A Bilingual Love Story

A Bilingual Love Story

A Bilingual Love Story

When you hear the words love and story I bet you start thinking about two people poetically in love. Add Italy and you can already picture the two of them sharing dinner at a ristorante like Lady and The Tramp with candles slowly burning between their glasses of wine. And even if a love story about Italy often involves a man with dark eyelashes and a charming accent, we'll leave the men for now.

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Super Easy Spring Language Workbook for Children - Free Download

Super Easy Spring Language Workbook for Children - Free Download

Super Easy Spring Language workbook for children - Free download

We’ve reached the Summer term! I hope you’re all back to school and into a routine?

For all school subjects, Spring is great season to inspire little ones to learn. There are so many animals, colours, words to use and get their minds buzzing.

Due to this I’ve created another language workbook to support their learning.

If you downloaded the Easter workbook I did earlier in the month, you know what to expect. If not, here is what’s included:

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World Book Day 2019 - Bilingual Book Ideas

World Book Day 2019 - Bilingual Book Ideas

I can’t believe it’s that time of year again when we all celebrate the brilliant initiative World Book Day! It seems to come around so quickly and this year I have two children old enough to take part!

They will be going to school as a shark and a penguin carrying their favourite books. There has been a bit of backlash this year from people claiming that children just dress up and don’t actually care about the books.

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WIN! 3 month membership to Gru Languages English resources for children [closed]

WIN! 3 month membership to Gru Languages English resources for children [closed]

English Language resources for children!

So the New Year has arrived and already we are all about giving you plenty of help with raising those bambini!

This week we’ve teamed up with lovely Sarah, the Founder of Gru Languages.

If you haven’t discovered Gru yet, they offer over 800 resources which suit children learning English as a second/third language or for English speaking children in reception and Year 1.

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Simple everyday activities to boost your bilingual child’s language skills

Simple everyday activities to boost your bilingual child’s language skills

Simple everyday activities to boost your bilingual child’s language skills

Raising bilingual children is not an easy task, but it is something absolutely worth investing the time and effort in. With 2 bilingual and multicultural kids, there are certainly a few things I learned along the way to do and started incorporating early on with my kids to support them in their language learning processes.

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Brexit News! Why should I learn a language - Post Brexit?

Brexit News! Why should I learn a language - Post Brexit?

Brexit News! Why should I learn a language - Post Brexit?

With the parliamentary vote on Theresa May’s Brexit Deal meant to be taking place TODAY. Then chaos has taken over once again and it’s now delayed! I thought this would be a good time to reassess this question!

Why should I learn a language post Brexit? This was a very popular article last time it was published so I thought I would share again today and see how we feel about it now, almost a year later!

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How fluent would you like your child's language to be?

How fluent would you like your child's language to be?

How fluent would you like your child's language to be?

Bilingual Children - Week #21

This week on Bilingual children I’m sharing a document I’ve created on levels of fluency.

It’s very easy to have in your mind that you would like your child to be bilingual without maybe considering what this really means.

If you think long and hard about how you would like your child to use a language; where they will use it? How well they will speak it? This will help you decide how much learning and effort needs to go into the process.

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German Bilingual Children's Books - Week #20

German Bilingual Children's Books - Week #20

German Bilingual Children's Books

Bilingual Children - Week #20

This week on our Bilingual Children series I'm focusing on German resources. 

This is actually a language I studied at school and although I'm very rusty, I'm considering introducing it to my son as his third language. 

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The trials of raising a bilingual child in small-town Italy

The trials of raising a bilingual child in small-town Italy

The trials of raising a bilingual child in small-town Italy - Guest post by Rochelle Del Borrello

This week I'm delighted to welcome Rochelle Del Borrello from the wonderful blog Sicily Inside & Out Rochelle is an Australian with Italian heritage and lives in Sicily. She is married to an Italian and has been raising her little boy with her native English from birth. I love that she explains so well the real daily challenge of raising a bilingual child. You do need to be persistent but the rewards are immense! I’m very excited to look for podcasts for children as well!

