tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286097012012-02-01T04:14:54.228-07:00<center> stories, activities, profiles, resources, and whimsy from a non-native French speaker </center>Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.comBlogger3981100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-73485632509265668552012-01-27T20:51:00.000-07:002012-01-27T21:06:24.013-07:00

Those of us who are doing our best to raise our kids with something other than the community language know that we have to seize every possible moment to barrage them with lots and lots of input in the target language.  (This is especially challenging for those parents who work full-time and have a very limited number of hours most days to share their language with their children.) When we're

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-44797200754033212762012-01-19T21:39:00.002-07:002012-01-19T23:18:00.067-07:00

Mon fils can write his own prénom!   Uncoached!  Up to this point, I've drawn dots for him to connect so that he could "sign" his name on cards.  Yesterday, I was in a hurry and just told him to write "Griffin," fully expecting to see some cheerful, vigorous scribbles as a result.  Wowza!  He learned to write his name when we weren't looking! Ma fille now likes to ride on mes épaules. (Oh,

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-91734983160940436952012-01-17T22:58:00.000-07:002012-01-17T23:09:34.514-07:00

The current issue of The Language Educator (Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2012), a publication of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), has a nice long article on raising children bilingually.  Among the parents they interviewed is--moi!  Lotsa quotes, some advice, and even a picture of Griffin and me snuggling with a book.  The article, "Raising Multilingual Children" (

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-73514849711202917822012-01-15T22:41:00.000-07:002012-01-17T22:46:49.136-07:00

I don't know how to say it in French, but my sweet and smiley Gwyneth is six months old!  Happy half-birthday, ma petite.  Je t'aime!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-28565965326150913752011-12-23T05:32:00.000-07:002011-12-23T12:05:34.347-07:00

Strike a pose, baby girl! Happy, healthy children: 2 (4, counting my niece and nephew)  Languages in our home every day: 2 Languages in our home this time next year, we hope: 3 (We just applied again to enroll Griffin in the preschool program at Pioneer Elementary, the local Spanish-Engish immersion school) Supportive "hopelessly monolingual" (his words) husband: 1 Years of blogging: 5.5 (

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-19867502734473058112011-12-22T21:40:00.002-07:002011-12-22T21:41:12.101-07:00

Read about Christmas, Hanukkah, and other wintery, linguist-tastic customs and activities in the December issue of the Carnival, hosted by Rosalind of Tales from Windmill Fields.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-67063839131608868002011-12-20T11:21:00.000-07:002011-12-23T10:55:10.158-07:00

Speaking French while celebrating Christmas with your kids?  You'll need these sites! Writing letters to Santa Claus is so old-fashioned, don't you think? Well, no, actually, I don't, but Griffin can't read or write yet, so I'm thrilled to discover this website, "Portable Santa Claus," which will send a personalized video message (for free) to your child in French or in English!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-21946812211327376412011-12-07T16:22:00.001-07:002011-12-07T19:54:26.497-07:00

"D'accord, maman, you can take a picture of me with Gwyneth, but I need to concentrate on my iPad game.  I'm too busy to smile right now.  I'm wearing my Tintin t-shirt and have my arm around ma petite soeur--that's as good as it's going to get." For almost a year now, Griffin and I have off and on attended a small French class for preschoolers taught by a native speaker.  To my delight (and

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-88956608799220605192011-11-25T22:10:00.001-07:002011-12-07T19:58:03.987-07:00

In TESL grad schoool (Teaching English as a Second Language), one of the zillions of acronyms thrown at us was ESP--"English for Specific Purposes," such as business or medicine. Tonight, I think that Griffin was working on his FWP--"French for Whining Purposes."  We're visiting my parents in Wisconsin for the Thanksgiving holiday (happy turkey!), and he's just a little discombobulated and

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-21390322358661898242011-11-20T10:55:00.003-07:002011-11-20T12:11:42.972-07:00

love and languages for my little ones If you're  interested, you can download the handout from my recent presentation at the ACTFL convention (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) here.  (You have to register to become a member of the ACTFL Online Community first.) Here's the blurb: Language Teaching at Home: Strategies, Challenges, and Resources You teach a world language at

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-42614486260073066242011-11-17T23:36:00.001-07:002011-11-17T23:44:45.875-07:00

Is anyone out there planning to attend the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) conference in Denver this week?  I'll be there working at the World of Reading booth (#8000) in the exhibits hall on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Er, no. You see, I went back to work at the library on Nov. 1--part time, several afternoons a week--and Gwyneth is having a heck of a time

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-21685539662035942022011-11-13T08:20:00.002-07:002011-11-17T23:42:36.291-07:00

Is anyone out there planning to attend the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) conference in Denver this week?  I'll be there working at the World of Reading booth (#8000) in the exhibits hall on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Please drop by and introduce yourself and say hi! My plans have changed....

