Photo by moi

Guest Posts… An occasional series…

The following is a guest post written by Beth Butler, bilingual educator of young children who strives to create better communication within our increasingly diverse society. She is the founder of the internationally acclaimed BOCA BETH language learning series which has garnered various parenting awards. You can find her blogging at Boca Beth: One Song at a Time.

I don’t quite recall when I gained an interest in learning Spanish as my second language, except that it was during junior high. That being said, it was almost a sure thing this blonde-hair, blue-eyed, freckle-faced Irish/Greek girl would NEVER become the owner of a business whose passion is to teach Spanish to little English-speaking children and English to little Spanish-speaking children!

Yet, here I sit typing a guest post for my new amigas, Ana and Roxana, and their fantástico site SpanglishBaby (of which I have become an avid reader and so very thankful of the resources they continue to share). In this post I hope to convey to you the whens, hows and whys of my bilingual passion and how I have turned into a business called The Boca Beth Program. Funny, you go to our web site, and the title on our home page sums up the why of my passion and my daily drive to succeed: You Don’t Have To Be Bilingual To Raise A Bilingual Child.

Born and raised in Florida, I took Spanish for almost 5 years between junior high and high school. I then traveled to Chile as an exchange student for one summer at the age of 16 followed by an exchange to Mexico one summer during my first year of college. It was while I lived in Chile that I became fluent and biliterate in Spanish – reading, writing, speaking conversationally morning, noon and night, and (the kicker!) finally dreaming in my second language of Spanish! I returned home so changed and so culturally aware! (I thank my mom to this day for the opportunity she allowed me to take during my teen years.)

I obtained my teaching degree in Deland, Florida. I graduated in 1981 when bilingual education was not even discussed. I cannot call to mind one class on ESL. When I got my first classroom of second graders I set up a listening center with a denim bean bag chair and cassette tapes that I made at home. These old-fashioned tapes would introduce Spanish vocabulary words to the children in a bilingual format – I would say, “Sister. Hermana. Sister. Say hermana……Air-mah-nah.”

At conference night, I would have an occasional parent tell me to please not allow their son or daughter visit the Say it in Spanish area in my classroom. They still believed in the myths that two or more languages would only confuse their seven-year-old child and delay the acquisition of English language skills. ¿Pueden creerlo? So I had a short list of students that were not allowed to learn Spanish because of their misguided parents.

You Don’t Have To Be Bilingual To Raise A Bilingual Child

Not sure yourself about your own child being able to successfully be introduced to a 2nd or 3rd language before the age of ten? I would advise you to keep reading SpanglishBaby.com, pick up a copy of a wonderful book titled The Bilingual Edge that addresses the many myths surrounding raising bilingual children, and visit my free resource area at any time!

I spent more than ten years in the classroom never venturing beyond my homemade Spanish lessons on cassette. I married a Latino man whose dad was born in Spain and mom was born in Cuba, and we had two sons. Our marriage came to an end, but never once have I allowed our boys to forget their Latino heritage and their Spanish language. In fact, both of them ended up Spanish student of the year in middle school and our youngest son is currently in Spanish 4. His teachers have called me personally to say, “¡Qué bilingüe es su hijo!“  I attribute it to the fact that I often speak in English followed by the Spanish equivalent with all three of my children. That, my friends, is HOW a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, freckle-faced Irish/Greek girl could get to a point to create a bilingual product line full of CDs, DVDs, coloring/activity books, puppets and mini maracas!

I met my Anglo husband after many years of being a single mom, and he encourages me to speak more often in Spanish so that he too can learn! The birth of my third child brought about the birth of my Boca Beth Program and product line. I became Ms. Music in her preschool in 2001 and started introducing Spanish vocabulary words through piggyback songs (that’s a teaching term for taking a classic children’s melody such as The Ten Little Indians and writing new words for it which I do to teach the days of the week on this song – look for song #12). That, amigas mías, is the WHEN of my journey as a bilingual mom of three and educator of thousands!  That year I started the story board for our first DVD and we released our My First Songs in Spanish/Mis primeras canciones en Inglés shortly thereafter.

