111: Non-native bilingual parenting with Elisabeth Alvarado

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, Elisabeth Alvarado shares her journey as a non-native bilingual mother.  She shares her challenges and her successes and shares wonderful tips for parents raising kids in a language that is not the parent’s mother tongue.

On this podcast, Elisabeth shares with us:

-How she  fell in love with Spanish;
-How languages are managed in her home with the Minority Language at Home strategy;
-How awkward it felt at first to speak a non-native language to her children the first day her son was born;
-How she worked through that first fork in the road where she had to chose between English & Spanish;
-How the effort paid off and now speaking Spanish is an engrained  habit;
-How books have been helpful to add vocabulary to her days  with her children;
-How she  is preparing for when  her children get to the point where they may prefer to speak Spanish to each other;
-Some funny  interactions they have had with others when they are all together as a family;
-A proud parenting moment with family members in Peru while chatting on Skype;