adding another language to your happy home

Bonjour from Lac du Bois, where even if the little kids are having a blast, some of them will refuse to smile for a group photo

Coming soon: stories of my summer at Lac du Bois, running the Maternelle (the program for children ages 0-6) at an amazing French immersion camp in Minnesota!  In the meantime, an article I wrote for their blog with suggestions of how to incorporate a second language into a monolingual home:

http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/blog/ventfrais/adding-another-language-to-your-happy-home#.WmERBLaZNp8

What's new at Bringing up Baby Bilingual? (February 2012)

A new month brought new categories for my blogroll--radio in French, children's books in English--and more cool websites to share.  (I just wish I had more time to read everything they recommend, listen to everything they offer, try their activity ideas with Griffin and Gwyneth, and blog about my reactions!)

You can now find the following sites among the others in my blogroll:

Streaming radio in French:
French, Swiss, and Canadian radio stations--a list of links with short descriptions of each station's genre

Radio Barbouillots--Internet radio in French, featuring music for children

Radio Ouistiti--Internet radio in French for children, with songs and stories (but not all necessarily in French)
RFI Langue française--specifically for learners of French
RFI home page 

Children's lit:

Childhood 101 posts about reading

365 Great Children's Books--a blog featuring thoughtful reviews of picture books by a mom whose background as a geography teacher brings a slightly different perspective than the other sites'

Read Aloud Dad--enthusiastic reviews of books for children (not just picture books) by a father who advocates reading to our children

Reading Rockets--literacy resources for parents

Language teaching activities:
French Activities from Beth Manners--coloring pages and more, including CDs for purchase (she also offers ideas and materials for Spanish as well)
LanguageMom French for Kids--a website with fun resources to support anglophone parents teaching their children French, with a program to purchase to use at home
Spanish Playground--resources and ideas for teaching Spanish to children


Multilingualism:
Gato and Canard--Blog by a Frenchwoman with a PhD in linguistics, married to a Portuguese man, living in Germany with their toddler
Multilingual Family in the UK--Connect with other families in the UK who want to get together to practice using the minority language; and even if you're not located in the UK, check out their links to language-learning resources in 18 languages (here's French, for example)
Panda Mom blog--American mom and Taiwanese-American dad learning Chinese with their children
Perogies and Gyoza blog--Canadian mom raising kids in Japan

Parenting resources:
Brain, Child magazine--I have subscribed since before Griffin was born, and this magazine makes me laugh and think and cry.  It's eye-opening and well-written.  Plus, it published an essay by my friend Kelly Feinberg, which won her a Pushcart Prize posthumously.)

What's new at Bringing up Baby Bilingual? (January 2012)

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, did you think I meant "What's new on the blog?" Dear readers, thanks, once again, for indulging my habit of gratuitously posting photos of my kiddos.)

Here's what I've added to the blogroll recently:

French Today, a blog of fun and useful resources for practicing your French and learning about French culture (written by the the owner of a company that sells mp3 French classes--I just bought one with fairy tales because it sounded like it would help both me and Griffin).

She also shares some video clips of her daughter speaking and singing in French--adorable, plus it's important to me that Griffin see other children using French.

Parisian Fields, a very well-written, beautifully-photographed blog about the City of Lights, focusing on history and culture from the perspective of a Canadian francophile couple.

Vos questions de parents, "Pour aider vos enfants a grandir," a website in French with activities and advice divided up by children's ages.

PicassoHead, a face drawing game that you can play with your young children (and that older kids can play by themselves).  While it's not a language-based game, it provides lots of opportunities to discuss facial features using vocabulary more sophisticated than just "nose" and "smile" and "brown eyes" in the target language.

Get Bilingual, a growing series of YouTube tutorials about teaching your own second language to your children (or just staying a step ahead as you learn along with them).

And in a new category for my blogroll, "Global Learning," because I wanted to highlight these blogs and websites that encourage learning about other cultures and countries, even though most of these links don't focus specifically on languages:

Global Table Adventure, a blog by a mom whose family is learning about the culture and food of every country in the world (in alphabetical order) via their own kitchen in the US.

InCulture Parent, "a magazine for parents raising little global citizens" with articles and essays, including some by bloggers I really admire, Jan and Souad from BabelKid and Coco from Multilingual Mama.

Moms Gone Global, "helping parents raise happy, healthy, globally-enlightened kids," with crafts, activities, recipes, and more, with a global flare.

Drag-and-drop Middle East map quiz--because the region stretches as far west as French-speaking Morocco (and because I can't keep my -stans straight)

And what links would you like to recommend?

Oh, okay, if you insist: one more photo.  This is my niece Eleanor (14 months) with her  baby cousin Gwyneth.