Travelling With Kids | A Part of Vlogging Telephone by Multicultural Kids Blogs

We like to travel as a family. We had all sort of trips: from 1 day long to 5 month long. In terms of language immersion nothing beats a trip to the homeland of your minority language. But local trips can also bring a tremendous value to your child's language. Simply because he or she gets unlimited access to you, a provider of a minority language. That's what I discovered when last summer we took a road … [Read more...]

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001: What Can Monolingual Family Members Do to Take Part in a Child’s Bilingualism

Listen to the audio in support of this article. I invited a very experienced monolingual parent to give us an advice! In our family I am the bilingual parent, who on the daily basis teaches kids Russian and Ukrainian, our minority languages. My husband does not speak these languages (well, he knows couple hundred words, especially useful around kids like brush teeth, time to eat and go potty:). But I … [Read more...]

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Should Parents Push Children to Use Minority Language?

One of the most common pieces of advice in bilingual child-raising is don't push your children. You don't want them to associate acquiring  their second language with hard work, or worse, with punishment. Using both languages should be as positive of an experience as you can make it. However, as my husband has said many times, children are like water: they follow the path of least resistance. Since … [Read more...]

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How to Foster Children’s Pride in Their Minority Culture and Language

One of the best ways to help your children become bilingual is to create incentives. If they associate a second language with good things, they're much more likely to acquire it. Bilingualism has a number of unique advantages you can point out to your children. Many are practical: being able to travel with greater ease, for example, or conversing with monolingual relatives who use the child's … [Read more...]

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Three Languages Too Much For a Baby?

This is the question that came from our reader! I made a video to answer it. Question: Hi Olena!  We have a 6 month old boy. I'm Portuguese and father Belgium from the dutch part. So we speak Portuguese at home ( me with baby, me with papa) and dutch (papa with baby). In October baby will start the creche {daycare} in french. Isn't it to much in a row? Should we be afraid he will lose one of the … [Read more...]

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How Much Does Raising a Bilingual Child Cost?

Raising your child to be bilingual takes a lot of extra effort. Most parents know that -- or they find out very quickly! But there is also additional expense to keep in mind, as well as additional effort. Does that mean it's a bad idea? Of course not. Helping your child to become proficient at any skill costs a little extra money, whether it's a second language, an athletic skill, a musical talent, … [Read more...]

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