Welcome to The Cultured Kid's Blog

Bella Devyatkina, from Moscow, Russia, is a little language superstar. 

At just 4 years old, this mini multi-lingual darling was speaking 7 different languages -

English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and Arabic - in addition to her native Russian.

And no, Bella wasn’t raised by parents who were fluent in all 7 languages and her mom doesn’t consider her a genius - just a ‘regular’ toddler who happened to love learning new languages.

Be ready to get inspired by little Bella and her mama Yulia! They prove what is possible when you start teaching your child from a young age - even if you don’t speak the language yourself.

Bella started learning when she was just 2 years old 

According to Bella’s mum Yulia, a native Russian speaker, the key is to start introducing your child to their new language (or languages) as early as possible. 

She introduced English to Bella at just two years old and noticing her interest and ease...

Miche's Story

“We’ve travelled the world, learnt lots of languages and I thought it would be a great idea to pass that skill onto my kids!”

Meet Miche. Originally from South Africa, Miche is a globe-trotting mama who joined the Cultured Home Program to teach her kiddos ( 2, 4 and 6 years) to speak French.

Questioning her ability to teach a language she didn’t speak herself

Although she was familiar(ish) with French sounds, Miche admits wasn’t 100% confident in her capability to teach the French program to her kids.

“But once I got into the program, it was almost like I didn’t need to have any background in French - it was so clear on how to pronounce the words watching the videos.”

Exactly! That’s how The Cultured Home program has been designed. To make it easy-peasy for all mums, especially non-native speakers, to introduce a new language to their little ones. 

“It was pretty easy to do. Once I got into the lessons, I...

“To have a program that’s already been set out for me, just made it so much easier!”

Meet Erin. She’s an amazing Mum of two kiddos - Luca and baby Giselle - and a member of the Cultured Home Program. 

A non-native speaker who wants her kids to connect with their heritage.

Erin comes from German heritage but isn’t a native speaker. Her father never spoke German at home so Erin missed out on learning as a child and found it a challenge to learn as an adult. 

She didn’t want to make the same mistake with her own kiddos!

She wanted them to understand more about their heritage and also be able to speak another language - for all the awesome reasons we know.

From zero interest in German, to loving his lessons!

Before joining The Cultured Home program, Erin struggled to introduce German to Luca at home, he just wasn’t interested.

Now? It’s a totally different story - hooray! 

After just two weeks of the program, Luca was loving...

Your kiddo’s young mind is wired to pick up new languages naturally. 

Lucky them, huh! Us adults can have a tougher time getting a handle on new vocabulary.

This is why it’s ideal to introduce a second language early, even while they’re still learning English. 

Giving your child a motivating, fun environment and activities to learn new words will help boost the cognitive milestones they hit in those early learning stages.  

Let’s take a look at some easy-peasy ways to nurture your child’s second language development at home from bubs to 6 years old.  

Play-based learning activities (Babies - 4 years)

Play is the universal language of kids and plays (pardon the pun) an incredibly important role in helping your child learn new words and phrases. If you missed my article about play-based learning, I recommend checking it out over here. 

Play helps develop listening skills, the ability to follow directions, develop...

What to expect when raising a bilingual child 

Stepping into the world of raising a bilingual child can feel a little bit daunting.

It’s certainly how I felt in the early days of teaching my kids a second language. 

Whether you’re a native speaker or not, you’ve probably got a few questions you’d love answered about the whole raising a bilingual child adventure….

Can I teach my child a second language while they’re learning English...or will it totally confuse them?

How much time do I need to dedicate to teaching?

When should I start?

For these answers and more, I chatted with educator and trilingual mother, Madalena Xanthopoulou from The Alma Collective.

Born in Brussels (the French part) to a Greek speaking father and German speaking mother, Madalena experienced first hand what it's like to grow up with a multitude of cultures and languages. 

She is passionate about providing not only her children with language opportunities but...

“How many languages can kids actually learn at the same time?”

It’s a question I’m asked a lot by mamas in our Cultured Home crew. 

The super-quick answer? 

Kids (including toddlers) can learn to speak multiple languages at the same time. 2, 3, 4….or more languages at once.

If you’re like WOAH…...check out this mini-language genius for even more WOAH-ness! At just 4, Bella Devyatkina could speak six foreign languages plus her native Russian!

But the number of languages your child can learn simultaneously really depends on a variety of factors. So, let’s dive into the longer answer to that question. 

Your child can learn multiple languages if…..

You give them enough exposure

The amount of exposure your child has to multiple languages will play the biggest role in how well they get a handle on each one.

Parents can come up with all kinds of strategies to promote language exposure at home!

Let’s say in a...

Toddler-hood has arrived and your super keen for your little one to start talking! 

In English and in French. Or whatever language you’ve got your bilingual heart set on.

Hearing those first words will make your heart bubble up with joy and you think you’ll **never get tired of hearing them say “Mama, Mama!”

(**ahhhhh.... how quickly that could change)

Of course, in the absence of real problems, your little one is going to learn to talk eventually but there are lots of ways you can encourage their bilingual language development day by day.

And nope, you won’t mess with your toddlers head by introducing a second language while they’re still learning English! This is actually the BEST time to do it. 

I’ve put together these 8 quick tips I hope you find helpful to encourage your toddler to speak another language or if you need some practical tips you can download my starter guide.

When does the talking action begin

Here’s a...

When I first started teaching my kids French, I made a bunch of mistakes.

Which is kinda expected because hey, I didn’t really know what I was doing back then... and I also wasn’t a native speaker. 

All I really knew at the time was this:

I want to give my kids the amazing life skills that come with learning a second language at a young age!

I had fails and I had wins. I had good days where I was thrilled about the progress my kids were making and days of despondency when I felt like a big failure. What the heck was I doing?!

Today I want to share with you some common mistakes that parents make when raising bilingual kids. My hope is these ‘what not to do’ tips will help your experience as a language teaching mama be the best it can be!

Not giving them enough exposure to the native sounds and accents

This is a big one for non-native speaking parents who are raising bilingual kids.

Reading and speaking with your children is great but if you don’t...

Music is powerful stuff. 

We all know what it feels like when a tune gets stuck in your head. 

You know, when you can’t recall what you ate for dinner 5 minutes ago but you can somehow remember all the lyrics to Britney’s greatest hits from 2001 ...even when you totally can’t stand them.

Rhythm and lyrics are master memorisation tools.

And it just so happens music is an effective and easy (yay for easy!) way to begin introducing your kids to a new language - without the overwhelm. 

I had the pleasure of chatting with talented bilingual mama Ana Calabrese, founder of Spanish Plus Me who is all about teaching kids a second language through singing, moving and having fun.

She composes her own songs to teach Spanish with the length, amount of vocabulary, and movement component that makes her language classes fun, interactive and super effective.

I’m excited to share a few thoughts, inspired by our chat, on how and why to use music to introduce a...