Let’s close up with the WHY would I choose to introduce Spanish to young children since I am a non-native speaker. In addition to the many reports out that conclude being a native speaker is not a requirement to introduce a new language to young children, I have known this is my true calling since my first time presenting a workshop in front of my fellow educators at a state early childhood conference. Millions of parents and teachers feel incompetent to give the gift of language to young children simply because they themselves are not bilingual. Por favor… could we stop that nonsense right now?!?!

I love traveling the country speaking with teachers, homeschooling families and parents about how easy and fun it can be to give the gift of Spanish and English with our Boca Beth music and movement fun. It’s so cool providing hope to a gal from Grand Island, NE who e-mailed me just this week admitting she was a bit skeptical when I spoke of how fun and easy this introduction to Spanish as a 2nd language can be until her little three-year-old answered with ‘Gracias’ just days after hearing our Boca Beth bilingual beats!

Here in my home and in my office we are preparing our children to be global citizens one song at a time, having a blast, and creating lifetime language learners!

Not only was Beth nice enough to write this guest post, but she was kind enough to be giving away a BOCA BETH Beginners Backpack to ONE lucky winner! The backpack comes with a CD, a DVD, a coloring/activity book and BOCA, the puppet – among other goodies. This is a great giveaway you don’t want to miss! (Retail value is $49.99)

How to Be a Winner:

Leave us a comment explaining why you’d like to win this awesome backpack! Are you raising your kids bilingual or know of somebody who is?

If you want to increase your chances of winning you can get additional entries by doing any of the following:

1. Subscribe to Beth’s blog, Boca Beth: One Song at a Time.

2. Blog or Tweet about this giveaway. Just make sure to send us the link in an additional comment below.

3.  Email 5 friends and BCC us to: giveaways@spanglishbaby.com. Don’t worry-we’ll never share or collect anyone’s emails.

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

This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Sunday, April 26th 2009.  Good luck to all!

Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted.  Sorry, just need to keep  it fair…

Photo by Flux=Rad

Our first Week of Mamás Blogueras comes to an end with this entertaining and endearing post by Carrie Weir, Cuban-American blogger, entrepreneur and mamá to a precious girl.  Stop by Carrie’s blog-Bilingual in the Boonies-for a good dose of her unique sense of humor and a peek into this Latina’s bilingual life.

There are Spanish-English dictionaries on my desk, on a pantry shelf, and on the bookshelf in my daughter’s room.

I need them to stay within reach because despite the fact Spanish is my first language, the words often escape me. And, much to my delight and slight shock, my 5-year-old can give me the right answers when I get bilingual brain-lock.

-”Maria, como se dice ‘cubby’ en español?
-”Casillero,” she answers.
-”And, how do you say lunch box?”
-”Maletín,” she tells me.

I grew up in a Cuban-American family in Miami. My parents and relatives primarily spoke Spanish at home and I attended a bilingual private school. So, the foundation in the language of my people is strong. But, after nearly 25 years on my own –nearly 20 of those living in Tennessee — far away from my family and culture, I realized raising a bilingual child would take some creativity and all the help I could get.

When Maria was an infant, it was simple to teach her Spanish. Leche, agua, pelota, perro. I sang her lullabies like Señora Santa Ana and Los Pollitos Dicen and I kept the salsa music on the CD player. While I was at work a wonderful woman from Nicaragua filled Maria’s ears with beautiful Spanish. By the time she was a toddler, most of her words were in Spanish.

But, when I left my job and she started hanging out with me full-time, almost overnight her wants were communicated mostly in English. I lapsed into English a lot and even when I spoke to her in Spanish, she answered me in English.

