If you come here often you know how I am raising the kids bilingual and that this is something really important in our family.

Not only bilingual but bi-literate, I think the second one is key, it will help them retain the second language even more.

You also probably know how Adrian is in a Spanish Immersion school and Maya will soon follow. The school is been wonderful for Adrian and he now knows how to read and write in English and Spanish but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to work on it at home.

TIPS TO HELP KIDS WITH SPANISH

I think it is very important to support the second language at home and that’s why I try and do as many things I can do to help them grow their Spanish for example:

READ CONMIGO IS HERE TO HELP BILINGUAL KIDS

When there is some help to raise these kids bilingual I’ll take it! That’s what Read Conmigo is all about, a literacy program that promotes English/Spanish bilingualism sponsored by Infinity Auto Insurance. They have a pretty cool website setup with a bunch of bilingual resources for FREE!

Once you register and become a member, Read Conmigo offers activity sheets, a bookshelf full of bilingual books (one every 4 months) you can download to print or to have in your device, apps with flash cards and interactive books, games, teacher’s resources and more.

I am loving it especially for Maya because she is very stubborn with Spanish, she won’t speak much of it but understands everything I say. I decided I will sit and dedicate her some time once a week, read to her directly, use flash cards, make her repeat the words and so on, I think it will help her a little more. And meanwhile, I have to be creative to make Adrian speak to me in Spanish more often because when he does then Maya becomes interested right away

OPPORTUNITY FOR LATINO AUTHORS

Only 1.5% of the 3200 works published in 2013 in the U.S. were written by Latino authors, that’s why Read Conmigo wants to help change these statistics.

Latino authors and aspiring authors can submit their manuscripts to be considered for national publication to the Preserving our Culture through Bilingual Literacy contest by October 31, 2014.

The story must feature one or more Read Conmigo characters.  The winning author(s) will receive $1,000 in prize money.

-ESPAÑOL-

AYUDA PARA CRIAR A NIÑOS BILINGÜES

CONSEJOS PARA AYUDAR A LOS NIÑOS CON EL ESPAÑOL

• Les hablo a ellos siempre sólo en español
• Les leo en español
• Siempre pongo la radio en español con ellos en el carro
• Les introduzco comidas y costumbres latinas constantemente
• Nos juntamos con otros amiguit@s que hablan español
• les pongo películas en español
• Nos vemos de Skype con la familia y hablamos español
• Y cualquier otra cosa que ayude en el camino!