Tell me what to do . . .

[ByGrace3]

Lately I have been super frustrated in my failed intentions.
Background:
I am pretty fluent in Spanish (I would say fluent but some get cranky when nonnative speakers say they are fluent!) :tongue_smilie: I speak it, read it, write it, understand a lot of culture, etc. I have traveled extensively, have a major in Spanish from University, lived in Ecuador for a year and spent many summers in Spanish speaking countries...
When dd1 was born, I was determined to speak Spanish to her. I did, in the mornings. When she was 12 months we moved to Ecuador for a year and when we came back stateside she barely understood English so I over compensated. :(
Flash forward, she is now almost 6, I now also have a 4 yo and a 15 mo, none of which speak any Spanish (besides colors and numbers!)

How do I fix this? what works in your homes? It seems Spanish always takes a backseat to academic subjects, character training, behavior issues, etc. I really want to prioritize this. We visit South America at least once a year, and plan to be there for 3-4 weeks in December. I really would like to get the kids conversational by then. I need a solid plan. Ideas?
oh, and dh is totally onboard, and while not fluent, is conversational and would relish the opportunity to speak it more and learn himself.
Thanks! :bigear:

[bibiche]

I would just start speaking Spanish to the children. Children learn amazingly quickly. In our home, I speak only French to DS and have since he was born. Much to my dismay, my husband - who is fluent in Spanish although not a native speaker - did not start speaking Spanish until a few months before DS took his first trip with us to Central America at age three. Fast forward three years and DS is now completely comfortable speaking Spanish, speaks exclusively in Spanish to DH, and gets upset if his father speaks to him in anything but Spanish.

So DH and I do OPOL (one parent one language) with DS but speak English to each other. It works out very well. We spend part of the summer in a Spanish speaking country, which helps reinforce the Spanish. We also read mostly in French and Spanish, and what little video watching takes place is exclusively in French or Spanish.

Good luck! It might seem a little awkward at first switching to another language (this is what DH told me in the beginning), but soon it will be natural and, of course, the benefits for the children are enormous.

[ByGrace3]

I would just start speaking Spanish to the children. Children learn amazingly quickly. In our home, I speak only French to DS and have since he was born. Much to my dismay, my husband - who is fluent in Spanish although not a native speaker - did not start speaking Spanish until a few months before DS took his first trip with us to Central America at age three. Fast forward three years and DS is now completely comfortable speaking Spanish, speaks exclusively in Spanish to DH, and gets upset if his father speaks to him in anything but Spanish.

So DH and I do OPOL (one parent one language) with DS but speak English to each other. It works out very well. We spend part of the summer in a Spanish speaking country, which helps reinforce the Spanish. We also read mostly in French and Spanish, and what little video watching takes place is exclusively in French or Spanish.

Good luck! It might seem a little awkward at first switching to another language (this is what DH told me in the beginning), but soon it will be natural and, of course, the benefits for the children are enormous.

I do plan to start speaking more with them. But in our situation, me speaking only Spanish to them is not feasible. With homeschooling, other things need to be taught, in English. I was hoping to block out a certain time of day for speaking Spanish but want to be sure it is enough. Afternoons? After 12? after 2? How much daily immersion is necessary?
thanks!

[desertmum]

Bump. :bigear:

[regentrude]

If you really want to raise them bilingually, I would speak Spanish only - with the exception of English spelling and literature instruction. The environmental language is very easy to learn, kids pick that up quickly.
You could even homeschool them completely in Spanish.
As for how much immersion is necessary: many many hours each day, if you want proficiency.
I raise mine bilingual German/English. We talk German only at home, but use English books for homeschooling. It still is an uphill battle, because all interactions with the environment are in English. The kids prefer to speak English to each other (despite having been born in Germany and having lived there- DD was 4 and a fluent German speaker when we moved). We spend at least a month in Germany each year - but English is their stronger language.

If you are serious about Spanish, I would use OPOL (one parent one language)

[bibiche]

I agree with regentrude. Maybe you could do a soft start by having Spanish only meals or, I dunno, Spanish Saturday or Latin music day or something like that.

I think HS in Spanish is a great idea. You could contact companies/suppliers to see if they have Spanish editions of your curricula. I've only contacted one so far, but they (math-u-see) are working on releasing a Spanish version of their program soon and I doubt they are the only one. You could also do a lot of your reading in Spanish. I don't know where you live, but IME most library systems have a pretty extensive collection of Spanish materials and/or you can ask them to order them for you.

Here (http://www2.ed.gov/espanol/parents/academic/matematicas/part_pg5.html#home-1) are some math suggestions put out by the US Dept of Education. There are probably ideas for other subjects as well, but I googled matematicas.

Here's (http://homeschoolchile.ning.com/) a website in Chile with lots of great homeschooling links.

The advantage of Spanish is that so many people in so many countries speak it that it should be easy to find resources.

eta Greg Tang has some fun math books that have been translated into Spanish. One DS likes is Come una y cuenta 20 (http://www.amazon.com/Come-Una-Cuenta-Count-Spanish/dp/8424180755/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307234909&sr=8-1).

[SneguochkaL]

If you decide to do math in Spanish, you can use free MEP units which had been successfully used in Chile:)

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/spanish/default.htm

[Yenisei]

Maybe playing Spanish language music and Spanish language cartoons would help a bit. Keep speaking Spanish with the kids even if they answer in English- they'll come around eventually.

One other thing- if the 4 year old isn't reading yet, maybe you could try teaching her to read in Spanish because it's far more phonetic than English and the reading skills will transfer.

[cmarango]

I suppose I am in a somewhat similar spot. We have been speaking spanish to dd and while she understands most of what is said she is very hesitant to speak it. I want to get her more comfortable speaking before our next trip to Colombia in August so that it is easier to play with her friends there.

So, we have been having spanish night. We get our subjects out of the way early in the day and then we have the evening for spanish. I aim to get in an hour of speaking spanish each day. What seems to work best is playing games en espanol. We have played Simon says, hide and go seek, and Uno so far this week. We also made up a game where a person asks another to find a certain item (eg. Busca un libro), but my dd tires of this rather quickly.

Good luck. I understand that it can be difficult to get started.