Wow – time truly flies when you are having fun! Three years ago I was nervous, but most of all excited to push the Publish button for my first ever blog post. The liquorice mint tea and chocolates accompany me today as well (although the snow came earlier this year). 
Three years and about 150 blog posts later and I have more than reached my initial goals – my book “Bringing up a Bilingual Child” is out, my Family Language Coach colleagues and I are helping parents through our Q&A and I am coaching, training and giving talks on the topic. I have combined my knowledge about bilingual children, languages, coaching and training into one passion and made this my full-time occupation.
Multilingual Parenting has caught the attention of hundreds of thousands parents, teachers, childminders, linguists and other readers – the next big milestone is one million views! I love what I do and will continue writing and working with parents, educators and other professionals. Some exciting developments are underway, some of which are imminent, others you will find out about later in the year.
Very importantly, none of this would have been possible had it not been for you, my friend, so a huge THANK YOU for your support, for reading, commenting, liking, sharing and being part of my wonderful community. You keep me going.
As a small gesture of my gratitude, I will give away one copy … no, it has to be THREE signed copies of my book. All you have to do to be entered into the draw is to comment either here or on the Multilingual Parenting Facebook page before the end of January 2016. I would love to hear your thoughts about the site in your comment!
Looking forward to connecting with you soon again – lots of love to you from a slightly emotional, humbly thankful and ever so excited me, finishing with the usual…
Dear Rita,
I feel you are doing a truly great job, and very very useful for us, families of hopefully multilingual children!!!
I always read your blog and avery week look forward to reading the Q&A emails, which usually present problems of everyday life we all face. I think you are great!! thanks for helping, and please keep writing! best regards from rome, emilia
Thank you Emilia – with feedback like yours I definitely will keep writing 🙂
Rita
Hello Rita, Happy 3rd blog birthday! Keep on inspiring!
Congratulations, Maria Magdalena – you are one of the winners!
Please send me your postal address: rita [at] multilingualparenting [dot] com
YAY…. Thank you! I emailed you! 🙂
Hi Rita,
I think your blog is wonderful!
I have to admit to something though, and hopefully you can do a blog post on the subject…
TV, DVDs, and the Internet are primary reasons that my son is perfectly bilingual (French/English). I can even cite the main sources through the years (4-10)….
– Dora, Little Einsteins, Thomas the Train
– Ben Ten, Cartoon Network in general
– Star Wars – The Clone Wars (Seasons 1-4 on DVD)
– YouTube – videos of computer games…for his age of course!
Living in France, my son has always had a little (sometimes large…) dose of English, every day, from someone besides me via a screen of some sort. I am convinced that he is bilingual just as much from that as from me speaking to him.
What do you think of all that?
Thanks!
Steve
Hi Steve
Thank you for the idea for the blog post – I might well write about this!
TV, YouTube and the like can be excellent resources to support the language learning. However, research has shown that for a child to become an active bilingual (i.e. to both understand AND speak) a language, interaction with other speakers is necessary. So you should not in any way talk down your own part in the learning process. I am sure your son has learnt words and phrases as well as significantly improved her understanding of English through different media, but without you (and other English-speakers) he may well only have become a receptive bilingual (i.e. would understand, but would be reluctant to speak)
Cheers
Rita
Wow!!! Your posts never fail to inspire, this one included. I never realized what a big deal being a multicultural parent is until I started reading the posts on the MKB group. You guys are all such a blessing to me. 🙂
Happy 3rd year, and more power to your blog!
Hi Jackie – thank you for your comment 🙂 I will keep writing and hopefully inspiring parents to keep up with the task of raising bilingual kids!
I came here quite late, but its quite useful and certainly what I have been looking for..
Best wishes for 3 rd anniversary!
Thank you Samantha – let me know if there is anything you would like me to write about!
Thanks to you, Rita, for your relentless support of multilingual families.
Many more years of success for you and your team!
Lucia
Thank you, Lucia! I like the word ‘relentless’ … I will keep at it!
Happy anniversary!
I have actually just found out your site thanks to a post in an FB group, but I have already found interesting hints at a first look!
Thank you, Chiara! I am glad you find my blog!
Great job, really helpful for my bilingual little one!
Thank you, Theoni! Wishing you all the best with you little bilingual one 🙂 !
