Raising Bilingual Kids in Toronto: Spanish at Home

Raising a bilingual child in Toronto is easier than in most English-speaking cities, because Spanish is the fourth most common non-official language spoken at home here and growing, but the research is clear that it does not happen on its own. Children of Spanish-speaking parents in Canada almost always learn to understand the language; what they lose, usually by their teens, is the habit of speaking it. This guide uses the 2021 Census and Statistics Canada’s research on heritage-language transmission to explain where the risk is, which home approach works in an English city, and what a realistic Spanish routine looks like around a Toronto school week.

How many Toronto families speak Spanish at home?

In the 2021 Census, 46,355 Toronto residents reported Spanish as the language they speak most often at home, the fourth most common after Mandarin, Cantonese and Tagalog, and up 11.6 percent since 2016. A larger group, 78,575 people, gave Spanish as their mother tongue. Across Canada, 317,000 people spoke Spanish predominantly at home, a 20 percent rise in five years.

Not the Spanish-speaking parent? You can still make the language normal at home. Lessons at your home in the City of Toronto can include you and your child, 60 minutes at a time.

Those numbers come from the City of Toronto’s 2021 Census backgrounder on language and from Statistics Canada’s census release. The gap between them matters for parents: more than 78,000 Torontonians grew up with Spanish, but only about 46,000 still use it as their main language at home. The rest have switched, mostly to English, and their children hear Spanish as a background language rather than the one the family lives in. The backgrounder also notes that 44.9 percent of Toronto residents speak at least one non-official language at home, so a child who speaks Spanish at home is in the majority experience of the city, not an exception. That is the good news: a second language at pickup is normal in a Toronto school.

Why do second-generation kids lose Spanish?

Because the language of friends, school and screens wins unless the home pushes back. Statistics Canada’s study of Canadian-born children of immigrant parents found that 74 percent could hold a conversation in their parents’ language, but only 32 percent used it regularly in their own home as adults, and among those with children aged 3 to 17, just 11 percent said their youngest child could converse in the grandparents’ language.

The study, “Passing on the ancestral language” by Martin Turcotte, published in Canadian Social Trends in 2006 using the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, has one finding that should reassure Spanish-speaking parents and one that should worry them. The reassuring one: Spanish was among the languages most likely to be passed on. The predicted probability that a child of Spanish-speaking immigrant parents learned Spanish as a first language was 87 percent, and 94 percent could speak it, higher than for German, Dutch or Tagalog. The worrying one: the predicted probability that those same adults used Spanish most of the time at home was 36 percent. Understanding survives; everyday use does not.

Two factors stand out in the data. Whether both parents share the language makes a large difference: when they do, 68 percent of children learned it as a first language, against 49 percent when they do not. And whether the adult child’s spouse speaks it is decisive for the next generation: when the spouse does not, the probability of using the language at home drops to 18 percent. In Toronto terms, a Colombian mother married to an English-speaking father is the most common bilingual household, and it is exactly the one where the routine has to be deliberate. Our guide on learning Spanish for Latin American in-laws is written for the English-speaking partner in that family.

Research from Concordia University published in The Conversation adds a qualitative point: in the families it studied, what predicted a child’s command of the heritage language was not the number of speakers around them but whether they had deep, meaningful conversations in it. A few close relationships conducted in Spanish did more than many shallow ones.

Should you use one parent one language or Spanish only at home?

In an English city, Spanish only at home (minority language at home) protects the language better than one parent one language, because English arrives anyway from school, friends and screens. If only one parent speaks Spanish, one parent one language is the realistic version, and the Spanish-speaking parent should hold the line even when the child answers in English. The deciding factor is consistency, not the label.

Here is how the two approaches play out in a Toronto family. With minority language at home, both parents speak Spanish to the child and to each other, English is the language of outside, and the child typically starts kindergarten with stronger Spanish than English. Teachers sometimes worry at that point; the Ontario curriculum’s own guidance is that teachers should encourage parents to continue to use their own language at home in rich and varied ways, as a foundation for English literacy, not a threat to it. English catches up within a year or two of school. With one parent one language, the Spanish-speaking parent needs more hours than they think: a parent who gets home at six and speaks Spanish until bedtime is giving the child perhaps two hours a day against eight of English. The fix is not guilt but concentration: those two hours should be conversation, not screens, and the weekend should tip the balance back.

