I only speak to my kids in Spanish. When they started talking, they were already bilingual.

• I'm a mom of three kids ages 6, 4, and 4.
• Since they were born I've been speaking to them exclusively in Spanish.
• My oldest can switch between English and Spanish depending who he is talking to.

When I found out I was pregnant for the first time, I knew little about parenting and had no idea what kind of parent I wanted to be. But there was one thing I was certain about: my kids would be bilingual in English and Spanish.

I was born in Argentina , and Spanish is my first language. We moved around a lot when I was little because of my dad's job, so my parents sent me to bilingual schools so language would be a constant throughout my youth. I quickly became fluent in English and it has opened so many doors in my life, including moving to the US for grad school, meeting my husband, and having jobs.

I wanted to give my kids the same opportunities, but as a working parent, I knew it had to be low-effort. My approach was to speak to my kids in Spanish and see what happened. It's paid off.

I speak to them in Spanish and my husband in English

From the day they were born, I've been speaking to all of them in Spanish , and my husband speaks to them in English. My American husband is fluent in many languages, but Spanish is not one of them. Since we started dating, it's gotten better and better, so he can understand everything I say.

We also bought bilingual first-word books so our kids could start making connections between images and the sounds of words in each language.

Once they were old enough to start watching a little bit of TV, we started switching the language of the shows to Spanish so that they were not exposed to it just through me.

When they started talking, people couldn't understand what they said

When all my kids started speaking their first words, only my husband and I could understand what they were saying because they would mix both languages in a sentence. For example, they would say things like, "I want más leche, please," using the words "more" and "milk" in Spanish.

Once they started attending Pre-K, where all the kids were speaking English, they switched to full sentences in English in school and a mix of both languages at home.

At first, I didn't think they were fully fluent in Spanish since they would also speak to me in English despite me asking questions in Spanish. But when my parents — who don't speak English — are visiting, my kids can talk to them in perfect, fully-formed sentences in Spanish .

It's been magical to see them develop language skills

I've heard from other bilingual parents how hard it can be for kids to pick up another language that is not the dominant one in their lives. I get it; it would be much simpler for me just to speak to them in English.

It would avoid side-eye from people around us because I still talk to them in Spanish in public regardless of who we are with, or I wouldn't have to repeat myself so often because sometimes I use a new word they are not used to and need to go on a tangent to explain what I mean to them.

So far, my kids haven't pushed back on it. But I also don't make them speak to me in Spanish. They can choose whatever language to reply in. They know I understand both so I leave that option to them, knowing that they are still learning a lot just by hearing me speak.

As they grow older, I think I will send them to some formal Spanish class so they can learn to read and write in a second language at a time when their brains are like sponges absorbing everything.