It's Never Too Early to Learn to Say 'Hola'

When María Giraldo Greene rolls out La Caja de Sorpresas (the surprise box), all eyes are fixed on her. The box can hold any number of wonders, from pompoms to puppets. In this brightly lit classroom at Mount Olivet Methodist Church in Arlington that is home to ¡Hola Baby!, Greene's Spanish immersion program for children, La Caja de Sorpresas holds the key to the day's lesson. Children and parents are transfixed in anticipation of the big reveal, even though some of the children are barely a year old.

Just because a child can't verbalize doesn't mean he or she is too young to learn a language or two. So thought Greene, 34, after the birth of her first child in 2004. But when she looked for a Spanish-language program for toddlers among the plethora of Mommy-and-Me groups, she found nothing that suited her bilingual ambitions. That inspired her to begin ¡Hola Baby! in 2005. What Greene started at her parents' house with five children younger than 1 has grown into a full-fledged phenomenon with up to 75 children enrolled in each session.

Greene was raised in McLean by her Hispanic parents, and Spanish was the language spoken in their house. When Greene married a non-Spanish speaker, she saw that a piece of the cultural identity she wanted to pass on to her children was in danger of disappearing.

"For me it was imperative that I maintain the Spanish language in our household," she says. "It's so much a part of who I am . . . that I felt I had to impart it on my children."

This was more challenging than she expected. At home, she and her husband, David, primarily spoke English. Greene would speak to her son and daughter in Spanish whenever she could, but trying to maintain the language while dealing with her other parenting responsibilities was overwhelming.

"I wanted them to know it as a language that's not just spoken with Mom or with the grandparents, that it's a functional language you can speak to your peers," she says. "I felt the earlier I could put [my daughter] into a situation where she was socializing in Spanish, the better, and the more likely it was that she would accept it."

Greene had no formal teaching experience, though she had been a Spanish tutor and an English-as-a-second-language instructor. What she did have was a passion for children and for Spanish. Fueled by word of mouth, online discussion groups, fliers and Greene's contagious enthusiasm, ¡Hola Baby! grew quickly.

Deborah Selmonosky, a 41-year-old stay-at-home mom in Falls Church, has a similar story to Greene's. The child of Argentine parents, Selmonosky and her husband, BG Jones, wanted their daughter, Gabriela, to be raised knowing Spanish and to hear it from people outside the family. Gabriela, now 4, entered ¡Hola Baby! when she was 2 1/2 . At the time, it was the only program of its kind Selmonosky could find.

"She is surrounded by English, so it's very easy [for her] to say, 'Hey, everyone's speaking English. Why do I have to speak Spanish?' " Selmonosky says. "Being in that environment where she sees other children and interaction between the teacher and other children all in Spanish helps her understand there are people outside the family circle who speak Spanish and that it's cool."

"In light of all of the ongoing concerns about Spanish speakers in our world, it is nothing but a good thing to expose your children to another language," Selmonosky adds. "It doesn't have to be Spanish, but to allow your children to be exposed to different languages opens their eyes."

Many other parents, such as Karen Thompson, 32, have no Spanish skills. Until the family moved to Arlington a year ago, the stay-at-home mom drove nearly two hours from Waldorf just so daughter Ivy, now 3, could attend ¡Hola Baby! Thompson wanted Ivy to learn when it was easier for her to absorb the knowledge, rather than struggle as she and her husband did when they learned in high school and college.

"I don't think there's a field out there right now that if you can speak Spanish you don't have more advancement and salary opportunities," Thompson says. Plus, "we plan to take her to Spain in a couple of years, and she will be able to go places and really get the most out of the culture."