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I had promised to share with all of you our journey as we navigated the first year of dual immersion school and I have to admit that I’ve slacked a bit, but now that Camila successfully completed kindergarten, I’m ready to tell you it’s been everything we expected and more. At times it was a bit scary to understand just how my girl would acquire the skills needed in both languages and keep up with standards, but she has flourished in every sense.

She started the first day of school speaking mostly English, even though she’s supposed to be one of the strongest native Spanish-speakers in her class. Her maestra has been wonderful and completely supportive of all the kids. It’s amazing to see how much the children have grown and how strong their Spanish skills have evolved.

One thing I learned that I can’t stress enough is that the parent involvement is key when your child is enrolled in a dual immersion program. For some parents it’s harder than for others because they don’t speak the target language at home and it’s more challenging to find ways to help their kids with schoolwork. So aside from the school needing parents to be active with fundraising, volunteering, advocating and such, a dual immersion classroom environment also depends on parents working together to support each other in any way needed.

I’m working on a series of posts to share with you the many benefits of a bilingual education in a dual immersion setting that we experienced first hand. But today I want to share with you a collection of pictures and a video put together using the Disney Story app that showcase the many beautiful and fleeting kindergarten moments my girl experienced in her beloved and unique Franklin Language Magnet school.

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There are two public dual language immersion elementary schools in my county, and there’s one school that offers everyday foreign language lessons, though it’s not an immersive setting. We applied for two of the three total options for next school year, when my son starts kindergarten, and just received word that he was not selected for either. We could choose to stay on the waiting list and wait for several months to have an official answer about that, but that doesn’t make it too easy to plan where we will send my stepdaughters to school (they are also at the mercy of magnet program decisions and the location of their siblings’ schools).

Of late, I have admitted to feeling that I’m slacking in the bilingual parenting arena because my son gets most of his Spanish input at his father’s house. I was hoping to at least be able to provide more support for his bilingualism by sending him to a school that emphasizes its importance, but it looks like he will have the standard school experience, at least for now.

Honestly, I’m perfectly fine with that, and even a little relieved. The more I step back from my attachment to my son, I see him as a boy that will grow into a capable man who, like all other adults, will ultimately choose if or how he wants Spanish to factor into his life. There is not necessarily a cause-effect relationship between going to a dual language school, or living in a bilingual family for that matter, and becoming a truly bilingual adult. Sure, there is a correlation, but none of us knows if our decisions directly make our kids into who they are.

I look at all my friends who were raised by parents that adamantly focused on one value or endeavor, such as a religion or a culturally derived belief. Those are the same friends who have deviated the most from the way they were raised. The more fanatical the parents were, the more curious the kids became about other ways to live. Granted, I haven’t done any formal experiments, but I have a hunch that this association is not imagined.

While I believe in bilingualism as one of the greatest gifts we can give our children, I think this same relationship may apply. We can promote the second language, model cultural acceptance, and fill their bookshelves with Spanish libros, but we certainly cannot guarantee the outcome. Some of us will be excited to see our kids gladly using Spanish every day in the future, while others may be a bit disappointed if they choose to steer away from it. Our efforts are not in vain, but those efforts need to have limits. For me, the limit is the waiting list.

There is a clear difference between exposing our kids to the things that are important to us and completely hooking our identity to their achievements. As hard as it is, I’m going to give up the fight for now and see where this random school decision will take our family. I need to follow my own instincts and not try to force Spanish into my son’s school life if it will create more stress for everyone. I’d rather stick to our regular goofing off in Spanish and letting his stepsisters read him Spanish stories for now. I never want to lose sight of my favorite parts of bilingualism – like being able to find humor in flawed translations. Little treasures like that are more valuable than any Spanish homework will ever be.

Photo from news.com.au

I am lucky enough to be in a public school district with a 90/10 bilingual immersion program from K-5, and growing. The district currently offers a Mandarin and Spanish program, and is about to expand the Spanish program to a second elementary school. Because my daughter will be eligible for Kindergarten in Fall 2013, this Fall has been spent touring our public, charter, and private options. It’s been exhausting and eye-opening.

With preschool we were lucky enough to find the “perfect” place which met all our priorities — diverse, play-based, holistic, small, affordable, and in a natural setting. They even include Spanish throughout the day, although it is not a “bilingual” program per se. It’s run by teachers and a director who truly love the children they care for and clearly enjoy every day with them. It is really a place that our entire family loves.

For kindergarten, we have come to realize that we will have to pick which of our priorities we are willing to sacrifice and pick the “good enough” school rather than focus on finding the “perfect school.”

There is no private Spanish bilingual elementary school in our area, so even if we could afford a private school, we would have to sacrifice a bilingual education and for the most part, racial diversity. These schools have been the most progressive in terms of philosophy — they understand that children learn through play and while there are desks in these schools, student have ample time to move around, play, and spend time outdoors. These schools have lovely music, art and science programs. They tend to be on pretty campuses and include many enriching field trips.

