Recently my 13 year old son and I got to try out an online video-conferencing Spanish program called, “Homeschool Spanish Academy” and we’re really excited to share our experience with SpanglishBaby readers.

Homeschool Spanish Academy – What is it?

Founded in 2010, Homeschool Spanish Academy is an online “Spanish institution that offers interactive immersion lessons with native-speaking Spanish instructors in Central America,” (Guatemala to be exact.)

As the name indicates, Homeschool Spanish Academy is aimed at homeschooled children, but I believe this service is a fantastic option for all kinds of students. My boys, for example, attend a public school, and a language immersion program isn’t available so we’ve had to wait until middle school for our kids to get any classroom instruction in Spanish. We are raising them bilingual here at home and try to speak as much Spanish with them as possible, but classroom-style instruction also plays a role in achieving fluency, (not to mention, I myself am not a native speaker.) That, I believe, is where a service like Homeschool Spanish Academy could step in.

How it Works – Getting Started

When I spoke with the founder, Ron Fortin, first via E-mail and then by phone, I was a little nervous about the logistics of how it would work, but in the end, it was an easy and well-organized process. You can sign up for a free trial lesson on the website, telling them a little about yourself and your student. Providing your phone number is important because Ron then calls to help you make the necessary technical preparations which consist mostly of an easy online test to see that your internet connection is fast enough. Ron and I also connected on Skype, where the classes are run, so that he could make sure the teacher would be able to send me a request before our scheduled appointment.

How it works – The Class

Five minutes before our scheduled appointment time we sent a message on Skype to our instructor, (Rosa) to let her know we were ready. When it was time, Rosa called us on Skype and we answered with video. Rosa (who is bilingual), introduced herself and asked if I wanted to stay for the session. I let her know I would be in the room observing, off camera, if either she or my son needed me.

To get started Rosa chatted with my son until he relaxed, which served the dual purpose of accessing his language skills. My son’s Spanish was at a sufficient level for her to give instructions in Spanish, and so she continued in Spanish. Within Skype, Rosa opened a document that was visible to both her and my son, but in a way that allowed them both to still see each other as well. In real time, she could scroll through the document and highlight or point to things she wanted him to read aloud to her. When he made mistakes, she gently corrected in a way that was not at all discouraging. Rosa is a great teacher and she made my son laugh several times.

At one point Rosa asked my son in Spanish to tell her something he had a lot of at his house. He got stuck trying to think of something and finally blurted, “gatos.” Rosa couldn’t hide her curiosity, “Es verdad? Is it true?” she asked.

“No,” my son laughed, and Rosa laughed too.

What Did the Student Think?

While I thought the class was awesome and would highly recommend it, maybe it’s more important to see what the student has to say. My 13 year old’s opinion:

“I felt that it was a very good learning experience and I liked the method of teaching – Doing it on Skype also made it much more interesting than just sitting there with a workbook by myself. The teacher was very helpful and friendly and I even learned some new things in the short session I did. Rosa [the instructor] made me feel more confident and we had fun together. The technology they used was really advanced. It was cool how they put the work up on the screen so we could both see it.”

Programs & Pricing

Homeschool Spanish Academy has an Early Child Language Program, Middle School Language Program, and High School Language Program – Ron also tells me they teach adults and have a curriculum specifically tailored for situational conversations. New this year: They now offer paired classes, where two students – of the same household and within 3 grade levels of each other – can use the same computer and lesson time to meet with an instructor.

Special deal for SpanglishBaby readers!

When you sign-up with Homeschool Spanish Academy, get $10 off any package – all you have to do is mention “SpanglishBaby” in your E-mail, phone call, or contact form!

Additional program details and contact information can be found at the Homeschool Spanish Academy website.

{Photo by: jimmiehomeschoolmom}

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 to speak Spanish, I actually breathe a sigh a relief when the school year begins. As a sixth-generation Mexican American on my mother’s side of the family and a first-generation Spanish American on my dad’s, I really struggle to pass on the language to my children.

While Spanish was my first spoken language, and I understand it perfectly, I’m rusty. Attending English-only schools my whole life and a lack of Spanish-speaking amigos (I was the only Latina in my class), has succeeded in undermining my confidence as a native speaker.

