Bilingual Kids

  • Bilingual Kids, Reading

    The Easiest Summer Alphabet Activity for Preschoolers

    “Maaaaagic letter rabbit,” intones Miss Nicole (aka “la señora de story time”), “What is the letter of the week?!”

    Our closest library is small and, compared to others around, has few toys & games. Still, we prefer it to any of the bigger, newer ones mainly because of Miss Nicole’s story time (also because it’s one block from our house).

    As she leads the crowded room in an enthusiastic round of clue guessing to figure out the letter of the week, I think (not for the first time) that I have been slacking a little on mom-led educational activities for my girls.

    When my oldest daughter was born, I had a full Pinterest board of things to do to improve motor skills, teach letter recognition, etc. etc. Being a rather precocious child (as well as an only child), she talked early, learned her letters young, and in general required very little from me to become pre-literate.

    Then I had my second kid!

    And even though hija mayor (now 3) goes to preschool twice a week, the other day she momentarily confused a letter she used to know perfectly. Cue the mom-guilt!

    So I figured that the start of summer vacation was an ideal time to dust off my Pinterest board and figure out a plan for summer now that all of the learning is on me again for a couple of months.

    From past experience I know that I can only set myself up for success if this kind of activity is simple (for me) and relatively quick. This Letra de la Semana sequence is both of those things, and perfect for the preschool crowd to work on letters this summer.

    LA LETRA DE LA SEMANA

    How it works:

    You focus on one letter for a whole week. My daughter’s attention span for this kind of thing is about 15 minutes right now, which IMO is an ideal amount of time as it’s not overwhelming for either of us and easy enough to squeeze in after breakfast before we leave the house, or in the evening after work.

    Lunes – Introduce the letter and brainstorm examples. We normally follow pretty much the same script: “Mi nombre es ___ y soy la letra de la semana. El sonido que hago es ___ y en inglés soy ___.” Then we think of words that start with that letter and write them down.

    Martes – Recolectamos. We look for things around the house or outside that start with the letter.

    Miércoles – Buscamos. We search for uppercase and lowercase examples of the letter in any print materials we have a la mano (junk mail, magazines, books, pretty much anything will work here).

    Jueves – Escribimos. Mainly this involves me drawing a big letter and having her fill it in with watercolors or crayons (and one time with beans!). This summer I might try to have her do more writing/tracing.

    Friday – Get crafty. I’m not naturally a very crafty person but for the sake of my kids I’m trying to be a little more creative. There are hundreds of ideas on Pinterest, and a quick Google search pulled up this, this and this (just to start!).

    My favorite part about this is that since we focus on the same letter all week, if we miss a day here and there it’s not a big deal. And having a set activity for each day makes it easy since I don’t have to figure out what to do— I just have to remember what day of the week it is. 🙂

    And! If you happen to need a dedicated activity to do only in Spanish with your kids, this would fit the bill rather nicely. Let me know if you decide to give it a try!

    (Top photo of Vince and Soph free alphabet printable.)

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  • Bilingual Kids, Parenting, Reading

    Bilingual Bookworm: How to raise kids who speak, read, and love Spanish as a busy parent

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    A couple of months ago, after having lots of conversations (online and in person) about the challenges & rewards of raising bilingual kids, I had a lightbulb moment. Wouldn’t it be nice, I thought, if there was a practical, short guide? With helpful tips and tricks to address the most common concerns I hear from parents raising bilingual niños?

    So I decided to make one! And then spent the next two months deeeep in this research project that, in a totally nerdy way, was super fun for me. I asked for the problems/concerns/challenges parents were facing (if you wrote me back, gracias!). Then I turned to experts in bilingual parenting and literacy and read ALL THE RESEARCH. And, thanks to 18 years of school and a Master’s thesis, I’m pretty great at research (if I do say so myself).

    Finally I put it all together in an email course called “BILINGUAL BOOKWORM.” This course has all the most helpful things I researched. It’s designed to help busy parents raise kids who speak, read and love Spanish, and it’s finally ready to launch!

    Some things you should know:
    1. It’s free (always and forever my very favorite price).
    2. All of the tools, tips and strategies in this e-course are simple, but significant. This means that I didn’t include anything that’s going to complicate your life or add to an already full to-do list.
    3. It’s a three day course and once you sign up, you’ll get one lesson a day delivered right to your inbox with strategies you can put into practice right away. 
    4. It’s packed with hands-on tips for raising bilingual kids who love speaking and reading in Spanish.

    You can sign up here if you’d like. I hope it makes your life easier as the parent of bilingual kids and helps you and your family create many happy reading memories together!

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  • Bilingual Kids, Parenting

    Four Ways to Be Consistent about Teaching Your Kid Spanish

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    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!

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