Hola,
Whenever I discover a website or blog that speaks to me as mother of color, raising bilingual, bi-cultural, biracial kids in the United States, I get pretty excited.
So, today all I'm doing is posting the link for a website I just stumbled upon called Spanglish Baby:Raising Bilingual Kids .
Based on the title you can probably figure out that it's a website all about raising bilingual Spanish/English kids, but it's so much more. They have a great list of resources of teaching tools, music, books and other websites. In addition, they post excellent stories and articles from a wide variety of parents, experts and mama bloggers and the site is really user-friendly, attractive and fun. It feels like a community and a destination for all of us trying to preserve and/or create a dual-heritage for our kids. Even if you aren't trying to raise Spanish speakers, I think you'll enjoy the information being shared.
Check it out. And while you're at it, what do you think is the hardest part about raising bilingual kids in this country? I'd say, finding places outside your home where your children can practice speaking and/or hearing their "second" language.
Peace/Paz!
5 comments:
Thanks so much for such a nice write-up! It feels so good when someone ¨gets¨what you´re trying to accomplish ;).
The hardest part of raising a bilingual kid for me so far has been finding enough ways to counter balance the amount of English she´s exposed to all day. I´m making a real effort to find Spanish playgroups, storytimes, activities and, when the time comes, immersion schools. Living in LA you would think it´s easy...not really!
Ana, tell me about it. We moved to Phoenix in the hope that the world there would be a bit more bilingual. All we found was more prejudice, from all sides. That mixed with the crazy heat meant that we were out of there in 7 months.
My daughter is 5. I have a rule that TV, her TV, can only be watched in Spanish. Thank god for v-me. She loves "Lazy Town". Matter of fact, she corrected my husband when he referred to the lead character as Stephanie instead of Estafany.
I recently found a Saturday Spanish class for her as well. I jumped for joy upon finding this class. Here, she gets to play in Spanish and learn things too! She loves it.
An annoying thing that I encountered from time to time was "Are you going to teach her English?"
Thanks for the support of bilingualism! There are actually quite a few of us out there, aren't there?
We've been very lucky in that at my healthclub, there is a childcare and much of the mainentence (sorry I can't spell in English to save my life) crew at the club is Mexican, so their kids attend the childcare while they work (nice bonus) and my kids play with them while I run. How perfect is that?! :)
It's been especially good for Valentino, my 5 year old, because we speak pretty "standard" Puerto Rican Spanish, and he comes home with some new slang and sometimes uses a cute Mexican accent to be "cool" like his friends. :)
For the Chinese, all the kids like watching Chinese cartoons in Chinese (like the Monkey King) and they are VCDs, so relatively cheap to buy on-line (though some don't always work in the DVD player).
I need to add you to my blogroll! Gotta get that done. Love the new store. Nice. Darn $$$, huh? :)
Ana,
You're welcome and thanks for stopping by the Meltingpot. Por fa, come again.
Anon,
That's tragic about Phoenix. Glad you got out. My husband also makes my kids watch every DVD in Spanish. I'm usually the one cringing when we have to listen to Eddie Murphy (Daddy Day Care)with a Spanish accent. ugh. But it's for the children:)
WFZ,
LOL! I can't spell in English either. Every since I started learning Spanish, my spelling in English has been horrible. I wish my kids could speak Chinese too. That's so awesome!
Kids in general are a blessing and not a burden. The only burden there is is when other people interfere with the life of others. Its a burden when racist people has so much to say over your own kids...no matter what race your kids are. My skin is brown and my wife is darker than me .Our kids happen to look like white children, don't know why but their mine. My wife told me that when she was carrying our son who is 2, a nice white lasy came up to her and told her that she can look after him .he will be well taken care of. My wife did not fall on her mouth now...that poor nice lady was so upset and walked out the shop like a soldier ready for war. I had my daughter the other day in my arms, she was sleeping sound when a nice looking couple came up to me and asking all shorts of questions...smiling and saying how cute she is.Is it yours, they would ask...how old is she...oh isn't she adorable. One lady actually took her, only a few weeks old...started walking around showing her to other folks...I wasn't bothered by it at all, I was so relaxed, but in the back of my mind I was thinking, ja ne..the weird things people would think and say...if you have a few kids in a room of all race, they understand one thing, laughter,love and sweets ...bring the adults in there,controversy, anger and a lot of stress, why,cause they were brought up that way,their parents taught them, never play with another skin color ..i don't blame them...their right...but for me and my kids...we will mingle and jive with all race for as long as they'll have us.Life is to short to worry about what others think with their racist minds...my advice to you....enjoy your kids...no matter what others may think or say...they never had a childhood...you had one and your kids will too...love them and bless them. their yours. Love you all
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