But when my children were born, I became obsessively passionate about passing on my heritage to my beautiful children. Though my mother and grandmother are both fluent in Spanish, they only spoke English to the kids. My grandmother easily switches back and forth when she talks with me, but it is English-only with the nenes. My husband does not speak Spanish, though he can understand enough to get by. So their acquisition of Spanish, is completely up to me.

I hopped on the bilingual boat a little late and juggled around OPOL, ml@H, and various other methods. And I have spent a lot of time reading bilingual and Spanish-language children’s literature to the kids since they were born. But in the end, it has been their schooling that is the key. Why? For one simple reason: I homeschool.

Sadly, I do not live near any dual-immersion schools, and since we live in a “failed” school district, the traditional schools found in our area are not an option either. Some have been taken over by the State.

So teaching my kids Spanish has turned out to work best for us as part of our daily lessons. I pull from a lot of resources, and though my kids are by no means fluent, we are working hard to correct that. This past summer was actually a big brain sucker for my kids. It’s like a hole opened up in the side of their head and everything they knew fell out. I felt like a total failure when we started up school, but my son surprised me one after noon, when he walked up to me out of the blue and spoke a few words in Spanish. I live for moments like these because the genuine delight on my face is the best encouragement he could ever have.

For those of you who are starting out – or even if you’re an old pro – here are some activities for boosting your child’s language learning at home:

• Books, books, and more books – Reading about Latino cultures is a great motivator for learning the language… especially when you read stories about other Latino children.

• Flashcards – No, no! They are not boring! Well, okay, SOME of them are, but if you find the right ones, they are an awesome tool. I recommend the alphabet cards from Línea Descubriendo.

• Bilingual board games – Dora’s Candyland, Spanish Bananagrams, Spanish Zingo!, ¿Adivina Quién?, Cuéntamelo, Lotería, and others are great fun and a perfect way to sneak in Spanish learning.

• Cooking – Making recipes from Latin American countries and Spain can help your children learn food-related words. It’s also a great way to explore the culture behind the language.

• Printables – The internet is full of Spanish printables for children of all ages. The hard part is deciding which one to print first! Check out sites like DJ Inkers for fun downloads of basic themes like the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors. They offer both English and Spanish versions.

My site, MommyMaestra.com, has some free downloads, including a few for Kindergarten and 1^st grade that were created by Lectura para niños.

But one of my favorites is SpanishPlayground.net. Their entire site is a valuable resource, and they offer may activities and printables for you to use at home or at school.

Mónica Olivera Hazelton is the publisher of MommyMaestra.com, a site for Latino families who want to take a more active role in their children’s education. Monica feels quite strongly about the future of our children and believes that all parents should strive to raise their children to be proud of their heritage and culture. As a result, she has also created and publishes the Latin Baby Book Club, which reviews Latino children’s literature and is a resource for families raising bilingual – and bicultural – children. And she is the owner of Latin Baby, an online baby boutique for Latino families.  

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks

We hope you’ve enjoyed and learned a few things during our bilingual homeschooling week. As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, although there are tons of resources for those homeschooling their children, there are not a whole lot when it comes to doing it in two languages.

Either way, we’ve put together a list of links that we hope will be of some use to you. Some of them are just great links of homeschooling in general, others are specifically related to bilingual homeschooling. Please feel free to add to this list by leaving us a comment below. I also suggest you spend some time visiting these sites/blogs for—as in most cases in the Internet—you’ll see that many contain even more links to other useful resources.

HOMESCHOOLING RESOURCES IN GENERAL

If you’re looking for general information regarding homeschooling, including methods, history and your home state’s laws:

• Simple Homeschool

• The Homeschool Mom

• The Curriculum Choice

• Home School Legal Defense Association

BILINGUAL HOMESCHOOLING RESOURCES

If you’re looking for support groups, curriculum ideas and other info related to the bilingual homeschool:

• El Hogar Educador

• Familia Libre

• T’CHERs

• Homeschool Learning Network

• Homeschoolers Hispanas

BILINGUAL HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES

If you’d like to see how other families are doing it and find out fun and creative ideas for bilingual homeschoolers:

• Saturday Spanish

• Wanna Jugar with Migo

• Montessori Spanish

• Mi Escuelita Montessori

• 2 Pequeños Traviesos

• Aprendiendo con Martín

Finally, don’t forget to enter the two awesome giveaways we have going on right now. The deadline to enter both giveaways is tonight, May 2 at midnight EST.

