Because I'm raising bilingual children, we have a pretty strict rule that Spanish be the only language we speak at home. But ever since my younger son started attending preK full-time, I've noticed that his play vocabulary has expanded tremendously in English and he loves to use this knew knowledge at home with his elder sister. Nothing wrong with that, except that I need to constantly–and gently–remind him that we only speak Spanish at home.
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But I've also decide to stop slacking and enforce the following:
- Read to my kids in Spanish every single night or ask my daughter to read to us in Spanish, since she already reads.
2) Play board games in Spanish more often than we normally do. My kids love I Spy, so I plan on using this game to develop their vocabulary even more.
- Watch movies in Spanish. My kids are allowed to watch very little TV, but I have to make sure I remind them to switch to the Spanish track.
4) Play as much music as possible in Spanish. I just have to remember that it doesn't all have to be children's music because that can drive me crazy some times!
- Take them to Latino cultural events to expose them to Spanish outside our home. I just have to be on the lookout for these festivals because they're great opportunities for my kids to put their language skills to use.
