Encouraging Your Child to Speak the Minority Language

Around two thirds of the world's population are bilingual or multilingual and many of these individuals speak more than one language from birth. For parents of a bilingual or multilingual child, one of their biggest concerns is how to encourage their child to speak the minority language. It can be relatively easy to prioritise the minority language, with methods such as minority language at home or one parent one language, before your child starts school. However, once they reach school age, the majority language can easily take over and become the dominant language very quickly.

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Exploring Nature at Night

When most people think about getting outdoors and exploring nature, it will be in forests or fields during the day but did you know there are lots of exciting things to explore in the dark too? Just getting out in the dark to stand in the garden or walk down the street can lead to some excellent wild experiences. At night, the world is still alive with things to see and hear, from nocturnal creatures to the awesome night sky. There is always something to explore!  

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How to Homeschool on a Budget

Often, when people start to think about homeschooling their children, they worry that they won't be able to afford it. They are concerned about the potential cost of resources, homeschool groups or coops, and the loss of income if one parent has to give up work to stay home with the children. 

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How to Homeschool With a Baby Around

I have a confession to make. I started to write this blog post over a year ago but at that point I was still figuring out how to actually homeschool with a baby around. I waited and waited because I was waiting for it to get easier. I mean, babies aren't difficult forever are they? But the thing is, it started off way easier than it is now.

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Muslimori Arabic Curriculum and Online Course

Muslimori has been teaching Arabic to students of all ages since she moved to the UK from Egypt after completing a degree in linguistics and translation. Her university dissertation looked at the problems foreign learners encounter while attempting to learn Arabic. After witnessing the struggles language learners had with learning the Arabic language, she thought there must be an easier way for them to learn. 

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Outdoor Activities For Rainy Days

It seems ironic that I am writing an article about getting outdoors in bad weather in the middle of June. We are on the brink of summer but the weather is far from summery. In fact, it has rained everyday for over a week now where I am. Not only is it wet, it is also cold and I occasionally have to put the heating on! This is something I never do in June, but I guess we never can predict the great British weather!

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The Impact of Speech Sound Disorders on Literacy

In order to speak clearly and make themselves understood, a child must be able to say each speech sound accurately and be able to string these sounds together to make words and phrases. If a child cannot do this, it may be hard to understand them. Children may not acquire the full repertoire of speech sounds until they are 5-8 years old. There are developmental milestones for speech sound acquisition, therefore, different sounds are acquired at different ages. The sounds p, b, t, d, m and w are among the first sounds to be learnt and r and th may be among the last. 

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Ramadan For Preschoolers

Ramadan is the month of fasting in the Islamic calendar. It is the time when Muslims around the world abstain from food and drink during daylight hours. Ramadan can be a difficult concept for children to grasp. That is why I put together some printables to help your child understand the reasons for fasting. 

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The Importance of Early Language Skills

Communication is one of the most important skills that human beings acquire. It is important for interacting with others and making friends, as well as for survival. The ability to communicate so sophisticatedly sets us apart from other animals; it makes us unique. Language is one of the most important skills we will learn. Without language we would not be able to order a coffee, tell someone we love them or call for help. 

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50 Outdoor Activites For Kids

If you have been following me for some time, you will know how much I love outdoor play and learning. In fact, I love it so much that we follow a nature curriculum in our homeschool. This curriculum has really changed our lives. It pushes us to get outdoors, whatever the weather, and encourages us to notice the seasons. You can find out more about that HERE. 

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Top 10 Books For Preschoolers

Reading aloud is a daily ritual in our house. Ever since my eldest was a baby, I have been reading aloud to her and, subsequently, my other children too. I am a huge bibliophile and, I have to confess, I have books all over the house. They are stashed in bookcases and piled up next to the bed. I just cannot get enough of reading and the joy that reading aloud brings.

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Literacy

9 Ways To Boost Your Social Life As a Busy Mum

Socialisation is an important life process which occurs when you interact with others. In its most basic sense, socialisation is important in order to develop the skills necessary for living. Without socialising, we would never have learnt the crucial skills we need to survive. Through socialising we learn to talk, walk, eat and use the toilet. We learn how to be a part of the society in which we live and conform to its rules and norms. We learn the language of our environment, our role in life and what is expected of us. Socialising also plays an important part in the development of personality in children.

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Dangers of Sleep Training and What You Can Do About It

Recently, I wrote about my cosleeping journey with my own children. I talked about how I did not cosleep with my eldest daughter because I was advised against it and trusted the health professionals to give me the best advice. Although I did not cosleep with her, it never crossed my mind to sleep train her. It just went against my natural, maternal instincts. However, there are many people who still practise sleep training and there are many who advise it. 

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How to help your child to talk

        

Learning to talk is an exciting milestone that all parents are keen to see their child reach. Eager parents may try new developments such as baby signing or baby DVDs in a bid to help their child acquire speech and language skills more quickly. However, there is no concrete evidence that shows these do, in fact, boost babies ability to talk.

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Benefits of Cosleeping

When I had my first child, I did as I was told, as a lot of first-time mothers do. I bought a cot and put my baby to sleep in the cot beside my bed. After all, the health professionals at the time were convinced that cosleeping was dangerous. It was thought that baby could get injured or even die by suffocation if they slept in bed with you.

I was breastfeeding both night and day and I remember feeling utterly exhausted. To prevent myself falling asleep with baby in bed with me, I would sit up to breastfeed at night. I remember that my daughter would appear to be sleeping but as soon as I placed her into her cot she would cry. This led to more breastfeeding upright in bed and more exhaustion.

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Grandma's Favorite and Grandpa's Favorite Book Reviews

I am thrilled to be taking part in Multicultural Children's Book Day for the second year running! Multicultural Children's Book Day is a great initiative that aims to promote and celebrate diverse children's books as well as get more of these books into libraries and schools.

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Learning About Astronauts and Tim Peake's Spacecraft!

Recently, we took a trip to Cardiff to go and see Tim Peake's spacecraft and spacesuit at the space exhibition at Cardiff Museum. I had never been to Cardiff Museum before so I was intrigued to find out what it would be like. As it happened, we did not get to explore much of the museum as we spent most of our time at the space exhibition. As it was the first weekend the exhibition was open, there were a lot of special things to see and do.

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Reading Challenge

I recently wrote about my new year's resolutions and if you read about them or watched my video, you will know that my first one is to read more. I have a terrible habit of buying books and not reading them. Perhaps worse, is my habit of reading the first few chapters and then neglecting the book altogether! I am a huge book lover with a thirst for knowledge so when I spot an interesting book I just have to have it! However, my pile of unread books is growing ever larger and I have to do something about it.

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Best of Multicultural Motherhood Blog 2018

What a year 2018 has been! As well as being an active blogger and Instagrammer, this year saw me concentrate properly on my YouTube channel. Over there you will find a mixture of videos covering topics such as motherhood, homeschooling ideas and my life as a Muslim convert.

To celebrate the end of a fabulous year, I would like to share my top five posts of 2018 with you. Here they are.

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