Hello from Texas!

¡Hola! I'm a Spanish teacher who lives in the "heart" of Texas and who has recently had a baby (2 months already!). Despite living in Texas, I do not own a pair of cowboy boots, cowboy hat or listen to country music though I've tried (facts that have surprised many of my students). 

I was born at a military base in Panama and my first language is Spanish. As a child, I traveled quite a bit though as an adult not so much (unfortunately). Though I had always appreciated being bilingual it never occurred to me how valuable and wonderful a gift it was until I was much older. After I graduated college, I got my first full time job because I am bilingual and in every job, part time or full time, I have used my language skills in one way or another. Three years ago, I became a high school Spanish teacher but now I teach at the elementary level. I still consider myself a novice teacher in many ways because I am not happy with the constant focus on grammar based learning and have been working hard to change that in my teaching (and convince others along the way.) 

I hope with my new baby that I can give this "gift" of language as it was given to me but I know I will be facing many challenges along the way.

• One of them is my location. Despite living in Texas, I live in one of those places where Spanish speakers are far fewer and less diverse than say South Texas. My whole environment is in the majority language and my husband speaks very little Spanish.
  
  
• Another is my baby will be in daycare where there is little minority language spoken. I've read in so many places the need to instill the minority language well before they enter Kindergarten but unfortunately, I was unable to put her in my preferred daycare where many of the workers speak Spanish.
  
  
• The third reason is my comfort level speaking. Even though I speak very well and am commended at my mastery of both languages, I have been hit with a huge dose of self doubt. I often hesitate to speak to her in Spanish out in public even though I have always been comfortable speaking to my family in Spanish wherever I go. I think part of the reason is that I'm thinking back to whenever I was growing up and spoke Spanish to my mom and English to my dad. Sometimes without reason, my dad would get annoyed that I constantly spoke Spanish (I still did it anyways because it felt weird not speaking Spanish). I often wonder if my husband will experience this too or will he eventually make a real commitment to learn with baby as well. 

Goal: I want to make a real commitment to language for my baby and decipher all the info that's out there and make it practical for our family. I've read quite a bit but every time I go deeper into best practices to teach a child, it becomes increasingly overwhelming. I hope I'm not the only one!

If anyone has any tips they can give me in preparation for baby's first words and creating an environment for Spanish learning, I would be forever grateful! Much love to everyone and happy holidays!

Karina

p.s. Sorry for the SUPER long introduction!