Speaking of Spanish: Spanglish House

This is part of a series of posts featuring multicultural bloggers who are raising their children speaking Spanish and another language. Their blogs offer valuable perspective into Spanish, kids and culture.

It is a pleasure to be invited to a Spanish playground to talk about my Spanglish house.  I am Cecy (Spanglish momma), a home schooler Bolivian mother of 4, a Spanish teacher and a full time helpmate to my gringo querido.

I started Spanglish House, because that is what I have, a very Spanglish house. When we had our first kid, it was a Spanish house. Two years later my in-laws and my husband and I decided to live together, so it became a Spanglish house.  In terms of language, at first we used One Parent One Language.  My husband was the English speaker and I was the Spanish one. With my in-laws around 24 hours, it changed from One Parent One Language to Spanish as the minority language. And to make matters worse, I had to speak more English than ever. The Spanish and English were becoming Spanglish, not just in the language but also in the culture. The good thing is that my English improved; I have a very grammatically oriented mother-in-law and that helped me tons. She also is the best sandwich and salad maker in the world!

When it was time for “formal” education, we decided to home school. Hooray! that gave me a wonderful opportunity to teach Spanish to my kids. Our main curriculum is in English, Spanish and Spanglish. They can understand me; their brains are bilingual, but sadly they are afraid to speak Spanish. I believe immersion will take care of that.

The blog was born because I needed resources (bloggers and readers are wonderful resources), and I have resources that I can pass along to other Spanglish houses.  Another big reason was that I miss home, and I have a certain pride and joy in sharing a little bit of mi Bolivia and of Hispanic heritage with my readers.

I am sure there is another Spanglish houses hanging around Spanish Playground. Please, if you are one, make sure to visit me. And last but not least, mil gracias Jenny for inviting me to your playground.  I have followed your blog and loved your resources as much as my kids and students have.

You may also be interested in this post: Culture and Language from Multicultural Kid Blogs