FREE RESOURCES FOR PARENTS RAISING BILINGUAL KIDS

Toddlers

Guest Post: The Power of Plush: How Stuffed Toys Boost a Child’s Bilingual Ability

In just a couple of weeks, my son will celebrate his fourth birthday. The realisation that he has transitioned from toddler to child is astounding on its own, but it also marks another significant milestone: four years of communicating exclusively with him in my non-native language, Italian. Throughout this time, I’m fairly certain I’ve only spoken to him in my native language, English, a handful of times

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Maintain This Key Mindset for Bilingual Success (And That Wasn’t Me Asking My Daughter for Cigarettes)

Last month my daughter was 6. Next month she’ll be 19. Now, factually, I know this isn’t true, but it certainly feels that way. As mindful as I tried to be when it came to the passing of time, day by day, in the end my kids have still grown into young adults much faster than I ever imagined. Today let me emphasize this key idea by sharing a few journal entries from a little 6-year-old girl

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What NOT to Do When You’re Struggling to Raise a Bilingual Child

Over the many years I’ve been working with bilingual and multilingual families, I’ve sought to support parents with ideas and encouragement for maintaining momentum and overcoming difficulties. Through a range of ways—through this blog, through my forum, through my books, through email and social media, through workshops and consulting sessions, and now through my new private coaching program

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This Could Be Your Child’s Favorite Gift for Christmas This Year

“Bearded Dragon, Home Alone” is perfect for parents raising bilingual or multilingual kids because the fun-filled story is conveyed through the pictures alone, which means you can share the book with your children in any language you like! What’s more, you can also tailor the telling of the story to your child’s age and ability, whether in a more simple or more sophisticated way—and have the child tell the story to you, too! This means that the book

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Forget Fluency! Instead, Make This Your Goal When Raising Bilingual Kids.

This year my daughter, now 18, has taken two English proficiency tests. (English is her minority language; Japanese is her majority language.) The first was the highest level of the EIKEN seven-level test, which is widely used in Japan and is essentially a pass-or-fail sort of exam. And the second test, because she’s now applying to university programs in Japan that emphasize English, was the TOEFL

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Bilingual Success Stories #7: Non-Native Parents of English Raise Actively English-Speaking Kids

The bilingual journey of this Spanish family is an encouraging example, in a number of ways, of non-native parents nurturing early success. It shows that, despite being non-native speakers of the target language who acknowledge shortcomings in their own language skills, Cristina and Pedro have nevertheless been able to generate significant progress in their children’s bilingual ability through their attitude and actions. And even when faced with difficulties along the way

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