Raising Trilingual Baby: Websites, books, música, OH MY!
Raising a trilingual baby requires a bag of tricks. For me, those include travel, play dates, books, music, toys, and of course, the Internet.
Thankfully, the Internet opens up the world, and it is no exception for language learning!
Through the internet I can print worksheets in Spanish or French; I can download music or watch videos and read e-books. As with anything, the Internet in language learning has been revolutionary!
Here are my top sites for language learning fun:
SpanglishBaby.com – A wide range of activities, ideas, parent concerns, giveaways, product and book reviews… if you haven’t visited, do it now! (first finish reading this post!!)
Mommy Maestra – Tips, worksheets, and other great resources for homeschooling (and not) parents.
Mamiverse – recently launched Bilingual Plus, an online channel where you can find many resources including books, activities, tips on raising bilingual kids.
Pinterest – Tons of great boards to follow! Check out: Multicultural Kid Blogs
YouTube – Great place to find clips in many different languages! – movies and kids’ shows!
Netflix – movies and kids’ shows!
Skype – use Skype (and FaceTime) to communicate with loved ones overseas and practice language skills!
Of course the Internet is great but sometimes you need more traditional approaches. So, here are my top picks for traditional media:
Flashcards– love these:
Books: I especially like the classics: think (good night moon and all the Eric Carle books)
CDs: I like to play all kinda of music, not only kid music. I like playing cumbias for Enzo for example- music helps teach him about cultures and countries.
DVDs: Many movies have tracks in different languages!
Puzzles:
This one is a book AND a puzzle!!
Last but not least, we are the best resources our kids can have!! (and our familia too! Abuela, Mamie, Papy, Abuelo and caregivers that speak other languages help tremendously too!)
What are you favorite tricks and tips for raising bilingual, multilingual and multicultural kids? Leave a comment below or tweet me @dianalimongi