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-31701100765677997132011-11-11T18:52:00.000-07:002011-11-12T07:07:48.730-07:00

"Proud member"?  How proud can I be if it took me almost two weeks to post the link? Well, I am, and I did, and you should go read it!  Thanks to our hostess, Solnushka, at Verbosity Leads to Unclear, Inarticulate Things.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-43864595532022068962011-10-30T13:03:00.001-06:002011-10-30T21:57:39.661-06:00

Here at Bringing up Baby Bilingual, we hear a lot about being non-native speakers of the languages we are using with our families.  (I’m kind of obsessed with this idea, as I’ve been living it for nearly four years now.)  Regular readers and commenters like Kate at German in the Afternoon, Elizabeth at La Mother Tongue, Monika at Slices of Life, and Tamara at Non-Native Bilingualism, for example,

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-958287420548152062011-10-21T22:06:00.001-06:002011-12-08T14:36:53.122-07:00

Gwyneth brings such joy to my life that I don't even mind the lack of sleep and dearth of "me time" (much).  I do miss blogging, though, and just wish I did a better job of remembering all the cool things that Griffin says and all the brother-sister interactions.  Must start taking notes (or remembering where I put notes). So rather than a coherent post about language challenges and

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-91832009583341020432011-10-14T10:46:00.001-06:002011-10-22T10:50:40.521-06:00

After a summer break and time off to have babies, the French mamans and I are back into the routine of French story times at the Lafayette library.  What fun!  Now I just have to find time to write about them.... Local francophone readers, please join us on the first and third Fridays of the month at 4:00 at the library, 775 W. Baseline Road!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-3985563933500044572011-10-04T11:32:00.000-06:002011-10-06T11:38:43.470-06:00

You probably know this already, but Jan and Souad over at Babelkid are hosting the newest incarnation of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism.  But if you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?!  Click here for this month's selection of posts about language and children, and here to learn more about the monthly carnival.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-70512908942263768952011-09-22T13:20:00.004-06:002011-09-29T10:15:57.760-06:00

No, not Gwyneth yet.  She's just cooing. It's Griffin! Perhaps he's been doing this all along, but lately I've noticed how skillfully he handles mystery words.  If he doesn't know the appropriate word in French (or English), he substitutes a short (or long) description of the item or idea, in whichever language seems most convenient (usually both, if he's talking to me, but he also doesn't

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-78868046186037523582011-09-08T15:03:00.001-06:002011-09-08T15:05:17.743-06:00

(Rental, yes.  But not for sale!) We participated in the neighborhood garage sale a couple of weekends ago.  Had to make room for Gwyneth and her adorable baby girl garments, which meant getting rid of a lot of my old "teacher" clothes.  (When am I going to wear a blazer again?  I certainly don't need six of them.)  We also set out books (for children and adults), posters, and memorabilia from

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-34120217983336340932011-09-05T10:09:00.000-06:002011-09-05T10:45:25.628-06:00

I have created French-inspired nicknames for three of the most important children in my life, and did so without even thinking about it.  Their nicknames appeared organically and just fit them!  I have realized that having such a nickname is important to me because all of their given names are quite anglophone, which kind of interrupts the flow when I'm speaking French to them. Carl: I called my

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-32929850359090658712011-08-29T14:24:00.001-06:002011-08-29T14:24:43.578-06:00

The current incarnation of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, hosted by Tyeisha of TongueTales, is available for your reading pleasure!  Learn more about the Carnival here and please consider joining us next month.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-65174583738230933112011-08-23T23:50:00.002-06:002011-08-24T10:22:29.921-06:00

Six weeks after the birth of my daughter Gwyneth, I pull away from her wide-eyed-in-wonder dark-blue-nearly-violet gaze, her eyes milk-drunk and awe-struck and dreamy beside my breast, her eyes sighing contentedly as she slides into sleep with pure bliss and trust. I raise my head from her tiny face and let the lullaby trail off my lips and realize that we have been in this position for six

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-9839050684961328412011-07-31T17:51:00.000-06:002011-07-31T17:51:45.732-06:00

Indulge this proud maman, please :)

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-85572317985226184252011-07-20T11:11:00.005-06:002011-07-20T13:10:53.938-06:00

Gwyneth Kellamarieborn Wednesday, July 13, 20116:51 pm6 lbs, 13.5 oz 19 3/4 inches long   

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-25741107008287258432011-07-10T08:38:00.002-06:002011-07-10T08:38:35.816-06:00

At breakfast this morning, I cut a roughly triangular-shaped piece of cinnamon roll for Griffin.  His reaction: "That looks like a croissant!"  And his pronunciation of the French word was impeccable!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-82352378166911059342011-07-06T10:12:00.000-06:002011-07-06T10:12:15.270-06:00

Check out Bilingual Russian for a round-up of posts by other bloggers who are raising their kids with more than one language!  And for more information about this monthly blogging carnival, see our lovely founder's page at Bilingue Per Gioco.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-70892916092484203862011-07-05T12:05:00.001-06:002011-07-05T12:06:26.629-06:00

So I've been coveting an iPad for a while now and am wondering if y'all know of any apps in French for kids--games, books, etc.  A friend told me that the vast majority of the apps are published in English--but perhaps some fun French ones are available too?  I'd like to have some to play with Griffin (but wouldn't mind word games and such for me as well!).