I panicked a little and made a game plan: If I could not speak to Maria 100% in Spanish, then I would fill in the gaps with books, music, games, some TV and the most powerful weapon in the arsenal — Abuelitos.

And while I lapse often, it has worked. My daughter is as bilingual as she can be and while it takes constant monitoring, adapting and creative thinking to keep a little person like mine interested in engaging in a second language, it can be done.

Here’s a lot of what we do to keep Spanish alive in our home:

• We have read ABC books and picture dictionaries in Spanish since Maria could hold her head up. She learned the sounds of the letters, the names of simple objects and I got a great reminder on words I rarely use like “alce” and “bellota.”

• If I forget a word while we are talking, I go look in the dictionary, or tell her I will have to look it up later. I want her to understand that learning a language is a constant.

• Until she was about 2, I only read her bedtime books in Spanish. Her father read the books in English. Now, I do a mix of both.

• My iTunes library is filled with bilingual children’s songs (I love Dan Zanes for this), traditional Spanish children’s songs and plenty of pop songs by Latin artists. We sing a lot and she has no idea she’s learning. (Here’s one bilingual iMix and a bilingual holiday iMix)

• Simple and free Spanish podcasts like Voices en Español and Notes in Spanish, also available from iTunes, play in my kitchen during the summer and on weekends while Maria eats or does a craft. A favorite is Cody’s Cuentos, traditional children’s stories in Spanish.

• I play CDs from artists like Boca Beth and Professor Pocket and DVDs like Global Wonders that are specifically focused on teaching children Spanish. The songs are great and engaging. Maria has had the Boca Beth CD for more than 2 years and still loves it.

• Dora and Diego and Maya and Miguel have been stars here because when she was 3 and resisting el habla, I pointed out that Dora and Diego were bilingual just like her. “Isn’t that great?” I would say. She did think that was cool.

• We play word games like “Veo, Veo” (I Spy) and we made up a silly one that mixes up body parts, like: “¿Qué pasaría si tu nariz estuviera atrás de tu cabeza?”

• Maria is enrolled in a Spanish immersion preschool. The fact she spends 6-hours a day bathed in español has boosted her language. She reads just as well in English as she does in Spanish. It also has improved my Spanish because her wonderful teacher corrects me often.

• My husband is not fluent in Spanish, but because he truly wants his daughter to be a Spanish-speaker, he makes the effort to speak to her in Spanish. Though he can mess it up, it’s a learning opportunity for them both when I correct him. It also shows Maria her father thinks it is important to try.

• We eat Cuban picadillo, arroz con pollo and flan at home and when we eat at Mexican restaurants she is encouraged to order her own quesadilla, por favor.

• I spray Maria’s hair every day with Agua de Violetas, a delicious and traditional Cuban children’s scent. It provides a link to the past and has provided opportunities to talk about my own Violetas-scented childhood in Miami.

• I actively spend time, and search for, local Latina friends and Latina friends with children so that Maria will grow up exposed to people like herself — people who can easily float between two languages and two cultures and feel right at home in each.

• My parents, who live in Miami, speak to Maria in Spanish. They teach her poems and silly songs. My father teaches her cubanisms and dichos and makes her duro frios — frozen smoothie cubes made of tropical papaya, mango and other fruit. Spending more than a few days with my parents switches her brain and she more often initiates conversations in Spanish when they are here, and just after we’ve been together.

My grandmother, Evelina, used to kick my cousins and me out of the house if we spoke English. She was fierce and unrelenting. I credit her with much of the reason I speak pretty darned good Spanish. While my Mama would be shocked I cannot remember simple Spanish words, I know that the vieja would be pretty proud of how far we’ve gone to make her Tennessee-born, great-granddaughter the tremenda cubanita that she is.

And reader, if you’re struggling with the habla in your own home, remember this: If I can do it in the Boonies of Tennessee, you can too.

Mucha suerte to you.