Congratulations & Gratulerer ! I have never commented before, but this blog is a great inspiration to all multilingual parents 😀
Takk, Hwaida! I hope to continue in the same style 🙂
Dear Rita,
I enjoy reading your posts and sharing them on the FB page that i run – https://www.facebook.com/MultilingualFamiliesBilingualParenting
I like practical and simple ideas that make big difference.
Congratulations on your 3 years of fun and joyful journey.
I can totally resonate with passion towards insights and knowledge about bilingualism.
Wishing you good luck and please keep us posted,
Thank you Zemfira Hanbury
Thank you, Zemfira, and best of luck with your local group!
Congratulations, what an achievement! You’ve accomplished so much in that time! You give really great advice as a professional expert and as a parent (and now grandparent!)
Thank you for your lovely comment, Leanna! I couldn’t have done it without all my readers and other supporting bloggers like you!
I have just discovered your website and am very excited about it, having been raised trilingual and having a one year old daughter who will hopefully be quadrilingual!
Thank you Benadette! Fantastic goal you have for your daughter (which is totally achievable) 🙂
Happy Third Anniversary ! I have just joined this group, but I am very excited! My husband is American and I am Romanian. We have 3 kids. It is hard for me to teach them Romanian, as I am the only one in the house speaking it, but I do my best.
Thank you Alice! If you search for the key word ‘minority language’ on the site you will find many posts that are relevant to your situation. Best of luck to you and your family!
Happy 3rd anniversary! I find your blog and newsletter really useful, thanks for all the work you’re putting into it! I love seeing my 3 year old realising there’s different languages for different people/places/situations and can’t wait for my baby to start talking.
Best of luck and keep going!
Thank you Tinika! I know exactly what you mean – it is fantastic and amazing to observe how kids progress with their languages.
I’ve just recently found your blog, and I’ve enjoyed learning some new ideas and renewing my enthusiasm for raising my children to be bilingual. Thank you!
Thank you, Katharine! I am glad that I have upped your motivation 🙂
All the articles as well as reading of all the other experiences are very helpful. Thank you! Happy 3rd anniversary !!!
Thank you Janin! I am happy to hear my posts are helpful for you!
Happy 3rd Anniversary! Such a wonderful resource for parents of multilingual children! It would be so great to have your book!
Thank you, Olga! I am sorry that you were not among the winners this time – there will be other opportunities!
Happy Anniversary! I’m very glad to have your FB page, I enjoy the support and guidance I give and get other parents raising their kids multi-lingually!
Thank you for the comment, Anne-Marie and thank you for being part of our community!
Happy anniversary! I admire your work and knowledge and come back to your website whenever I have any doubts about bringing up a trilingual child in a monolingual family (our location added one social language, and one official language).
Thank you!!
Thank you, Olga! I am so glad I can be of help – if you ever come looking for something and can’t find it, please let me know 🙂
Wow! Three years. I’m inspired. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Kamsin, I will!
Happy 3rd Birthday! Really like reading the newsletter. There is something that’s catches my eye every week:)
Thank you, Jolanta! I am glad you like the newsletter 🙂
Oi, hello, olá
I am reading about multilingual family. I am from Brazil living in the USA so my kids are leaning Portuguese and English. I believe it is so important teach kids new language. It is a “hard” to make the little one to talk so that’s why I am reading your blog . My husband teach Spanish and French at high school level and we are planning to teach the kids all language possible.
Love your blog and keep doing the good work.
Paula
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Paula! You are absolutely right about teaching the children their family’s languages as well as other languages if possible. It is such a great gift to them.
As an ESL educator you’re helping me provide resources and thousands of reasons to be PROUD for our families. Raising kids to be bilingual can be hard, but is a gift you give your kids. Thanks for all you do!!
Thank you so much, Jen! I really appreciate your comment as a teacher – and I could not agree with you more about the importance of being proud of your family languages!
Happy third anniversary ! It’s an inspirational blog.
Thank you, Angie!
THANK YOU everyone for your wonderful comments which I will respond to later today. I will make a poster of them for my wall – a glance on it will keep me going when I need a bit of a lift 🙂
The giveaway is now closed and the three winners will be announced here and on Facebook later today!
CONGRATULATIONS to the three winners,
Maria Magdalena (comment above)
Pauline (Facebook group)
Naomi (Facebook page)
As soon as I receive the postal addresses, I will post the signed copies of my book “Bringing up a Bilingual Child”. Please send mailing details to rita [at] multilingualparenting [dot]
Thank you everyone for the lovely feedback, it really means a lot to me!