I want to teach my kid another language.

[greencrayon]

I don't speak Spanish, but I figured that would be the most useful for me to learn, so I decided to start duolingo to teach myself Spanish. It's not really good for toddlers though. I just bought her some of her favorite board books in Spanish (brown bear, hungry caterpillar, goodnight moon, one fish two fish, etc). I'm kind of at a loss of what else do to. She can't read, so flash cards seem silly. Spanish songs? Tv shows?

[niq]

Spanish language music is good, our daycare published a playlist with the Spanish language songs they use so we can play them at home. You might also look into "learn Spanish with your toddler" classes in your area. I've seen advertisements for those locally.

In terms of expectations setting ... if you want your kid to be fluent, it takes a lot of commitment. Friends of ours from our new parents' group speak Spanish at home. They have an au pair who is a native Spanish speaker. He goes to a Spanish-language preschool and they are also part of a weekly Spanish-language discussion group. Most/all of the parents in both the preschool and the discussion group speak Spanish in the home. They moved so that they are in the boundaries for the language immersion K-8 in our school district.

I say this as someone who's 3yo is in a "Spanish immersion" classroom. They have Spanish-only time for about 60-90 minutes each day, more than that is just too much for the kids, most or all of them are English-only at home. We have some bilingual books, and we bought Spanish copies of a couple of books he already had, though he refuses to let us read them to him. I speak mediocre tourist Spanish, but kid vocabulary is very different so he is mostly learning how to ask Google how to say things in Spanish. If he retains more than words and a few simple sentence structures I'll be impressed.

[Koala]

I think it is great to introduce kids to other languages.

Our nanny speaks to the babies in Spanish. My H and I have been brushing up on our Spanish, because we don't know if the babies will talk to each other in Spanish or English or a combination of the two once they start talking. We want to be able to understand them. We speak English to them when we are with them.

You can look around for Spanish storytimes at your library or children's bookstores. That might be a good way to be immersed for 1/2 hour or so.

[miamigirl]

How old is she? If she watches TV, maybe start with some movies/shows in Spanish. All the Disney movies exist in Spanish, for example. Books are a good option as well.

We speak to S only in Spanish at home. Daycare is in English and they also have German classes. I can tell she understands simple commands in English and Spanish with no issue.
My nieces also speak French, so we have a few books that I read to her in french, and we video chat with her cousins once in a while, but I know that won't be enough.

I think it takes a lot of commitment, but it can be done, and it's a great tool for them!

[7costanza]

My 3 year old has been in a full immersion preschool since March and can fully understand both languages (Spanish and Mandarin), but mostly still speaks in English. We speak a bit of Spanish at home but are by no means fluent. Prior to enrolling him there we did a weekly Spanish class which made no impact as far as I could tell.

He also watches cartoon in Spanish, and I'm working on learning more so I can speak to him in Spanish more consistently.

[origami]

My kids watch Korean tv, hear Korean music, hear it when we're out and about, and study it a little in school, and only reliably know about 5 words. They have studied mandarin in school for 2 years and I think they can count to 10 and say some colors. That's about it. I'm pretty sure I learned more in Spanish as a kid from Sesame St. I agree with the PPs that fluency happens when their entire schooling is in another language (so that they are surrounded by it for many hours every day) or when it's spoken at home. Because my kids are at an international school almost every child in their class is bilingual. Except mine and the 1 other American, because we are the only ones speaking English at home and school. It depresses me because I had thought when we moved here that they would be able to pick up much more.
ETA: I should've said any exposure to another language is good IMO. It's not like I think it's pointless unless they're surrounded by native speakers. Just that I had expected to get more out of small measures so I wanted to echo the PPs on that.

[andwhat]

I went to a full immersion school and was 100% fluent in reading, writing, and speaking. Unfortunately that school closed and since there was no one outside of the school to continue I would say I lost about 90% of what I knew. I think it is great but if there is no follow up outside of the school it will be very difficult for get to retain.

[toutsuite]

We are doing this right now though it's a bit touch and go with an Asian language that neither my husband or I can speak. I am fluent in a Slovak language though and speak to them mostly in that language. My oldest is almost two and the younger one is almost one...i think it may take a little bit longer to see any results. I would be interested in any tips though from others who have done this successfully.

[bugandbibs]

DD2 attends a Spanish Immersion program which is 90% Spanish and 10% English. She's is doing really well and it's amazing how much she soaks up. Her entire day of instruction is in Spanish except when goes to specials like PE, library and art. It phases down to 50/50 as they get older and have classes like math in English. Her class is 50% native Spanish speakers and 50% non-Spanish speakers which is really important, I think.

Are there Spanish Immersion programs in your area? The one my daughter attends is a our neighborhood elementary school and goes through 12th grade

[Cicero]

M has been going to preschool in French 5 hours a day 5 days a week for two months. He understands a lot and within the past couple weeks has been communicating in French at school and with his little francophone friends.

Comparatively he's been exposed to Swahili for much longer - since February. It's spoken in the streets and by the people in the house when they are talking to each other. What he has absorbed is the way people speak to him, which for the most part (with the exception of the gardener who doesn't speak English) is English with a smattering of Swahili words thrown in. He seems to understand a bit but only uses a dozen or so words and does so within an English sentence.

It will be interesting to see the difference between M and the baby because they do speak with the baby entirely in Swahili. I'm not super concerned though because unlike French (which I speak and have the skills to continue with the boys should a French school not be available at some point) I don't have the ability to keep up their Swahili when we leave.

I think exposure to languages is great, especially when they are young but for fluency you need a lot of constant exposure and interaction in the language.

[greencrayon]

Thanks everyone! There are no immersion classes/schools here to the best of my knowledge.

I want to learn enough to converse with clients, and be able to help their animals without a translator. I understand more than I thought I did, when Spanish speakers would talk among themselves when I was teching.

My goal for her is just to utilize the sponge that her brain seems to be right now. I don't expect her to be fluent, but to be able to hold a small conversation would be nice!

There's a few Daniel tiger episodes in Spanish on YouTube. We've been watching that. Also, I really love Are You My Mother in Spanish! So reading that to her is fun.