Did you enjoy this week’s series dedicated to bilingual homeschooling? What other topics would you like us to cover in an in-depth way?

Photo credit: Antwerpen R

April 30th marks the celebration of Día del Niño/Día del Libro, an annual celebration of children, families and reading held at libraries nationwide.  Here at SpanglishBaby, we’re wrapping up a week-long exploration into the world of bilingual homeschooling and the families who are living it.  We’ve emphasized this week that one of the biggest hurdles for bilingual homeschoolers is the lack of resources and curriculums available to them.  A library with a decent collection of Spanish material can be a treasure for the homeschooling family.

To celebrate Día, libraries and bilingual homeschooling we decided to focus on one librarian who has dedicated her career to making libraries a welcoming place to people of all backgrounds and, especially, for Spanish-speaking families and the bilingual community.  Katie Cunningham, raised in a small town in the Appalachian foothills of Southeastern Ohio, began studying Spanish in college and admits not really enjoying it at first. After learning Spanish while studying and traveling abroad, she found her niche in libraries.

By being able to speak Spanish, she was immediately struck by the fact that Latinos—a huge and growing community of diverse people—are being under-served by many libraries.  Katie believes that her experiences abroad made her especially sensitive to the experiences of the new immigrants she was encountering at the library.  She realized she wanted to work to make the library a place that felt welcoming.

After finding her blog, Es Divertido Hablar Dos Idiomas,  and seeing that she’s developed a presentation to bring Bilingual Storytime into libraries, I contacted her wanting to share her story and applaud her work for our bilingual kids.

Katie Cunningham

Katie: I am the Children’s Librarian at the Village Branch of the Lexington Public Library in Lexington, KY.  The Village Branch is a very special and unique place to work because all of our staff are bilingual (English/Spanish).  We serve a diverse neighborhood, and the people who walk through our doors know they will be able to find friendly, helpful service inside from all of our staff.  As the Children’s Librarian, I get to do the fun work!  My greatest passion is working with families of young children and sharing with parents ways that they (as their child’s first and most important teacher) can use books and other resources to help their children learn the early skills that they need in order to be successful when the time comes to learn to read.  One of the ways I do this is through our weekly Bilingual Family Storytime, in which we share stories, songs and activities in both English and Spanish, all intentionally selected to celebrate bilingualism and build early literacy skills.

SB:  Today is the last day of the month-long celebration of Día del Niño/Día del Libro.  How did your library celebrate it and why do you think it’s important to do so?

Katie: Our celebration will be on Saturday, May 1 in order to be more convenient for families to attend.  We are hosting a celebration of reading, culture and information throughout the day.  We will be having several programs and performances for children of various ages, including a payaso, bilingual storytelling and African drumming.  Children will be able to make cultural and literacy based crafts, such as bookmarks and papel picado.  Something special and new that we are doing this year is bringing in information for parents as well by hosting a Community Information Fair.  Several agencies serving families in our neighborhood  are bringing activities or giveaways for children, as well as bilingual information about their services for the families.  We will have high school and college volunteers available to translate for any agencies unable to bring bilingual staff.  And of course, possibly the most exciting piece of all, every child who attends our event will get to choose his or her very own, brand new book to keep.

Día is important to celebrate for so many reasons.  Most importantly, it is an opportunity to celebrate the joy of reading in all languages! It is a chance to welcome large groups of families into their library to socialize and connect around themes of literacy of books.  It also brings diverse groups of people together.  At our event this year, high school volunteers will be serving as role models by reading with young children, agencies serving the same community will be together in one place, library staff across different locations are coming to be a part of our event, working with a community they may not ordinarily have the opportunity to serve.  Only an event as special and important as Dia can accomplish so much in one day.

SB:  We are also celebrating you for the work you do to promote bilingualism with your Bilingual Storytimes and through your effort to teach other librarians to incorporate it. Why did you start this?  Why is it important?

Katie: I really kind of fell into my career by accident, and I am so grateful for all the things that have led me to this place because I cannot imagine doing anything else.  When I first began working in libraries, it became immediately obvious that there is a tremendous need for bilingual staff and services, yet libraries (like other organizations) struggle to hire and retain bilingual staff.  I learned how to do early literacy-based storytimes, and had the opportunity to incorporate Spanish and develop a Bilingual Storytime program.  The results were incredible!  Children’s faces would light up hearing and sharing in the blend of English and Spanish.  One of my favorite memories is sharing Let’s Eat / A comer by Pat Mora and hearing a boy call out, “we eat frijoles at my house!” Bilingual storytime is a wonderful way to celebrate diversity, culture and language, and I believe all of those things are important for libraries to embrace.  We must reflect the communities we serve.

