Category: Blog

Shannon Kelly from the Cultured Kid has interviewed 10 experts in raising bilingual children and asked them for tips.

We proudly contributed by offering the following advice:

“When deciding to raise your children in multilingual environment have a clear objective.

Are you happy with a passive bilingual or do you wish your child to be bi-literate? Whatever your goal is, you will require resources, time, ways to find exposure.”

You can download the full article by using the below link.

https://www.theculturedkid.com/p/expert-interviews-pdf

Shannon also offers French and Spanish language programs for preschoolers. They are so well designed that you do not need to language yourself to teach your child. You will find more information on www.theculturedkid.com

 

 

Happy World Read Aloud Day!

What special book are you reading to or with your children today?

We do a lot of reading at home, my children are too young to read by themselves but they love books. Today we are sharing a few tips to make reading a book more fun!

• Make it fun! Use different voices, exaggerate reactions, do not be afraid to play silly.
• Ask questions about the pictures, the story. Can you guess what is going to happen next? What would you done differently?
• Ask them to describe what they see, can they guess the story?
• Make ‘mistakes’. If your children are like mine they like correcting me when I change something in the story, unless we agreed to all change something.
• All the above is even more important when you have been reading the same book for the 10th in a row. Repetition is their way to learn and they are registering different elements of the story at every reading.
• Read a bout things they like, pirates, dinosaurs, fairies, knights, cars, animals, other cultures…
• Never stop reading to your child even when they learn to read by themselves.
• Keep reading, the more they see you read the more they want to do it.

If you are a multicultural family, think about bilingual books. They are a great resources as both parents can read in their language. Children get to learn new words in both languages.

Let’s read, read, read!

Happy Multicultural children book day

When you are passing on your language to your children, it is not just about words, but about stories, culture, food, a special bond…
You are raising open-minded children who will see the world with more tolerance and will embrace other cultures more easily.
You are bringing down barriers and raising global citizens.

Here are a few resources to assist you with the language teaching:

First hundred words in Japanese

First Italian words
Il mio primo vocabolario

First Chinese words

My first book of Vietnamese words

First hundred words in Russian

Bilingual dictionary English-Portuguese

Learn a language (DVD with 6 languages)

Sing and Learn German

Mijn eerste 100 woorden

My big barefoot book of English-Spanish words
Oxford Children’s visual dictionary
Sing and learn Spanish
Spanish-English picture dictionary
First words Spanish

My big barefoot book of English – French words
French-English picture dictionary
First words English-French
First words French

Happy reading!

Back to school!

In a fortnight children in Australia will start the school new year.
It is a very exciting time in our household as our son is going to pre-primary and our daughter is starting kindy.
Everyone is excited!

We have resources in several languages that will help you prepare for the big day.

Many more here.

Are you organising a Secret Santa or a Kris Kringle in your playgroup or mother group this year.

Give the gift of imagination, here are our suggestions of children language books for $12 or less.

Happy holidays!

 

 

This winter we holidayed in Europe and we had a fantastic time. My children (3 and 4) loved it as much as we did.

We spent some time with my family in Paris and it was amazing to see Paris through my children’s eyes.

We had so much fun that we decided to share a few tips with you. Our post was published on the cultured kid’s blog.

Click on the below link for the full article.

https://www.theculturedkid.com.au/blog/ultimate-paris-kids-guide/

THE ULTIMATE ‘PARIS WITH KIDS’ GUIDE

“It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a child to inspire a village”, Emma Mactaggart

Today we are celebrating ‘International Read to me Day”, this is an international campaign to empower and encourage children to be more proactive in their own literacy by asking the adults surrounding them to read to them and how important it is to be read regularly.

Let’s read every day to our children even when they already know how to read. Let’s share activities that promote literacy and the love of reading.

“No matter what else we tested for the results show that being read to remains an important factor that is not explained away by other factors such as the parents’ education. Children of 4 – 5 years old who are read to 3-4 times a week have reading ages 6 months ahead of children read to once or twice a week. Reading to children nearly every day almost doubles their progress to one year ahead of the group.”

Professor Guyonne Kalb of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research 

So what are you going to read to your child today?