Editor’s note: To go along with our SpanglishBaby Live Google+ Hangout about immersion travel, we’ve prepared a whole week of posts about this topic. Our first one is by Susan, one of our regular contributors, whom we would’ve loved to have as a guest on the Hangout, but who’s unable to join us because of her job as a Spanish teacher. Susan, her husband and her two trilingual kids will go on their third immersion trip — their second to Peru — this summer and she has tons of info to share.

Visiting and traveling in Spanish speaking countries is an educational and fun way to enrich your child’s language abilities. While traveling with children can be challenging, the rewards are well worth the effort of planning such a trip. A journey abroad exposes your child to another country and culture, improves their Spanish skills, and is a great way for the entire family to bond and learn together.

Schools and Homestays

I have always been an independent traveler, and like to set up our Spanish classes, homestays, and excursions by doing my own independent research on the Internet. Once my husband and I have decided on a destination, I do a Google search of Spanish schools in the area. I read through the websites of many different schools to see what classes and programs they offer, and then visit different travel forums to read the reviews of former students. Once I have narrowed down the selection, I email the directors to see if they will be able to accommodate our special situation — a bilingual family with young children. This process does take some time, but the research and planning of our trip is a lot of fun.

It seems that traveling with children is becoming more popular. Most schools have a teacher that works with children, but it is always important to emphasize that your children are bilingual to avoid the teaching of the basics such as colors and numbers. I always request that the kids are read to extensively and immersed in children’s literature since educational research emphasizes that reading expands a child’s vocabulary and improves their language skills. I bring some books and always buy a supply of Spanish books to take back home.

A homestay experience can be a wonderful way to get to know the culture of the country that you are visiting, but it is important to be with a good family. I have always used homestays that have been arranged by the school. In an earlier post, I described our experiences at wonderful homestay and a horrible homestay. Last year’s experience was so bad, my husband was reluctant to do another homestay this year. To avoid an awful situation, I have stipulated beforehand that we can change houses or even go to a hotel instead of staying in a homestay where we are miserable. I am confident that things will go well, and that we will once again have the experience of getting to know a local family.

Medical and Security Concerns

My husband and I traveled a lot and even lived and worked abroad before having children. I didn’t worry too much about health issues or security concerns. That all changed when we had children. Unfortunately, I learned the importance of researching health issues the hard way.

Two years ago my husband and I had decided to take the children to Peru, a country we had visited as a couple several years earlier. I had the airline tickets purchased and plans made. When discussing with the doctor which immunizations we would need for the trip, he expressed serious concern at taking our children to Cusco where the altitude is around 11,200 feet. Since we live at sea level, there was real concern of altitude sickness. Since our children were only 3 and 1½ years old at the time, the doctor advised us to change our plans and visit cities at a lower elevation. We still traveled to Peru, but I had to change our plane tickets, reservations and plans, and we faced financial penalties for changing the flights. Now I look into the medical recommendations months before making my travel plans.

The CDC’s travel website is an excellent source of information on health and immunization recommendations and requirements. If you are unable to see a doctor who specializes in travel medicine, it is a good idea to print out the information and take it to the appointment so that your pediatrician can use it as a guide.

I also find it prudent to check the State Department’s Travel Website. I always like to read the country specific information and to check if any travel alerts or warnings are in place. While I won’t necessarily change my plans based on what I read, it is a good idea to be informed. For our trip this summer, I have found the Facebook page for the U.S. Embassy in Lima to be informative. There are also recommendation for places to visit and fun activities in the country.

Traveling with Children

When we first traveled to Peru, my youngest was still in diapers. While most big cities do carry the same products that can be found in the United States, smaller cities and towns don’t necessarily have these same products. We visited some remote villages and even hiked to the bottom of the Colca Canyon. Diapers would have been impossible to find, so I was glad that we had carried them with us.

I do not recommend taking a stroller. They may be useful in big cities, but for the most part, the roads and sidewalks are not conducive to rolling around your child. I prefer carrying my kids in a child carrier backpack. Peruvian mothers carry their children on their backs using beautiful decorative cloths. They loved talking to me about my carrier and just being a mom. I really became aware of how much we as mothers have in common in spite of our cultural differences.

