Check out the description for links to some of the TH-cam and Instagram accounts I mentioned in the video (along with others I didn't mention specifically by name, but are those that I follow for ideas along this bilingual parenting journey!) If you have recommendations for accounts, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Many (but not all) of the accounts I listed are Spanish/English bilingual because that's the journey we're on, but please feel free to suggest other bilingual/multilingual families with different language combos!
Hehe. Thanks for the shout-out too Rachel! Your pronunciation of 'bairn and a backpack' was awesome!I'd love some recommendations of other bilingual families to follow. I find it super fascinating! 😁
My parents went OPOL in the '60s and, though we moved in the '70s to the "other country", after all these years we still speak both languages at a bilingual level and even learned to write the language we never attended school in. As kids we didn't see the difference, we just "switched" language; because it's not just the parents, there is also each parent's family (who btw sent us the books in the other language). In our case, one language in school with teachers and friends, another outside with the "outside" friends and people around us and two at home.
This is a great resource, Rachel. Knowing more than one language is kinda critical these days is so quintessential, especially the global marketplace we (and tomorrow, our children will) live in. Great to hear the chances you're giving your kids from the get-go. Stay blessed. - ✨ *Your Awesome Friends at The S'witty Kiwi Show* 💜
Fascinating Rachel! OPOL has worked really well for us in our situation so far but I feel like there is no right way to raise bilingual little ones and everyone totally needs to work out what works for their family situation and each individual child! I also read and sing to Ben quite often now in German if he brings me a German book because it is the minority language and there is a big chance our approach will change in the future to speak more German at home! Minority language books are the best and probably most amazing resource! My random German vocab has improved so much since having Ben too! 🙈 Thanks for sharing your ideas and journey so far!
We just made a big online order to buy a bunch of Spanish books for Christmas--as Cyrus is getting older I'm realizing how simple most of our baby book/Spanish book collection is, because we've had no visitors and no packages from the USA this year because of the pandemic, so he's been growing into more 'advanced' picture books but our Spanish collection hasn't been able to grow with him. I found that Book Depository can ship here and did have Spanish books--they were pricy, but this is just the situation we're in right now, and I don't want to limit our Spanish storytime when it's so uncertain the next time we'll be able to get cheap Spanish books from the USA! Bilingual learning is worth the investment!
Thank you so much! We'll see how it goes as our kids grow! Looking forward to the journey, and I'm sure they'll motivate me to improve my own Spanish skills!
Hi its Victoria from home Educating the mad lads on the husbands phone. This is interesting. They reckon kids can pick up different languages so much easier than adults but I knew a Russian woman married to an English man and she was so worried about confusing her kid with two different languages but the speech therapist said don't stress just keep going x
I know that a lot of parents do get worried that the kids will be confused by having two languages at home or that their speech will be delayed, but I do think the benefits of learning two languages at a young age generally outweigh the risk. And I want my boys to feel connected to their dad's family as well as mine, and language is a big part of that connection.
Yes! I'm very thankful that even my English speaking family is on board with the idea that even if they are going to play a show for Cyrus at their house, to play it in Spanish instead of English. I appreciate their help!
I think really it was when I was studying Spanish in college that I determined to raise my kids speaking Spanish from the beginning. It's so much EASIER for kids to learn than for our grown-up brains.
This is awesome my husband and I are not bilingual but I would love for my kids to be! Definitely inspiring for me to start now and start teaching my kids (even though we are not bilingual!). Hopefully I’ll learn some too.
I have come across families that do work hard to teach kids a second language from a very early age even when both parents don't speak another language (one of my good friends has her young daughter learning Chinese even though neither parent speaks it, and I think that's so awesome!), but...I do think the fact that Spanish is my husband's first/native language and the language his family speaks when they are together is the major motivation for us. Without a big need to communicate...it's hard to get fluent in any language. But little kids brains...they really soak it in so fast. You never even know what they know. A couple days ago we were walking down the hallway of our apartment and my son stopped to count the leaves on a little potted plant belonging to our neighbor, only he was doing it in Spanish! "Uno hoja, dos hoja, tres hoja, cuatro hoja, cinco hoja"...sure, it wasn't grammatically correct..but I had no idea he could do that and I was so excited!
