Spanish with Dominique

09/05/2026

The 4th trimester

08/26/2026

Reflections on mommy-ing

08/14/2026

There are a lot of pieces to ELÉVATE on purpose.

You don’t have to do all of them.

Some weeks you might have time to do most of the reading and record your response to the personal connection question.

Other weeks, you might listen to the audiobook, skim the Story Snapshot, send your voice recording, and call it a win.

What’s most important is that you spend time on the pieces that challenge you and interest you the most.

The goal isn’t to perfectly complete a 12-week program.

It’s to spend 12 weeks immersed in Spanish …. reading it, listening to it, noticing it, thinking about it, and actually using it, as much or as little as you can.

📚 This session we’re reading El Invencible Verano de Liliana by Cristina Rivera Garza.

📅 September 1 – November 20

Comment BOOK below or check the link in my bio to register.

08/12/2026

You know a lot of Spanish but now you just need more opportunities to actually USE it.

I think this is one of the hardest parts about reaching the intermediate level.

You've spent so much time building your vocabulary, learning different verb tenses, figuring out when to use the subjunctive, working through tricky grammar concepts, and trying to get more comfortable speaking Spanish.

But eventually, you reach a point where simply doing more exercises or having more conversations isn't enough to keep pushing you forward.

You need practice that’s more INTENTIONAL — opportunities to stretch your Spanish and bring everything you've learned together.

To read something that wasn't specifically written for Spanish students.

To see grammar you've studied show up out in the wild.

To discover new vocabulary because you actually need it to understand or express something.

To take an idea and figure out how you want to say it in Spanish — even if you need a minute to think first.

That's what ELÉVATE is really about:

Putting all that Spanish you've worked so hard to learn into practice!

📚 Book: This session we're reading El Invencible Verano de Liliana by Cristina Rivera Garza

📅 Dates: September 1 – November 20

🎉 Enroll by August 15 and save $100 when you pay in full.

Visit https://spanishwithdominique.com/elevate-signup to register.

08/06/2026

Can a book club actually help you speak Spanish better?

That’s exactly what Erika was wondering before joining the ELÉVATE Spanish Book Immersion Program.

What she discovered was that reading a book written for native speakers, reflecting on it, and responding to weekly prompts gave her the time and space to develop her Spanish in a way that made speaking feel much more natural.

Instead of trying to come up with everything on the spot, she was building vocabulary, noticing new expressions, and organizing her thoughts before speaking.

By the end of the program, she noticed a huge difference in both her confidence and her ability to communicate in Spanish.

Inside ELÉVATE, we practice speaking in two ways:

💬 Weekly Personal Connection Speaking Prompts

Each week you’ll record a short voice message connecting the story to your own life. It’s a low-pressure way to practice expressing yourself in Spanish while receiving personalized feedback.

🗣️ Three Live Group Sessions

In Weeks 4, 8, and 12, we’ll come together to discuss the book entirely in Spanish. You’re always welcome to participate as much or as little as you’d like. Listening is learning, too.

📅 We start September 1st.

🎉 Enroll by August 15th and save $100 when you pay in full.

Visit https://spanishwithdominique.com/elevate-signup to join!

07/31/2026

Most intermediate Spanish learners wait too long before reading their first real book.

I still remember the first time I opened a Spanish chapter book.

(Not one written for learners … one written for Spanish actual speakers)

I was completely overwhelmed.

There were so many words I didn’t know, grammar I’d never seen before, and I seriously considered putting it down and going back to my leveled readers.

But my teacher encouraged me to keep going.

And you know what happened next? It got easier, A LOT easier. Enjoyable, actually!

I stopped freaking out about words or phrases I didn’t know and began using context clues to get the gist of the story.

I became much more comfortable with ambiguity, and reading in Spanish stopped feeling so intimidating.

That experience completely changed the way I teach Spanish today and that’s why I created ELÉVATE.

Over 12 weeks, we’ll read an authentic Spanish chapter book together while I guide you through vocabulary, grammar, speaking practice, and reflection so you can experience that same transformation, with plenty of support along the way.

This session, we’ll be reading El Invencible Verano de Liliana, where Cristina Rivera Garza reconstructs the life of her younger sister, Liliana, who was murdered in 1990. Through letters, diaries, interviews, and official records, she pieces together Liliana’s story while exploring memory, grief, and the long search for truth and justice.

📅 We start September 1st.

🎉 Enroll by August 15th and save $100 when you pay in full.

If you’ve finished the grammar courses but still haven’t found a way to bring everything together, this program was created for you.

Comment BOOK below or visit https://spanishwithdominique.com/elevate-signup for all the details.

06/04/2026

Postpartum is a wild ride 🌊

On the one hand you’re supposed to be resting and healing from one of the most physically altering things your body has ever gone through.

You feel like you’re leaking from every or***ce 🫠

Minuscule muscles you didn’t even know you had ache all around your pelvis.

Your neck aches. Your back aches.

Sometimes you get up a little too fast and feel like you got punched in the stomach because your body is still healing an open wound where an entire organ used to be 😧

And then on the other hand, your body is now supposed to produce enough food to keep a little human alive! (as well as yourself)

There’s little space to martyr yourself for your kid.