————————-

Want to meet María, Carrie´s daughter, and see her in full Spanish action for your self?  Check out this adorable home video of  María at age two.  She’s too much!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inm7ZhM_oR0

And so this brings us to the end of an awesome week of sharing! Thanks to all these amazing ladies for inspiring us in so many ways with their stories in this first Week of Mamás Blogueras:  Tati, Jen, Violeta, Monica and Carrie.  Hopefully, this will be the first of many!

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography

Our Week of Mamás Blogueras continues with a post from Jennifer Manriquez,  a.k.a Maestra Jen from Bilingual Fun, who’s raising two young bilingual children in Michigan. A former classroom teacher, Jennifer is now an entrepreneur heading The Bilingual Fun Company-a language education business which teaches Spanish to parents and children ages 18 months to 12 years old.

If you are trying to incorporate Spanish learning into your child’s everyday life, you may be like me, always seeking new creative activities to spice up their learning.  Teaching both my own children and the many children in our language program, Bilingual Fun, continually makes me aware of their incredible ability to absorb and retain languages.

I love to teach children Spanish through games, movement and everyday activities. Creating fun, easy Spanish lessons for kids, not only enriches their development, but keeps the language learning alive.

Some quick, easy ideas for teaching children Spanish and reinforcing everyday vocabulary:

1. Playing Memory is a great activity for vocabulary development and reinforcement as well as an opportunity to present different grammatical structures. Ask  “¿dónde está….? Or, ¿qué es? as you look for the specific picture. Ask children to repeat the word in Spanish each time you say it. Be sure to reinforce pictures after each game. Remember, repetition is one of the keys to language learning success!

2. Incorporate outside play in your Spanish lessons for kids. Practice kicking the soccer ball and counting the goals in Spanish. Jump rope and count in Spanish. Play hopscotch in Spanish.  Draw with chalk on the driveway and reinforce colors and common vocabulary by playing Pictionary.

3. Blow bubbles and reinforce ‘arriba/abajo’.  Play games such as “Mother May I” and incorporate the numbers and ‘rápido/lento’ or ‘ Red Light/Green Light” for color practice.

4.  Make faces in the mirror. Give your kids the Spanish word for a specific emotion, and they have to make that face in the mirror such as: enojado (mad), triste (sad) or feliz (happy), etc. When kids can see themselves as they hear or say the word, it helps to make a language connection.

5.  Count items in the kitchen. Since it seems that most days we find ourselves in the kitchen, either eating, preparing meals, cleaning up after meals, etc, I like to use this setting as a realistic teaching tool. We count our snack pieces, silverware and plates as we unload the dishwasher, magnets on the fridge, etc. You can keep little ones occupied as you prepare dinner, just keep them counting!

6. Play I Spy around the house or in the car. This is a favorite activity and can keep kids communicating using many different words and expressions such as colors, adjectives, prepositions and more.

7.  Play guessing games. When packing my daughter’s lunch, we play ‘¿qué hay en la caja?’ and she has to guess what I packed her for lunch.

8. Play Simón Dice/Simon Says. Point to the different body parts. Use the command “ tócate…. la nariz“, etc. Reverse roles and have kids give you commands so that they can practice producing the language.

9. Create rhythmic beats.  Clap and count as you create different beats. Have children imitate you, and then they teach you a new beat. Ex; uno, dos, uno, dos, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, uno, dos, uno, dos…..

10.  Dance Party Fiesta. Play upbeat Spanish music. Stop the music and freeze. Have count in variations (frontwards, backwards, by 2s, or 1-10).

When teaching young children anything, whether it is language or math skills, keeping things fun is important to help foster their interest. Play based teaching is a great way to make learning Spanish easy for kids.

By teaching kids Spanish through activities that are relevant to their lives, you are giving your children a great head start in their bilingual development!

Now it’s your turn. What are some fun activities and games you use to reinforce Spanish at home?