If you are the parent who does not speak Spanish, you do not have to learn it fluently to help, but you do have to make it normal. Learning alongside your child, even at A1, signals that the language has value in the house. Lessons at your home in the City of Toronto can include the parent and the child; see the at-home lessons page for how that works.

A weekly anchor with a native teacher makes Spanish a scheduled part of the week. Themed online packs for ages 6 to 14 start at CAD 190 for 5 hours; at-home lessons start from age 4 with a parent present.

Daily Spanish routines that survive a Toronto school week

Routines beat resolutions. These are the ones Toronto parents tell us actually last from September to June:

• Breakfast and the walk to school in Spanish. Twenty minutes, every day, before English takes over. Numbers, weather, what is in the lunch bag; our post on learning Spanish numbers has games for the walk.
• Bedtime books in Spanish only. Picture books for the little ones, chapter books read aloud for the older ones. We explain why in why you should read children’s books in Spanish, and our list of great books to improve your Spanish includes titles for teens.
• One weekly video call with family abroad, child in charge. Grandparents are the most motivated Spanish teachers a child will ever have. Let the child dial, lead and show things.
• Screens in Spanish or not at all. Change the audio language on films and games. The complaints stop within a week.
• A weekend activity where Spanish is the normal language. A market, a church, a dance class, a festival. See the next section.

The common mistake is responding in Spanish only when the child speaks Spanish. Keep speaking Spanish even when the answer comes back in English; comprehension stays alive, and speaking usually returns in the preteen years when the child decides it is useful, especially if they have a Spanish-speaking peer.

For families who want a weekly anchor with a teacher, the kids and teens page describes themed online packs for ages 6 to 14 taught live by native teachers, from CAD 190 for 5 hours, and at-home lessons from age 4 with a parent present. It is the simplest way to make Spanish a scheduled part of the week rather than a hope.

Where can your child hear Spanish outside the home in Toronto?

At school, through the International Languages programmes Ontario boards run, non-credit at elementary level and for credit in high school; at the library, where a Toronto Public Library card gives free Spanish learning tools; and at the city’s Latin festivals, from Hispanic Heritage Month in October to Día de Muertos at the start of November, where children hear the language used by other children.

The school route deserves its own article, and it has one: TDSB International Languages Spanish: a parent guide explains how to enrol and what the classes cover. The library route is in free Spanish resources for families at Toronto Public Library. The festival route is the most fun: our family guide to Día de Muertos in Toronto lists the free events and the words your children will hear at an ofrenda.

Peers matter more than programmes as children get older. A Spanish-speaking friend from a playgroup, a soccer team or a church makes the language social rather than parental, and that is what keeps teenagers speaking it. If your child has no Spanish-speaking peers by age nine or ten, that is the gap to fill first.

Key facts

• 46,355 Toronto residents spoke Spanish most often at home in 2021, fourth among non-official languages, up 11.6 percent since 2016; 78,575 reported Spanish as a mother tongue (City of Toronto 2021 Census backgrounder).
• 317,000 Canadians spoke Spanish predominantly at home in 2021, up 20 percent since 2016 (Statistics Canada).
• Children of Spanish-speaking immigrants: 87 percent predicted to learn Spanish as a first language, 94 percent able to speak it, 36 percent using it most of the time at home as adults (Statistics Canada, Canadian Social Trends 2006).
• When both parents share the language, 68 percent of children learn it first, versus 49 percent when they do not (same study).
• Vamos Academy Toronto: at-home lessons from age 4 with a parent present, 60 minutes, 10 hours CAD 700; online themed packs ages 6 to 14 from CAD 190 for 5 hours.

At what age can a child start structured Spanish?

From about four, if the lessons are short, playful and at home with a parent nearby; from six for live online classes, where a child can sit, follow a screen and talk to a teacher for a lesson. Before four, structure adds little: songs, books and conversation with a parent do the work. The age that matters more is nine or ten, when children decide whether Spanish is theirs.

Vamos Academy Toronto teaches children from age 4 at home in the City of Toronto, in 60-minute lessons with a parent at home, on the same packs as adult at-home lessons (10 hours CAD 700, 20 hours CAD 1,340), and online in themed packs for ages 6 to 14 from CAD 190 for 5 hours. All prices include HST, with no enrollment or materials fees. Parents who want to keep up with their children, or get ahead of them, can take the free six-minute level test first. Take the free level test, and compare every option on the pricing page.

Parents who want to keep up with their children, or get ahead of them, can take the free six-minute level test, no payment and no obligation.