Linguistic Leaps Since my last post, my daughter’s language has taken a huge leap. I don’t plan to provide quarterly updates on her language development, but so much has changed in the last 3 months that I felt compelled to share again. Almost everything I wrote about the
The Linguistic Quirks of a Spanish-Speaking Toddler The last time I wrote about raising my baby in my second language, Spanish, she was only 2 months old. I can’t believe that in just a few weeks she will be 2 YEARS old!! By age 1 she had many one-syllable words, and by 15 month
Is it Possible to Raise Children in Your Non-Dominant Language? I am expecting my first baby in early May and, of course, its linguistic future is on my mind. I’ve always planned to raise my children at least bilingually with English and Spanish but, given that I am curre
How did we do? I can’t believe how quickly this school year has flown by. When I was a kid the school year felt endless but so did the summers. As we are about I embark on our first summer vacation it’s seems appropriate to reflect on our bilingual daughter’s first y
Last December I took my daughter to see Disney’s Frozen and I am the first to admit that I loved it as much as she did. I laughed (and cried) and instantly fell in love with the music. Having grown up with musical theatre (my mother worked in wardrobe), I have a real soft spot f
Our bilingual goals and action plan for this year We’re exhausted – Kindergarten is a lot of work! After a long wait due to the BC teacher’s strike, our daughter has finally entered the world of public education. The goals that we set for her bilingualism were to ach
Multilingual Literacy through Stories I have written before about the importance of educating children in their first language. In Peru, I worked with schools that promote Intercultural Bilingual Education for indigenous children, teaching them literacy skills in their first language
Why don’t I speak French? When I travel and people find out I’m Canadian, I often get asked if I speak French. And when I say no, I’m often met with disbelief or puzzlement. How can you not speak French?—it’s a official language of your country! How can I not speak French? IR
Countdown to Kindergarten Our daughter has now been accepted into our first choice kindergarten – the fine arts program at Nootka school. Even though this program was listed as our third choice in my blog Choosing a Kindergarten Program back in November, after visiting a few sch
