This week’s Ask an Expert question was sent by Donna, mother of three. “I have 3 children. The older 2 who are 12 and 9 mostly speak and understand English. We are trying to speak only Spanish to the baby who is 2 months old. What can we do to be sure that the baby speaks only Spanish first if her siblings are speaking to her in English?” Dear Donna, If you speak only Spanish to the baby, she willRead More ...
Ask an Expert: My older children speak English, but I want my baby to hear Spanish only.
Video of the Week||Moving Picture Books
Lately we’ve been writing much about how reading to and with your children is one of the most effective ways to enhance their overall language and cultural skills, but especially about how beneficial it as an activity to promote second language learning in a fun way. Surely, your child has a book she’s especially fond of and loves to be read over and over (and over) again. She loves to hear how you imitate the sounds of the animals, howRead More ...
Your Story: How One OPOL Family Uses Sign Language
The following is a guest post by fellow mamá bloguera, Silvia M, who is raising two bilingual children using the OPOL method in California. If you’d like to know more about Silvia, you can find her blogging here: Mama Latina Tips. When my firstborn was a few months old, I joined a mom’s group looking for some adult conversation and support. In one of our meetings, we watched the video “Sign with your baby” by Joseph Garcia and I fellRead More ...
Ask an Expert: Does Baby Sign Language Help Second Language Acquisition?
Yesterday Roxana kicked off the week with an introduction to a four-part series we’ve prepared on baby sign language, or ASL, as a bridge connecting two languages. Teaching sign language to your baby is the equivalent of teaching him an additional language. For your child to fully be able to communicate in ASL it requires a strong commitment and dedication from the parents, like learning any second or more language does. However, and especially for families using the one parent-oneRead More ...
Sign Language: A Bridge Between Two Languages
I guess I never really made the correlation, but as I meet more people raising their children bilingual and I read more about the whole concept, it truly makes a lot of sense that those who use the OPOL (one parent-one language) method, have found it incredibly beneficial to also teach their children sign language. Recently, we dedicated a whole week to the topic of the OPOL method since we realized this is the one the majority of you areRead More ...
Raising Bilingual Readers:The Art of Reading to Children in a Bilingual Home
The following is a guest post by Deanna Lyles, cofounder of Bilingual Readers, a brand new publishing company which provides resources for bilingual and multilingual families and communities. Bilingual Readers will launch its catalogue of bilingual books in October 2009. Get to know them better at www.bilingualreaders.com A very patient Spanish speaking mom has been reading her daughter Sara’s favorite book Yo Tigre out loud to her in Spanish every night at bedtime for the last month. But tonight Mom’sRead More ...
Bilingual + Bloguero
Thanks to SpanglishBaby we´ve created amazing relationships with other parents on the same mission. Take some time to discover these jewels of blogs by mamás y papás blogueros who either dedicate their blogs to bilingualism or post about it occasionally. Also, check out the amazing Week of Mamás Blogueras that we hosted some months ago. All Of Me Now American Mamacita BiCultural Mom Bilingual Fun Bilingual in the Boonies Bilingual Monkeys Blogging on Bilingualism Blogs de Mamás Blog of KeenRead More ...