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A Powerful Perspective on Raising Bilingual Children: The Great “Iceberg” of Bilingualism

September 27, 2016

My son is 9 and the other day I gave him a simple writing task, as part of our daily homework routine, to help stretch his ability in English, our minority language. But as it turns out, I found the results quite revealing in terms of our entire bilingual journey together. The simple task involved making a list of things of a certain color; in this case, a list of 10 things that are black. That was all. I offered

7 Things My Kids Like About Me

June 14, 2016

Last Wednesday was my birthday. In hamster years, I’m now 1080. In human time, though, I turned 54. As the years continue to hurtle past, my birthdays, I admit, are starting to get me a bit down. When I look back, it feels like I’ve done quite a lot in my lifetime…but I also wonder how much of this activity has really been of significance. I guess I was seeking some confirmation of my worth in the world when I

The “Home Run Book”: A Key Idea for Promoting a Child’s Language Development

September 2, 2015

One of the recurrent themes of this blog has been my ongoing quest to inspire my bilingual daughter, now 11, to read more frequently in English, her minority language. Although it’s true that her free time is limited, due to long days at our local Japanese elementary school and heavy loads of homework, the deeper challenge is that she simply isn’t, by nature, as hungry a bookworm as her 8-year-old brother. Still, because I adamantly believe that children who read

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

August 5, 2015

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

VIDEO: Adam Beck Goes Bonkers in Interview, Reveals “Crazy Secret” for Bilingual Success

May 5, 2015

I’ve written a lot of words at this blog about raising bilingual children. But I think this short video of me being interviewed by my kids will demonstrate, better than words ever could, the important sense of playfulness that I’ve described in Be Very Serious. Be Very Playful. The Bilingual Journey Demands Both. and other posts. I hesitate to call this a “method” because it’s simply my nature when I’m around kids. At the same time, I’m quite conscious of

50 Activities with Animals to Engage Your Bilingual Kids in the Minority Language

March 18, 2015

I suppose you’ve noticed: Animals often appear in my posts, and I’m not just talking about my two monkeys. In fact, in my last post, Adam’s Fables for Raising Bilingual Kids, I used animals to create little analogies about issues involving bilingualism and children. I even made an earlier post, called Bilingual Kids and the Animal Kingdom, where I shared my life-long love of animals and offered a list of links to many of the posts where animals make an

Do This One Simple Thing and I Guarantee You Greater Success On Your Bilingual Journey

March 4, 2015

Last year I wrote a post titled Want to Supercharge Your Success at Raising Bilingual Children? and mentioned a special project that I called “a game changer for parents who are serious about raising bilingual kids, but want to get even more serious—and more successful—at this challenge.” Although I didn’t reveal full details of the project then, and I finally set it aside—at least for the time being—when I ran into some technical issues and other considerations, I wanted to

Secrets of a Successful Homework Routine, Part 2

August 20, 2014

Eighteen months ago, when my kids were 8 and 5, I offered a detailed look at our daily homework routine in the minority language, which began (gently) when they were around the age of 3. In that post—Secrets of a Successful Homework Routine, Part 1—I discuss the value of a homework routine for nurturing literacy and overall language development, and I provide a range of strategies and resources that I’ve found useful to my own efforts. (Many of these resources,

Are Your Bilingual Kids Writing Letters in the Minority Language?

May 14, 2014

I’ll admit it: my kids have a love-hate relationship with writing letters. They love receiving them, but they hate writing them. I wish this wasn’t the case—it would make my life a lot easier if I didn’t have to expend so much energy getting them to produce these letters for grandparents and others—but I suppose it isn’t realistic to think that the average child under the age of ten would be any more enthusiastic about it. I mean, they love

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

March 5, 2014

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

A Bilingual Child’s Christmas List

December 17, 2013

Here’s my 6-year-old son’s Christmas list for this year… (Please share this with the world—it would make him very happy!)

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

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