Education
To Be Or Not To Be Literate
Living abroad as an expat is hard enough for some, especially if the reason for the move is not out of personal choice, but when children start coming then you add the second language dilema, and when they reach primary school age, then another layer of complexity appears, Literacy.

Bright, colourful and musical Spanish language learning
Long gone are the days of chalky fingers and monochromatic lessons delivered in a monotone voice heavy with the local accent. Just like the monkey-man in 2001 A Space Odyssey set up a long chain of events when he realised that using rock as a tool was a lot cooler than trying to open a […]
The Myth of Early Literacy or Memory at Work in England
One of the main worries of most parents just before their children enter school is the level of Literacy of their children. There are more and more systems to get your child reading quickly, earlier, a lot of the systems even claim that they can help children to start reading at the tender age of […]
Introducing language at home with a granny-aupair
Nowadays most people have heard at one point or other the term “aupair“. Originally from the French, meaning “equal to”, it defines a foreign worker who in exchange of board, a small salary and the chance to immerse themselves in the local language offers her or his services looking after the children and doing domestic […]

Bilingualism boosts Cognitive Function says TED-ed lesson
In newly-uploaded TED-Ed lesson titled, The benefits of a bilingual brain, educator Mia Nacamulli teaches how language learning can boost brain health. The video lesson highlight the the three types of bilingual brains that exist and how attitudes to bilingualism have devloped over time. In the 1960s, the lesson states, bilingualism was seen as a […]
In the media

The importance of early years bilingualism
May 8, 2014 By Lidia 5 Comments
This is an issue at the top of the to-do lists of many parents, along with music, sport, school and many other activities that are thought important for children nowadays. The British Council in Madrid, an education centre established to bring English education to those Britons living abroad as well as many local families who […]
Follow Bilingual Parenting with Bloglovin
April 26, 2014 By David Leave a Comment
Follow my blog with Bloglovin Bloglovin is the best way to get the latest news from your favourite blogs in one place. Add us to find out about new content straight away.

Celebrities speaking other languages
April 13, 2014 By David Leave a Comment
We’re used to US and British-based superstars speaking English. But here are some celebrities who are bilingual, or at least pretty fluent, in other languages. Can you think of any other good ones to add? Here’s Colin Firth being interviewed in italian Mila Kunis’s Russian language interview in Moscow The Fantastic Four’s Ioan Gruffudd speaking […]
Bilingual reviews
Bright, colourful and musical Spanish language learning
Long gone are the days of chalky fingers and monochromatic lessons delivered in a monotone voice heavy with the local accent. Just like the monkey-man in 2001 A Space Odyssey set up a long chain of events when he realised that using rock as a tool was a lot cooler than trying to open a […]
Children’s theatre in Spanish
Stories and storytelling are very important for children. Of course, they love cartoons, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love theatre or plain story telling better when presented to it. If you have the chance to travel abroad to the country where the language your kids are learning is spoken, find out about local venues […]
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, the Chinese counterpart of Dora de Explorer
Ni Hao in Mandarin Chinese means hello. I’ve known this ever since I started working for a Taiwanese company many years ago. However, in all my language obsessed mothering years, I’ve never even attempted to teach my children any Chinese, not even as a dinner party joke (look at my cute children, they can dance […]
Review: A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker 4th Edition
With this new edition, the new classic Colin Baker’s Guide to Bilingualism presents us with answers to the most common questions that parents with bilingual children are faced with. At the same time it introduces new information adapted to the times like bilingualism in the digital age and incorporating the latest research in multilingualism, neonatal […]
Review: Learning to Read and Write in the Multilingual Family by Xiao-lei Wang
Raising bilingual or multilingual children requires dedication and hard work. It also raises an important issue, what to do with Literacy. It is likely that the children in a multilingual family will attend a school or some form of formal education in the country where they are living, where they will be taught to read […]
Review: Salsa, Spanish resources for children
Learning a foreign language in the family is not an activity exclusive to families with one or two bilingual adults. People who don’t speak a language or who speak it to limited proficiency can also make language learning into a fun activity to do with their children. Nowadays we have many resources at our disposal […]
Mama’s view
To Be Or Not To Be Literate
Living abroad as an expat is hard enough for some, especially if the reason for the move is not out of personal choice, but when children start coming then you add the second language dilema, and when they reach primary school age, then another layer of complexity appears, Literacy.
Learning in a British school and the foreign perspective
It is quite normal for everybody, all over the world, to complain about their national school system, it’s either useless, teachers are inept, there is too much homework, or too little, not enough practical activities or too many, and the list goes on. It seems that there is no one single system that we can […]
Papa’s View

Discoveries after 4 years of raising bilingual children
My eldest daughter, Martha, as just turned four and her sister, Malena, has just turned two. Both children have existed in a multilingual environment from day one. Martha speaks English and Spanish to more of less equal fluency and fully understands French, with a much lesser propensity to use it. Looking back over the last […]
Bilingual research

Bilingualism boosts Cognitive Function says TED-ed lesson
In newly-uploaded TED-Ed lesson titled, The benefits of a bilingual brain, educator Mia Nacamulli teaches how language learning can boost brain health. The video lesson highlight the the three types of bilingual brains that exist and how attitudes to bilingualism have devloped over time. In the 1960s, the lesson states, bilingualism was seen as a […]

How Bilingualism can Benefit your Child’s Brain
By Santiago Montero, Spanish Tutor DC, January 2015 Many of us who raise bilingual children aren’t thinking of giving our children a cognitive advantage. If we are married to someone from another country, or living in a different country to our birthplace, we might see raising a bilingual child as maintaining an important part […]

Ten amazing facts about bilingualism
Wondering whether it’s worth raising a child bilingually? Here are some amazing facts about the benefits of speaking more than one language. 1. Bilingualism actually grows grey matter! In the recent past, parents and teachers assumed that teaching children to another language at an early an age would delay their language skills and somehow stunt […]
Recent articles
- To Be Or Not To Be Literate
- Bright, colourful and musical Spanish language learning
- The Myth of Early Literacy or Memory at Work in England
- Introducing language at home with a granny-aupair
- Bilingualism boosts Cognitive Function says TED-ed lesson
- Being a Fish in Foreign Waters
- Challenges in bilingual families no one tells you about
- Teaching to read and write in English
- Learning in a British school and the foreign perspective
- 5 activities to support foreign or second language acquisition
About Bilingual Parenting
Bilingualparenting.com was set up in 2009 by two UK-based parents, David and Lidia, hoping to raise their new baby bilingual to chart their progress and to share knowledge and information with other parents.
David is English and speaks an ‘intermediate level’ Spanish. Lidia is Spanish and multilingual, speaking Spanish, English and French to a bilingual level, with knowledge of Russian, German and Italian.
If you would like to blog with us or contribute articles to the site, please let us know as we’d be happy to have you on board.
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