how do I go about this?

[Queen of Sheba]

Hi everybody!

I just joined the site and was so happy to see a Spanish language forum! Ever since I've been an adult, I've planned on raising my children biligually. However, I married a non Spanish-speaking dh. It has been an angst-ridden journey for me because 1) I hate to have dh not understand the kids since I'm at home w/them full-time and they would be dominant in my language and 2) selfishly, English is my mother tongue and it's hard for me to force Spanish only. I could easily converse with them in solely Spanish, but then all of my books are in English, as are my songs. That seems very confusing to me.

I am a fluent Spanish speaker who has lived and worked in numerous Spanish-speaking countries, but I am an anglo and none of my family speaks Spanish... so it's not like the kiddos would get Spanish with the abuelos, KWIM? We have some Spanish-speakers in our area, but I have no natural link to that community and don't know how I would get one.

Anybody have any encouragement/suggestions for me? I really want to do better in this area or at least get my plan straight before my kids are older. As it is, whenever I switch to Spanish it doesn't take long before my 4 y/o says "No more Spanish, please". I feel like I have a great gift that I can give them to pass Spanish to them while it would be easy for them, but I'm wasting it.

As a funny side note, when my oldest was 2, I tried speaking Spanish a few days a week and it wasn't long before I switched back to English for my own sanity (politely "sueltalo", more firmly with gestures "Sueltalo", sharp arm gestures "SUELTALO!!! LET GO OF IT NOW!").

TIA!

[cathmom]

There are people who are speaking non-native languages with their dc. I speak German to my twins, who are 2, and plan to do so with my new baby. It is hard to do it when they are older though!

You can check out my blog for my experiences. I just reviewed a book that might help you called "The Bilingual Edge."
www.homeschoolblogger.com/cathmom (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/cathmom)

And here is another helpful blog of a lady speaking non-native French:
http://babybilingual.blogspot.com/

I haven't quite figured out how I will homeschool them and keep up with the German - probably try to do half in English and half in German.

HTH!

[Queen of Sheba]

Thanks for the input. I also have twins (18 months)! It's a lot of WORK! Homeschooling does make it difficult to use the other language, in that in many states one of the requirements is that all courses be taught in English.

I think part of my need is to do an inventory of what's REALLY important to me for parenting. I am raising my children to love and know the Lord, and to be accountable, compassionate citizens. I would also love for them to be fluent in at least one other language (I speak 7 at varying levels of proficiency). But the fluency takes a backseat to other important desires. Most of the time I'm at peace with what's going on, but then it comes back to me -hey! I'm not giving my kids something I could give them! How can I do it all????

Hope that makes sense.

[cathmom]

It makes perfect sense! I have the same problem!

And twins is just a lot of work no matter how you slice it!