[IH8MEAT]

Are any of you planning on teaching your little one(s) Spanish??

I would LOVE to, but I don't know much. Of course, I have bought "Spanish for Dummies".

[giovanni7460]

yes my husband is peruvian and i speak a bit. giovanni is bi-lingual and antonio will be as well.
patty
mom to 5
including antonio and giovanni

[CurlysGirly]

Our local library has Spanish classes for children starting around 4. I would like to start earlier, though. DH and I JUST had this conversation today.

[Mariais5]

I'm in the process of finding a spanish speaking nanny since we don't speak spanish but want the girls to be bilingual. Bryce actually speaks a few words now.. She's learned most from Dora..

[annaguat]

I start my little ones with ten minutes a day of a Disney type DVD put to Spanish. Most DVDs have this option. It is amazing how much they learn. After that we go to Power Glide Spanish the lower level and Muzzy Spanish. I would like to get the Rosseta Stone Spanish for my high schoolers but it is pricey. We do have Power Glide Ultimate too which is for highschool level. My now near adult Guatemalan son is taking Spanish in college also. He was also able to work one summer in Mexico doing a vacation bible school with young children. Anna

[Jaime Christine]

I hope to enroll them into a bi-lingual preschool when they get older. Right now- we watch Barney in Spanish, listen to Spanish speaking CD's in the car, the listen to their spanish lullaby's every night and we do spanish/english puzzles and flashcards. Dora helps too.

I start Spanish lessons tomorrow night!

[SKL]

I will do my best to help them maintain the Spanish they are already understanding in Guatemala, and continue to build it. I am not fluent but I could get by in Latin America / Spain if necessary to save my life. I am hoping my fluency improves as I work with the girls.

I have many, many Spanish and bilingual children's books, to help me keep Spanish in my daughters' lives and hopefully help me practice and hone my skills. I recommend going to the online booksellers and searching for kids' books in Spanish and Spanish / English. There are tons of wonderful ones and the prices are no higher than the same books would be at your local bookstore in English. I also have many CDs / tapes with either stories or songs in Spanish. And even some DVDs that have Spanish as well as English soundtracks. I also plan on allowing my daughters to watch our Spanish channel sometimes, when they are older. I plan to research bilingual daycares / preschools and scope out bilingual nannies - but I don't think I would compromise quality just for the language aspect - and in my area, we don't have a huge hispanic population - so we'll have to see how that goes.

Good luck!

[Alexismandyjr]

Spanish is my 1st language... We speak both languages at home. J.R. has been home for over 9 months and speaks the same amount of English as he does Spanish! I have done this with all my children. They are all bi-lingual. It does take them a little longer to initially start speaking in sentences, but when it finally clicks they speak both fluently!

[linda512]

I have a spanish speaking nanny and she only speaks spanish to my son. He understands everything she says, but mostly speaks in english himself still.

[hopeful4baby]

My mother is a high school spanish teacher and wanted to raise my sister and I to be bilingual and my dad, the visionary, talked her out of it! Why she EVER listened to him I'll never know.
I ended up with a BA in Spanish and spent a year as an undergrad living with a family in Spainand attending a university there. I also did a lot of cultural/political/economic study of Latin America although I have not traveled there as much.
Part of the reason DH and I chose Guatemala over other adoption programs is that I feel best equipped to educate our son about his heritage as opposed to say, Eastern Europe, even though I've traveled and done some study of that region. And being able to preserve the language for him was a HUGE factor in making that decision.

[My Isela]

My husband and I are trying to teach our girls both English and spanish. Spanish is not our first language, but we both have studied it and speak it fairly well.
Our girls also enjoy watching some of their favorite shows in spanish and LOVE salsa music.

[JosieWales]

We are trying! I can speak enough Spanish to get us by in Guate when we visit, but far from bilingual. Right now I speak (admittedly lousy) Spanish to Owen at lunchtime, and read him books that are in Spanish, and I have some baby-Spanish CDs that we're going to start this week. Where we teach there are a few Hispanic families from Mexico, and we are going to have them come over 1-2x a week to play w/him and speak Spanish to him! We just need to figure out details.

I'm so glad to see all the other plans to make our kids bilingual. After reading "10 things adopted kids wish their adoptive parents knew," by Sherrie Eldridge, I really think helping our Guatemalan kids be bilingual is one way we can help them stay in touch w/their birth culture!

[arthymom]

I'm only speaking to dd in Spanish, whereas dh and ds are only speaking to her in English. Spanish is my native language.

So she'll be bilingual we hope!

So far she seems behind in language (as per her intl. adoption specialist) but I attribute some of that to the transition...Still it will be interesting to see if she is delayed but then ends up fully speaking both. I'm not concerned because she understands everything.

Cool thread~

[AnaM-H]

I am hispanic but don't speak correct spanish. I'm spanglish :-) Almari will learn to speak, read and write spanish. I am ashamed to say I can't read or write spanish. Our plan is for me to speak to her in spanish and dh to speak to her in English. My Mom and sister may be her caregivers so they will speak to her in spanish. If we go with a nanny, she will also speak spanish to her. It is important in South Florida to be able to communicate in both languages.

[DeeVee]

DH speaks spanish; I don't speak very well but I can understand him. He usually speaks spanish to the kids, so they understand both spanish and english.