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-39676283885351760472011-06-30T12:23:00.003-06:002011-08-25T11:07:36.978-06:00

Meet musician and teacher Alain Le Lait, a Frenchman who now lives in Colorado and sells recordings of his original songs in French, English, and Spanish.  I can't remember how I first heard of him, but I can remember playing his albums for my nephew when he was a baby (five years ago now!) and using his song "Les poissons" in a French play I produced (because we put fish in every scene in one

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-223461497107452712011-06-22T11:12:00.008-06:002011-06-29T22:50:20.643-06:00

I just love, love, LOVE watching Griffin figure things out and listening to him tell me what he thinks! At nearly 3.5 years old now, he has opinions and preferences about everything--from whether to pour milk over his cereal (jamais!), how to wear his underpants (backwards, the better to see the picture that normally appears on the tushie), when his baby sister should come out of my belly (

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-73470071340469727412011-06-19T23:18:00.021-06:002011-06-23T19:59:18.013-06:00

Okay, we're down to five names (and four weeks to go).  If my hubby and I can manage to knock out one name per week, we'll know what to call our baby girl, who has been "Unicorn" to us for eight months now! In no particular order, we like: Aria Gwyneth Lorelei Anne-Claire Celeste And the ones we have recently eliminated are: Allegra (cool name, but also a medication) Iona (which I love, but it

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-36596913758658706742011-06-14T15:51:00.000-06:002011-06-14T15:51:52.471-06:00

After five and a half years of speaking French to my son and my nephew, I feel very comfortable in my non-native language.  Until last week, when I was playing with my six-month-old niece, bouncing her on my lap and reciting comptines and singing and enjoying her humongous grins.  "Oh, que tu es mignon!" I exclaimed.  [You are soooo cute!] And then I heard myself: I was using the masculine

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-11175793346443707022011-06-08T11:10:00.005-06:002011-06-14T15:43:54.456-06:00

One of the (many) joys of creating this blog is the opportunity to revisit families whom I profiled several years ago and to see the linguistic changes that have resulted as their children grow older (and as new children are born, changing the family's language dynamics!).  Without further ado, I'd like to welcome back Reb of Uh Oh Spaghettios, last featured here four years ago when her daughter

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-68255009796503592252011-06-02T07:14:00.000-06:002011-06-02T07:14:04.961-06:00

Lots of ideas, advice, and inspiration out there in the blogosphere this month!  First of all, Mummy Do That! is hosting the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, always a highlight of my month. Next, Lexiophiles has announced the 2011 Top 100 Language Lovers Competition winners--25 blogs about language learning, 25 blogs by language professionals, 25 Twitter feeds about language, and 25

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-54758219379397619662011-06-01T09:23:00.002-06:002011-06-02T07:16:02.186-06:00

This post was written for inclusion in the May Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism.When I began blogging about raising children with more than one language five years ago, I was still teaching French full-time at the university but growing frustrated by departmental politics, student apathy, and the lesson planning and grading that kept me up till midnight some evenings.  Recently married, my

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-20147738705603313202011-05-23T23:36:00.002-06:002011-06-01T10:39:47.536-06:00

Happy Birthday, dear Blog!  Joyeux Anniversaire! "Bringing up Baby Bilingual" turns five years old today!  In the past five years, thanks to writing this online journal and sharing it with similar-minded parents and teachers, I have learned so much about raising children with more than one language--theories, techniques, challenges, joys, resources.  I have made friends from Trinidad to

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-91069955252047229292011-05-18T21:52:00.000-06:002011-05-19T13:04:18.891-06:00

It occurs to me that I haven't had a lot to say about my pregnancy on this blog this time around.  But other than awful "morning" sickness till 20 weeks, pronounced fatigue, and a scare at 22 weeks when I had regular contractions for 12+ hours and spent the night in the hospital,  everything has gone swimmingly.  No other aches and pains or problems to complain of--I feel much better in my third

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-20856735293811608222011-05-15T22:15:00.003-06:002011-05-16T09:00:15.734-06:00

Meet a new member of Bringing up Baby Bilingual's extended family: Franck from France, his wife Cristina from Spain, and their two children, living in the US.  Franck graciously answered my questions--and he has a question for my readers at the end of this profile!  You can also visit his brand-new blog, Early Languages, where he shares ideas for language teaching in ten-minute chunks. Please

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-16115941757021062882011-05-12T22:00:00.002-06:002011-05-18T12:45:58.492-06:00

My quest to find a fantastic educational DVD for preschoolers learning French continues to frustrate me. Some videos, like Brainy Baby French, are mediocre because of how generic and bland they are. Others, like Globe-Toddlers Adventures in France, are lively and show many aspects of French culture, but present lists of individual words that you can't really use to express anything meaningful in