There is no Spanish biliingual charter school in our area either. While there are two excellent, and fairly progressive charters nearby, again, bilingualism is not a part of their curriculum. We are entering these lotteries, knowing they are a long shot, but hoping that we might have one of these as an option.

There is, as I mentioned, a promising public Spanish biligingual immersion elementary in my district, San Rafael Elementary. I toured the school yesterday and left with mixed feelings. The school has some great things to offer:

We’re in our second week of school and I still haven’t brought myself to give my daughter the allowance I had thought I would be giving her as soon as she became a kindergartener. Just last week I shared an article over at Babble titled “7 Tips for Teaching Young Kids About Money and Managing an Allowance” where I mention:

I recently had the chance to join a webinar titled “Moms Talking Money,” presented by Women & Co, a service of Citi that is dedicated to helping women strengthen their financial futures, where Linda Descano, President and CEO, told us that kindergarten is actually an ideal time to give kids their first allowance and introduce them to the concept of money beyond knowing their coins. Best practice, according to Descano and other experts, is to give them one dollar per year of age. In this case, my girl will get $5 dollars each week. Some parents decide to do it bi-weekly, and that’s fine too.

This advice really resonated with me and sounded logical because more than teaching my daughter about how to earn money, I’m interested in her learning what to do with it once she has it. I’m a strong believer that we must first focus on developing our passions and finding out what we’re good amazing at and encourage our kids to do the same by going after that with no regret. Yes, that means developing more than a work ethic, it requires a go-getter attitude and abundance will follow.

So, unlike most, I won’t make my daughter “work” for her allowance. She’s only five. That doesn’t mean that she’s not expected to do her share around the house, but she will do it because she’s part of the family and we all take care of each other together.

Her allowance will be something else that she will need to take care of and decide if she will spend it, save it or donate it. She has those options and I want her to learn money management that way.

Now, why haven’t I done it yet? I think it’s because there’s been too much coming her way in the last two weeks. As soon as I feel she’s settled into her new life, I will have the allowance and money management talk with her and she’ll get $5 every Sunday. We’ll use that time to talk about what she plans to do with it, how it can stretch further or help others, and in turn help herself by giving.

How do you tackle the issue of allowance and money with your kids? Is giving an allowance to a 5-year-old too soon or just right?

Would love to know what you think and will give a $50 Citibank gift card* to two of you who answer in the comments below and to two who share in the forum at SpanglishBaby Playground.

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*Redemption of gift card is governed by gift card terms

{Photo by chris.vandyk on flickr}

The day we’d been awaiting for finally came: first day of school at Franklin Language Academy’s dual immersion Spanish class. Camila, my husband and I had been getting all the essentials like the backpack, lunchbox, name tags and such ready, but we had also been gently reminding the girl that this school would be different than her Montessori preschool because it was all in Spanish. I even took her with me on a trip to Cancun last week where she got to visit her cousins so she could reconnect with them, but also with the language she was already rebelling about.

I have to admit, though, that all the preparation and encouragement didn’t really calm her nerves, although she did a great job at hiding them.

The whole familia of three, walked into the school yard at 7:40 am to check out which of the two Spanish Kinder teachers Camila had been placed with. We found her name under Sra. R’s class (withholding full name until I get permission to use it!) and we walked over to where her group of eager kindergartners awaited under the scorching August California sun. The first girl we met was from Colombian decent, spoke Spanish to us and her name was also Camila! To our right, a couple from Spain were snapping away pictures of their girl next to Sra. R’s Kinder Spanish Class sign. She also spoke Spanish. Then a sea of boys came in and the lively chaos began.

Next to Sra. R’s Kinder Spanish class were groups of kids forming to enter their classrooms for either French, German, Italian or Spanish. I relished from looking around and checking out the beautiful diversity in the school yard. Languages, skin colors, styles, countries all co-existing in one school. In awe.

After a welcome from the Principal and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, while teaching my girl how to place her right hand over her heart, Sra. R announced it was time for the kids to form one line and follow her to their classroom. Parents could walk next to them, kiss them goodbye at the door and then watch them go in without us. We did as told, and with every kindergartener step my heart skipped to see my girl so willing and anxious to start this new phase in her (our) life. What I never expected was to feel choked up and be hit with a feeling of emptiness once that classroom door was shut in front of us. That was it. My girl has a new life, and so do we. I’m happy this new life will build her bilingual skills and make her an even more open-armed citizen of the world.