Our Week of Mamás Blogueras continues tomorrow with an inspiring post by Violeta García-Mendoza from Multi-Culti Mami and Turn People Purple. She shares with us her amazing story of how, along with her husband, they strengthen their three adoptive children’s Guatemalan heritage and identity.  Click here to read it.

Photo by in a N.Y. State of Mind

Today is the first day of our Week of Mamás Blogueras. We’ve invited five incredible women/moms/blogueras to share with SpanglishBaby friends their tips and stories of success, defeat, love and passion as they raise bilingual and bicultural kids.

The first guest post is by the mother of three children under four, Tati, who was raised as a bilingual (English/Spanish) “gringa” thanks to the love, determination and home-schooling of her mother, Ginny.  They both blog at Wanna Jugar With Migo, where they share their creative ideas about teaching Spanish.

Are you going to teach your children to speak Spanish?” everyone asked me after I was married. My husband and I both speak Spanish fluently, so it seemed logical that we would teach our children.

I lived in Honduras for three years as a teenager where I was immersed in the language and culture. He lived in Guatemala for two years as a missionary. It just made sense that we would teach our children Spanish. But, would we really teach them to become fluent?

I knew the best way for children to learn a language is through immersion. I considered speaking to them only in Spanish, but how would that affect my relationship with my kids? I would have to play silly games with them, tickle them, and change their diaper, all in Spanish. That didn’t seem natural! Of course, English comes more naturally and easily to me. Would I be willing to make that change in my lifestyle just so they could speak Spanish? What would they get out of it? They would learn to love a wonderful culture and people. We could live overseas as a family together and make friendships with the people there. But would it be worth it? We decided it would.

Spanish Only Days

Because I was not willing to speak only Spanish with my children, we decided that both of us would speak Spanish on certain days. We found that three consecutive days worked best, so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday became our Spanish days.

We have found many challenges to keep our rule of “Spanish only” on these days. Transitioning times like a move, a new baby or vacation have disrupted our routine. Also, on Spanish days, instances come up that we need to speak English like when playing with friends or talking on the phone. Although we have stopped from time to time, we have always come back to it.

Photo by kimberlyfaye

The Spanish language has played a big role in my immediate family, although we are not Hispanic. My parents have always loved Spanish and Latin American culture. They have spent over eight years living in different Latin American countries: Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama.

My mother homeschooled me and gave me Spanish lessons. Her excitement for the language helped me become fluent while we lived in Honduras. When I decided to teach my children through immersion, she was excited to hear that I would be teaching my children even more Spanish than she taught me. The support we have received from my parents has helped us persist even when it has been difficult. My mom asks me every once and a while on Spanish days if we are speaking Spanish. Obviously I am not speaking Spanish to them just for my mom, but it helps to know someone is checking up on me like a work-out partner that wakes you up every morning.

Sometimes I want to share all the little success stories that I have as my girls learn to speak Spanish. As grandparents, my father and mother love to hear every little new thing my girls learn. Hearing their excitement helps me keep going.

My mother and I also created a blog to share ideas of teaching Spanish to children. This helps me keep my goals and stay motivated. My parents usually buy Spanish books, DVDs and toys to reinforce the girls’ learning. This past Christmas my mom created a songbook for my girls with traditional Latin American children’s songs and other Spanish teaching songs along with visual aids to help them understand the meaning of the words. She sat down and taught them the words and music for each song. We pull this out on Spanish days. The girls not only love singing the songs, but it reminds them of their abuelos.

I am grateful for the support I have from my parents and for the gift they gave to me of a second language. I hope to pass on this wonderful gift to my own children.

Come back tomorrow to get expert advice from Jennifer Manriquez, better known as Maestra Jen from Bilingual Fun, on how to teach children Spanish through playful, meaningful activities, all part of our Week of Mamás Blogueras.

Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31st, we’ll be giving away four baskets of Naturally-Victoria Secret’s new beauty line made from natural ingredients.  You know you want one!