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-11840841887256756062011-05-09T21:19:00.002-06:002011-06-30T12:25:30.076-06:00

Confession: I'm a little leery of YouTube.  There are so many choices for videos to watch that it sometimes paralyzes me!  Plus, some clips look like they're innocuous songs or cartoons but end up depicting things I never, ever, ever wanted to see T'choupi or Caillou engaging in.  And yet I know that it's an amazing resource for language learners, so a year or so ago I started seeking out

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-38789156227520531952011-05-05T11:44:00.000-06:002011-05-05T11:44:30.887-06:00

Delphine and Jenny led our 12th French storytime at the end of April, with the titillating theme of les histoires qui font peur (mais pas trop) [stories that scare you (but not too much)].  Along with a couple of fairy tales like Le petit chaperon rouge [Little Red Riding Hood], they shared a book about a child who was apprehensive about going down a big slide at the playgroup. The story

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-53256271015910034272011-05-03T07:44:00.001-06:002011-05-03T07:49:20.502-06:00

It's carnival time!  Multilingual Mania is hosting the April edition of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism.  Read, reflect, enjoy, and then act on it!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-40994651609450500642011-04-29T18:27:00.141-06:002011-05-03T07:47:51.709-06:00

Yes!  It's possible!  And you don't even have to do it by yourself! Ever since I started posting about the French storytime that I co-founded at my local library, readers have been emailing me to ask for advice on starting up something similar where they live.  And as our storytime is still in existence--even flourishing!--after six months, we must be doing something right.  So here's my

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-10741270459652131662011-04-26T10:02:00.000-06:002011-04-26T10:02:36.348-06:00

So Griffin has been learning a little Spanish at preschool, and he showed a lot of interest in the language during our recent trip to Mexico, but it's not something I'm making an effort to reinforce at home because I feel like he just barely gets enough French from me.  I just don't want to "dilute" it with another language yet (even though we are hoping that we can enroll him in a bilingual

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-25629033864340945282011-04-23T17:28:00.002-06:002011-04-23T17:39:06.539-06:00

Our eleventh (!) French storytime zoomed into the library last week with a boatload of songs and books about transportation, to the delight of many little boys (and the little girls didn't seem to mind them either).  As usual, our selections tended towards the eccentric, because we're limited by what we own (or are willing to translate into French), which means that we neglected to include any

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-76898095186457227882011-04-21T08:49:00.018-06:002011-04-21T12:23:08.188-06:00

This blog is coming up on its fifth anniversary--yay!--and I'm having more and more trouble locating specific posts from the past.  If it's unwieldy for me, it certainly must be for my readers.  So I'm adding extra tabbed pages to the main page of the blog to collect some of the posts worth highlighting and to put descriptions of some of my favorite resources all in one place.  And as I have way

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-28327062742631902932011-04-20T08:26:00.000-06:002011-04-20T08:26:12.351-06:00

My last article in the series "Family, Friends, and Francais" has just been published at Multilingual Living.  This one covers tactile and kinesthetic activities you can do with your kids on our theme of friends and family.  I'm hoping to squeeze in one more series of language-learning activities before Unicorn arrives--probably on the theme of food!  Do you have any recommendations for

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-76928097046120294122011-04-17T20:25:00.005-06:002011-04-19T07:57:52.054-06:00

My parents just returned from a river cruise between Paris and Normandy during which they visited historic sites, ate authentic meals (including one at a French lady's home), and went shopping for their bilingual grandson!  I had given them a wish list of books that would appeal to Griffin (and me), like specific collections of comptines with CDs, fairy tales appropriate for preschoolers (nothing

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-46130807225531854482011-04-12T23:55:00.003-06:002011-04-13T08:29:55.788-06:00

Two more French storytimes have come and gone since the last time I posted about them! I love that other moms are helping out--now there are five of us (three native speakers, two non-natives) who co-lead each session. It helps that we see each other regularly at French playgroup to brainstorm ideas for topics, books, and songs. A maman named Brigitte and I did the ninth storytime, la nourriture

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-45712710186843697742011-04-12T23:30:00.001-06:002011-04-13T08:37:11.534-06:00

Is anyone else pulling their hair out about Blogger lately? I have spent five days trying to get the spacing correct for my next post which has a zillion pictures. Every time it looks good in the "compose" frame, the "preview" frame shows very screwy spacing (too much between paragraphs and pictures or else none at all). So I go into the "edit html" frame, fiddle with that, check the "preview,

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-23342667141326334472011-04-05T08:10:00.006-06:002011-04-06T15:57:34.897-06:00

It's carnival time! Coco over at Multilingual Mama has published the next edition of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, always one of my favorite things to visit online, and as always full of inspirational posts from amazing parents. Learn more about the Carnival here. Next, you might enjoy the fifth article in my "Family, Friends, and Francais" series for Multilingual Living. This one

