heartofdakota.com

Hello I am really looking for help or advice.
Our daughter is 18 months old and I am seriously considering homeschooling her with HOD because from all my research I love this program!!!
Ever since she was born, my husband, my family, and I have spoken to her in Spanish because it's our primary language even though we all speak English well because we grew up in the United States. My question is I want to homeschool her in English since we live in the U.S. and this is where she was born but I am just at a loss of how she is going to learn english... Should one of us speak only English to her? What should we do? I am afraid that if she doesn't master English by the time we start "schooling" then it won't come natural to her to learn in that language.
The issue we have is I also don't want her to lose the spanish because a second language is a good tool and soon she will be hearing english everywhere. Also, it feels weird and unnatural to not be able to parent her in my primary language and I am afraid that since she is already speaking she won't be able to understand me if we start communicating in English
Help!!! What should I do??? Any moms whose primary language is not english?
Thanks in advance for all your help!!!

I wish I could give you a solid answer - I don't have experience. I do live in a community that has a large portion (something like 30% or so) of our students that have Spanish speaking parents - but the children speak fluently in both languages. (My older children were all in public school - and I served on our school board so I knew the numbers.) We often went to birthday parties for their friends and the children would translate for the parents - and these children are bright and have no difficulty transitioning from English to Spanish. I do not know for sure - but my hunch is you have a wonderful blessing in that you both are fluent in English and Spanish. I do not know how you could do it - but I've seen studies where children pick up on languages so quickly at this age. I wish I was more help!!

That is an excellent question. I was pondering that question myself, but not for me personally. My daughter is attending college to teach ESL/English as a second language. Her desire is to go to Japan and teach english. Our family has been a host family to Japanese University students through SPII which has been an excellent program. They learn English in middle school and go abroad after 7-8 years of English. The languages are very different thus making it somewhat difficult to learn. Spanish and English are similar to one another so it would be less difficult to learn those 2 languages. In our community they have ESL in the school and the children seem to be able to speak English at school/community and Spanish/Hmong/Somali at home ok. Recently a young boy was honored for calmly handling a 911 call to get help for his Spanish speaking mom and he spoke English to the 911 operator. I don't have an answer for how this would look carried out at home but I will research this a little. I will ask some questions to my daughter, the coordinator of Japanese SPII program, and a French Immersion Teacher. I am not sure how soon the response will be as everyone is going back to school Friday-Monday here but I see you have a little wiggle room as dc is 18 months. My response is yes of course you can! What a wonderful opportunity to learn two languages. In the US colleges require a foreign language so you will have that covered.
Tammy

Okay, I am bilingual ...so I have a lot to say. My husband does not speak one word of Spanish, so he always addresses the children in English. In fact, once in a while I say something to him...he raises an eyebrow and I realize I have addressed him in the wrong language.

This is just how we approached languages. It may not have been the best - but it worked!!

I have always spoken both languages to my children. I read books to the kids in both languages, name things in both languages, give directions in both languages, teach them in both languages, sing songs in both languages, play cds in both languages - you get the idea. For bedtime, I typically read one book in Spanish, one in English. Giving your child the ability to speak and understand more than one language is a priceless gift. In my opinion, I would not have one parent speak Spanish and the other parent speak English. I have found that both of my kids favor English because Daddy only speaks English. Also, that is all they hear outside of the home. My oldest, now 13, has given up speaking Spanish (so sad ), but understands what I say. You could just make speaking English to her part of the routine. Personally, at this point, I would start small. Use some picture books and name the objects in Spanish (she already knows) and then again in English. Then add daily routine kind of things, describing what you are doing....eating lunch, brushing teeth, etc. She will quickly get the idea and begin responding - probably in Spanish, but it doesn't matter. Once she understands some English, then you are half way to her being able to speak it.

In our home, I use the languages interchangeably with the children. In the beginning, it caused a speech delay in my youngest, but he is on track now. The doctor did tell me that is normal, as they are learning to process TWO languages. And, just for a heads up: my kids did not know the difference between Spanish and English when they were little because they thought it was all one language. So, verde and green were interchangeable, vaca and cow were the same thing. It did make it difficult on Daddy & the in-laws who don't know Spanish.

Hope that helps some!!

I am ESOL certified and worked in the public schools where a lot of kiddos grew up in bi-lingual households. Just use a lot of both languages while she is young. When it comes to SCHOOL, though, it should ALL be in English. So, incorporate equal amounts of English in your home now.

I agree-I am also bilingual, and your little one is definitely still young enough for you to begin speaking to her in both languages-it is the most natural way for her to learn-both parents speaking to her in both languages I learned this way, then went to school in regular English-speaking classes and had no problems. My husband is also bilingual (he is not Hispanic but learned Spanish very well from middle school on up to university, and used to be a Spanish professor), so we plan to speak both Spanish and English to our little one on the way-maybe German too, as he is also pretty fluent in German

Thank you so much for your help!!!