How I'm Raising Two Bilingual Texas Kids: A Working Recap
An honest mid-stream report on bilingual parenting at ages 7 and 4. What's working, what's slipping, the books and music carrying the weight, and why the summer Mexico immersion may be the only thing actually saving us.
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Mira, I want to start this post with a confession: I am losing the bilingual battle. Not catastrophically. Not in a way that means my kids will grow up not speaking Spanish. But — híjole — in the way that every CDMX-born mom raising kids in Texas knows in her bones. The English wins. It wins every day. It wins because their school is English, their friends are English, their cartoons are mostly English, and even when I am putting my foot down at home, Brian — sweet Brian, Texan-Plano-monolingual Brian — speaks English to them by default and it is the path of least resistance for everyone. Ya sabes.
So this is the working recap. Where we are at age 7 and age 4. What's working. What's slipping. What I'm going to change in 2026. Not a victory lap — a status update. With receipts.
The household setup
The structure on paper:
- I speak Spanish 70% of the time at home
- Brian speaks English (his Spanish is improving but won't be native)
- Tía Rosa FaceTimes Sundays, Spanish only
- Abuela calls weekly, Spanish only
- One Mexico trip per quarter minimum
- One full month of summer immersion in CDMX with Tía Rosa
- Bedtime books alternate Spanish/English
What actually happens: the 70% slips to 50% during school weeks, the alternation slips because Sophie wants the same English book seven nights running, and Brian apologizes about his Spanish so often it's become its own bit. Mi amor, sigue intentando.
Matty at 7: where he actually is
Matty's Spanish at seven: fluent for conversation, weak on reading, weaker on writing. He can:
- Hold a 20-minute Spanish conversation with Tía Rosa, no code-switching
- Understand every word Abuela says, Tapatío slang included
- Order in Mexican restaurants without me
- Read aloud in Spanish at a kindergarten level (English is 3rd grade)
- Spell about 30% of common Spanish words correctly
Conversation: the win. Reading and writing: the slip. He learned to read in English at school — no Spanish reading instruction exists — so English literacy compounds while Spanish stalls. Structural problem.
What's working: the Little People, Big Dreams Frida Kahlo book in Spanish. Short chapters, illustrated, vocabulary he wants. One chapter three nights a week. Sticks.
Sophie at 4: where she actually is
Sophie is in the magic window — bilingual exposure imprints and a child picks up vocabulary, accent, grammar in chunks. She:
- Switches mid-sentence grammatically ("mami, quiero más juice, por favor")
- Has a slightly Mexican accent in her English (her mom-time is Spanish)
- Sings nursery rhymes in Spanish FIRST
- Cannot read either language yet — she's four, ándale
The four-year-old window is easy. The seven-year-old window is where the work starts. I am trying not to coast on Sophie just because she's a current bilingual showpiece.
The music situation
Music is the biggest weight-puller in this house. Mornings: Café Tacvba, Natalia Lafourcade, Julieta Venegas. Bedtime: Tía Rosa's playlist of Mexican lullabies that she made me when I was pregnant with Matty. Sophie sings "De Colores" without prompting. Brian has memorized the chorus of one Café Tacvba song and pretends to know more. Mi cielo, you do not.
Saturday morning kitchen dance parties: Spanish-language music only. Matty picked Rosalía last Saturday. Sophie picked Encanto in Spanish. We compromised.
The summer Mexico immersion — the one thing that resets the system
Every June we send Matty (and now Sophie) to Tía Rosa for three to four weeks. "El campamento de español" — really her just living her life with two grandchildren-by-proxy along for the ride. Market, museums, cooking, neighbor kids on her block (native Spanish speakers, ages 5-10, perfect peer set). Matty comes home with measurably better Spanish every June. Every September it decays.
Summer 2026 is Sophie's first FULL four weeks. Tía Rosa is thrilled. Brian is — sí — planning his "Jalisco week" to overlap because "if the kids are in CDMX, I might as well visit Abuela." In Jalisco. The state you keep claiming you're from. Mhm.
Coyoacán Booking search for a CDMX immersion trip — three weeks minimum, Spanish-only at home during the stay. Single most effective Spanish-acquisition tool I have used.
The cooking-as-language move
You cannot make chilaquiles without learning tomatillo. You cannot help with mole without learning ajonjolí. Vocabulary in context sticks. We cook from Pati Jinich's Mexican Today twice a week. Matty: tortilla flipping. Sophie: hand mom the limes. Everything narrated in Spanish. He has learned 40+ kitchen-specific words in 2025. Pati's Mexican Table is the deeper-dive book for Saturday cooks.
What I'm changing in 2026
- Spanish-only car time. Even when Brian is in the car — slow Spanish or quiet, his choice.
- One tutored hour per week. Spanish reading and writing for Matty. Not negotiable.
- Sophie's full immersion summer. Four weeks, no shortening.
- Family group chat Spanish-only. Brian sent a thumbs-up and "sí señora." Progress.
- Sunday calls with Abuela: Sophie-led, in Spanish. Even if it's about her stuffed animals.
The honest closing
I am not raising perfectly bilingual kids. I am raising kids who — with luck and Tía Rosa and Abuela — will grow into bilingual adults. The gap is real. Some days it feels enormous. Some days, like when Matty narrates a bedtime story to Sophie in Spanish without prompting, it feels small.
If you are a bilingual mom in a monolingual region holding the line: you are not failing if you are slipping. Find your Tía Rosa. Cook in the language. Sing in the language. Forgive yourself for the English bedtime stories. Vuelve mañana al español.
Mis cariños, my kids are not losing their Spanish. Not while there's a chilaquile in this kitchen, a Frida book on the shelf, a Tía Rosa on FaceTime. Y si me ven flaqueando, recuérdenmelo. Hasta la próxima. 💛