The other night, my husband and I were having a pretty “heated” discussion about the right Spanish word for earring. Pretty lame, huh? But I’ve always had a fascination with words – it’s not for nothing that I chose journalism as a career path – in both English and Spanish. Anyhow, for my husband, who read more ...
My daughter, Vanessa, is always curious about what languages other people speak. I didn’t teach her that. Neither do I go around introducing people to her by announcing they speak English, Spanish or both. Yet, it’s pretty usual for her to want to know. Once she finds out, she likes to make all aware that read more ...
Spanish in Japan! I never thought that I would be using Spanish while working in Japan, but Spanish was more common than I ever imagined it to be. My first job out of college was teaching at a Japanese high school. Having worked so hard to learn Spanish, I was determined to keep my language read more ...
Although sometimes I long for a few minutes of silence, the reality is that I love the fact that my three-year-old daughter, Vanessa, talks non-stop. Her vocabulary in Spanish is extensive and I know it has to do with the fact that I’ve talked to her since she was in my belly. In fact, many read more ...
More than one study has proven that the best way for children to develop their language and reading skills is through dialogue. This is particularly important for bilingual children. It is a fallacy to think that just sitting your child in front of the television set to watch a program in Spanish or to let read more ...
Although I know most people would just find it funny–I mean, even I chuckled when I first heard it–the truth is I was pretty disturbed by what happened a few days ago while my daughter, Vanessa, was building a house with her pink and purple blocks. We were in the living room and she was read more ...
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 read more ...
Last year, after my daughter Vanessa turned two, I enrolled her in a Parent’s Day Out (PDO) program at our local church. She goes once a week for 4 hours and seems to get a kick out of it. During orientation, we made sure her teachers were aware that, up to that point in her read more ...
Recently, as I was putting on extremely red lipstick in preparation for one of those rare occasions when my husband and I reply “yes” to an adult party invitation, Vanessa – who was running around like a chicken with its head cutoff from my bathroom to my room – stopped dead in her tracks and read more ...
Just in time for back-to-school, Scholastic has come out with the latest set of DVDs in its Storybook Treasures collection. Adventures at School includes a total of 14 stories, three of which are narrated in Spanish. Like the Max and Ruby stories, these are short and varied in illustration and topic, with some catchy tunes. read more ...
I come from a long line of atypical Latin American women who don’t really know how to cook. (My mom won’t be happy I’m divulging this information. Sorry mamita, I still think you’re an amazing woman!). I don’t have pangs of nostalgia for my grandmother’s arroz con pollo or for my tía’s empanadas. Growing up, read more ...
Most of us have been affected one way or another by the economic woes this country has been through in the last couple of years. And, although children might be too young to understand all the implications and repercussions of a bad economy, they are not blind to the changes these bring about in their lives. Yet, at least for read more ...
