Tips to Raising Bilingual Kids + Giveaway

When Julianna was born, I knew I wanted her to speak Spanish and in fact, she ONLY spoke Spanish until she was 3. I wondered if maybe I was doing her a disservice by not focusing on English whatsoever, but to my surprise, when she started school, English came naturally to her! Don’t worry about your child not knowing English right away, they will pick up the language quickly once they start school.

Although Julianna is speaking less and less Spanish, there are things I try to do on a daily basis. Below is my list – I would love to hear what are some things you do to maintain Spanish or other languages in your home.

I try to ONLY speak Spanish to Julianna. It can be a bit tough at times because English comes just as naturally to me as it does to her.
When she speaks English to me, I ask her to speak to me in Spanish.
I translate whatever she tells me in Spanish and I have her repeat after me.
I am constantly asking her how do you say this or that in Spanish. She sometimes confuses the words in English so this is a great way to correct her.
Lately, Carl has been speaking to her more in English so I am making a cognizant effort to maintain the Spanish. That way she is getting exposed to both languages evenly.

If you missed it, I have a giveaway going on over on my Instagram or you can enter through here as well. Wordytoys and I will be giving away one of their wooden safari puzzles. These are a great way to teach your kids Spanish. Below are some facts from their website about why it is so important for kids to be raised bilingual. To enter giveaway, comment on ways you instill your language in your kids.

Environmental Print
The same way a child knows a red octagon says “stop” before they can read, Wordy toys help create a visual link between letters and words. This is symbol recognition and is the first step towards literacy.

Bilingual is better
Being bilingual is great for little brains! Studies show that bilingual kids outperform monolingual kids in
- Multitasking
- Holding focus longer
- Thinking outside the box
- Generally scoring higher on
  college entrance exams
Multi-functional
Wordy toys are not only great language tools they also
- Develop fine motor skills
- Build problem solving
  techniques
- Encourage imaginative play
All lowercase
You may have noticed all the words on our toys are printed in lowercase. Many classrooms now practice teaching children lowercase letters first as 95% of written text is lowercase. These are the letters as they will see them most regularly.