However, in discussing my work, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the work of so many others who have come before me.  I am extremely fortunate to be working in a completely bilingual library at a time when publishers are finally making available high-quality bilingual books for children.  None of this could have come to be without the passion, vision and perseverance of others.  A great many librarians, authors and advocates have done tremendous work to make it possible to celebrate bilingualism and multiculturalism in our libraries today.

SB:  We find that libraries are treasure troves for parents raising bilinguals, but even a more special resource for those who are homeschooling their children bilingually.  How can homeschoolers take full advantage of the library and its bilingual programs?

Katie: Talk with your librarian!  One of the reasons why I love this field is that we are a profession of people who believe in sharing!  If there is something you need but cannot find, just ask!  Most libraries participate in inter-library loan or consortium projects, which means that we can find and get for you nearly any book you want, even if we don’t own it.  Or, if you suggest us a title, we may even be able to add it to our collection!  Also, in this day and age, libraries are not just about books.  Librarians are seekers of information in all its forms.  Need an article, a website, or a database?  We’ll find it for you!  And if we can’t, we will put you in touch with someone who can.

SB:  What tips can you give parents who don’t have these special bilingual programs in their local libraries to get them started?

Katie: Again, talk with your librarian.  Keep in mind, that it is entirely possible that your library has wanted to begin a bilingual program of some sort, but has felt unable to do so because they do not have bilingual staff.  This is a tough issue for libraries.  So, if you are interested in having bilingual programs, consider sharing your skills and ideas as a volunteer.  Many libraries across the country utilize community volunteers to offer bilingual programs they do not have staff resources to provide.  Examples include:

• The Kenton County Public Library in northern Kentucky which has partnered with community volunteers to offer bilingual cultural celebrations for years.

• Betsy Diamant-Cohen out of Baltimore has developed an early literacy based lapsit program for babies that is available to do bilingually, called “Mother Goose on the Loose en Espanol.”  By partnering with Spanish speaking community volunteers, Children’s Librarians who do not speak Spanish can offer this program.

• The Seattle Public Library also partners with community volunteers whom they train to offer storytime programs in many world languages.

Photo courtesy: Susan O. Stephan

Editor’s note: As you know, we’ve been dealing with the subject of bilingual homeschooling all week. By now you’ve probably realized that although there are tons of info on homeschooling in general, unfortunately, the same is not true for bilingual homeschooling. The reality is that homeschooling parents who are raising bilingual children have to come up with their own bilingual curriculum by researching a lot and by getting very creative. The following post, by our regular contributor, Susan O. Stephan, is about one extremely creative and fun activity that would be a great addition to any bilingual homeschooling family!

Teachers, the media and even presidents have stressed the importance of reading to your children.  Not only does reading to your child help to instill a love of literature, but it also affects language development.  In their book, The Bilingual Edge, Kendall King and Alison Mackey point out that research has consistently demonstrated that a child’s vocabulary in their first language is directly related to the amount that they are read to.  The same holds true for a child’s second language. The more you read to your child in Spanish, or any language, the better their vocabularies will be.  I have found that by reading to my sons in Spanish, not only has the vocabulary of my 2 year old dramatically increased, but my own has as well.

Most kids love to read when they are young, but as they get older, books have to compete with video games, the computer and TV, and often books lose the competition.  In my high school Spanish classes, I wanted to find a way to make my students excited about books and reading.  I found that by having students become authors of their own books, their interest in stories and literature was ignited.  By becoming authors themselves, and reading books written by their friends, the students gained an appreciation for the written word that they did not acquire from just reading.  In order to assist my students in their task of becoming writers,  I brought in a variety of children’s books in Spanish from my local library.  Some of the stories were originally written in Spanish and some were translations.  Many of the teenagers were excited to see some of the books that they had loved as children translated into Spanish.

The enthusiasm and interest my high school students showed in reading children’s literature was exciting.  They loved that they were able to read and understand the stories without much assistance from me.  I had the kids read the books to each other and gave them handouts with questions that required them to analyze the text and illustrations.  I had them describe the pictures, summarize the plot, and give their opinion of the book.  By reading and reviewing a diverse selection of literature, the students acquired an overview of the different types of the children’s literature in publication.

