A few weeks ago I asked for your biggest struggles as you raise bilingual niños. I got soooo many insightful and thought-provoking answers, but one issue came up over and over. People used different words, but basically it boiled down to:

“My kid is doing great! The problem is… ME. I have a really hard time being consistent about speaking Spanish with my kid.”

Totally relatable! As parents we have like 10 million other things on our minds so it’s easy to slip into English (or just get burned out with the extra effort of keeping a minority language going at home).

But! The rewards of staying consistent are huge! So I’ve thought of a few simple steps that will help you stay more consistently… consistent (¡valga la redundancia!) with keeping Spanish in your home.

Remember your why.
My oldest daughter is in a big “¿¿porque??” phase right now—always wanting to know why we’re doing or saying things—so this one is top of mind for me! It’s so much easier to do something when you have a clear and compelling vision for WHY it matters.

Maybe you want to make sure your kids can understand their Abuelitos. Maybe you’re taking a trip to Mexico this summer (can I come?). Or maybe you’re committed to raising kids that can communicate with more of the human family. Whatever your reason, reminding yourself what it is will give you the motivation to keep going when things feel hard or frustrating.

Make it part of your routine.
One of the best tips I’ve ever heard is to choose an activity that you do with your kid(s) only in Spanish. Maybe you go out for ice cream every week and only speak Spanish. Maybe you have Spanish Movie Night every Friday. Maybe you read together en español every night! Pick something fun and relevant to your child’s interests so that Spanish is deeply connected to something enjoyable, and make sure it happens on a regular basis.

Small steps are ok.
It’s not a secret that exposure to Spanish is key to your child’s language learning (and the more exposure, the better). But I’m here to say that a little bit of Spanish is always better than no Spanish! It’s ok to pick one thing and focus on that until it becomes a habit, and then add more Spanish speaking activities to your life. Just like with so many things that seem daunting at first, a bunch of small things that build on each other eventually make something big.

You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to keep going. 
You can’t have an “all or nothing” mindset. If you’ve had an English-heavy day (or week, or month) when you meant to focus on Spanish, well, there’s always tomorrow. Starting right away after a lapse avoids losing all of the progress you’ve made. It’s a marathon, amigos míos! And what you do all the time matters more than what you do occasionally.

….

I hope these simple tips help you get (and stay) motivated. I promise it’s worth the effort.

And I’d love to know what has worked best for you to consistently build up your kids’ Spanish!