BLOGGING CARNIVAL - The Multilingual Classroom

I do not know why I wished to take part to the Blogging Carnival of MKB, but I am delighted I did.

It is challenging for me as I am not writing regularly, but I discovered a lot of very interesting people who are blogging regularly to share about the challenges they face when raising multilcultural children. It is absolutely fascinating.

I was first interested in talking about mathematics in a foreign languages - as I feel it is quite challenging to count, but also to measure and cook in a foreign languages. When you are born in a country using metrics, it is not easy to change. When you measure for cooking in grams and kilos, it is not easy to use cups and spoons. The way we are acting has been more or less conditionned by the way we were brought up, by our education. Who can count easily in a foreign language? Who does not go back to his ou her own system and the way he or she leant to count when making additions, substractions... when shopping??? It is for me a fascinating question.

We decided to go for the Multilingual Classroom. 

I got quite interesting post and am sharing them with you here: 

Carol from A French American Life is sharing with us the experiences she is having in teaching French in the preschool of her daughter: French Lessons for Preschoolers With a bit load of patience and a lot of fun, Carol manages the class to discover songs, food... the joy of the language teacher. 

Jennifer from American Mom in Bordeaux went also in the classroom. She decided to present the traditional American Thankgiving to the school where her daughters are going. Thankgiving 2013 and Creating New Traditions is how she presented with crafts and songs, but also how she is able to bring in her new home, France. Teaching her home tradition to the new world where she is now.

Maria Babin  from Trilingual Mama has decided to try and make her children write in their minority language. How can she be Encouraging Multilingual Children to write in their Minority Language. Maria gives us fives very interesting ways to encourage them without forcing them. It is true that having our children write in the minority language can be a challenge and we get here very nice and useful tips.

Julie from Open Wide the World decided to look at the difference between Language Immersion Programs vs Home-Based Bilingualism. It is a full program in itself. Full of interesting details and information, Julie makes us think about the manner we would like our children to learn our mother tongue when we are living abroad, but also do we want them to learn other languages? I would also ask the question.

It is really interesting to see what a Multilingual Classroom would mean for a few of us. 

I think the classroom is the everyday life when each day you help your children discover something new about your home country, about the things which are part of your culture and the way you try to pass it on. 

Do we consider our home to be classroom? Or is the classroom only in a school with a formal setting?
I would believe that when we wish to raised multilingual children, the classroom is home. It is the place where we can pass on most of what we have. It is the place where children are learning and as we try to raise our children in more than one language and more than one culture, our homes are multicultural classrooms. 

I hope you enjoyed this Blogging Carnival as much as I did - even though it was the first for me and I have to thank Annabelle for her kindness and her help. I look forward for your comments.