For Parents: Two sites for raising multiLINGUAL children

OK, I had been looking for resources several weeks ago to help in my quest to raise my children not only with a healthy dose of global sensibilities, but with practical real-life experiences to share about ensuring that each one of them becomes an adult with the ability to converse intelligently in more than one language. I first encountered “Spanglish Baby” and it is a fascinating, well-organized wealth of experiences and tips for raising bilingual children. However, it’s definition of “bilingual” is the normal American definition of “English + Spanish” and it is heavily targeted towards parents who want to ensure that one of their child’s two feet is planted squarely and comfortably in Latin American culture. That’s OK, but my children are not Hispanic, and even though it is important that they be able to converse in Spanish (we live in America, after all), this is not my primary focus. It’s a great site, though. http://spanglishbaby.com/new-start-here/

The other site, which I just discovered this morning, is a little boring in format, but has a wider focus and still has a wealth of resources for parents raising multilingual children. It’s the website for the Multilingual Children’s Association at http://www.multilingualchildren.org/. I particularly like the “Tips and Tools” link that includes articles such as “Should I Raise My Children in a Language that is Not My Own?” and “How Do I Homeschool My Children in a Foreign Language?”.

I’ve subscribed to SpanglishBaby, and they faithfully send a newsletter every day (and I think you can change this setting, if you want), and in about two minutes, I’ll be subscribing to the multilingual site as well.

Again, share your opinions of these sites when you have a chance. I’m about to go exploring.  Like my cat Pangur Ban (below).  I’m sure she speaks at least five languages by now…

pangurban

5 thoughts on “For Parents: Two sites for raising multiLINGUAL children

  1. Thanks so much for recommending our site, SpanglishBaby. You are completely right in your description that the focus is on preserving the Latino heritage, but we make sure that the how-to, tips and expert advice is useful for any target language(s). We still want the site to feel personal, so we must speak from our own experiences, and that of our contributors. Thrilled that any of it can be useful to you and your readers. Congrats on your blog :)!

    1. Suisen International June 14, 2013 — 7:38 pm

      You are welcome! I love your site, and plan to continue to follow it. Especially living here in the western part of the United States, it’s actually good for all of our children to appreciate Latino cultures, as it’s also important for Latino children to appreciate the other less-celebrated cultures of the US, particularly African-American, Native American, Middle Eastern, Asian and Eastern European. We have such a great future in America, and it starts with our babies. Thanks again!

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