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-74851418383990490242011-04-02T07:48:00.001-06:002011-04-02T07:48:00.374-06:00

When you can't find the exact books you want for your bilingual child, sometimes you just have to write them yourself! You can do something simple like this, by adding photos to a word processing file, printing the pages, and putting them in a binder. Or you can get really ambitious and use digital scrapbooking software to make a photo book with captions! I wanted my toddler son Griffin to have

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-28659978774505477782011-04-01T07:18:00.005-06:002011-04-01T07:35:03.263-06:00

A message from the next host of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, Cordelia from Multilingual Mama: Dear multilingual parents & bloggers,For those of you who don't know me - and that will be most of you ;) - my name is cordelia newlin de rojas. I am franco-american, my husband is mexican and we are parents to two little girls - Pacifique who will be 3 this May and Claude who is turning 7

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-62643380633884108102011-03-30T08:53:00.006-06:002011-04-01T07:35:54.796-06:00

Hola mis amigos! We're back from our trip to a family-friendly resort in Cancun, Mexico, where we spent five days relaxing on the beach. Er, rather, five days chasing Griffin around the resort, which he saw as his own personal giant sandbox.He enjoyed watching the sea birds and the ocean, but not actually swimming in it. (The wind was quite strong and the water pretty cold.) (So was the pool

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-64710266673206426682011-03-23T13:21:00.004-06:002011-03-24T08:50:10.987-06:00

Multilingual Living has just published my article with an annotated list of children's books (in French) about love between parents and children, sibling relationships, and friendship. It's part of the series "Family, Friends, and Francais" and I'd love for you to come visit. Please leave comments there if you know of other books that belong on the list!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-23547014129483328552011-03-20T09:38:00.004-06:002011-03-20T09:38:00.463-06:00

Meet Jennifer, an American poet who writes Magpie Days, who with her Swiss husband R is raising their children bilingually (even multilingually, if you count their understanding of High German and incipient French studies at school). Please read on to learn about their fascinating mix of languages in Switzerland and their choice to switch from OPOL to English-only at home! Jennifer, thank you

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-90917099181229950382011-03-16T05:26:00.009-06:002011-03-17T10:06:10.317-06:00

Lots of people have asked me how Griffin feels about becoming a big brother, so I thought I'd try to imagine what he's thinking based on his recent actions and comments....My maman is enceinte, which means that there's a baby growing in her belly and it's going to get bigger and come out and be a little girl. I like to put Bear under my shirt and tell people that Bear is my baby and he lives in

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-60873202952556495662011-03-11T06:39:00.006-07:002011-03-31T12:00:57.159-06:00

French storytime at the Lafayette Public Library continues to be great fun to attend as well as to organize! I was out of town during the bug-themed storytime (our seventh one so far), so I can't tell you much about that one, but native-speaker maman Brigitte and I co-led the session around Valentine's Day. In honor of the holiday, we picked books and songs about love.We started with a puppet

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-37770191950810240482011-03-09T10:33:00.004-07:002011-03-09T10:52:33.845-07:00

It's time for the monthly Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, hosted by Solnushka of Verbosity. You're sure to find something that really resonates with you! (Learn more about the Carnival and sign up to receive announcements and calls to participate here.)Also, my two most recent articles about language-learning activities to do with your young'uns have been published at Multilingual Living.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-47809999194905630552011-03-07T13:03:00.004-07:002011-03-07T18:17:37.114-07:00

Meet Céline Mazoyer, a French native living in North Carolina who studied in France, Romania, England, and the US. She has a BA in English and an MA in Teaching French as a Foreign Language. She has taught middle and high school, given private lessons, and worked as an online coach and tutor for Auralog. And she and her Romanian husband are expecting their first child this summer, whom they plan

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-42972438439156249902011-03-02T15:02:00.003-07:002011-03-03T13:17:52.780-07:00

A message from Solnushka...I am hosting the February edition of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism at Verbosity. If you would like to take part, please send me your posts on bi/multilingualism, bi/multiculturalism, language learning or teaching, or any other topic inspired by bringing up children bi or multilingually by noon on Sat 5th March. I hope to get the carnival up and about on Monday

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-5155464872197302042011-02-25T11:33:00.007-07:002011-03-08T08:24:25.081-07:00

Meet Eurydice of Geeks in Rome, the newest family to be "profiled" here on Bringing up Baby Bilingual. Thank you so much, Eurydice, for sharing your experiences with us!Hi! My name is Eurydice and I have two kids: a six-year-old son and a daughter who is 3.5. I am an American, married to an Italian, and we live in Rome. I learned French, Spanish and some Latin in school. Picked up Italian when I

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-26449495813137219172011-02-24T11:07:00.003-07:002011-02-24T11:10:44.970-07:00

I know very few of you live in the Denver area, and even fewer are language teachers who might be planning on attending the CCFLT (Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers) Conference in Loveland this weekend. But hey, if you'll be there, please drop by my session on Friday at 8:00 am--I'm presenting "Second Language Teaching at Home: Strategies, Challenges, and Resources"!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-85931249593824910542011-02-23T13:00:00.007-07:002011-02-25T11:13:33.808-07:00

Oh joy! During lunch today, Griffin asked what we were going to do after his nap. (Imagine this conversation taking place in a mixture of French and English on his part and all French from me.)"Can we go to Carl's house?""No, we already went to Carl's house today.""Can we go to the children's museum?""No, we already went to the children's museum today." (It's where his French class takes place.)"

