5 wonderful new cross-cultural books well worth your time
Following a stint of abandoned books, I’ve had the pleasure of reading a few phenomenal ones that have really broadened my horizons. What a relief! It made me think of […]
multicultural
You belong here.
These days, I have been filling my fringe hours preparing for an upcoming Third Culture Kid speaking engagement. In my very early morning researching, there has been a most peculiar […]
The day they asked me to speak to them in different languages
Some of our family’s best conversations happen around the dinner table. I’ll reassure you, some of our worst happen there too. Dinner in a home of young ones is a […]
DIY for Cross-Cultural Families: 8 Lightweight Gifts
There are so many clever DIY gifts out there on the internet, but I’ve been on the lookout for DIY, lightweight (weigh less than 100 grams), and upcycled gifts you’d […]
The not so warm welcome home
The following is a sequel to my last post on our recent trip to America. In that article, I shared how we all went through some adjusting, after being gone […]
Welcome back to America, Third Culture Kids!
The kids were delirious by the time we reached the rental car place in Denver. They kept flipping from giggling to crying, while I tried to make sense of the […]
How families can bridge the academic gap when moving around
I am delighted to feature this guest post written by Christianna Pangalos, Founder and CEO of TwigaTutors. Christianna helps highly-mobile US families scattered across the globe, maintain a consistent US […]
World-schooling… without the camper van!
There’s a LOT of buzz in my circles around “world-schooling”. While definitions differ, most people use the term world-schooling to talk about using the world as your school. World-schooling families […]
When cross-cultural kids are rejected by their own family
From this side of the ocean, I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. Those little moments of laughter or mimicking or side comments are natural and usually not out […]
Third Culture Kids in love: Jackie’s story
Welcome to the third and final part of the “TCKs in Love” interview series. Join me as I interview part Chinese-Malaysian, part Filipino-Chinese Third Culture Kid Jackie who is married […]
Third Culture Kids in love: MaDonna’s story
Welcome to part two of the TCKs in love series. Join me as I interview MaDonna, who was raised in small town America and has been married to her German-Taiwanese […]
TCK love and marriage: survey and giveaway!
Calling all Third Culture Kids in love, married TCKs or all you brave monoculturals married to TCKs! 🙂 I am collecting some data for a workshop I am hosting for […]
2017 Top French language resources for kids
A lot of linguists believe that the best language-learning method is through immersion. As in, moving to a place you have to speak it. Sounds dreamy and idyllic, right? But, […]
10 signs you are (more) at home in your new country… (phew!!)
For quite some time, we will recall the immense strain of our family’s recent move across continents, from Colorado, USA to a village in the Rhône-Alpes in France. The process […]
A simple tool to help young kids remember their travels
Our tired stroller wheels wobbled from side to side along the uneven cobblestone of the Muttrah corniche. My cousin was leading us across the busy street towards the fish market […]
So you want to move for language? The cost of an international move.
“Would you have moved to France, knowing how hard it was going to be?“ my husband asked me in the warmth of a so-called ‘green café’ on a blistery cold […]
6 Ways to show some love to a TCK
By now, you know what a Third Culture Kid (TCK) is. It’s highly possible TCKs are all around you. They are the expat kids, military kids, missionary kids, navy kids […]
Why you are unfit to mother, why ADHD doesn’t exist in France (and other BS)
You’ve seen the viral articles on the web. “European vs. American parenting: You may be embarrassed!” “Why African Toddlers Don’t Have Tantrums!” Well intended observations being morphed into gross, shame-on-you […]
Where do I belong? The early years.
Could my young children already be wrestling with their cultural identity? In preschool?? As with many profound reflections, this one came about at the table, where precious friends asked us […]
The Granny I want to be.
After dropping the kids off at our little village school, I took the right turn that takes me back home. I checked over my shoulder for oncoming cars, and it […]
Holidays are for world-schooling
Well, we’re back from our adventure to Italy. Wow. The film director and family were staying at our place between the London film premiere and a London award ceremonies (yeay!). […]
Visitors: the good and the bad
We don’t know when it happens along the cross-cultural adjustment timeline, but at some point the outsider becomes an insider. You’re developing a sense of belonging in your new home. […]
The apple juice party
Our day got off to a beautifully slow start. Big kids were up before 6:00 but somehow, they played peacefully together giving us an hour to lie in. We moseyed […]
‘Yes’ people in a ‘No’ culture
France is a country that will always be part and parcel of our family. I grew up here, Tall Mountain and I dated and got married here. Despite living in […]
Beautiful multicultural books for all ages – French edition!
Surprisingly, one of the most popular articles ever to appear on this blog was a very simple post called: Beautiful multicultural books for children. I had selected six books my […]
Surprised by Culture Shock!
We’ve lived in France for 90 days and it has probably taken several years off my life. We figured our move with little ones trailing behind was going to stretch […]
New Eyes for an Old Home: Adult Third Culture Kids
“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 […]
Ignore the kids!
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 […]
Raising Global Citizens at Home – online summit
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 […]
Pediatricians around the world!
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 […]
This is my world.
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 […]
Great gifts for multicultural families
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 […]
For weary parents of bilinguals
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 […]
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
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 […]
6 tips for TCKs returning “home”
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 […]
November unplugged
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 […]
On race, immigration and love: Americanah
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 […]
“They’re gonna hate you for it”
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 […]
Bilingual Avenue Podcast
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 […]
Sibling dynamics in multilingualism
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 […]
Good grief.
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 […]
Learn about Asia through crafts & activities!
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 […]
Beautiful multicultural books for children
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 […]
The school question
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 […]
Expecting a multilingual baby!
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 […]
What? I’m not calling them “maids”!
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 […]
Ditching Brittany
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 […]
That global vs. local tension
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, […]
Advent around the world
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 […]
Everyone Poops
As we were picking out some fun potty awareness books for Ayo’s friend’s birthday (pre potty training), we splurged and picked one out for Ayo as well. There are so […]