by Ute Limacher-Riebold and Ana Elisa Miranda

Have you ever packed a backpack in the wrong way? Made it too heavy, causing you back pain; brought the wrong or unnecessary things, making it difficult to reach what you actually needed, quickly enough? 

Or have you ever been on a hike where the pace was much faster than yours, so that you ended up exhausted, frustrated and didn’t enjoy the journey?

If we carry too much, the wrong items, or walk too fast, we can get out of breath, frustrated and are more prone to giving up, as we don’t enjoy the journey.

Raising children with multiple languages is a journey that starts before the children are born and never ends. 

Here are 3 tips on how to “travel light” on your multilingual journey: 

1. Define the journey

As parents of multilingual children, we are on some kind of international journey. We either live abroad in our partner’s country, or our partner is a foreigner in our country, or we live in a country where both of us are foreigners. 

Each parent brings his or her very own baggage. This is our cultural background, our attitudes, preferences, habits, patterns, ideas and expectations, our personal experiences, values, beliefs, assumptions, convictions, our way of doing things, as well as our way of communicating, our languages, our memories and more. Our baggage is determined by what we consider important, essential and “good to carry with us” on our life-journey.

When on a journey together, following the same goal and carrying what is necessary to reach it, makes the journey easier. You are less likely to become overwhelmed and to experience attrition. You should have enough energy to focus on what is really important.

• Have you agreed and defined the multilingual journey of your family? 
• What are the short and long term goals for you, your partner, your children?

2. Pack your baggage wisely

The art of packing a backpack is to think carefully about what we really need. Translated to our multilingual journey, this means:

Decide if judgments or expectations (of others as well as our own) are important for us or not. Do they support our short and long term goals?

We all have our very own assumptions, experiences and expectations. Some are relics from our childhood or earlier phases of our life, and we carry them like a safety blanket to give us comfort. 

• Are your expectations aligned with your common goal or are they rather hindering you, your partner or your child? 
• Are the expectations you have realistic and achievable? 

If our assumptions and expectations are realistic, we keep them, if some are not helpful right now, we can put them aside (in a mental drawer).

Have a survival kit. Items we must always bring on a hike are a water bottle, food, a first aid kit and our IDs (and with young children, everything we need to take care of them).

On our multilingual journey, these would be resources that “feed” our languages: books, music, games, podcasts, audiobooks, lessons, playgroups; websites and discussion groups that can give us the necessary support; a guide for parents of multilingual children, or our Toolbox for Multilingual Families, where you can find activities and games to foster your languages and enjoy communicating with your children. 

• Do you know how to keep transmitting your language, in an engaging and motivating way for the whole family?

 
3. Adjust the pace

For a hike to be successful and enjoyable for every family member, it is important to distribute the weights wisely. We adults carry the heavier items, and our children carry the lighter ones. Our older children can also take over some tasks and roles, depending on their abilities and strengths.

During our journey, the pace of our walk should allow us to proceed and progress steadily. This means keeping the pace of the weakest or youngest person in the group, stopping when the youngest or weakest member is tired, because a group – or team – is only as strong and effective as its weakest member. This also means that the group will do their best to support each other to achieve the common goal.

One of our goals on our multilingual journey is to reach the milestones safely and with enough energy left to enjoy the landscape and celebrate the small steps.

• Have you paused to consider the pace you are going? 
• Is every member of the family feeling supported and enjoying the journey? 

We have created a journal prompt to help you reflect on your cultural baggage. Download it here.

Today, September 8, is International Literacy Day. It was created by UNESCO to “remind the international community of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies, and the need for intensified efforts towards more literate societies.”

Literacy is the foundation for lifelong learning. It generates possibilities and opportunities. It allows individuals access to information and participation in society. It empowers individuals, families and communities.  
I believe a more literate world is a better world. 
However, millions of people around the globe still don’t have access to schools, books or technology, which perpetuates the cycle of illiteracy, poverty and inequality. 
I've been thinking about how lucky we are and how we can contribute in small or big ways. So here are some ideas:

Supporting Literacy at Home

• Read together regularly, in all your languages
• Give books as gifts
• Ask for books as gifts
• Organize a book swap party with friends
• Visit the library regularly
• Use your child’s interests to engage in reading and writing. Dinosaurs? Lego? Football? Tik Tok? 
• Play games that involve reading and writing
• Have reading and writing materials easily available 
• Find purposeful ways to engage your children in writing (messages to friends and family, lists, journals, birthday cards, etc)
• Talk about the importance of learning to read and write in your languages

Supporting Literacy in your Community

• Volunteer as a tutor in low-income schools, refugee centers, prisons, shelters, etc
• Volunteer to read aloud at your local library, school or daycare center
• Organize a book donation for low-income schools, daycare centers, etc 
• Organize a contest (short story, poetry, essay, etc)
• Organize a book club 
• Organize an information session for parents on the importance of reading with their children 

Supporting Literacy Globally

• Donate time, expertise or money to organizations, such as:

           Books for Africa
           Book Aid International
           World Literacy Foundation
           LitWorld
           Pencils of Promise 
​

We can all play a part in creating a more literate and fair world. 

What do you think?

I've been journaling my busy mind away since I was thirteen years old. The quiet moment between me, the beautiful red notebook I had, and my thoughts - the act of writing them down, putting them into words, organizing them and finding sense in everything (well, not always) has helped me calm my mind and gain perspective in many situations. 

This was also how my passion for the written word started - I realized how well I could express myself and how I enjoyed crafting with words. Since then I went on to write many short stories (in Portuguese, published in a collection), blog posts, a novella and a book. 

That was journaling in the most popular sense of the word. 

Now throughout my teaching practice I've discovered that children can journal too - in many different ways! And what they have to gain from it is just as rich:

• They can learn to sit with their emotions, think about and express them.
• They can follow an interest, have a hobby and enjoy recording it.
• They can become more fluent, confident writers. 
• They can become better communicators. 
• They can learn that writing doesn’t have to be a chore, that it can be cozy and creative. 
• And they can see how powerful a tool the written word can be. 

In a multilingual home, journaling can be a compelling and effective way to make writing a habit and to support literacy in your family languages. Good reading and writing skills are a sum of consistent, small, daily efforts. So if literacy in the minority language is one of your goals, you will need to be persistent, patient and have a variety of activities under your sleeve.

If you'd like to DIY, here are some prompts you can translate to your language(s) and adapt to your family. You can write them on strips of paper and put them in a jar, box or tin; you can print them and glue them on popsicle sticks; you can make a little booklet and gift it this holiday season! 

52 Journal Prompts for Kids to Record Their Lives and Thoughts
300 Creative Writing Prompts for Kids 
(If you search for 'Journal Prompts for Kids' in your language you will find lots of great ideas!)

I have also researched and selected a few journals for your inspiration. Some are available in different languages, others aren't. I would love to know if you have a recommendation of a journal in your language! 

A Pandemic Journal: Free Printable in Multiple Languages
The Happy Self Journal (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, German, French, Italian)
Big Life Journals 
I Love the Earth: A Journal for Celebrating and Protecting our Planet
I Love Science: A Journal for Self-Discovery and Big Ideas
Journals by Wee Society 
Me and My Big Move
Over Ons, Van Ons (Dutch)

Journaling is one of the tips for Writing Motivation you can find in The Toolbox for Multilingual Families. Add this book to your multilingual parenting arsenal!

Happy Writing! :)