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-56062471574659294742011-02-18T08:12:00.003-07:002011-02-18T08:27:41.088-07:00

This just in....we saw girl parts on Unicorn's ultrasound yesterday!(My husband is prescient--he had already bought a fuzzy lavender stuffed unicorn for the baby the night before.)She appears to be perfectly healthy despite my "advanced maternal age," so we're quite happy. We were also suprised and relieved to see her stick her tongue out at us, which means that she almost certainly isn't

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-73921007045600155682011-02-15T12:52:00.003-07:002011-02-15T12:56:02.697-07:00

I'm working on my next series of articles for Multilingual Living about activities you can do with young children learning French. In honor of Valentine's Day, this series is about family and friends. You can find the introduction and lots of vocabulary resources here.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-67034797891958060002011-02-12T08:09:00.001-07:002011-02-12T08:13:46.670-07:00

Griffin and I missed out on the January French storytime session because he had an emergency visit to the pediatrician (don't ask). Fortunately, this didn't mean I left Delphine, my co-storytime-leader, in the lurch, because we had decided to structure the program differently this semester!To make it easier on us two, we asked for other volunteers to help lead the storytimes. Two other friends

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-18447340007994619252011-02-09T12:42:00.005-07:002011-03-10T13:19:56.970-07:00

I know, I know, it's February, but I'd been planning to blog about every French storytime that we offer at the library where I work!New to this blog? Read about our storytime history here:Why we started our own storytimeMaking plans for our storytimeStorytime #1: Autumn and forestsStorytime #2: Farm animalsStorytime #3: Under the seaStorytime #4: AfricaOur last storytime in December presented

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-47448635211170568402011-02-06T09:10:00.004-07:002011-02-06T09:35:19.664-07:00

When we decided that we were ready to try to bring another child into this world, my husband and I discussed a few things that I'd like us to do before we plunge into a few more years where our lives will be ruled by a ten-pound dictator. He agreed. And while we decided that a trip to all the francophone countries in Europe wasn't a good use of our time and money this year, we are at least

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-55443734816423748222011-02-02T08:01:00.002-07:002011-02-02T08:04:04.378-07:00

This month Abigail from the Speaking in Tongues blog hosts the round-up of posts from parents who are raising their kids with more than one language. Come visit here!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-7618442068069810972011-02-01T07:58:00.001-07:002011-02-01T08:27:48.873-07:00

That's my son. Three years old, stubborn, and shy. This makes for a less-than-ideal combination for his first French class!Our family has a membership at the local children's museum, WOW! World of Wonder, so we receive their regular newsletters. Imagine my delight when I saw that someone--a native speaker!--would be offering a French class there for preschoolers for a very reasonable price (six

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-86586326977099767952011-01-28T07:07:00.005-07:002011-01-28T08:45:55.631-07:00

Dear readers, I'm pregnant! Fourteen weeks in.And admidst my worries about taking care of an infant while parenting a three-year-old, I remind myself of this: the one thing that I know I won't struggle with is immersing this new baby in French. Unlike during my pregnancy with Griffin, I speak French every day while "Unicorn" grows in my belly. Unicorn hears the cadences of both languages in

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-7657632340691600612011-01-27T11:21:00.007-07:002011-03-23T09:39:43.664-06:00

Since co-founding a French storytime at the Lafayette Public Library, I have been gathering information about other French activities for kids in the area. Eve at Blogging on Bilingualism asked me to publish all the details in one place so she can Tweet about it (merci, Eve!), so here goes:"Il Etait Une Fois" (Once upon a time) StorytimeA storytime in French at Lafayette Public LibraryBooks,

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-13731810726619376782011-01-26T08:58:00.004-07:002011-01-26T09:20:38.461-07:00

Joyeux anniversaire, mon amourson! My beautiful boy turns three years old today. It takes my breath away. Griffin amazes me every day (and often in good ways!).

