exploring purpose and belonging across worlds
Today is launch day for "Moving abroad with children" and "Raising bilingual children: when school speaks a different language". Both these books are based on our experience moving from the UK and now living in the Netherlands. Writing them has been a valuable experience, as it has made me realise how much things have changed... Continue Reading →
"Raising bilingual children: when school speaks a different language" releases in just a couple of days. Here is a sneak peek from the introduction to show you what you can expect in the rest of the book. We are an English family and nearly five years ago we moved to a small town in the... Continue Reading →
Last week I had parent teacher meetings for both children. These were fifteen minute sessions with their teachers and without the children there. And we have these three times a year now - late autumn, early spring and before the summer holiday. Both of them are doing OK, though I was told of some areas... Continue Reading →
One of the joys of having children who speak two languages is watching them learn them both. Hearing them talk to each other in a mishmash of them. Helping them learn words that they only know in the other language. That they can teach you words that you haven't learnt yet. Now that both children... Continue Reading →
What I hadn't thought about when learning a new language was that it's not only the words that are different. The sounds that things make are different too. For example in Dutch cows say "boo" and cockerels crow "kukuleku". And recently I found out that the sirens of Dutch emergency vehicles go tatu tatu not... Continue Reading →
Dutch public libraries have an annual offer, where for the months of July and August they provide a pre-defined list of ebooks freely available for all library members. These books are all in Dutch, but they cover a variety of age groups (from 4yo to adult) and a variety of genres. They're available through a... Continue Reading →
Last week I found out that I passed my re-take of the Dutch NT2-2 exam. So I have now completed the qualification. My First New Year's Resolution completed for 2017! Doing the exam the second time around I knew what to expect and I used the time better. The longer questions have thinking time before... Continue Reading →
A little while ago we went to see Dirk Scheele at the theatre. He's a Dutch children's rock star. We quite like his songs and listen to them frequently. One night after the concert rocket boy was trying to go to sleep, and complained that when he tried to translate one of the songs into... Continue Reading →
Well I'm getting on with Dutch. I've even writted a blog post in Dutch. I feel I should admit that I did have help from my Dutch teacher with it as you can see below. I'm finding it easier to have conversations, though more than one person is still difficult. As it tends to go... Continue Reading →
