So, everything is packed? All your cherishing belongings are packed, have bidden goodbye and ready to move to some other country. In the journey, your children form the most essential cargo. The thing you do worries you the most when you think of its impact on your little ones. You keep on thinking how they will adapt to the new climate, culture and the schools without losing their own culture and mannerisms. It is better that you immerse into the new culture and try to grab them.
How can you help your kids in adjusting with the new language and culture? Here are some simple parenting tips of raising the bilingual children.
- Find out one local playgroup
Every parent tries to create minimal disturbances in the lives of their kids by creating a familiar atmosphere for them. To make their kids adjust to the new language and culture, parents enroll them to one local playgroup. Within a few months, the new language and culture become more familiar and lesser foreign to them. When the kids see other children trying to communicate with other parents in some other language, they will get an encouragement for the same.
- Send to Local Language Classes Weekly
Besides playing with local children, if kids are sent for weekend classes to learn local language they will get additional advantage. This way children will not only get adjusted to the new culture very easily, they will also gain confidence. This is a wonderful parenting idea to make your children adjust to the new environment.
Visiting the Local Market is a Way of Learning New Culture for Kids
- Cook and Eat Local Cuisine Real culture of any place is portrayed through the food they eat. It tells so many things about the people of the place and their culture. Local street markets are the best locations where you can witness the relation between the inhabitants of the place and their culture. Learning and preparing local dishes at home give you the scope to expose your kids to another element associated with new culture. This will give overall nourishment for the youths.
- Speak and Read Different Languages
You can speak as well as read in diverse languages at home. However, this is hard, if you don’t have fluency in it. But it is always better to start learning right within the family. Parents have to do some home work to bring up bilingual children. You have to learn new terms and words from dictionary and assign small tasks to each other to check whether you are able to do with it. You can go to local restaurants and order food in their local language. Though it sounds to be funny, this is a great way of getting accustomed to the bilingual environment in an easy way.
These are some of the guidelines you can try to be familiar with the new environment and culture you face. A little bit of effort will enable you and your whole family to make adjustments to the new setup. Certain modes of learning are very effective and give you real time results.
Summary: Parenting is a crucial task played in upbringing a child. For bilingual children parents have to take some specific measures.
Author’s Bio: Mary is a professional blogger. She writes articles on different aspects of kids. Her articles has made great contribution to Toddlerandbabytoys.co.uk/Baby-Rattles.
I live in a small Georgia town that you most likely have never heard of and I LOVE it! My house is more than full as I am a single mother of four & caregiver to my aging mother and uncle. Lover of all things Outlander. Goes to the beat of her own drum woman.
Deb E says
Appreciate the tips here, especially living in culturally rich Los Angeles! I learned a few Spanish words at my grocery store and some I had to look up. It led to trying new foods so I second that suggestion to visit the local market.
Robin Wilson says
I always look forward to reading these kinds of posts as you always have the best ideas and suggestions. I just love the food suggestion ~ go figure! My MIL is also volunteering at her local library to read to the kids each week in Spanish. She is great with kids and it is a wonderful way for them to learn Spanish.