I couldn’t help thinking and being in awe of the parents who’s children don’t speak Spanish yet and trying to put myself in their shoes and how nervous they must be. I mean, Camila understands Spanish perfectly, though she’s been insisting she can’t speak it well, and when I picked her up from school she had a semi-meltdown because she doesn’t want to speak Spanish in school. Or so she says. I didn’t panic, because I figured it was an emotional outburst due to the stress and expectations of the first day of kindergarten. I will admit that it is difficult for her to have a whole conversation in Spanish only, but she will be able to do it in no time. I know she’ll be fine, but even so it’s a nerve-wracking experience and I’m sure it has to be more so for non-Spanish, or whichever target language, speakers.

Would love to hear from parents who already went through this, or are going through it now, and how your first days of immersion school went. Please share in the comments below.

We all have such clear ideas about how we’ll raise our children, even before they’re born. Breast vs. bottle. Co-sleeping vs. crying it out. Homemade baby food. Screen time. And though in some areas I was able to stick to my guns, I was humbled by the fact that many things really didn’t work out the way I’d planned at all.

The same was true when it came to raising my children with two languages. I knew we’d probably use the one-parent, one-language method at home. And though I didn’t go so far as to research it when my boys were born, we live in a major metropolitan area. I knew there were Spanish immersion schools around, and I just figured I’d look into them when the time came.

Then came the early autism diagnoses for both of my boys, who fortunately thrived in a wonderful, full-time special education preschool—Primo was there for two years, Secondo for three. I trusted the teachers and staff there completely, and the idea of leaving the school and venturing into an LRE (Least Restrictive Environment) setting in a regular public school absolutely terrified me. When the time came to think about transitioning to kindergarten a year ago, it was a Very Big Deal.

And when that time came, one year ago, I thought again about looking into our local Spanish immersion schools, but it turned out our (monolingual) home school had an excellent reputation when it came to special education. And my priorities were completely shaken up, and I knew that there was absolutely no contest. I want my children to be bilingual, to be sure. But good special education services are crucial. Those services have made a world of difference in their lives, have helped them make such unbelievable progress early on, when it is so important.

I didn’t even look into the Spanish immersion schools.

This week, my boys will be done with kindergarten. Despite some significant challenges early on and a few adjustments, they have both done beautifully. At their last IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting a couple of months ago, special education services for both of them were scaled back significantlly, and it was a move we all agreed with. I could not be happier with how well they’ve done in school, and though they face plenty of social challenges, they are in a good place, with good people and great support.

Where does this leave them when it comes to their Spanish? I am happy to say that even after a year in an all-English school (plus aftercare), they still easily default to speaking to me in Spanish. The day may come when they will rebel, but it hasn’t happened yet. I can tell that the gaps in their vocabulary in Spanish — about the solar system, the life cycle of a plant — are becoming more pronounced, due to all the English they get at school, but they constantly ask me how to say things in Spanish and we either look things up in the dictionary or find a book on the subject in Spanish. They go to a community Spanish school on Saturdays, and I teared up at the acto de clausura as they danced onstage to El condor pasa, a little lost in the choreography but willing to be led by the more tuned-in little girls in their class.

We received a survey from the school to fill out and return the other day. Primo, who leaves nothing unread, found it on the table. “What language is spoken in the home?” he read. Then he turned to me. Mama, ¡en casa hablamos inglés Y español! he proclaimed gleefully.

Proudly, I would say.

{Photo via: US Department of Education}

I feel like such a wimp, but I’ve been crying like a baby the last few days. They’re mostly tears of happiness, but they’re tinged with a bit of sadness too, for time come and gone. Vanessa graduated from kindergarten yesterday and I’m so happy to report that it’s been an incredible first year of school for her — and for me.

For starters, all my worries about my daughter’s English abilities (since we only speak to her in Spanish) melted away pretty quickly as I saw and heard her flourish in her kindergarten class. I’ve always known Vanessa’s vocabulary in Spanish is much more extensive than in English, and yet, she had absolutely no issues communicating not only with her teachers, but with all the little friends she made this year.

As you might remember, Vanessa also had the opportunity to learn how powerful it really is to be bilingual, as there was a little boy in her class who had just moved from Mexico to Denver a few months prior to the start of the school year. Vanessa served as his translator; a connection to his native language and a bridge to his new one, making the transition much smoother for the boy who is now bilingual.

But the most amazing thing that happened this year to Vanessa is that she learned how to read and she’s been loving every single minute of this awesome journey! I’ll be forever grateful to her kindergarten teacher because even though I know it was her job, I’ll always remember her as the person responsible for teaching my daughter how to read in English so well that she was able to come home and transfer those skills into Spanish. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t worry about the whole reading process because I had always heard that it’s better for bilingual children to learn how to read in their dominant language, which in Vanessa’s case is Spanish. But children have a funny way of teaching you to have faith and it truly never ceases to amaze me how incredibly flexible a bilingual mind really is.

