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;