I definitely have to pick up some Spanish books. We are loving song school Spanish I’m hoping to find some books that will reinforce the vocab they are using
Some of my children speak a little English and Spanish. Some will hear Spanish and choose to answer in English. They respond with what feels comfortable.
Yes! We don't have any rules or set expectations...but I am so excited that we're beginning to hear the hard work paying off as my toddler is now really beginning to take off with talking. He was not an early talker but it's so good to hear him now!
We are also raising tck! We are lucky though, because my wage earning husband's language is the community language. So, just like you all, there Spanish exposure is low from Dad, but the community exposure helps. Their English has gotten way stronger than their Spanish due to the pandemic, though! I totally understand the point you made about the division. My husband understands a bit of English, but he and I speak Spanish together, so he often doesn't understand what I am saying to the kids, and it truly does cause stress. If the community language were English or a third language, I would definitely do minority language at home. Opol is tried and true, but so is minority language at home! As long as you stay the course, they will be be fine! I think consistency is the most important thing, not the method as long as exposure is sufficient.
Minority language at home is a lot of what we do...but we are far from purists, which I know is less than ideal! And as my son has gotten older and we've done more preschool activities, it was a struggle because I realized how many of the books/activities, etc, we were using were in English. We switched to doing the majority of our preschool routine in Spanish about 2 months ago now in real time (I think that was the first video you watched), and I've already seen a huge improvement in how much he's speaking Spanish on his own, and it's also helped me a lot. I've never lived anywhere where people spoke Spanish, but I'm practicing on my little boys, who are a very non-judgmental audience. :)
I definitely believe that "one person one language" is effective, but I really felt that in our situation of raising mixed-race kids in a country that none of us are from...we needed to have a unified family identity, rather than having the division between "mom's language" and "dad's language." We're doing it together! Learning together!
We are a biracial bi-ethnic family as well and if I can offer any advise it would be to stay the course. Whatever course you choose. It’ll all pay off in the end. Now don’t get me wrong, that course may change up at times. But your children will pick up what they need to communicate their needs.
My goal has never been "perfection" or "perfectly balanced" bilinguals--those who need to have more thorough language mastery at a young age might need a more aggressive language approach. My children are now 4 and 5, and we still live in an English-speaking community and we still value incorporating Spanish into their lives at home. Both of my boys understand Spanish well but are more likely to respond in English even when spoken to in Spanish--a very normal stage of development for bilingual kids who are dominant in one language. My older son is beginning to learn to read in Spanish and is making progress. We still listen to music, books, and TV shows in Spanish regularly and they enjoy them.
Check out the description for links to some of the TH-cam and Instagram accounts I mentioned in the video (along with others I didn't mention specifically by name, but are those that I follow for ideas along this bilingual parenting journey!) If you have recommendations for accounts, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Many (but not all) of the accounts I listed are Spanish/English bilingual because that's the journey we're on, but please feel free to suggest other bilingual/multilingual families with different language combos!
Hehe. Thanks for the shout-out too Rachel! Your pronunciation of 'bairn and a backpack' was awesome!I'd love some recommendations of other bilingual families to follow. I find it super fascinating! 😁
My parents went OPOL in the '60s and, though we moved in the '70s to the "other country", after all these years we still speak both languages at a bilingual level and even learned to write the language we never attended school in. As kids we didn't see the difference, we just "switched" language; because it's not just the parents, there is also each parent's family (who btw sent us the books in the other language). In our case, one language in school with teachers and friends, another outside with the "outside" friends and people around us and two at home.