Most importantly I think it is important to prepare your child for the trip to a new country. I get books out of the library and we discuss where we will travel and the sites that we will see. Children’s books and YouTube videos can help give a deeper understanding of the country and culture before traveling. Having some prior knowledge of the country will enhance their learning and experience during your travels.

A lot planning goes into putting a travel immersion experience together for your child. The language learning, the cultural understanding, and the knowledge of another country provides an invaluable learning experience that will always be remembered.

{Photo courtesy of Susan Stephan}

It’s time for our fifth SpanglishBaby LIVE Google+ Hangout and we’d love for you to join us. This time around we’re discussing all about immersion travel. For those of you who’ve never joined a Google+ Hangout, you should know that it’s just like hanging out with a bunch of friends, except that you’re not all in the same room.

WHAT: In our fifth Hangout we’ll be discussing how and why immersion travel can do wonders for your children’s exposure to Spanish.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 9 at 1 p.m. EST.

WHO: Joining Ana and I will be two of our contributors who have a lot of experience with immersion travel as they’ve done it several times with their own bilingual & bicultural families.

Amy Conroy is the mother of three young children and holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology. An advocate of bilingualism, Amy founded habla blah blah to help introduce non-native speakers to Spanish through music and fun. Amy is a native Los Angelean who wrote a series about her experiences while on extended leave in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, MX in 2011-2012.

Becky Morales is a mom to four bilingual, multicultural, active kids ages 4-7; she and her husband are doing their best to raise them as compassionate world citizens, and lifelong learners. She founded Kid World Citizen, where parents and teachers can find global activities to do at home that help enrich little minds. In her free time, she loves to cook and travel and is a wannabe triathlete.

There are many ways for you to be part of this Google Hangout online.

1. First of all, RSVP on the event page.

2. Add the SpanglishBaby Google+ Page to your Circles.

3. On Tuesday, April 9, starting at 1 p.m. EST, the SpanglishBaby Live Hangout will go on air and you’ll be able to watch it on the event page and on our YouTube channel.

4. The hashtag for all our SpanglishBaby Live Hangouts is #BilingualKids and you can use it on Google+, Twitter or Instagram and we’ll find you!

5. Once the Hangout is over, a recording of it will be made available for all to view, share and/or embed on the SpanglishBaby YouTube channel.

If you’d like to have your question related to raising bilingual and/or bicultural kids answered by ourselves or one of our experts, please fill out this form. If you’re interested in participating in one of our SpanglishBaby Live Google+ Hangouts, you’ll be able to let us know in the form too.

If you want to learn more about Google+ Hangouts On Air, check out this page. Feel free to leave us any questions or suggestions in the comments area below, on the event page or our Google+ page and Community!

Lately, I have seen posts by our SpanglishBaby familia about whether or not a Spanish immersion program is the right fit for their child. Well, interestingly, it is a topic that has been something my little familia has also been debating.

Even before I had Sabrina I was scoping out our foreign language schools options. I got on several waiting lists and eventually got into all of them! In fact, I keep my nena on a rolling waiting list because you never know. I was so set on foreign language exposure that I did not even bother looking into English child development (aka day care options or mothers-day-out programs). I had my heart and eyes focused on the foreign language component that it, unfortunately, blurred my sense of vision. I lost sight of what was really important — my daughter’s well being, her happiness, and what she needed in school.

As I scoped out language schools I started to notice a trend. Most of them seem to have a stricter and more regimented program for teaching and taking care of children. I started to wonder if this had something to do with the ways children are taught and cared for in Latin American countries. I know that western/North American child rearing practices can be very different than other parts of the world, so surely this, too, affects the way children are regarding in Latin American day care centers and schools.

As I have mentioned in other posts, we love the little school Sabrina is enrolled in now. They value linguistic diversity and that, to me, is priceless. We have had to consider other options because it was now too far from our home, but to be honest, I was not entirely happy with the stricter and more regimented schedule they have in place. I won’t get into details, but I will say that I recently checked out an English school in town and walked into a whole new world.

