Language Lizard Update

Dear Reader:

The holidays are fast approaching! Educate AND entertain your children with fun, beautifully illustrated dual-language books.

Or how about decorating your classroom or child’s play area with multilingual posters and colorful world maps? Language Lizard is pleased to announce that we have recently expanded our collection of posters and world maps, including the addition of French-English posters with various themes (stay tuned for Spanish posters next year).

We have also added posters that will help you introduce children to holidays and festivals around the world, including Chinese New Year, Christmas, Eid ul-Fitr, Ramadan and Diwali. All posters have attractive, child-friendly illustrations. Go to http://www.languagelizard.com/Posters_Maps_s/20.htm and click on a poster to see a full description of the themes and languages. Several of these posters are described in the product review section below.

This month, in light of the holiday season, our feature article discusses the challenges and great rewards of celebrating the holidays in bilingual and bicultural families. Our guest writer, author Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert, offers great tips on how such families can blend cultures to create unique traditions.

We’re starting a new tradition at Language Lizard as well! In December, to thank our Culture Connection readers, we will hold a drawing for a complimentary CD and gift certificate for one of our subscribers. And don’t forget about our new Language Lizard gift certificates and our special gift certificate offer that expires December 10th (read more about it below).

Happy Holidays!

Anneke Forzani
Founder and President
Language Lizard, LLC

Please forward this newsletter on to others who are interested in raising and teaching multicultural children. They can sign up by visiting www.LanguageLizard.com.

Product Review: Posters to celebrate important holidays

We now have posters to help you teach children about important cultural and religious holidays. Below are details on a few of these posters. For the full collection, please visit our website.


Christmas / Nativity Poster
Bring something special to your next Christmas celebration and teach kids how to say "Merry Christmas" in many languages including Czech, French, German, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian and more. This poster shows the 3 wise men, the shepherds with their sheep, and baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph in the manger. It is beautifully illustrated by award-winner Richard Johnson. To order this poster, visit http://www.languagelizard.com/Nativity_Poster_p/frnativity.htm

Chinese New Year Poster
This poster offers a great way to teach kids about this popular holiday. Child-friendly illustrations show "Year of the Dog", "Year of the Ox", "Year of the Rooster", etc. The poster is in English with Chinese characters. To order this poster, visit http://www.languagelizard.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=FRNEWYEAR

Celebrating Eid
Teach children about the Islamic holiday Eid ul-Fitr. Illustrations include: The Festival , beginning with the new moon at the end of Ramadan; The gathering at the mosque for Eid Prayer; Charity given on the day in the form of food to the poor; Friends and family joining in the feast; Celebrating the joyous festivals. To order this poster, visit http://www.languagelizard.com/Celebrating_Eid_Poster_Multilingual_Edition_p/freid.htm

Subscriber Special Offer:

Language Lizard Gift Certificates are a great gift for multicultural friends and relatives. Recipients select their favorite products and you know you are giving a high quality, educational gift.

For any Gift Certificate Purchases of $100 or more, we will send your gift recipient a complimentary copy of Putumayo's "One World, One Kid" CD.  This offer applies only for gift recipients with US addresses and is valid for purchases made on or before December 10, 2006.  The CD includes tracks from Cape Verde, Australia, France, Jamaica, Colombia and the US, and it benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation. To order a gift certificate, visit http://www.languagelizard.com/product_p/gft.htm.

Feature Article: The Best of Both Worlds

Guest Writer: Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert

As the end-of-year holiday period starts, we find ourselves drawn into the past with memories of childhood Christmases, Thanksgivings or New Year parties. This can sometimes cause problems in bilingual and bicultural families when parents try to re-create their previous happy holidays. As a mixed culture family we can either follow one parent’s culture exclusively or blend the two cultures into a unique tradition.

Some parents might feel ambivalent or uninterested in their own heritage because they may have moved far away or converted to another religion. Other parents enthusiastically take up their partner’s culture as their own and give all their energy to supporting it, forgetting their heritage. This often happens to parents living in another country where their culture is not accessible. One Japanese/English family I knew, who lived in England, had been busy celebrating English holidays, until the mother set up a Japanese-speaking playgroup and with other mothers began celebrating significant dates such as Girls Day in the spring.

In our French/English household we have a similar cultural background and are both Christians, but we celebrate Christmas very differently. In the beginning when the children were tiny we spent alternate Christmases with each family. However Jacques found the fuss over decorating the house excessive, was not impressed by the traditional English Christmas day roast turkey lunch and refused to sing along with the carol-singing! In France I was surprised that we ate a big meal of fresh seafood on Christmas Eve (when I would normally go to church) and confused when, at midnight, we put the gifts on each persons slippers, not in socks as we do in England! No - one thought to leave a snack for Rudolph either!

When we began celebrating Christmas at our house, we made a few choices based on what the kids liked best. It ended up with me and the kids decorating the house as we wish for a whole month and loudly singing carols. We usually invite friends for a mid-December lunch of turkey and cranberry sauce starter, lamb as the main course and Christmas pudding and brandy sauce. On Christmas Eve we put out both socks and slippers, just in case, and leave a treat for the reindeer. We usually go away for the two weeks holiday and so are away from either culture and just relax and enjoy the magic of Christmas together.

Some tips for bicultural blends…

• Respect your partner’s cultural heritage and don’t try to belittle or criticize it, what you think is unimportant might have much meaning for him or her.
• Don’t try to re-create your or your partner’s cultural heritage exactly – instead form a new tradition in your household.
• Let children be involved in picking the best of both worlds, and do what is fun for all of you.
• Don’t assume your kids will know about your culture if you are living away from it - you will need to explain the reasons, what you do and how it affects them.
• Invite friends to see how you celebrate certain festivals that are not feted in your country.
• Teach your kids about your culture through preparing for your festivals – enjoy cooking, decorating and making cards/invitations together and talk about your childhood memories.
• Enjoy the fact you have more things to celebrate and have fun!

Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert is the author of Language Strategies for Bilingual Families: The One-Parent-One Language Approach (see book details in “Lizard Recommends” section). Suzanne is married to a Frenchman and lives in Chicago with her three bilingual children. Her website is http://www.opol4us.com.

This article first appeared in Multilingual LivingMagazine, an on-line publication chock-full of insightful information and great articles for bilingual families. You can find more information and receive a free issue of the magazine by visiting http://www.biculturalfamily.org/

To see more articles and archived Language Lizard newsletters, please visit http://www.languagelizard.com/newsresources.htm.