Studying Spanish en mi casa: For real this time!

I'm sure every parent has a long list of endings to the phrase "Before I had kids, I thought..."  Well, here is one of mine: "Before I had kids, I thought I would organize our days at home just like they had been in my classroom.  On certain days of the week, I would speak in Spanish and other days in English."  Simple as that!  It was a grand plan!

Until my first child was born...
and I realized as a sleep-deprived, bewildered new mother that my "heart language" was English and it was very hard to speak "motherese" in a language that was not spoken to me by my own mother as a child.  It just didn't feel right for those first few months.

Nine months later...
I wanted a means to communicate with this little person and sign language seemed to be the best tool to do so.  Over the next six months, she learned the signs for more, milk, eat, all done, please, and thank you.  

Nine months later...
my little girl began to use actual words in English.  I went to show her off to my bilingual teacher friends and they asked why she didn't speak any Spanish.  Oops!  We got in the car and I began speaking in Spanish to my little one in an attempt to reclaim my pre-parenthood goal.  Needless to say, it didn't go over very well with my precious Type-A, doesn't like surprises little girl.  Besides, we were nearing the "Terrible Twos" with baby #2 on the way and I needed real communication.  Once again, I quickly abandoned speaking Spanish for sake of MY greater good.

Two years later...
my oldest was almost four-years-old and my youngest was almost two.  They began to accompany me for filming with ReadyRosie and heard me speak in a language they didn't understand.  I would overhear them speaking "Spanish" (aka "blah-blah-blah...blah-blah...blah, etc.") during pretend play.  Playing at the local park, filming with ReadyRosie, and hanging out with bilingual friends, I began to sense more of a curiosity in them about Spanish.  I attempted to introduce a word or two but with little retention.  I was discouraged and felt like a failure!

Two years later (one week ago)...
after Thanksgiving dinner, I heard my five-year-old niece counting to 20 in Spanish as she had learned in a once-a-week enrichment class at her school.  Upon returning home from the holiday, I decided to give it another try.  This time, I'm not giving up!  I think they are ready and so am I!

Stay tuned on Saturdays to hear about what we are doing and how it is going!  In the meantime, here is a peek at how my oldest is doing after a few days: