Friday 3 July 2015

Books, Blues and Bilingualism : Little Loves Week 27

Another little week under our belt... a week of glorious sunshine and incredible heat... a week of wallowing in paddling pool water and seeking shady spots in the garden... a week of recovery for me and adjusting to life with three preschoolers... its been a lovely little week... and here's why...

Read:
I finished "A Sweetness of the Soul" by Jane Kirkpatrick and loved it. I am so checking out her other books now... just good old wholesome, historical fiction with a kick of romance, adventure and drama...based on a true story to boot... I loved following the story of Jane as she lives her life on the Western frontier surrounded by Gold-diggers and native American Indians... a fascinating page turner that I really, really enjoyed!


I've also been reading up some of my favourite blogs and am feeling particularly inspired after blogger Courtney Adamo made her announcement on her blog this week. You can read her story for yourself in the Telegraph this weekend.

Watched:
Parenthood, Parenthood and more Parenthood. Seriously. I'm totally hooked, and loving working my way through Series three, courtesy of my lovely friend Jenny... Jenny, I'll be chasing you for series four soon! Seriously, though, if you're after a good box-set, the story of the Braverman family will have you laughing, crying and nodding along with empathy!


I also watched this fascinating Ted-Talks video about the benefits of a bilingual brain... for those of you who didn't know, we are raising our children trilingual (German, Norwegian and English) and I found this film to be a fascinating, and so far accurate, explanation of how multlingual children's brains work. Really interesting and worth a watch... you can find out more about our muiltilingual adventure here.



Heard:
These three together... I love the way the girls talk to Jonas... they just mimic what they hear, and so they adopt this high pitched voice and chatter away to him, asking his opinions on things and informing me of his answers... they are like little mother hens and my biggest challenge right now is to stop them smothering him! There is no doubt that this little man is very loved!


Wore:
We are getting used to all these little BLUE outfits!!




I also had quite a few comments this week on the girls little summer dresses... they are Next Kids finest! Aren't they cute?!


Made:
A market stall... the girls were struggling for inspiration and imagination in the heat on Wednesday, and so I gave them a little help. They played with it all afternoon!


And lastly:

I have had this song going round my head all week...



We're now on the countdown to end of term... only one and a half more weeks and its with mixed emotions. I can't wait for those "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer" but we will be so sad to leave Ava's little school. We have had a wonderful year at the Nursery there, made fantastic friends and wonderful memories. We're excited about all that September will bring, and we're ready for the challenge of "big school" but we will be sad to say goodbye to some very special people.

OK. Emotional bit over. I am looking forward to some lazy days at home with no rush out the front door, when the children can play outside in their pyjamas until lunchtime and eat ice lollies for breakfast.

OK... maybe not... but something like that.

Happy weekend everyone!

butwhymummywhy



9 comments:

  1. Oh how adorable are all those outfits, loving the picture of all three of them together. So cute.

    Have a wonderful weekend xx

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  2. When I was a kid I desperately wanted to marry someone foreign so that my children could be bi-lingual! I find it fascinating, so will be checking out the TED talk you've recommended.
    Your girls dresses are beautiful, I'm not surprised that they got lots of compliments.
    Have a lovely weekend xx

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  3. Congratulations on your new arrival. He is simply delicious.
    Your girls dresses are stunning. I've not been in Next for ages but will check it out. I'm also looking forward to the summer break and long, lazy days before big school in September. Don't our babies grow up so quickly? x

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  4. What you're doing encourages me to think about raising our future kids speaking French..even though I'm not French :p loved that video, it can be so good for kids to have more than one language. Love pics and games, you have a lovely brood :) xx

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  5. I find the multilingual thing fascinating, it's so amazing to see kids speak so many languages. I once knew a two year old who spoke to his dad in English, his mum in Russian and his Nanny in German! So clever! x

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  6. Wow such clever kiddies!! We are doing the same, but just two languages! Love the pictures of the kids, I love those next dresses too!
    We are desperate for something good to watch, as there is nothing on TV! Im going to get that boxes!! Hope you have a great week xxx

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  7. What gorgeous dresses! Little one is looking absolutely gorgeous in his outfits too - not making me broody at all - not! My daughter is bilingual (Spanish and English) and my 3 year old is getting there - he responds to spoken Spanish but translates it to English and replies in English which I guess is equally as clever as we know he understands, he's just to lazy to actually speak Spanish very often - unless he uses it on pretty girls and old ladies or waitresses, then he's all about the Spanish lol. Have a great weekend x

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  8. Aww I love the little blue outfits and their wearer continues to be adorable, I'm not surprised his sisters dote on him, it's a similar tale around here! I've bookmarked the TED talk too, I find language acquisition fascinating, even if my lot are only bilingual in Northern English and Southern English (they flip between long and short "a")!

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  9. The market stall is such a lovely idea. I wish my boys would play with something like that but they're more likely to start throwing the 'food' at each other. Love the bilingual brain video. The boys will be going to Welsh/English school so will have both and then my eldest still has a little bit of German but it's hard to keep it up when my own ability is so dire.

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