When Maya, Mateo, and I were out running errands today I heard a little boy say as we walked by, "They're speaking Spanish!" Two thoughts struck me as we rushed across Target, looking for the bathroom. First, I was impressed that the boy identified what language we were speaking. Then, it made me wonder what people think when they see an undeniably white mama speaking Spanish with her mini-me: a blond, blue-eyed little girl. For all of Maya's life, we've spoken both English and Spanish at home, as my husband and I made the decision before I even got pregnant to raise our children bilingually. Even when choosing baby names, we thought about this, because we wanted something that was pronounced the same way in English and Spanish, so our children could easily transition from one cultural circle to the other. Because she has learned both languages since birth, Maya is considered a simultaneous bilingual child. But at this point in time, I would say Spanish is her...

La Mamita Barrios Preschool Class of One: Identifying Shapes This morning we used some leftover cut outs that I nabbed from the Holliston Public Library 's Play Learn and Grow group on Monday for our Preschool Class of One. They were perfect for Maya to practice her tactile skills of glue and paste, in addition to identifying the shapes in Spanish: cuadrados, triagulos, y circulos.  We divided the shapes into piles, while also identifying the colors and classifying by size, too, grande & pequeno. (The grande shapes Maya called "Mama" and the pequenos she called "bebe.") And it wasn't long before she realized she also had some colored circulos on her pijamas, too! #raisingemergingbilinguals #bilingualathome #bilingual #EnglishEspanol #espanolencasa #learningshapes #experientiallearning #tactileskills #cutandpaste #terribletwos #homeschoolpreschool #preschoolathome

Thankful Turkey/ Pavo de Gracias I was inspired by @busytoddler on Instagram to start this tradition with family, but decided to put an Emerging Bilinguals spin on it. Thankful Turkey is a project where the kids list something they are thankful for each day of November, and then write it on a "feather" to attach to the "turkey." Since our home is bilingual, I decided to make one turkey for each girl. The top one is for Sofia and the bottom one is for Maya, both at their own respective heights. Since Maya is Spanish-dominant and Sofia is English-dominant, I figured Sofia's feathers would mostly be in English, and Maya's would mostly be in Spanish, but of course both of them are welcome to respond in whichever language they want. (I have a feeling "candy" might make an appearance on Maya's turkey, thanks to all of the sugary treats that I had to hide away due to Harvest Night celebrations!) Here's a closer look at what the tu...

Introducing... La Mamita Barrios con su Vaquita Lola y Pollito Pio Pio I'm stay-at-home mom for the year, and while I can attest that this job is harder than teaching middle school, I am so thankful to be able to have this opportunity to see my two littles grow and develop every day! Momming is hard, and running a bilingual, bicultural household can be hard, too, so I decided to start this blog to share my experiences of how we keep it fun and fresh.  California born and bred, I learned rudimentary Spanish in school and on mission trips to Mexico, but I really became fluent when I met my husband and started spending time with his Guatemalan family and friends. In 2014, we adopted his youngest brother and sister from Guatemala, and since they spoke no English, Spanish became our primary language at home. When I went back to work after having my daughter in 2017, my husband's cousins came from Guatemala and stayed with us to help take care of her when I was at wor...