Have any of you switched home language because of moving country?

[Shitemum]

We have lived in Spain for many years and have 2 DDs 5yo and 2yo.
Our home language has always been English. The DDs both started full-time Spanish nursery at 2yo. We are considering moving back to the UK next year and I'm wondering if we should switch our home language to Spanish so they dont lose it. It's DPs first language but he speaks and reads to them in English 99.9% of the time.
I've read that it can be at best difficult and at worst traumatic to switch languages when kids are small.
Have any of you done it? How did you go about it? Cold turkey or a gradual over-lap?
Was it successful?

There are quite a lot of opportunities for Spanish speaking kids to keep up their fluency in the UK (esp London). There are various playgroups, some church groups and a good scattering of Spanish expats even in relatively remote areas ok the country.

There's even a Colegio Bilingue run by the Embassy. Kids with a Spanish citizen parent are entitled to free language & culture activities (usu weekly) paid for by the Spanish Govt.

mariagoretti - thanks - We would be in Edinburgh. I'll check if there's an embassy there and if they have any activities for kids.

I did it - pre-kids. I started a relationship with a Catalan in English and when we moved into together in Spain, we swopped into Spanish. TBH, it was hard-going at first but soon, seemed normal.

I think I would swop while you are in Spain to embed it before moving. If it doesn't seem natural to you, try the OPOL approach.

Good luck with the move.

1066 - hello again, remember you!

Yes I would quite like to start a gradual change to OPOL before we go but it's so hard as DP and I have been speaking English to each other for 20 years. I didnt speak any Spanish when we met. He's always found it more natural to speak English@home, even spoke it to our cats!

Now that DD2 is finally at nursery we can start job-sharing our business and maybe he could start speaking Spanish only when it's his turn with the kids in the afternoons...

It shouldn't be so hard since we live in Spain and his first language is Spanish but it seems so artificial, we are such a very ingrained English-speaking house-hold!

It is weird, at first, tbh.

Can he go out and about with the kids, so they are in a natural situation where they all speak Spanish i.e. it seems rude not to? How about getting some lovely story books and have him tell the night-time story?

We are definitely at the Spanglish stage, although DS1 has a lovely Galician accent ! Saying that, we all swear in English .

i think he speaks more Spanish with them when he's out with them but doesn't make a conscious effort to do it.

He is a big fan of the library and gets books out for them often but is often not home from work till they are in bed/asleep.

We are going to start sharing the afternoons with them tho so maybe he could read in spanish more to them too.

We have literally hundreds of books in English and about 2 in Spanish...I find the choice of kids books in Spanish somewhat cr*p TBH, the best ones are usually translated from English or French. Manolito Gafotas is good but have yet to find anything else that comes anywhere near the quality and scope of childrens' literature in English - which is a pity as we will need books in Spanish when we are no longer living in Spain...

sorry, I sound really snobby about spanish kids books

We've done this before, haven't we - about Spanish books (lol)? What about the 32 cuentos de la A a la Z? Or the Yo quiero ser books? Cuper? The Combel editorial do fab non-fiction or Mi Mundo (SM saber).

But, you are right - there is a bigger and better choice in English.

yes i think we have...

There are some editoriales that are almost always good, cant remember the names of them but will make list and post it as penance! (and it's not even Easter! )