Ok, it wasn’t quite that – but, it was close.
This friend, we will call her Kate, applied to be a teacher where she had interned several years ago. She knew the job. She knew the staff. She knew the principal. And yet. Kate’s competition was a person who was straight out of college and had never taught before – BUT this person could speak Spanish.
I have been a public school teacher for many years. The school I teach in has a very high Hispanic population. When parent teacher conferences come around, I often need an interpreter. I have had the thought that I might not be able to get a job in the future because I couldn’t speak Spanish. Thankfully, that has not happened to me. But, it did happen to a friend.
In the end, Kate WAS offered the job but turned it down for other reasons. However, this instance got me thinking – in 15 years, will my daughter be able to get a job speaking only one language? What about my 1 year old twins?
I started paying attention.
My chiropractor’s office has three ladies who work there – ALL of them speak Spanish. It didn’t use to be that way. He used to have people that only spoke English. Now, they are all bilingual.
In our old neighborhood, there were several families that spoke Spanish, their children speaking both English and Spanish. The only other family that had children and were non-Spanish speaking, like us, had two rough and tumble boys that my daughter didn’t really want to play with. (I literally saw them run into each other on their bikes one day. They got up, yelled at each other, and went home. I was fully prepared to call 911.)
My daughter played with the other kiddos sometimes, but she couldn’t always understand them, and frankly neither could I. It made her uncomfortable and after awhile, she didn’t talk to them much.
What is a mama to do? Prepare my kids for life, that’s what.
This year, 2019, I had to take a semester of family medical leave and take care of my son who needed one-on-one care. He’s doing fine now, but in one day I went from working full time to being a stay at home mother. If you have experienced both, you will agree with me that going to work is easier – way easier. And the transition is hard – really hard.
In the early years of my teaching career, summer break was always an adjustment. I would stomp around the house angry at every little thing because my schedule had been ripped from me. My husband would give me space while I acclimated myself to not having somewhere to go every day.
This summer, I’m realizing that it affects children the same (my daughter is going crazy – she’s been grounded twice in a week since the end of school and has cried almost every day.) She’s going through the same “adjustment” phase that I do of not getting her social and learning time at school.
Time for a schedule hi-jack.
I take the twins to the Baby and Me Book Time once a week at the public library. I signed my daughter up for swim lessons, 2 different art and painting camps, and Spanish class: twice a week.
So, when I say I am a teacher at heart, I mean it. I left my public school classroom and made my house into a working one. I have a large chalkboard with a calendar and schedule of events. I have posters hung up on the walls. What do the poster say?
Spanish. Lots and lots of Spanish.
I never took a single Spanish class. Ever. I was a French student, through and through. Four years in high school and two in college. I know nothing about Spanish. So, I’m teaching myself as I’m teaching the kids.
The great thing about this is that speaking to the babies is a one sided conversation – they have no come backs, they love unconditionally, and they do not judge my butchering of the language on a daily basis. My seven-year-old on the other hand rolls her eyes at me and asks why I’m “crazy in love with Spanish”. I tell her she will thank me one day. (Well, I’m hoping she will.)
Creating this blog is a way for me to document how I’m doing this – the things that work and the things that didn’t. Whenever you teach a lesson, sometimes it bombs, sometimes you think on your feet, and sometimes it is the best lesson you have taught in a good long while.
So. I’m doing this. I’m staying home and raising my children. I am teaching them Spanish as I learn, I am making them healthy dinners and doing their laundry, and spending time with my husband because I’m not so exhausted that I can’t give a little effort at 9 PM.
I am giving up the career I love to be someone my family needs. And I’m going to do a hell of a job. Because I am the only person qualified enough for this position. And I can’t fail my children.
Learning Spanish as a Family 