Because the minute you start skipping meals,
or forgetting to hydrate
or just skipping those naps,
your body tells you NOPE!
and you’re milk supply tanks 👎

So there’s really no “pushing through” in postpartum.

You are obligated by nature to take care of yourself.

And so, how does anything get done?

Well #1, having an active and involved father (I’m so eternally grateful that Enrique has such generous paternity leave).

And #2, all the help family and money can buy! (Thanks mom for cooking round the clock and filling our freezer with home-cooked meals 🙏)

And the sister-duo cleaning team who’s been alternating the housework, a serious life saver 🛟

They say it takes a village and oh boy were they right.

We were not meant to raise our baby humans in solitude.

We were meant to raise them with lots and lots of helping, supportive, loving hands 🫶🏼🌎

[Photo from our first official outing with baby to have lunch in Wimberley. I’m sitting in the front entry way right next to the hostess station 😅 because it was the coolest place in the restaurant to feed little man.]

05/26/2026

Living in our little newborn bubble 🫧

Adrian (Adi for short) couldn’t wait to meet us. He made his grand entrance at 39 weeks in a spotnanours 8-hour labor and just 9 pushes!

And he is just about the sweetest thing ever 🥹 - there is nothing better in this world than his newborn coos and his delicious newborn smell.

Breastfeeding has been a learning curve for both mama and baby but I think we are finally getting the hang of it.

We had a scare over the weekend that landed us at Dell Children’s Hospital 💔 but we were able to get him on antibiotics to clear up the infection. He was such a trooper through it all!

My postpartum journey has been up and down, but mostly up. Sunshine, short walks with the dogs and getting a few hours to myself outside of the house helps a lot.

I’ve got the dream team around me right now with Enrique and my mom who are all stepping up to love on this sweet boy every moment that I can’t - plus cooking and cleaning and checking in on me.

It’s so true what they say that having a child is like having your heart walking around outside your body. I’m so in love with my little family ❤️

P.S. We’ve decided that won’t be sharing any photos of little man’s face (the internet is a weird place right now). BUT, I’ll confirm that he looks just like his daddy 😉

——

ESPAÑOL

En nuestra burbujita de recién nacido 🫧

Adrián (Adi de cariño) ya tenía muchísimas ganas de conocernos. Llegó al mundo a las 39 semanas después de un parto espontáneo de solo 8 horas… ¡y apenas 9 pujidos!

Y de verdad Adi es lo más dulce del mundo 🥹 No hay nada mejor que sus soniditos de recién nacido y ese olorcito delicioso a bebé.

Dar el pecho ha sido todo un proceso de aprendizaje tanto para mamá como para bebé, pero siento que por fin le estamos agarrando la onda.

Este fin de semana nos llevamos un gran susto y terminamos en el Dell Children’s Hospital 💔 pero por suerte pudieron darle antibióticos para tratar la infección. ¡Todo un campeón nuestro chiquito!

Mi recuperación posparto ha tenido sus días buenos y difíciles, aunque la mayoría han sido buenos. El sol, salir a caminar un ratito con las perritas y tener aunque sea unas horas para mí fuera de casa me ayuda muchísimo.

Ahorita tengo al mejor equipo a mi lado: Enrique y mi mamá se han desvivido por consentir y cuidar a este niño hermoso cada segundo que yo no puedo, además de cocinar, limpiar y estar siempre pendientes de mí.

Es cierto eso de que tener un hijo es como tener el corazón caminando fuera de tu cuerpo. Estoy profundamente enamorada de mi pequeña familia ❤️

P.D. Decidimos que no vamos a compartir fotos de la carita del pequeñín (el internet está muy raro hoy en día 😅). Pero sí les puedo confirmar que salió igualito a su papá 😉

05/12/2026

There’s so much good Spanish content on YouTube right now.

But depending on your level, watching neverending videos is probably not moving you forward in the way you think it is.

What I’ve noticed is this:

Beginners can make a lot of progress with YouTube as long as they have some structure alongside it

Intermediate learners get the most value from it but also fall into the biggest trap if they aren’t careful

And advanced learners? Most of them have already outgrown it without realizing it

That middle stage is where people tend to get stuck the longest. Because they end up spending a lot of time just consuming instead of building the skills that lead to fluency.

So I sat down and put together a comprehensive guide for you.

Not just a list of channels but an honest breakdown of how to think about YouTube at each stage, and what to do instead (or alongside it) so you actually keep progressing.

You can read it here 👇🏼

The best YouTube channels to learn Spanish in 2026, recommended by a Spanish coach. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced resources, plus what to watch on Netflix when YouTube isn't enough.

05/11/2026

First Mother’s Day ♥️(well, sort-of)

I wasn’t planning to celebrate today.

I almost feel undeserving of the title because I haven’t been in the “thick” of motherhood yet

… almost like I haven’t “paid my dues.”

But so many people stopped to wish me a happy Mother’s Day 🥹 (the current size of my belly is hard to miss!)

And Enrique gave me the sweetest card 🥹

Then it got me thinking…

I feel baby boy kicking all day (and all night!) long.

He’s there…

and I’m thinking about him…

worrying about him…

putting him first.

And I just love him to pieces already.

It’s been that way since the moment I found out I was pregnant.

And so, I think that makes me a mama ♥️

even if he’s not earth side yet.