The child was at the center of their “play-curriculum.” If my baby girl wants to paint, she can; if she wants to play with shaving cream in a water table, she can. The place seemed happy, the kids were happy, and most importantly, they were doing things that 2 and a half year olds should be doing—socializing and playing. In other words, they don’t have to wait for art time to happen in an organized, sitting in their chair, and waiting their turn fashion.

Read: Is Bilingual Education Right for Us?

Taking the initiative to look at English schools may have happened out of necessity, but deciding that sometimes Spanish does not come first was a process. We have been speaking in Spanish to Sabrina since the day she was born and have been really consistent about it. She probably knows about 90% Spanish and 10% English.

My heart was aching and tears were swelling up in my eyes when I was forced to take a closer look at the decisions we were making about exposing my daughter to Spanish almost 100% of the day. I realized that the decisions we had made were possibly costing her opportunities to just be a kid. All she wants to do is play, socialize with other kids, and do creative things. Sure she would stay in her seat, listen to the teacher, walk in a line with her hands behind her back, but she is too young to voice her opinion or even know that there are other schools available where being a 2 ½ year old comes first, then learning Spanish.

I’m curious, what are foreign language schools/day care centers like in your city? Have you compared English versus Spanish schools? If so, did you notice a difference like I did? How are you weighing your options?

{Photo by barnabywasson}

But today I did more than dream and enjoyed one of the things we crave Mexico for: food! In this area there’s a lot of restaurants that serve fish and seafood in so many varieties. We headed with some friends and Camila’s adored cousins to a place called Los Aguachiles in Cancún. The first thing I ordered was my chelada Ambar XX bien fría and then two lettuce tacos with fish ceviche and shrimp aguachile. The aguachile is a succulent dish from Sinaloa that’s similar to a ceviche, but with more chiles – mostly serrano.

Still wanting and craving more and not wanting the mouth-exploding experience to end, my husband and I ordered a cayo de hacha aguachile.

Y para terminar, why not a dessert of red apples covered in tamarindo con chile and dipped in chamoy?  I thought it would be a bomb for me, but I actually loved the combination of sweet, tangy and spicy.

The place also had a lot of funk and a fun, Mexican kitschy vibe to it.

Oh, and when we arrived last night my in-laws had ordered a spread of tacos al pastor and gringas to get us started on quenching the cravings! Now that’s familia!

We haven’t hit the beach yet, but are heading straight to Playa del Carmen tomorrow and plan to really get on vacation mode.

Camila has been doing so well with her Spanish and is actually in a completely different attitude about speaking it here than she was the last time we visited her cousins 4 months ago. She’s definitely trying harder to have Spanish come out first and doesn’t seem intimidated by it at all. That just gives me even more of a yearning to have our little place here to escape to enjoy what we love the most in Mexico: family, food, beach and español!

My husband (a native French speaker) and I (an advanced non-native French speaker) have raised our two boys bilingually since they were born. They are 7 and 10 and in the 2^nd and 5^th grades. We normally live in the US and spend five to six weeks in France every two years. But, we wanted more! We are currently at the mid-point of a five-month stay in France.

Although we have been pleased with their bilingual progress while living in the US, it was important to us that they spend an extended period of time in France to truly experience daily life in their second country, as well as to focus on literacy. Although both of our boys can read at an age-appropriate level in French, we have found that one of the most difficult challenges of our bilingual lifestyle is making sure that our children can write in their second language. Life is already so busy with school and other activities in the US that it is hard to fit in study of French grammar or other subjects in French.

Though we have been thinking about it for a while, we organized this entire extended stay in France fairly quickly, in about two months, including finding lodging and signing them up for school — though I would not necessarily recommend doing it that way! Our boys’ bilingual progress was truly our sole motivation for the trip and when we saw a window of opportunity, we jumped on it. A side benefit is, of course, that we all get to spend time abroad together. I also benefit from speaking French in a real-world setting. For various logistical reasons, we decided to spend one semester abroad instead of an entire year.

