writing

I am amazed at how many children have a deep love for writing. They are the ones who take their writing journals to recess, lunch, and even home to record their experiences – they want to make sure they ‘capture’ that special moment that will inspire them to write even more. However, we all know that NOT all children have an innate passion for the written word. After years of trying strategy after strategy, I believe I have compiled aRead More ...

  I have nothing against technology when raising bilingual children. Apps, online games and movies in Spanish are a great supplement in this journey — but they’re just that, a supplement. It is a mistake to think that just sitting your child in front of the television set to watch a show in Spanish or to let them mouse around with a bilingual computer game will expose them to the kind of vocabulary needed to become proficient in the minority language.Read More ...

A few months ago I was texting back and forth with my good friend Melanie of ModernMami and she came up with the excellent idea of getting our girls to become pen pals. Although they’ve only met each other once when we visited Disney last year, we figured it’d be a good way for them to keep in touch and practice their Spanish at the same time. Plus, I have such fond memories of my own pen pals growing up (IRead More ...

You might remember how worried I was about teaching Vanessa to read and write in Spanish before she entered kindergarten last fall. In the end, I opted not to go that route and instead she’s been learning to read and write at school in English first. When I made my decision, I figured it’d be easier – for both of us – to transfer the skills she learned in English to Spanish and all would be merry. Little did IRead More ...

Growing up, gifts or money enclosed in a greeting card meant I knew what I would be doing the next day – writing “thank you” letters. My mother wasn’t strict with my sisters and I in many ways – but when it came to etiquette, we knew what was expected of us. Fortunately, writing the “thank you” letters never felt like an obligation to me because I loved to write, I loved everything about the process of sending mail, andRead More ...