Have a read of her lovely insights into raising a child in the minority language but in an area of Italy where English is not widely spoken.

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How to nurture happy bilingual babies, minus the anxiety

How to nurture happy bilingual babies, minus the anxiety

How to nurture happy bilingual babies, minus the anxiety

Bilingual Children - Week #19

Welcome back to Mammaprada! I feel like we are starting afresh with the new school term. 

I hope you all had a lovely Summer and had some time with friends and family either at home or abroad. What did you get up to? Tell me below in the comments!

Thank you to everyone who is a regular reader of Mammaprada. It's great to have you back again and there is A LOT coming over the next few months. I will have both of my children in school finally! So my capacity has increased and all the little projects I've been dying to get off the ground I am hoping will come to fruition! 

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Les Petits Tigres! French classes for children

Les Petits Tigres! French classes for children

Les Petits Tigres! French classes for children

Bilingual Children - Week #18

Guest post by Jackie Colchester

This week on our 'Bilingual children' series, I'm delighted to welcome Jackie Colchester, founder of the brilliant Les Petits Tigres!

A wonderful company offering French language classes for children. Jackie is passionate in her quest to help us all learn through music, song, her creative props and Monsieur Le Tigre! 

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The Bittersweet Life; a perfect podcast on life in Italy

The Bittersweet Life; a perfect podcast on life in Italy

The Bittersweet Life; a perfect podcast on life in Italy

If you love a podcast or need a reason to start listening in, this is your chance!

The Bittersweet Life is a podcast run by two expats, writer Tiffany Parks and radio producer Katy Sewell. It's based on their unique experiences of life in Rome. The wonder and yet sometimes the bittersweet aspects of life abroad.

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7 Language learning hacks for holidays

7 Language learning hacks for holidays

7 Language learning hacks for holidays

Are you off on holiday soon and not sure who to keep up with your child' language learning? Or maybe you're around this Summer and would love to begin or continue the momentum you've created? 

If so I've gathered together 7 products which can be used at home or away without taking up too much space. 

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French Bilingual Children's Books - Week #14

French Bilingual Children's Books - Week #14

French Bilingual Children's Books

Bilingual Children - Week #14

This week on our Bilingual Children series I've decided to focus on the French language. 

Hopefully this will be useful as many families will have French as one of their home languages. However even if your family is monolingual this is one of the first languages English speaking children learn at school.

I've put together a list of resources for different age groups, which will help you introduce French at home, should you wish to! 

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5 Italian Words or Phrases (#DolceVitaBloggers)

5 Italian Words or Phrases (#DolceVitaBloggers)

5 Italian Words or Phrases (#DolceVitaBloggers)

This month at Dolce Vita Bloggers we're writing about our 5 Favourite Italian Words or Phrases!

It's pretty hard to pick just five as you come across so many wonderful words when you study languages. 

These are mine, although I had to do words AND phrases as there were too many! 

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Tips For Submitting Minority Language to Memory

Tips For Submitting Minority Language to Memory

Bilingual Children - Week #13

All words are equal, but some words are more equal than others

When I started attaching a word of the day to the front door before going to work, back in September 2016. I didn’t have a real plan: I didn’t know how long it would have lasted for, I didn’t focused on any particular group of words.

I didn’t set a target . It was only my genuine desire to grow my son’s vocabulary in the minority language. A simple yet unrefined attempt to boost the number of words he could understand and pronounce in Italian.

It was a Monday to Friday exercise and started almost by chance.

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Bilingual Children - Week #12

Bilingual Children - Week #12

How to stay Bilingual on holiday!

So how do you keep your language learning on track while you're away. You may think it's easier when you're in a routine but going somewhere new can actually help bolster the learning for your children rather than throw them off course.

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