My Spanish background is not an area I’ve shared much about, on the blog yet! Today I will dive a bit into that, and discuss how my own Spanish background has informed the way I teach Spanish to my kids, in our homeschool.

This blog series is in three parts, and today is part 1.

My High School Spanish Experience

When I first learned Spanish, I started in 8th grade. In our public school system, this is when language classes began. I instantly love it. I loved the language, loved the culture, loved my “Spanish name” I choose off the list, for class. Does anyone else remember that?! Many middle and high school Spanish classes would have you choose a “Spanish name” to go by, instead of your actual first name, for class. I always chose “Violeta,” which is very fitting considering my love for flowers, and the color purple.

As I got to high school and progressed through Spanish 1, Spanish 2, and Spanish 3, I loved learning the language so much, I would actually write little notes–like journal entries–to my favorite teacher. I was itching to learn more than we were covering in class, and wanted to be able to express myself through writing, in Spanish, to the same extent I could in English. My teacher (bless her heart!) would write back to me, and teach me different verb tenses to be able to express the exact sentiment I wanted. She was one of my favorite high school teachers, and not surprisingly, I worked as her TA when I was a senior.

When I reminisce on my high-school self, I smile, because my love of learning, and language, was so apparent even then! I hope to inspire that same curiosity and insatiability in my own kids, for learning–even if it isn’t specifically for Spanish.

Studying Abroad in Seville, Spain

As I progressed through high school and continued on to college, my love for Spanish only grew. I wanted to double-major in college, so I pursued my Elementary Education degree, with a second major of Spanish. In order to meet this requirement, my college demanded a six-week study abroad experience and had a list of potential areas to travel to, with my classmates. To me, this wasn’t enough. I felt that to truly understand a language and become skilled, you had to be immersed in it for much longer than six weeks. So, I took matters into my own hands!

I did some research, and found a nearby college that did a program called Semester In Spain. This seemed much better to me–I would study for an entire semester, in Seville, Spain, and live with a host family while taking my courses. I applied, got in, and made arrangements to spend a semester abroad!

Studying abroad in Spain was a massive learning experience for me. My roommate and I stayed with a host family, and were able to practice our Spanish in a variety of authentic settings. I learned from my courses at the school, as well as out and about on the town. I couldn’t recommend it more highly!

Trial By Fire, Abroad

After studying abroad, graduating college and getting married the summer after, my husband and I moved to Guatemala, where he was born and raised. We were both offered incredible work opportunities, and were excited to embark on an adventure of our own.

While living in Guatemala, we experienced a variety of massive culture shocks (well, mostly me!) as I tried to navigate life in a Central American country, with a “type-A” personality. Despite some unpredictable work changes and safety concerns, my time in Guatemala definitely helped refine my Spanish!

As many of us know, the most impactful learning often takes place during times of great discomfort. Often you have to squirm a bit, to really get the good learning! This applies to physical pursuits (like exercise, building muscle, cardiovascular endurance), intellectual pursuits, creative pursuits, relational pursuits–really everything in life!

A simple example of this “squirming” was the simple task of visiting the grocery store. While in Guatemala, of course I had to grocery shop! Often I would drive to the store, or a little fruit stand or bodega, alone, and if I needed help or wanted to ask a question, I was on my own. Usually I could manage, but occasionally there were words or phrases I wasn’t familiar with. In these small, daily situations, I learned to adapt to cultural norms, expectations, and more colloquial sayings. These types of interactions are simply not the same when learned in the classroom. You have to be out in the real world, to experience them.

Why Spanish Immersion is the best way to learn

After my experience studying abroad, I went on to finish my degree and graduate with a double major. After a whirlwind of experiences first teaching in Guatemala, then teaching middle school Spanish in Texas, my favorite job of all was teaching Spanish Immersion kindergarten back in my home state.

The Spanish Immersion model was pretty new to me when I started, and we followed a 90-10 model; in theory, the students were not supposed to know I was even capable of speaking English! The first six weeks were a lot of work. My students’ parents had of course prepped them for what the beginning of the school year may feel like, learning a brand-new language in an immersion setting, but they were also just kindergarteners, so I’m sure it was a bit overwhelming for them!

That said, I was thoroughly impressed with the process. Kids are truly sponges. I spoke to them all every day, in Spanish. By a few months in, they could understand about 50% of what I said, and the other 50% they could figure out fairly quickly with many context clues. By the end of the school year, I can confidently say that the entire class could understand 80-100% of my language. It was phenomenal, and after teaching in this way, I would never teach language with any other method!

My husband is a native Spanish speaker, having been born and raised in Guatemala. He visited my class at the end of the school year, after hearing about my incredible students all year. I will never forget his raised eyebrows and expression of awe as he witnessed the kids responding to my directions, completing tasks, and starting to form their own phrases in Spanish, themselves. He was so impressed!

Teaching Spanish in my homeschool

Ok, so now that we’ve established the steps I myself took to gain Spanish fluency, how on earth does this all apply to homeschooling?!

My own journey with the Spanish language is one I have had to reflect on many times, as I have prepared to teach my own kids. I was actually more successful at teaching them Spanish, before we started homeschooling.

In the next blogpost, I will detail what we’ve tried, and what the results have been. Here is a little preview of that list:

• Immersion: both my husband and I speaking to our kids only in Spanish
• Partial Immersion: as we added more kids, the amount of Spanish decreased
• Game-based: using games to teach vocabulary words
• Song-based: my daughter was resistant to Spanish as a toddler, so I used songs to teach her vocabulary quickly
• DuoLingo: we had a brief stint with this popular app, which many people rave about!
• Talkbox.mom phrases and strategies
• Using punch card incentives for a certain about of Spanish spoken each day
• Individualized flash cards or phrase charts, tailored to each kid

In Part 2 of this series, I will detail how each of these strategies worked out, and how I have tried to tailor them to each kid.

With love,

Cait