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Third Culture Mama

Raising bridge-builders

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Third Culture

Growing a world-shaped heart

July 27, 2016 Third Culture Mama

I just love that French word “terroir”, most often used in reference to wine. Terroir describes that dynamic process by which the whole environment: climate, geography, soil, air – gives […]

Third Culture

The fantastic gift of being a Third Culture Kid

July 20, 2016July 21, 2016 Third Culture Mama

Hey kiddos, it’s your own Third Culture Mama here (with papa chiming in!). It’s your parents who watch from the edge of our seats as you slowly attempt to recreate […]

Third Culture

New Eyes for an Old Home: Adult Third Culture Kids

June 29, 2016June 29, 2016 Third Culture Mama

“I am sure you’ll be so thankful to be back home in your country” wrote my friend in a farewell card as all the cogs were in motion for us […]

International Move

Keeping the family afloat

June 10, 2016November 15, 2016 Third Culture Mama

We uprooted our life just one week ago. That’s when we moved our family of five from city life in the United States to a small village in France. Wow. […]

Transition

Let the stuff go, baby!

May 23, 2016May 24, 2016 Third Culture Mama

We’re down to the final week in our house. We’ve entered that painful stage of moving where living in our house is no longer enjoyable. You know, the one where […]

Transition

Neither here nor there

May 12, 2016May 12, 2016 Third Culture Mama

Our last month in the United States is flying by at a breakneck pace. I had all these ideas of topics to blog about, but I am not finding the […]

Transition

Big news for our family

April 27, 2016April 30, 2016 Third Culture Mama

In case you’ve caught word, friends, the rumors are true. In just five weeks from today, we will move our little family of five to a village in France. It’s […]

Multilingualism

Ignore the kids!

April 18, 2016April 19, 2016 Third Culture Mama

There is plenty of advice out there about getting kids to speak a second or third (weaker) language. One of my absolute favorite ways to get the kids speaking a […]

Multicultural

Raising Global Citizens at Home – online summit

April 10, 2016April 10, 2016 Third Culture Mama

You might have noticed the button on the right side of my page promoting this week’s virtual summit. If not, don’t worry, I ‘m here to tell you all about […]

Travel with kids

Pediatricians around the world!

April 7, 2016April 8, 2016 Third Culture Mama

We just recently took all three kids, ages four and under, to our pediatrician here in the United States. It’s difficult to even describe the level of chaos generated by […]

Birthday

This is my world.

March 31, 2016March 8, 2017 Third Culture Mama

Hi. I’m Ayo and it was my birthday this month. I’m four years old now. Ayo is my nickname. It’s actually my middle name. It’s short for Ayodelé. That’s not […]

Multicultural

Great gifts for multicultural families

March 21, 2016April 5, 2016 Third Culture Mama

I’m not a very creative gift giver. I’ll often Google to find last minute gift ideas. (Please tell me I am not alone?) Well, guess what I found when I […]

Multilingualism

For weary parents of bilinguals

February 22, 2016February 23, 2016 Third Culture Mama

A very pregnant Nae chased me around the park. She had overheard me speaking to the kids in French and was looking for tips. Encouragement, really. Nae had stopped speaking […]

Motherhood

Inside my Tuesday home

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016 Third Culture Mama

It’s Tuesday. Gone is the ambition of Monday. Friday seems so far away. Tuesday is on the way to somewhere and it hasn’t arrived yet. My Tuesday home is surrounded […]

Review

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

January 23, 2016January 25, 2016 Third Culture Mama

I jumped right into All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, the fifth of Maya Angelou’s seven part autobiographical series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In this installment, Angelou writes about […]

Third Culture

6 tips for TCKs returning “home”

January 18, 2016January 19, 2016 Third Culture Mama

The move to my passport culture, a country I hadn’t lived in for 20 years, was littered with pain and grief. I felt the physical ache in my heart as […]

Multilingualism

New language goals!

January 8, 2016January 8, 2016 Third Culture Mama

You might remember how down I was on New Year’s resolutions in 2015. I didn’t set any goals at the beginning of last year other than the resolve to just […]

Review

2015: Top 5 Inspiring Books

January 1, 2016January 1, 2016 Third Culture Mama

Happy New Year 2016, friends! May your year be filled with meaning, marked by joy in your relationships, and surrounded in peace. Thank you for reading my reflections over the […]

Health

November unplugged

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Here are a few snapshots from our challenge to get outside each day in November. This was our second year participating. Such a fun way of being intentional about staying […]

Birth

Pregnant! Now what?!

November 26, 2015January 2, 2016 Third Culture Mama

Isn’t it such a great thing that we were given a full 9+ months to prepare for the babies that end up in our arms? Even third time round, it […]

Review

Freefall to Fly

November 3, 2015November 5, 2015 Third Culture Mama

A few months back, I wrote a review of the novel Americanah because of its rich layers and interwoven themes: Immigration, The Third Culture, Cross-cultural living. Books must really be of […]

Multilingualism

Language-learning: an alive, natural, changing process

October 23, 2015April 1, 2016 Third Culture Mama

When I first thought about this month’s Multilingual Carnival topic on “lost languages“, I didn’t think we had all that much to share. Our kids are all under four years […]

Travel

When kids aren’t a distraction to your calling…

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 Third Culture Mama

I plucked up the courage to leave my chaotic and needy small humans to invest into my future at Influence Conf this month. The time away was such a gift […]

Review

On race, immigration and love: Americanah

August 27, 2015August 28, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Introducing a book that depicts life pretty accurately on three continents and unpacks the sensitive subject of race in a relatively non-judgmental fashion. It’s a book that also humanizes the […]

Long-distance

Beyond Skype: let’s stay in touch!