The French school year starts later than it does Colorado, where we normally live, so the boys had a few extra weeks of vacation. The flip side of that is that they were bored by then and needed the stimulation of a school environment. They will also spend less time in school this year than any of their French or American classmates and we need to work on the side to catch any concepts falling through the cracks, especially math. In France, their public school is walking distance and there are only 100 students, both of which we appreciate. Since the boys’ spoken French was already strong when we arrived, their overall integration was smooth and they made friends quickly. There is no school in France on Wednesdays for elementary school children, and the boys spend all day mid-week with their grandparents, which all four of them enjoy very much.

For our younger son, grammar is not yet heavily covered at his age and he is doing very well and keeping up in all subjects. Our older son’s peers have already studied various grammatical concepts in depth in earlier grades, however, so he does get frustrated at times with tasks like verb conjugation. (Un)fortunately for him, his mother (me) is a French grammar nerd so we can and do have marathon study sessions at home. He is a talker though and loves to give presentations at school, even in French. Also, while he loves being half-French, the adjustment has been harder for him. When he is frustrated, he tells us (or his teachers!) that it doesn’t matter — he will soon be returning to the US! That has shown us that coming for half a year was not ideal.

My husband and I are continuing to work for our US-based company/clients remotely, which is a blessing and a curse. We couldn’t have taken this trip without that possibility, but it is draining to constantly straddle two time zones and to speak English with our US contacts while in France.

Overall, though, the positives far outweigh the negatives and we are very pleased with our trip so far. The cultural and linguistic progress the boys have made is totally worth any inconvenience as is the time we have spent here together as a family and with extended family. I am already planning our next extended stay!

Eve Lindemuth Bodeux is a dual national, American by birth and French by marriage. She is one of the few people who can claim to have been born in Alaska. Although she has now lived in Colorado for 18 years, she still considers herself an Alaskan at heart. She is a fluent French speaker and is a self-employed professional translator, working from French to English for clients in the US and Europe. She and her husband have raised their sons, Axel and Luka, bilingually since the boys entered this world. She sees her children as citizens of the world and loves that they sometimes correct her French.

Hi Gabrielle,

My first suggestion for situations like yours is always to hire someone who can come and play with your child, the more often the better. At this age, children don’t really learn much language in class and it is often better they have someone who plays and interacts with them on a one-by-one basis. So if you could hire someone – a Spanish–speaking person – to spend time with your child some hours a week, this would be the most successful strategy that I can think of. Be specific when you hire this person that you want her to speak Spanish to your child and not English. Barbara Pearson’s book “Raising a Bilingual Child” warns that many nannies end up using English with the children they watch, both because they want to practice English or because the child might speak English to them. You might want to be very firm and explain to this babysitter that you are specifically hiring her to teach Spanish to your child, and so that no English should be used. You might want to call her ‘Spanish tutor’ instead of babysitter to give her some clout.

Now, I am aware that this might not be an affordable solution (but do your math: how much does the class cost? How many hours of a Spanish-speaking person does it equate to?) If that’s the case, you can help your child learn Spanish by continuing her Spanish classes, by playing Spanish music and videos, perhaps by participating in Spanish-language play groups etc.  These activities won’t make your child bilingual but they will introduce her to the language, and therefore help her learn it later when new opportunities (i.e. Spanish immersion programs) arise. In fact, in the long term, if you are truly motivated to raise a bilingual child, you should seriously consider Spanish immersion programs. These are programs (often public) that can run from K through 12th grade and teach the entire curriculum in both Spanish and English. Children in these programs have to work harder but they end up truly bilingual and bi-literate. Check your school district to see if they offer any immersion programs. Glendale Unified School Districts in L.A. County offers many languages, including Spanish, Italian, German, Armenian, Korean and Japanese.

Simona Montanari, Ph.D.- – Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. She is the department’s expert in early multilingual development and has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Simona is Italian and she’s also a mommy to trilingual daughters aged 3 and 4 1/2. In addition, she conducts a workshop titled: “How to Raise a Bilingual Child” in the LA area. You can read her answers here.