Question Hi! What do you recommend doing when your bilingual child is refusing to choose the minority language as a subject in High School? My daughter says she can speak it and doesn’t want to start with the basics and would hate the other pupils asking her for...
Teenagers
Multilingual Parenting: Top 10 posts of 2015 for parents of bilingual children
The countdown to year 2016 has started, so let's look at the year which is coming to an end - here are the top posts of 2015, starting with number 10: 10. Passing on a non-native language to your child, part 1: Considerations Part 2 of this series is on choosing the...
21 tips throughout a bilingual child’s life
"Practical ideas on what to do" is the request I often get when I ask my readers what I should write about in my blog - so here are 21 of them to cover the different stages! Before your baby is born 1. Get used to speaking your language with your child as early as...
Passing on a non-native language to your child, part 3: Activities
The third part in my series on teaching your child a non-native language is all about different language-learning activities that you can do with your kid. So far in the series I have written about the things you need to take into consideration before embarking on...
Bilingual children and long-distance family relationships
Many bilingual children have at least one side of their extended family living fairly far away, often on the “other side of the world”. Visits are possible perhaps only once a year, or even more seldom if at all, so it is essential to find other ways to connect....
Q&A: Is it too late to teach my children my native language?
Question Hello, I am so glad I found this website, I just realized I did a big disservice to my kids. I am Italian, live in the States, my husband is American, both of our kids were born and raised here, I have lived here for 12 years now. In the beginning I was...
Q&A: Teaching a possibly dyslexic child to read and write in the minority language.
Question I am a Swedish national living in the UK with my husband and 10-year-old daughter. The main language we speak at home is English, and Swedish is the minority language. My husband does not speak Swedish, whereas our daughter speaks it more or less fluently,...
Guest post: Social media platforms and apps for bilingual older children and teens
It gives me great pleasure to welcome today's guest blogger, Amy Williams, a free-lance journalist based in Southern California and mother of two. As a parent, Amy enjoys spreading the word on positive parenting techniques in the digital age and raising awareness on...
4 reasons why your bilingual child answers in the “wrong” language
Getting an answer in the "wrong" language is something which especially minority language parents dread, and which gives rise to question such as: – Is it the start of a slippery slope which may end in the majority language taking over as the language of communication...
Resources for multilingual families, part 1
Finding resources to support your child’s language development is something most parents of future bilinguals find themselves doing on a regular basis. It is also the question which is most frequently asked in parents’ forums. Therefore I have decided to start a...