Mike Smith:
Homeschooling mom Diana Trejo is joining me again today. Diana, tell us about how you incorporate your Hispanic heritage into your homeschool program.

Diana Trejo:
Well Mike, one of the most important things that I’d like to pass on to my children is fluency in the Spanish language. I like to compare Spanish with a two-sided key. It is a key to their heritage and is vital to communicating with family abroad—especially their grandparents. Also, I like to think that fluency in Spanish is a key which will be useful for them in the future—possibly opening up areas of service or employment.

With my first son, I had spoken exclusively Spanish to him until the day that we started preschool. He was pretty shocked and a bit scared when I started speaking English to him. With the other children, it has been more of a struggle to maintain the Spanish as the little ones learn English from their siblings. I try to only speak English with the children when we do school and make them speak Spanish to me thereafter.

Sometimes I have ask them translate what they have said to me in English into Spanish. I have them watch any DVDs in Spanish, if possible. And this coming school year, we will begin to formally study Spanish grammar.

Also, something that has helped us all is having our daily family Bible reading in Spanish and being part of a Hispanic local church.

Mike:
Diana, it’s great to hear how you’re incorporating your heritage into your homeschool experience. Thank you for joining us this week! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.