A Mother and Daughter, not of Spanish Decent....

Ever since I was 10yrs old, I wanted to learn spanish. Growing up, I had a lot of spanish friends... In school, the only foreign language I would take was spanish. Now, I have a 4.5yr old daughter and she has learned some spanish also. Ever since she was a child, she would watch Dora and now Go Diego, Go. The teachers at her school are spanish-speaking and I push for them to speak to her in spanish at times. I would love for my daughter and I to be bi-lingual and hopefully with enough practice we will. Can anyone help us?

Hi kavita0106!
I'm from Argentina and I'm an English-Spanish translator. I've studied English since I was 10 and I also have a 4,5 yr. old daughter. Isn't it amazing? But I want her to speak in English!!! I'll tell you what I do. I teach her through songs. She likes Barney, Lazy Town, Backyardigans and Hi-5 so I downloaded their songs from the Internet and at least she listens to them. She's learned some, not all of them, of course. Or she plays a PC game to learn English which she loves. It's not easy because when you push her to speak, she doesn't want to and I don't really want her to "hate" English because I pushed her too hard. Sometimes I just speak to her and say hello, drink your milk, come here right away and all that staff but in the end she looks at me and say "Please stop speaking in English Mum!" and that's it... end of the conversation!! hahaha
Hope it helps! Tell us your experience.

I believe ever since I was withchild, I watched programs such as Dora the Explorer, also I watch Novelas. She is very good for her age and to have no one who speaks spanish fluently around her. Every now and then I will ask her a question in spanish to see how she responds. I like to go back and forth and she loves the language more than I imagined. As for your daughter learning english, having her pair the language with things she likes to watch is one of the best things you can do for her. She has developed a personal connection with these shows and songs, which will make the transition for her much easier..... You're on the right track...Best wishes and Thank you!!:o