August 20, 2015August 21, 2015 Third Culture Mama

8264km / 5135miles. That is the closest I have lived to my parents in the past seven years. In the meantime, we’ve had children that can walk, talk, communicate. Despite […]

Bilingualism

Little language vignettes

August 12, 2015August 13, 2015 Third Culture Mama

After picking up a collection of short stories on clearance at a bookstore earlier this year, I rediscovered a wealth of beauty in the novella. That seemingly random purchase taught […]

Multicultural

“They’re gonna hate you for it”

July 16, 2015July 17, 2015 Third Culture Mama

I have been grateful for so many encouraging comments and emails about traveling with small kids, multilingualism, and cross-cultural living on social media. Then, almost out of nowhere, this one […]

Third Culture

On saying goodbye

July 2, 2015July 2, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Saying goodbye is nothing foreign to expats, Third Culture Kids or highly mobile people. Sadly, though, many of us are known for being quite poor with our farewells. We may […]

Travel with kids

Adventures in China with small kids

June 25, 2015June 27, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Not so many Western families travel to China with young kids for a vacation. That was the first thing that struck us as we flew to Shanghai a few weeks […]

Multilingualism

Bilingual Avenue Podcast

June 17, 2015June 17, 2015 Third Culture Mama

I am really honored to feature on this week’s episode of Bilingual Avenue, a weekly podcast with insightful tips and advice from language experts and normal parents like us, raising […]

Travel with kids

“H” is for…Humility

June 5, 2015October 21, 2015 Third Culture Mama

“I’m going to China, where are you going, Grammie?” Ayo asked last week as if nothing were. I didn’t think much of it at the time but it really marked […]

Education

When in France and when artists write kids’ books

May 7, 2015July 2, 2015 Third Culture Mama

“Maman!! Un livre sur les toins!!” cried my son at the top of his lungs as he discovered a gorgeous detailed fold out “twain” book at my parents’ village library. […]

Multilingualism

Sibling dynamics in multilingualism

April 27, 2015July 2, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Choosing and implementing a language strategy with your first child is often more straightforward than when the next child comes along. We generally speak more to our first-borns, we spend […]

Third Culture

Good grief.

March 26, 2015March 28, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Late last night, I mustered up the courage to flick through my old blog that accompanied me like a best friend from graduate school, outlasting even my first two real […]

Multicultural

Learn about Asia through crafts & activities!

March 12, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Today, I have the immense honor to host the March Multicultural Kids Blog carnival on the topic of Asian crafts and activities. In fact, I am posting this on my […]

Multicultural

Beautiful multicultural books for children

March 3, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Take a quick tour of the children’s classics in Anglo-Saxon literature and you will see a glaring predominance of Caucasian protagonists. I don’t feel it is wrong to feature white […]

Schooling

The school question

February 26, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Over the past couple of years, as parents of older kids discussed preschool, my eyes would glaze over. We have time, and we won’t be living in the United States […]

Multilingualism

Expecting a multilingual baby!

February 19, 2015May 6, 2015 Third Culture Mama

What a life-altering experience it is to welcome a first baby into your home. Like many first time mamas who find themselves in this age of information overload, I felt […]

Multicultural

What? I’m not calling them “maids”!

February 13, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

It started with a whole lot of tension and ended with a whole lot of compromise. It climbed hills of heartache but led to a lush land of so much […]

Third Culture

Ditching Brittany

February 10, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

I sat in my favorite solid wooden chair at our kitchen table and stared out the window. Many an “aha” moment has come to me on this comforting chair with […]

Motherhood

Be.

January 19, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

You know you are getting older when you get all negative about setting New Year’s resolutions. It’s kind of sad when you lose that youthful trust in humanity and in […]

Spirituality

The time I almost missed Christmas

December 17, 2014December 9, 2016 Third Culture Mama

We all have hopes and longings for our children. We want them to learn to crawl, to walk, to talk. We want them to care for others, to be bridge-builders, […]

Third Culture

That global vs. local tension

December 3, 2014May 6, 2015 Third Culture Mama

A friend of mine recently sent me a message with a question that got me thinking. He asked me how I developed a hunger for both local and global experiences, […]

Multicultural

Advent around the world

December 1, 2014December 1, 2014 Third Culture Mama

Living in Germany first gave me an insight into the craft of the homemade advent calendar. Ten years ago, a German friend of mine showed me a perfectly engineered cardboard […]

Bilingualism

Bilingualism: 3 Myths

November 19, 2014November 26, 2014 Third Culture Mama

It is amazing how much unsolicited and unfounded advice you receive when you expose your children to multiple languages. These misconceptions often come from individuals who never had a bilingual […]

Motherhood

Inside the frame

November 5, 2014May 7, 2015 Third Culture Mama

After the kids’ naps, we brought them outside to lounge with us four adults outside on this spectacular October afternoon in the Vallée Verte. My parents, Tall Mountain and I […]

Review

Lullabies of the World

October 1, 2014November 23, 2014 Third Culture Mama

Looking for peaceful lullabies that you will like / won’t drive you totally bonkers when played over and over in the car? Check! On the hunt for lullabies from all […]

Cultural Reflections

This gift of diversity

September 19, 2014January 16, 2015 Third Culture Mama

How desperately, do I want to teach our kids to be lovers of this world. Interesting then, when it actually came to inviting the so-called ‘world’ into our home (without us […]

Silent Sunday

August 3, 2014November 23, 2014 Third Culture Mama

Motherhood

River rock

August 1, 2014February 24, 2016 Third Culture Mama

Blogging conundrum. How do I move forward? Not writer’s block. More like ‘blocked by a waterfall of transformational thoughts’. Thoughts, triggering realizations so life-changing that so many of my earlier […]

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'Raising multilingual children' blogging carnival
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