Sandals, goggles, and swimsuit? Check! Authentic language learning, cultural immersion, and family fun? Double check! A vacación with the kids is the perfect opportunity to create lasting memories together. It can also be a time for the family to use and expand their minority language! We just returned from our first trip outside of the […]
Great Games to Get Your Language Learner Speaking
Games to use at home, school, or anywhere you want to practice language skills! Ready to encourage your language learner to speak more in the target language? These fun games will help provide a time to practice speaking – in any language! What’s more, these easy games can be squeezed into any quick window in […]
Creating a Spanish Immersion Environment for Kids at Home
Spanish immersion at home: seven ways to create an engaging environment to help kids learn at home “How can I help my child practice Spanish at home when I don’t speak Spanish?” “What can we do over the summer to keep up the Spanish learning?” “What are some fun ways to practice our language at […]
Creating Community with Kids in a Minority Language
How can you build community around your minority language? Bilingual parenting can feel like a lonely path at times. I know it has for me, especially as a non-native Spanish speaker trying to teach my children a language that we rarely hear in our small Midwest community. Yet finding opportunities in which my children and I […]
Raising Our Bilingual Kids Using the Time & Place Strategy
If you joined me with my kids today, you’d hear some catchy Spanish songs like “Veo Veo” or “Chocolalala” that would undoubtedly get stuck in your head. We’d chat together in Spanish as we drew or wrote stories, played in the backyard, and made dinner. You’d definitely listen to some new Spanish books – maybe […]
How to Raise Bilingual Children: Family Language Plans
Teaching a child more than one language is an invaluable gift. There are countless lifetime benefits to being bilingual! If you are just getting started with bilingual parenting, you should know that there are many valuable strategies – or family language plans – for raising bilingual kids. Where do you start when you have decided […]
How Grandparents Can Support Bilingual Kids
Raising bilingual kids is a long journey – one that requires dedication, time, and lots of support. Yet bilingualism is truly a gift that impacts a child for a lifetime! Grandparents can be an excellent source of support for parents and grandchildren along the path. Whether grandparents can help speak both languages or not, they […]
Language Learning with Kids in the Kitchen
Today I’m sharing interactive ideas for incorporating language learning around the theme of food and cooking with kids. Whether you’re teaching your child a second language, learning a new language together at home, or want to foster your child’s first language development, there’s so much vocabulary and language learning that can be done through the […]
7 Strategies to Get Your Child to Speak the Minority Language
Do your children understand the language you use with them but rarely speak it back to you? It can seem like a never ending task to help them actively use the minority language. Yet speaking in the minority language is like any other skill-it requires lots of practice to do it well. And parents can […]
Creating a Family Language Plan: Find Your Balance
Do you ever feel like parenting is a juggling act? Schedules. Activities. Responsibilities. Caring for ourselves. Connecting with each child. Using our minority language. Raising kind humans. If you’ve ever struggled trying to juggle the many pieces of everyday life, you’re not alone. I’ve found that parenting, like many things in life, is about finding […]