Not only is Vanessa reading perfectly well in both English and Spanish, but the week before school ended I got notice from her teacher that she’s actually reading above grade level! I can’t begin to tell you how proud and excited I am for her, considering very little English is ever spoken or read at home. So for all of you out there who are using the mL@H method and are worried your children are not getting exposure to English, my daughter is the perfect example of why you need to stop worrying.

Vanessa visiting one of the classrooms I spent many an hour as a child back in Peru. San Silvestre School.

I’m worried. I know I shouldn’t be. But, I’m a mom. And moms worry, right?

I know that what I’m going to say is going to sound crazy considering all the research I’ve been doing the last couple of years, all the tips and studies shared by our knowledgeable experts, and all the support we’ve gotten from the awesome community SpanglishBaby has become. But here it is: I have started to think that maybe I should’ve spoken more English to Vanessa in the last 4 1/2 years.

¿Qué qué? Did I just say that? Okay. Let me backtrack a little.

Last week, it was time for parent-teacher conferences over at Vanessa’s preschool. “Are you kidding me?” my husband asked when I told him I had to leave work early so I could make it to the meeting. “She’s only 4!” Whatever. And, by the way, she’s 4 1/2.

Anyhow, I was particularly interested in what her teacher had to say for a couple of reasons. First, unlike past years when I was a SAHM and I had tons of interaction with my daughter’s preschool teachers both before and after school, I now work full-time and barely know the teachers since I only get to pick her up and I’m always in a rush to get back to work. Second, while it’s true that Vanessa is only 4 1/2 and this is preschool, this is her last year there and it’s actually considered pre-kinder. She will be starting kindergarten the first day of August. In other words, Vanessa will be changing schools for the first time in 2 1/2 years and I wanted to know how ready her teacher thought she was for that.

I mean, I know my daughter. I know she’s ready, but I wanted to see what her teacher had to say in terms of the whole English-not-being-her-first language thing.

So here’s what she said: Vanessa is completely ready. She wouldn’t be able to stay another year in preschool because she would get bored. She’s extremely intelligent, understands absolutely everything, can follow directions to the T, is a bit of a drama queen when she doesn’t get her way (surprise!) and…she’s really shy!

Shy? “Are you sure you’re talking about my Vanessa?” I wanted to ask her because, really, I’d use a lot of words to describe my daughter, but S-H-Y would not be one of them. In fact, the opposite of shy would be more like it!

So, what’s going on? Vanessa’s teacher explained that while she had no issues communicating with her peers, she didn’t really talk to her or her assistant that much. She said that when she did, many times they could barely hear her and that sometimes it seemed as if Vanessa wasn’t sure she was saying the correct  word. I immediately asked if this would be a problem for her in kindergarten, what with a much larger class and a more rigorous schedule. Vanessa’s teacher didn’t seem to think so. She just suggested I mentioned my daughter’s shyness to her kinder teacher. But how can I do that if I’ve never even seen/known this side of her?

I have to admit all this made me very disappointed and sad with a bit of guilt. I know everything will be fine and soon I’ll be writing about how Vanessa doesn’t want to talk to me in Spanish — considering she’ll be immersed in English most of her waking hours five times a week (Oh, God, how I hope this doesn’t happen!) — yet, I can’t help feeling as if I should’ve spoken to her in English a bit lot more.

Unlike those of you who use the OPOL method (which, by the way, I think might be a lot harder, but is the better way of raising fully bilingual children), my husband and I can count in one hand the times we’ve spoken to her in English. I know that Vanessa is not shy. She just doesn’t have the same vocabulary in English as she does in Spanish. I swear that if you only heard her speak in Spanish, without seeing her, you’d think she was a lot older than her 4 1/2 years. Her vocabulary is tremendous for her age. (And I’m not saying that just because I’m her mami. This is what I’ve been told over and over again by others after they hear her speak, including all of my Spanish-speaking family during our recent trip to Perú!)

So now I’m left wondering if I did her a disservice by not using more English with her. After I left the parent-teacher conference, it occurred to me that we still have about four months before she enters kinder and that maybe I should switch to talking to her in English in the hopes that we could enrich her vocabulary. Pero eso es una locura.

Truth is that speaking to her in any language other than Spanish (save for the little French I use with her on occasion) would be a complete farce for both my husband and I (with all due respect to those parents who are raising their children bilingual by talking to them in any language other than their native one. I admire you to no end, as I’ve said many times in the past.) Spanish is our mother tongue and the most natural way for us to communicate in, especially with our children.

Entonces, ¿qué? Well, as I said at the beginning, I know I’m crazy to be worried about this and, as everybody who started kindergarten knowing not one word of English has already told me, I also know she’ll be totally fine. Yet, I’m still worried.

I guess that’s what mamis do.