Using the published children’s books as a model, the students were assigned to write their own story and create an illustrated book.  The students didn’t moan and complain about this assignments, but were eager to produce their own work, and I was amazed at some of the creative projects they produced.

Once all the books were turned in, we had a reading day.  We went outside and sat under the trees and the kids read to each other.  They were very interested in reading and hearing the stories written by their peers.  Reading and writing became a fun activity, and I was happy to see discussions on the various elements of the text such as the characters, plot, and illustrations in the book.  This activity can be adapted for your own children as well.

I even modified this activity for my own two and a half year old.  I have always loved reading to my son, and he is currently at the stage where he wants to hear the same book read over and over again.  No matter how often he asks to read his favorite train book, I am always happy to read it again knowing that this repetition is one of the ways in which children learn to read themselves. One day I found that he was holding the book up and “reading” to his baby brother the same way that I do for the two of them. He is too young to read himself, but had memorized the book. I was amazed at how well he knew the story and thrilled to see how much he loved reading. It was proof to me that reading to him has been of great benefit.

Photo courtesy: Susan O. Stephan

Knowing that my son is too young to actually write his own book, I knew that together we could create his own story. He loves to paint and draw, so using one of the paintings, I had him tell me a story based on his artwork.  As he would tell me different details of the story, I would write it out at the bottom of the page.  Through my questions, my son would elaborate and add different details, and he was able to come up with a basic story.  After I was done writing out what my son described, I read his story back to him telling him that this was his story, just like all of the books we read.

Whether you are working with young children or teenagers, a great way to make literature come alive is by encouraging and helping them to write their own story.  Incorporate reading and writing, and you will be amazed at the imaginative mind of your child.  Having fun and being creative will strengthen literacy skills and enhance the vocabulary.

Photo credit: Vimages

When I was ten years old, after eating breakfast and saying good-bye to my older siblings who headed out for high school, it was time for Spanish dialogue class with my dad.  He had a book of dialogues he had used while learning Spanish to be a missionary in Mexico.  We memorized dialogues and I had to put dramatic expression and movements to them.  I still remember the dialogue about waiting in line for a buffet lunch, “Ay, que cola mas larga!”  After my father left for work, my mother started our homeschooling routine.  After devotional, journal writing, math and history, we would do our Spanish homework from that week’s Spanish class.  My mother taught weekly Spanish classes to other homeschoolers.  In the car, on our way to piano lessons, I remember listening to Spanish tapes that my mother and father had created. The tapes taught the Spanish concepts from that week’s Spanish class.  I had to learn it well because my mother always asked me to “model” how to greet people or recite the dialogue we were working on in front of my friends in the class.

Homeschooling allowed Spanish to become a part of our everyday routine while growing up.  I was homeschooled from preschool age until 8th grade.  My parents had lived throughout South and Central America when they were first married, and wanted to share their love for the culture with their children by teaching them to speak Spanish.  They always took advantage of any opportunity to speak Spanish with waiters, church members and really anyone they heard speaking Spanish.  They invited a Venezuelan exchange student who was my age to live a year with us.  When I became a teenager, my parents had the opportunity to go on a mission to Honduras.  While living there, I was homeschooled for two years and also I attended an all-Honduran private school to completely immerse myself in the language.  Homeschooling gave me the flexibility to spend large amounts of time developing friendships and becoming involved in the community in Honduras.

My husband and I both share a love for the Latin American culture.  Neither of us are native speakers but he lived for two years in Guatemala and learned to love the people and culture there. We decided to raise our children bilingually, speaking both languages to our children.  We have assigned Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays as our “Spanish days.”  This past year, my oldest daughter turned five and was old enough to start kindergarten.  Because of the great experiences I had being homeschooled and my love of teaching, I decided to homeschool her and plan on homeschooling all of my children.  I am excited to incorporate Spanish into our daily learning.  I want my children to not only be able to communicate, but to read and write in Spanish.  I want them to have a rich vocabulary in a variety of subjects.  As my children become more involved with activities outside the home, I am realizing the difficulty of speaking in Spanish when so many classes and friends use only English.  I am happy that homeschooling allows me to involve them more in Spanish during the day than if they went to school in English.

