FREE WEBINAR: How to Get Your Bilingual Child Eagerly Shouting Out the Minority Language (Literally!)

Get your child speaking the minority language more actively right now!

Downloads

Guest Post: My PhD Thesis on the Language Strategies of Bilingual Families

As I watch my British-Spanish daughters, now 14 and 12, chat away in English with their British relatives while on holiday in England, I look back at our bilingual journey and feel incredibly proud of what we have achieved. Born and raised in Madrid, Spain, our daughters were initially expected—by us and everyone around us—to become bilingual just by having a British father and a Spanish mother, with no extra effort on the side. However, as we know, “magic bilingualism” does not exist

Read More »

Can This Difficult Time Also Be an Opportunity for Your Family?

What a surreal six weeks since my last post. The swift, worldwide spread of the coronavirus has abruptly upended the lives we had grown so accustomed to living—and has even stirred deep pangs of existential anxiety about survival itself. (Full disclosure: I have a congenital heart condition—which I only found out about two years ago—and though I’m still reasonably healthy, this probably puts me at a higher risk of more serious illness.) Still, as trying as this time is, in

Read More »

Try This Really Fun and Effective Activity with an Early-Reading Child or Language Learner

Over the years, I’ve amassed big piles of papers that hold teaching materials, creative writing, and ideas for future blog posts, books, and other projects. From time to time I’ll sift through these piles in an attempt to file the papers I want to keep and discard the ones I no longer need. But the truth is, I never seem to get all the way to the bottom of these stacks and so the piles begin rising again as I

Read More »

45 Key Questions Every Parent Raising a Bilingual Child Should Ask

1. What are the benefits, to your mind, in raising a bilingual child? For the child? For you? For your family, near and far? For others? For the world? (Perspective 2 and Perspective 30) 2. How strongly do you believe that your actions each day—even your small actions—make an important difference to the larger success of your bilingual quest? (Perspective 3) 3. Which of your current circumstances are favorable for your success? Which circumstances are less favorable? How will you

Read More »

22 Funny Tongue Twisters for Kids (And Why Tongue Twisters Are Terrific for Language Development)

Hardly a week goes by that I don’t challenge my kids to repeat a tongue twister that emerges naturally from our interactions. The truth is, because tongue twisters are such a fun and effective form of engagement in the target language, my ears are continuously pricked for this opportunity. Two examples, one older and one more recent… 1. When my son entered first grade, he chose a black backpack for school. Of course, it was hard to overlook the wonderful

Read More »

Free E-Book for Parents Raising Bilingual Children from Adam Beck, the Founder of Bilingual Monkeys and The Bilingual Zoo

In spring 2014, I released the e-book Instant Inspiration for Parents Raising Bilingual Kids. The response to this unique resource was very positive and I’m so thankful to all those who made a contribution, in exchange for the e-book, to help support my work at Bilingual Monkeys and The Bilingual Zoo. As promised, 100% of these funds have gone toward maintaining and enhancing these two websites. Meanwhile, I’ve also heard from some parents who wanted a copy of the e-book

Read More »

The Ultimate Crossword Puzzle About Raising Bilingual Kids!

I made a crossword puzzle for you! Feel free to download it for personal or professional use. And if you like it, please share it with others. I think it’s the only crossword puzzle of its kind! To get the two-page PDF file, just click this big link… The Ultimate Crossword Puzzle About Raising Bilingual Kids! (PDF) To check your answers, click this link… ANSWERS to The Ultimate Crossword Puzzle About Raising Bilingual Kids! Good luck! And if you complete

Read More »

The 12 Days of Christmas for Raising Bilingual Kids

I have a little gift for you… My kids singing (and screaming) “The 12 Days of Christmas for Raising Bilingual Kids”! It starts a little slow (Lulu was monkeying around), but they get better (and louder) as the song goes on. We hope you like it! And if you do, please let us know, and share the link with others! You’d make Lulu (10) and Roy (7) very happy! (Your positive feedback will also encourage me to start using more

Read More »

The Funniest Activity I’ve Ever Done with My Bilingual Kids and Students

This might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s honestly not: the activity I’ll share with you today often gets my bilingual kids and students laughing like mad chipmunks. And it hits the funny bone of a wide range of ages, too, from first graders to teens. (I’ve even done this activity when I was teaching at local universities, and these college students learning English as a second language—who were normally so shy and passive—would soon be seized by fits of

Read More »
Free-webinar-BZ-post
CLICK TO WATCH THIS FREE, ON-DEMAND WEBINAR WITH ADAM BECK!