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-49597793756736063262011-01-25T13:14:00.002-07:002011-01-25T13:18:16.320-07:00

Abigail from the Speaking in Tongues blog is hosting the January Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism next week, so send her your posts about languages and kids soon! Here's the info:Please send your links to blogger@speakingintonguesfilm.info no later than this Saturday morning, January 29.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-60868443207058090022011-01-20T08:06:00.003-07:002011-01-20T08:16:56.850-07:00

Griffin definitely speaks more English than French--entirely normal and to be expected. He does seem to understand the two languages equally well, which thrills me. And very now and then, he'll burst into song in French, or count out loud in French, or recite a nursery rhyme to himself in French. Such fun for maman to hear!But recently, in one single day, he used three long sentences--ten words

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-88258226401420361422011-01-09T07:57:00.008-07:002011-01-10T07:22:52.581-07:00

Griffin, January 2010(Note: this will probably only interest die-hard Griffin fans, like his grandparents, but I'm going to post this veeeeery long list anyway!)1/10/10Maman, on her way out the door to go to work, leaving Griffin's grandfather in charge of lunchtime and naptime: Griffin, finis ton tofu et puis fais dodo. Dodo bientôt. [Finish your tofu and then go nighty-night. Sleep soon!]

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-19899384465911342592010-12-28T12:36:00.005-07:002010-12-28T12:46:33.235-07:00

Bonjour y'all!Griffin, my husband, and I have been spending the Christmas holidays in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with my parents and brother and other members of our extended family. Given the festivities and cooking and chores and limited internet access, I haven't been online much, but I just wanted to stop by and say happy holidays to my loyal readers and new visitors alike! I hope you are all

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-69434460090729631142010-12-11T05:52:00.000-07:002010-12-11T06:48:03.070-07:00

Our fourth storytime session took us to Africa--only we could barely scratch the surface! But in our half hour, we managed to read three books, do our regular greeting and goodbye rhymes, and sing a few songs.It was important to me that we read books that truly look like they take place in Africa, as opposed to the myriad picture books that feature animals like elephants and monkeys but tell a

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-46952521698956841692010-12-08T14:35:00.005-07:002010-12-08T15:15:12.108-07:00

Writing letters to Santa Claus is so old-fashioned, don't you think? Actually, I don't, but Griffin can't read or write yet, so I'm thrilled to discover this website, "Portable Santa Claus," which will send a personalized video message to your child in French or in English!You input information about the child (age, hair color, eye color), what behavior issues you wanted him to work on this year

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-1243638271075179882010-12-06T10:57:00.000-07:002010-12-07T09:12:32.987-07:00

Here's a fun resource for those of you who celebrate Christmas and speak French with your children: an online advent calendar with a song for each day! The sound quality isn't great--they are recordings from children's concerts, probably in school auditoriums--but the lyrics appear onscreen along with simple animations. And since it's a site from Quebec, it also includes a song about the

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-26457922463777452822010-12-02T23:58:00.001-07:002010-12-03T08:12:00.760-07:00

Devoted readers of this blog may recall that the celebrity who makes me weak in the knees is Johnny Depp. Here's a brief article about his take on being an adult learner of French.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-81303540159779254342010-12-01T11:55:00.000-07:002010-12-02T11:58:20.559-07:00

Melissa of Where Going Havo? is hosting the November Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism. Please go read what other parents and their children are doing on their linguistic journeys!

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-73906097679495722492010-11-30T12:35:00.012-07:002010-12-02T11:54:35.959-07:00

Four and a half years ago, I started spending one afternoon a week with my baby nephew, Carl. His parents, while not French speakers themselves, had asked me if I'd like to try using only French with him, just to see what could happen. As a French teacher who was planning on having children myself down the road, I was delighted with the idea of being able to "practice" on my nephew!I quickly

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-25653605526810366102010-11-25T22:42:00.011-07:002010-12-11T05:59:07.604-07:00

I missed the third French storytime at the library (Griffin and I were out of town), but my co-leader Delphine reports that it went well and that 20-some people attended. Another friend, Jenny, helped out with the reading.I don't have the exact titles of the books they shared, but one of them was a book in English that Delphine translated! (It was a retelling of "The Three Little Pigs" but

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-30051107873870603522010-11-23T20:38:00.000-07:002010-11-24T08:45:25.600-07:00

My final article for the "Maison" series at Multilingual Living has just been published: Tactile and Kinesthetic Activities.Here's a recap of the others if you'd like to try them all:Overview and introducation of vocabularyMusic, Rhythm, and RhymeArt and DramaLiteracy activitiesMy next series will debut in January with the theme of "friends and family." Any suggestions for songs, stories, or

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-70300627757003932232010-11-18T18:09:00.001-07:002010-11-18T20:12:44.135-07:00

You know, I've bombarded dozens of people--mostly strangers!--with my questions and then published profiles of their families on this blog; but while I have probably answered a lot of them myself along the way in the 4.5 years I've been writing here at Bringing up Baby Bilingual, I've never actually written out answers to my own questions all in a row.And, well, I'm not going to do that now

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-24348336376409436642010-11-17T06:59:00.006-07:002010-12-02T11:38:56.748-07:00

Some very good news to report...my sister-in-law ushered a perfect little girl into the world this morning. Both are healthy and happy and sleepy. When asked what he thought about his new baby sister, Carl informed us that she is "fine."I can't wait to have a bébé around to speak and sing in French to!Félicitations to Elizabeth, Steve, and Carl.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-5663400597595756262010-11-10T06:34:00.005-07:002010-11-26T11:29:45.332-07:00

