Slowly but surely it seems like life is returning to a new normal and with it has brought some changes, including how we raise bilingual children. As a Latina mom raising a multilingual and multicultural child means making sure my child gets the language exposure and the need to use the language. Sometimes that means being a bit creative with how Spanish or the minority language/s are used. Here are my...
A new year brings with it new opportunities to define resolutions or goals. As a mom, it is important to me that my goals also include my child and family. As a Latina mom raising a bilingual, multicultural child, it is important to me that I continue on my bilingual journey, having goals, but not stressing out about specifics. You want your bilingual journey as a family to be natural and as stress free as possible. Here are my goals for the new year that you, as a bilingual or multicultural parent, may relate to or may inspire you:
I grew up speaking Spanish at home and English at school. My parents spoke only Spanish with us, even though my father was bilingual. My siblings and I spoke English every opportunity we got, much to our parents displeasure. We hated speaking Spanish. To us it was simply a way of communicating with our family. It wasn't until years later that I truly appreciated the effort my parents put forth making sure we were able to speak, read, and write Español.