Many times I have considered putting my children in an immersion school.  I observed an immersion preschool a couple of years ago.  As I watched the teacher read a book to the children, I realized that only a few of the twenty students had an opportunity to respond to her questions.  I contrasted this with how I read stories at home with my daughter.  We talk about every page.  She asks questions; I ask questions; we talk about the pictures; and we discuss what we think will happen next.  The one-on-one approach of homeschooling allows for more interaction and immersion in speaking and discussing in the language.  There are still advantages to immersion programs, but I have decided that the more personal approach was best for our family.

This past year has been dedicated to teaching my daughter to read in English.  We integrated Spanish into songs, weather and calendar time.  Our ocean science theme included many books in Spanish. Sometimes my daughter couldn’t think of the word “pulpo” in English.  We participated in Spanish playgroups and she attended her weekly one-hour Spanish immersion class.  Next year, I hope to teach her to read in Spanish.  I am currently researching Spanish reading programs to use for the next year.

We are enjoying homeschooling bilingually.  We have the flexibility to integrate Spanish in everything we do.  We are taking advantage of opportunities we find to immerse our children in the language.  Someday, I hope my children will be fluent in the language and love the culture that is such a part of who I am.

Tatiana Richardson is the mother of three girls under five with whom she plans on going the bilingual homeschooling route. She was raised as a bilingual (English/Spanish) “gringa” thanks to the love, determination and homeschooling of her mother, Ginny.  They both blog at Wanna Jugar With Migo, where they share their creative ideas about teaching Spanish. Their other blog, Teaching Generations, is exclusively about homeschooling.

On the second day of our week-long exploration of bilingual homeschooling we bring you another amazing giveaway of products that are an excellent tool for parents on this alternative educational path.  Boca Beth herself and her award-winning program for teaching Spanish to kids requires little to no introduction to those avid SpanglishBaby readers.  Beth Butler is a relentless activist and promoter of bilingualism with years of experience as a bilingual educator.  Her award-winning language learning series, Boca Beth, includes a collection of music, DVDs, activity books and even a TV program that’s broadcast in Tampa, FL.

The Boca Beth Program and products are successfully teaching children in all 50 States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and 15 countries around the world.  Homeschooling parents, both bilingual and non-bilingual, who are incorporating language learning to their curriculum can find the Boca Beth program to be a valuable tool that is both educational, as well as highly entertaining for their children.  Boca Beth is so committed to their program as a bilingual homeschooling tool that they have created a special page on their site dedicated to this educational path.

If you’re a homeschooling parent, a teacher or have a desire for your child to learn Spanish then we invite you to learn more about the many products in the Boca Beth series and to enter our giveaway below.

The Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. The winners are:  Desiree and Amber! Congratulations!

We have a Boca Beth Backpack set (retail value of $84.99) for TWO winners.  To enter please visit the website by clicking here and come back to leave a comment telling us what you learned about the Boca Beth program.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you´ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to our feed via email or RSS and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post and an @Spanglishbaby

3. Blog about this giveaway making sure to include a link to this post, and you’ll get TWO additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, May 2nd at midnight EST and you must have a valid US address to enter.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored giveaway. All opinions are 100% ours. Check out our full Disclosure + Privacy Policy.
If you click on a link above and it takes you to La Tiendita and you purchase a product, we will hear pennies fall in el cochinito.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

Today is the first day of a week-long adventure into the ins and outs of bilingual homeschooling.  One of the major components of homeschooling, and probably the most difficult to achieve when incorporating bilingualism, is to find educational toys and products to teach children a language through what they do best-play.

Ingenio, the first bilingual and educational toy brand in the U.S., has a catalog of 10 toys and games that are meant for preschool and early elementary children. Last year we reviewed every single one of their toys to celebrate their launch. You can find our detailed review of each one of their products here.

What we found makes Ingenio toys and games special for our bilingual children is that they are:

• educational

• affordable

• high quality

• entertaining

These are toys that would fit right in place in any bilingual or early language classroom and would be ideal in a bilingual homeschooling environment. From puzzles, to learning cards, to the very original crossword blocks game, to the much-coveted Smart Projector there’s a bilingual game that can be adapted to any curriculum.

The Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. Our grand winner is: MARIA H. Congratulations!!

We want you to find out by yourself the many ways these toys can be enjoyed. So, we have a huge giveaway for you!  You can win all 10 of the Ingenio toys and games!