Oh, our second French storytime on Oct. 29 also went well, probably better than the first one. Our theme was "farm animals," so here's what we did, along with our usual greeting and good-bye songs: invited each child to hold a stuffed animal puppet during the storytimelooked at pictures of farm animals and called out their names, their babies' names, and the sounds they maderead a book about a

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-1792822459118668962010-11-09T17:29:00.005-07:002010-11-09T17:49:12.389-07:00

I seem to be pouring more creativity into my articles for Multilingual Living than into my blog of late...but I think it's worth it! I had so much fun coming up with reading and writing activities in French for my newest article in the "Learning French In and Around the Maison" series...check it out if you're interested in learning about any of the following: When you should call your toilet a

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-56459069384498293622010-11-02T20:58:00.002-06:002010-11-02T21:04:04.700-06:00

So now that our French storytime is off and running, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what makes a good one. What works for you and your family? I would love to hear from you about the best storytimes you've attended (be they first or second or third, majority or minority language). Please tell us about what you like best!And I know that some of you have led storytimes yourselves--what

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-33838504810955536282010-11-01T09:00:00.004-06:002010-11-04T20:26:57.914-06:00

Over at Le Chateau des Fleurs, Frenchy (above) is hosting her monthly link party--click here to see dozens of links to posts about France and French! They tend to be about arts and crafts and home decor and cooking, plus travel and a few other topics, but visiting her link party makes for a nice change from reading and writing about linguistics and my own kid!(It also usually makes me homesick

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-29805167872739245642010-10-29T14:56:00.005-06:002010-10-29T20:55:50.215-06:00

(If you count the number of people present, that is: 27!)Our first French storytime at the Lafayette Library made me happy. A room full of parents and kids, all gathered because they wanted to hear stories and songs in French. There clearly is a need for something like this in this area!The kids ranged in age from 1 to 10, which was much wider than we had expected. On the other hand, we

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-13113525349228656022010-10-28T22:50:00.002-06:002010-10-28T22:55:55.311-06:00

It's here--this month's round-up of bloggers talking about raising their kids with more than one language! Enjoy everybody's stories and ideas.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-17883699791294493512010-10-27T20:54:00.002-06:002010-10-27T21:04:11.308-06:00

The latest installment in my series for Multilingual Living about French language learning activities is posted; this one is about art projects and theatre games you can do with their kids to encourage them to speak French and practice home-themed vocabulary.The next article is on literacy activities, and I'm also planning to give an annotated bibliography of kids' books (and poems, stories,

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-30448733218173799852010-10-25T12:20:00.005-06:002010-10-26T21:21:01.754-06:00

Please help me plan a conference session! I'll be attending the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers conference in February and would like to propose a session about raising children bilingually or teaching toddlers a second language. Typically the attendees are middle, high school, and university instructors, with a handful of K-5 teachers, but there's always a National Network for

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-52688157538271143802010-10-21T12:36:00.006-06:002010-10-27T20:48:45.589-06:00

Meet Tracy, who shares an inspiring story of how her dedicated efforts to raise her daughter bilingually have resulted in a toddler whose stronger language is French, even in the deep South, even with a parent who is a non-native speaker!Introduce us to your family--• Parents'/caretakers'/adults' names, occupations, nationality—Parents are Steve, an American writer and English professor, and

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-47549056973655194432010-10-20T23:57:00.002-06:002010-10-21T13:01:21.492-06:00

A message from the ever-amazing Corey over at Multilingual Living:Dear Fellow Bloggers,I'm hosting the next Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism at Multilingual Living. If you would like to participate, please send me the following by Tuesday, October 26th:1. Choose one of your posts (a fairly recent one) about bilingualism, multilingualism, multiculturalism, language learning, language teaching, or

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-43252772378583364872010-10-14T15:21:00.000-06:002010-10-14T15:21:00.618-06:00

Here they are, songs and nursery rhymes in French about houses and homes! This article is part of my regular column about teaching your children French for Multilingual Living.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-13949628863981042922010-10-13T10:43:00.004-06:002010-10-13T11:05:20.740-06:00

"Il était une fois" is the name of the new story hour that a French maman and I are premiering this week at the Lafayette Public Library! You heard me bemoan the uninspiring, uninteractive storytime we attended last month at another library, the one that turned out to be inspirational in that another mom and I decided that we could do a better storytime than that one (read all about it here).So

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28609701.post-12225564566371498572010-10-12T15:27:00.003-06:002010-10-19T20:22:16.630-06:00

When I was working on my MA in Teaching English as a Second Language at CSU, one of my professors talked about Stephen Krashen. All. The. Time. And for good reason—he changed the way we looked at language teaching, helping the field move from the model of “Here’s a paragraph. Now translate it” to trying to recreate in the classroom how we learn our first language (lots of passive intake before

Sarah @ Baby Bilingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13907207816628137938noreply@blogger.com10