A few Sundays ago I was picking Daughter up from the nursery at my grandparents’ church, where we were visiting. The nursery worker let me know what Daughter did while I was in church: she dirtied her diaper, she played happily, she babbled but didn’t say very many words. She seemed a bit concerned about my daughter’s lack of intelligible communication, so I told the nursery worker that some of the babbling might have been Spanish, since I speak Spanish with my daughter.
“Oh, are you homeschooling?” the nursery worker asked me.
“Uh, yeah, there’s a good chance we’ll homeschool her. But she’s just two now,” I responded quizzically.
“Oh, well, you said you were teaching her Spanish.”
“Oh, yes. I do teach her Spanish.”
So there you have it! I am already a homeschooling mom! I take that as a compliment, as I do these other things that people say when they hear me shout “¡Ven aquí! ¡No toques eso!”
- “That’s so cool– you speak Spanish to her!”
- “Wow. She’s so smart.”
- “Wow. You’re so smart.”
- “That’s going to really help her get a job someday.”
- “Okay, so what did you just say? Okay, how do you pronounce that? Am I saying it right?”
- “I have no idea what you just said but it looks like she understood it.”
- “I only know how to say a few words in Spanish! Here, let me say them to you…”
- “My husband’s cousin knew a few words in Spanish but then he forgot.”
Basically, if you know any Spanish phrases, or any words in any language, speak them to your kids. In public. It’s a great conversation starter.
In all seriousness, I have gotten a lot of support from people who have heard me speaking Spanish to Daughter. They usually tell me how neat it is, how they would have liked to do the same sort of thing if they only had the language skills, how it will only improve Daughter’s overall cognitive skills, how I shouldn’t worry so much about speaking perfectly, and how I’ll never regret it. I hope they’re right!