This is a great resource, Rachel. Knowing more than one language is kinda critical these days is so quintessential, especially the global marketplace we (and tomorrow, our children will) live in. Great to hear the chances you're giving your kids from the get-go. Stay blessed. - ✨ *Your Awesome Friends at The S'witty Kiwi Show* 💜
Absolutely! Knowing multiple languages is becoming more and more of a 'normal' requirement in many job fields, as well.
Good to you know your tips for raising bilingual kids Enjoyed watching. Keep up the good work 👍🙌
Thank you so much!
Fascinating Rachel! OPOL has worked really well for us in our situation so far but I feel like there is no right way to raise bilingual little ones and everyone totally needs to work out what works for their family situation and each individual child! I also read and sing to Ben quite often now in German if he brings me a German book because it is the minority language and there is a big chance our approach will change in the future to speak more German at home! Minority language books are the best and probably most amazing resource! My random German vocab has improved so much since having Ben too! 🙈 Thanks for sharing your ideas and journey so far!
We just made a big online order to buy a bunch of Spanish books for Christmas--as Cyrus is getting older I'm realizing how simple most of our baby book/Spanish book collection is, because we've had no visitors and no packages from the USA this year because of the pandemic, so he's been growing into more 'advanced' picture books but our Spanish collection hasn't been able to grow with him. I found that Book Depository can ship here and did have Spanish books--they were pricy, but this is just the situation we're in right now, and I don't want to limit our Spanish storytime when it's so uncertain the next time we'll be able to get cheap Spanish books from the USA! Bilingual learning is worth the investment!
Great share of the information and advices from your experiences!
Thank you so much!
This is so encouraging! I really like how your approaching it, without opol, that's cool!
Thank you so much! We'll see how it goes as our kids grow! Looking forward to the journey, and I'm sure they'll motivate me to improve my own Spanish skills!
You are doing an amazing job, what a gift to give to your kids.
It's definitely a 'marathon' journey...which is pretty much all of parenting, I'm pretty sure! :)
Hi its Victoria from home Educating the mad lads on the husbands phone. This is interesting. They reckon kids can pick up different languages so much easier than adults but I knew a Russian woman married to an English man and she was so worried about confusing her kid with two different languages but the speech therapist said don't stress just keep going x
I know that a lot of parents do get worried that the kids will be confused by having two languages at home or that their speech will be delayed, but I do think the benefits of learning two languages at a young age generally outweigh the risk. And I want my boys to feel connected to their dad's family as well as mine, and language is a big part of that connection.
As a homeschooling mom, I have learned that you have to do what works for your family. Because what works for one may not work for another.
That is very, very true!
Spanish shows and books are a great way to support bilingual kids. I need to be more proactive in this.
Yes! I'm very thankful that even my English speaking family is on board with the idea that even if they are going to play a show for Cyrus at their house, to play it in Spanish instead of English. I appreciate their help!
I like seeing your videos in my subscription feed in the mornings.
Aww, thanks! That is such a nice thing to say!
That is wonderful that you are raising your children bilingual 👍
It's going to be a long journey, but one I think that will be well worth it!
You guys are doing awesome! I’m so impressed!
I think really it was when I was studying Spanish in college that I determined to raise my kids speaking Spanish from the beginning. It's so much EASIER for kids to learn than for our grown-up brains.
Seven In All I agree, even my jr high and high school kiddos are picking up Spanish better than I am!
This is awesome my husband and I are not bilingual but I would love for my kids to be! Definitely inspiring for me to start now and start teaching my kids (even though we are not bilingual!). Hopefully I’ll learn some too.
Kids pick up languages so easily, compared to us with our old brains! :P
This is awesome. I so badly want my kids to be bilingual but neither my husband or I are fluent in the language. These were all great tips!
