about our first three regular contributors. In case you haven’t had a chance to “meet” them, so far we’ve introduced you to Chelsea (a single, non-native Spanish speaker raising her son bilingual); Susan (another non-native Spanish speaker raising her two boys trilingual); and Elsie (a Latina raising her daughter bilingual who has promised to share her abuela’s recipes with all of us!). Today we’d like you to get to know Kim who brings aRead More ...
ReadMe: The Best Mariachi in the World
Congratulations to the winner #16 – Sand! Since we launched ReadMe–our monthly literary series–last summer, I have been exposed to bilingual books and publishing houses that I didn’t even know existed. The good news is that there is a lot of really great stuff out there, which you probably already knew if you’ve been reading these entries since we began. One of the things I like the most is that many of these books not only showcase our Latino cultureRead More ...
Become a SpanglishBaby Contributor
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 ...
5 Ways to Promote Language Learning Outside the Home
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 ...
Is There Such Thing as a Critical Period for Language Learning?
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 ...
Playful language learning online
As much as we´d like to avoid technology and fill our kids’ days with pure and natural activities, the reality is they are growing up in a different era where well-balanced technological skills are a necessity. Why not offer your child some fun and educational computer play while learning some words and phrases in Spanish at the same time? Win-win! Go Go Lingo is a new on-line language game that uses animated games and a fun “playful immersion method” toRead More ...