language

First in an occasional series… Since we all have different stories to tell and our own ways of raising our kids bilingual, from time to time, we will invite a guest to contribute to SpanglishBaby. Today, we introduce you to the first one. We hope you enjoy it! The following is a guest post written by Karen:  Spanish learner, mother of two boys and blogger at Teaching and Learning Spanish. I have to admit that it is difficult to teachRead More ...

I hate to use the word “mistakes” because I think the journey can be difficult enough without adding any more pressure. Mostly I just wanted to compile a list of some of the things that parents have been known to do which have hindered the process of raising a bilingual child. They’re really meant more as reference than as a list of “thou shalt not” dos. While I was researching this topic, ...

One of the biggest challenges we face in our bilingual journey is being consistent and finding ways to nurture the minority language outside the home. No matter which method your family chooses to use–OPOL (One Parent, One Language) or mL@H (Minority Language at Home)–it’s important to have resources and strategies to immerse your child in the second language in fun and playful ways. ...

Before Vanessa started preschool a couple of months after she turned two, I often wondered how she was going to survive for four hours surrounded solely by English.  I worried that others would think she had no manners because even though she already understood the concept of “gracias” and “por favor,” she knew nothing about “thanks” and “please.” I explained the situation to her teachers and they reassured me everything would be fine. You see, up until then, her lifeRead More ...