Question Good day, I am a German native living in South Africa. My husband is South African and speaks to my 3-year-old son English and the local language isiSetswana. I solely speak German to him. Since he goes to an English creche, English is his main...
reading
Q&A: Is it normal for a bilingual toddler to go silent?
Question Hello! My husband and I are Spanish living in Ireland. My toddler just is two years of age and goes to crèche three days a week three hours per day. We use Spanish all the time with him and let English language to come bit by bit trough his experiences...
15 books for parents and educators of bilingual children
Holidays are a great time for catching up on reading books! You probably have a long list that you would like to enjoy, but in case you are looking for something on bilingual children, I have prepared a list of books from my own library, which I can all warmly...
Q&A: What are the milestones of normal language development for a bilingual 2-year-old?
Question Hi, Before I ask for your advice, let me introduce my family and our languages to you. We are a Dutch (mum) - English (dad) family currently living in The Netherlands. We have a 5-year-old daughter and a 22-month-old son. We use an adapted version of OPOL...
Q&A: Does reading to a child in a third language work with OPOL?
Question Hi there, I've found your website really helpful. Thank you very much for sharing all that info! I would like to ask for a bit of guidance. I am Spanish (fluent in French and English) and my husband is French (English fluent and good level of Spanish). We...
Q&A: Literacy for a bilingual child: How to teach reading in similar languages?
Questions Hello, I have been recently thinking how and when to teach my girl letters / reading. I find it a little bit difficult or think that it can be confusing for my girl. My girl is Polish / English bilingual kid. For example English word: Octopus. Letter: "O" in...
Reading with the multicultural child [guest post]
It's a great joy and honour to have Katey Howes join my blog as a guest today! Katey is a mom of three, children’s author and literacy advocate who blogs about raising kids who love to read at Kateywrites. Katey is a native English speaker who studied in Madrid, and...
Q&A: When to start teaching a trilingual child to read in the 2nd and 3rd languages?
Question Hello, first I would like to thank you because your web help us a lot. Our situation is the following: I am Spanish, my husband is Catalan and we have a daughter of 2.5 years old. We live in China since she was 6 months old. She goes to a Chinese...
From the diary of a bilingual mother, part 12
Our fictional multilingual family is back from their holidays and are facing the daily routines. What has happened this week? Monday What a lovely summer we had! First we spent two weeks back at home in my old stomping grounds and then the in-laws came to visit for...
6 principles for promoting language development through books [guest post]
I am delighted to have Marianna Du Bosq from Bilingual Avenue write today's guest post about the importance of books in supporting children's language development. Marianna has taught dual language learners for several years and is one of our Family Language Coaches....