I have come across families that do work hard to teach kids a second language from a very early age even when both parents don't speak another language (one of my good friends has her young daughter learning Chinese even though neither parent speaks it, and I think that's so awesome!), but...I do think the fact that Spanish is my husband's first/native language and the language his family speaks when they are together is the major motivation for us. Without a big need to communicate...it's hard to get fluent in any language. But little kids brains...they really soak it in so fast. You never even know what they know. A couple days ago we were walking down the hallway of our apartment and my son stopped to count the leaves on a little potted plant belonging to our neighbor, only he was doing it in Spanish! "Uno hoja, dos hoja, tres hoja, cuatro hoja, cinco hoja"...sure, it wasn't grammatically correct..but I had no idea he could do that and I was so excited!
@@SevenInAll How exciting! It’s so true that they know more than you are aware of.
I definitely have to pick up some Spanish books. We are loving song school Spanish I’m hoping to find some books that will reinforce the vocab they are using
Songs are so powerful for learning! I think books are a great resource, to start seeing the vocabulary used to tell a story!
Some of my children speak a little English and Spanish. Some will hear Spanish and choose to answer in English. They respond with what feels comfortable.
Yes! We don't have any rules or set expectations...but I am so excited that we're beginning to hear the hard work paying off as my toddler is now really beginning to take off with talking. He was not an early talker but it's so good to hear him now!
We are also raising tck! We are lucky though, because my wage earning husband's language is the community language. So, just like you all, there Spanish exposure is low from Dad, but the community exposure helps. Their English has gotten way stronger than their Spanish due to the pandemic, though! I totally understand the point you made about the division. My husband understands a bit of English, but he and I speak Spanish together, so he often doesn't understand what I am saying to the kids, and it truly does cause stress. If the community language were English or a third language, I would definitely do minority language at home. Opol is tried and true, but so is minority language at home! As long as you stay the course, they will be be fine! I think consistency is the most important thing, not the method as long as exposure is sufficient.
Minority language at home is a lot of what we do...but we are far from purists, which I know is less than ideal! And as my son has gotten older and we've done more preschool activities, it was a struggle because I realized how many of the books/activities, etc, we were using were in English. We switched to doing the majority of our preschool routine in Spanish about 2 months ago now in real time (I think that was the first video you watched), and I've already seen a huge improvement in how much he's speaking Spanish on his own, and it's also helped me a lot. I've never lived anywhere where people spoke Spanish, but I'm practicing on my little boys, who are a very non-judgmental audience. :)
@@SevenInAll Enjoy the grace for now! Haha! My kiddos giggle so much when my husband tries to speak in Spanish! hahaha Poor guy
This is awesome and totally makes sense why not to do the one person one language
I definitely believe that "one person one language" is effective, but I really felt that in our situation of raising mixed-race kids in a country that none of us are from...we needed to have a unified family identity, rather than having the division between "mom's language" and "dad's language." We're doing it together! Learning together!
We are a biracial bi-ethnic family as well and if I can offer any advise it would be to stay the course. Whatever course you choose. It’ll all pay off in the end. Now don’t get me wrong, that course may change up at times. But your children will pick up what they need to communicate their needs.
That is wise advice! Consistency has a real impact over months and years!
Nice sharing. New friend here. Waiting
Thank you!
@@SevenInAll Done. Hope too
I know I do better with my Spanish when I watch shows and movies in Spanish. I need to do that more often!!!
Yes, entertainment in the language REALLY helps. It's very motivating.
After 3 years, how you find the result? Does it work? Can you share it with us?
My goal has never been "perfection" or "perfectly balanced" bilinguals--those who need to have more thorough language mastery at a young age might need a more aggressive language approach. My children are now 4 and 5, and we still live in an English-speaking community and we still value incorporating Spanish into their lives at home. Both of my boys understand Spanish well but are more likely to respond in English even when spoken to in Spanish--a very normal stage of development for bilingual kids who are dominant in one language. My older son is beginning to learn to read in Spanish and is making progress. We still listen to music, books, and TV shows in Spanish regularly and they enjoy them.
🖤🖤🖤
Thank you!