All you need to do is leave one comment telling us which of the 10 games is your favorite and how you will put to use the whole product line as an educational tool in your home or school.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you´ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to our feed via email or RSS and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post and an @Spanglishbaby

3. Blog about this giveaway making sure to include a link to this post, and you’ll get TWO additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, May 2nd at midnight EST and you must have a valid US address to enter.

P.S.: Come back tomorrow to enter another amazing giveaway of the award-winning Boca Beth educational products!!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored giveaway.  All opinions are 100% ours. Check out our full Disclosure + Privacy Policy.
If you click on a link above and it takes you to La Tiendita and you purchase a product, we will hear pennies fall in el cochinito.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

Photo credit: wodleywonderworks

One of the main purposes of SpanglishBaby’s existence is to share with our readers the kind of useful information that can make the journey to raising bilingual children a bit less daunting. Education is not a new topic to this blog. We write about it often and, in fact, we’ve even dedicated a whole week to exploring the topic of bilingual education.

If you’d like your children to be educated in a bilingual environment, but don’t live in an area where dual language immersion schools are an option or if you feel like your child would get bored in a school like this because of everything you’ve already taught him at home in Spanish, then you need to know there are other choices. Thus, we’re dedicating this, the last week of April, to bilingual homeschooling.

We hope to provide with you with an overview of this alternative way of schooling your children as well as some useful resources you can explore for yourself to see if this is something that could work for your family. As you well know, SpanglishBaby is all about creating a supporting community for all of us raising bilingual children, so if you’re already homeschooling your children and would like to share your experiences, dish out some advice or points us in the right direction in terms of curricula or lesson plans, we’ll be forever grateful.

Before we get into it, I’d like to preface this whole week by saying that we’re really not interested in getting into the on-going debate over whether homeschooling is right or wrong. We respect every parent’s right to choose the way they raise their children—this is merely another option to educate them bilingual. I will say, though, that I truly admire those who successfully homeschool their children because I am sure it’s no easy task.

An Introduction

It is estimated that 1.5 million of the 56 schoolage million children are homeschooled every year and the number keeps on growing. The reasons why parents choose to homeschool their children abound. They include anything from overcrowding to religion to the need for especial education. In many instances, the public school options available are not up to par with what a parent considers sound education for their children or their teaching values and methods are not consistent with what a parent wants for their children. In the case of those raising bilingual and bicultural children, homeschooling seems like the perfect fit.

“Having my children at home, I can decide how much Spanish they get and if I feel their vocabulary or comprehension needs a boost, we take care of it and it’s quick. We don’t have to wait for the rest of the class to be in the same place,” said Eliza Campos-Montero who just started homeschooling her 10-year-old son this school year even after he attended a dual language immersion school in Chicago.

The Mexican-American, who also has a three-year-old son, said the decision to pull her son out of public school was not an easy one mainly because she really loved the dual language program he attended for the amazing cultural experience it provided him. She felt that her son; however, was more advanced than the rest of the children and was worried about his possibility for advancement.

“In third grade, I began to feel as if he needed to be doing more with his time and that he could be accomplishing more, learning more in depth if he didn’t have to share the one adult in the room with 20 other kids, some of which needed more help than he did,” she said.  “Then I started noticing that by the time he was in fourth grade I just felt that, although he loved going to school most of the time, he was very bored, easily distracted, and not putting his best effort into his work.”

Trying to avoid something similar happening to her daughter, Brisa Martinez de Byrnes has finally decided that she will be homeschooling her children this Fall, starting with her preschooler. Her daughter, who recently turned three, has already shown a keen interest in reading and learning in general. Brisa and her husband feel that she’d be more advanced than her peers if she were to go to a regular school and she might not be given the attention necessary for her to continue advancing at her rhythm. Not to mention the fact that they are raising their daughters bilingual and bicultural.

“Something extremely important to us is that they learn to read, write and speak Spanish correctly on top of learning about my country’s traditions and history,” said Brisa who is from Mexico. “Truth is I find it very difficult to believe that I can find a school like that, where they’ll learn both languages well in addition to both cultures.”

The down side to bilingual homeschooling has to be the difficulty in finding curricula to homeschool bilingual children. Even though there are tons, and I mean tons, of online resources for those wanting to homeschool their children; unfortunately, the same can’t be said about bilingual homeschooling. I’ve been scouring the Internet for a while now doing research for this topic and I’m sad to report that I’ve come up short.

