One of the greatest investments you can make to ensure your kids grow up bilingual is to enroll them in a Spanish language summer camp. This is especially true if they're immersed only in English during the regular school year, as is the case of both my kids. If you're planning on signing your kids up for a summer program or activity anyway, why not consider a language camp?
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Believe it or not, these are becoming more and more popular as more parents realize the how important and advantageous it is for their children to speak more than one language. If you live in areas with a big Latino population, such as Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Chicago and New York, you won't have any problem finding these type of camps.
But even if you live in areas without a large community of Latinos, you'd be surprised with what you'll be able to find in your neighborhood. One way to start your search is by visiting the user-generated directory on SpanglishBaby.com, where you can look for programs by city and state.
The best part about sending your child to a language summer camp is that it is not the same as going to school with a rigid structure and heavy academic concentration. The main idea behind a language camp is for the kids to be immersed in Spanish, but in a super fun environment. So even if they're doing regular activities like swimming or arts & crafts, it'll all be in Spanish. How cool is that?
Just keep in mind that for the experience to be memorable–and useful–your child should be enrolled in a language camp for a minimum of 2-3 weeks. The longer your kid is exposed to Spanish, the better the results.