A Little Support

The same can be said in terms of finding others on the same boat. In an effort to change this, Stephanie, a bilingual homeschooling mom of three, decided to create the Yahoo Group, HomescholersHispanas in 2003.

“I created HomeschoolersHispanas because I felt completely alone in so many ways. Nobody I knew in the local Hispanic community homeschooled. At times I felt that I was the only one,” said Stephanie, who has been homeschooling for 10 years. “This group made it easier for me to face criticism and misunderstanding with the knowledge that I am truly one of many.”

Photo credit: jimmiehomeschoolmom

The truth is that, although minorities in general seem to be warming up to the idea of educating their children at home, Latinos still make a very small part of the 1.5 million children believed to be homeschooled today. It might have something to do with the fact that this alternative way of schooling is not really popular in Spanish-speaking countries. It is, in fact, actually illegal to homeschool in Spain. It also has to do with not really knowing too much about what it really means to homeschool.

“I never even thought of homeschooling. I wasn’t familiar with it. I thought that homeschooling was something for farm kids or very strict Christian extremists,” said Eliza, who is Christian herself and a member of the Yahoo group. “It never dawned on me that before he entered school, I had already been homeschooling him and doing a much better job than what someone who didn’t know him could do having to divide themselves among so many other children.”

Added Stephanie: “People tend to like the image of hermits or oddballs trying to hide their children from a big, bad world. We’re not about fear, but joy and excitement, for the most part. We want our kids to embrace new knowledge, to rejoice as much about an episode of Mythbusters as most kids do about Spongebob. For me, it’s less about the world’s negative influence than about an enthusiastic family’s positive one.”

HomeschoolerHispanas, which currently counts with close to 120 members, exists to exchange curriculum ideas, advice and more than anything to encourage and support moms who are homeschooling their bilingual children.

“Among my members, the most common reason to homeschool was to promote family unity, for the freedom to raise truly bicultural and bilingual children, and for the chance to raise kids who truly love learning,” explained Stephanie. “I know the last one seems odd, but everyone knows some children who are so burned out from homework that they won’t pick up a book to read for fun. Our kids read all the time, and because they want to! My son, for instance, asked for two books for his birthday, each one from a favorite author whose books he devours!”

Debunking Myths

Although the majority of the research I’ve done for this series point to the fact that any parent can homeschool their child, I still find that difficult to believe. I personally think it takes a special kind of mother (or father) to do this and, even when my children’s education is of utmost importance to me, I don’t think I’d be able to homeschool them, but maybe I’m wrong…

“Personality is not the key, but rather an outlook,” said Stephanie. “If you’re considering homeschooling with any agenda at all that doesn’t include letting your child grow up to be who he or she is, then maybe this isn’t for you. Want to turn your bookworm into a football star? Don’t bother. Allowing your budding author more time to work on his next book. Ding, ding, ding, you win!”

Another common worry has to do with not having any kind of professional experience or training as an educator. Many of the mothers I’ve spoken to regarding the possibility of homeschooling their bilingual children have said this factor can be a bit intimidating.

“Most homeschooling parents are human—okay, all of them are. We have strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes the biggest strength is realizing when you need help. If you can’t handle teaching long division, hire a tutor or swap that lesson with another mom. You can handle this, if you really think it’s for you.”

It is precisely because she thinks that this is the right option for her daughters that Brisa has made the decision to homeschool them, even when she knows it’s not going to be easy. She said she’s already received a bunch of criticism to which she’s turning a deaf ear because, truly, at the end of the day, her daughters’ education is her’s and her husband’s responsibility.

“As their parents, nobody cares more about our daughters’ education than we do,” she said. “If we want our children to be truly bilingual, and to also learn about our culture, our history and our traditions, then it’s our responsibility to teach them.”

Are you homeschooling your children? Why? Or have you thought about homeschooling them? What’s stopping you? We’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, tips, experiences on this topic.

We have a lot more coming your way this bilingual homeschooling week. Not to mention the awesome giveaways you can enter to jump start or add to your bilingual homeschool classroom.

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 you to check out the two sponsors who graciously offered their educational products, perfect for bilingual homeschooling parents, as giveaways:

• Ingenio Bilingual Toys and Games

• The Boca Beth Program educational resources for parents raising bilingual children in English and Spanish.