Multilingual Montessori

María Laura Ribadeneira grew up in Quito, Ecuador where she spoke Spanish at home, English at school, and studied French outside of school. She went to college in the US (with me!) where she also studied Italian and Ancient Greek, and studied abroad in Italy and France. After college graduation, she moved to Paris for a masters degree, where she has lived ever since, and just became a French citizen a year ago. In this conversation, we chat about language and identity, as well as navigating an academic life, a professional life and a social life in multiple languages. Follow María Laura: Instagram Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Tania Ginsberg-Jambou is a French-American bilingual mom and Montessorian living in California. Tania grew up speaking both French and English with her American father and French mother. Tania and her husband, who is French, have three children with whom they speak exclusively in French at home. Tania is trained as an AMI 3-6 Montessori guide, and before she became a mother, she taught in a bilingual Montessori Children’s House in Paris. She shares what that experience was like for her and how bilingual education functioned in that classroom. In addition to her Montessori training, Tania is also trained in the Pikler Method, known as RIE or Resources for Infant Educarers, and she is also trained as a NeuroMovement Practitioner. We talk about how she uses both her RIE and NeuroMovement trainings with her children these days, and how NeuroMovement has been particularly transformative for her son, who has cerebral palsy. We also get into a wonderful discussion about language and identity, both about how these themes have shown up in Tania’s own life and how she sees them manifesting in her children’s lives as they grow. Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Janina Burmeister, a seasoned Montessorian and expat mom from Germany living in Valencia, shares her insights on raising a trilingual child. She discusses the challenges of navigating multilingual parenting while living in nine countries. Janina recounts her son Henry's language development journey and her proactive approach to addressing concerns. She highlights the benefits of Montessori education for multilingual children and offers practical travel tips for families. Her experiences illuminate the rich tapestry of expat life and the joys of fostering cultural identity.

Claudia Lundahl is an AMI Montessori toddler guide, postpartum doula, and freelance artist living in London, England. One of Claudia’s first teaching experiences after college was teaching English in France through TAPIF, which stands for Teaching Assistant Program in France, where she taught English to French middle schoolers in a town along the Swiss border near Geneva. Claudia then discovered Montessori, and we talk about her experiences as a toddler guide, including what developmental work happens in a Montessori toddler classroom and what it’s like to be an early childhood educator and not be a parent. Claudia also shares her experiences as a postpartum doula and why she finds that work aligns very well with Montessori principles. She also  shares about her experience starting an English-immersion Montessori homeschool class in London with a French family during the first summer of the pandemic. Claudia is a font of knowledge about toddlers and Montessori, and I think you’ll learn a lot from her, whether or not you have a toddler in your life! Follow Claudia: Instagram Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Romali Rosales Chavarría is a Montessori educator, researcher, and mom of two bilingual sons. Romali is from Mexico and lives in Glasgow, Scotland with her family. In the spring of 2021, she published an article in the Journal of Montessori Research called “Second Language Corner for Children’s House: A Practitioner–Researcher Journey Into Bilingualism in Montessori Education” in which she shared her experiences implementing an English language program in a Montessori Children’s House classroom in Mexico. In our conversation, Romali shares her thoughts about implementing bilingual programs in Montessori, as well as the process of researching and writing her article, and where the fields of multilingualism and Montessori are headed next. Link to Romali's paper: https://journals.ku.edu/jmr/article/view/13401/13910 Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Beth Allison is a mom, educator, and entrepreneur who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Beth is Navajo and grew up on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, but she is not fluent in the Navajo language. When her son, who is now 2 and a half, was born, Beth decided to learn Navajo along with him. She quickly found that there weren’t as many teaching resources for an indigenous language like Navajo as there are for world languages like Spanish and Mandarin. So she began creating and sharing resources and videos for other parents teaching their children Navajo as well, which she now shares on her website The Allison Exchange. In our conversation, Beth talks about what it was like to grow up hearing Navajo spoken around her but not speaking it herself, and why she made the decision to raise her son speaking Navajo. She shares a history of the Navajo language and why it means so much to her as a Navajo woman and mother to keep the Navajo language and culture alive and pass it down to the next generation. Follow Beth: Website Instagram YouTube Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Andrea Imhof is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on understanding language development in the early years and how it is impacted by high-stress factors. Before she went into research, Andrea worked as an elementary school teacher and advisor in low-income neighborhoods of New York City. Andrea shares her advice from her dual perspective as a former teacher and a current researcher about how we can support language development in the early years. Andrea is also raising a bilingual son: her husband Lars grew up speaking Swedish at home, so they are planning to raise their six-month-old son Axel with Swedish as well. We also chat about the similarities between Montessori and the Reggio-Emilia daycare that her son attends, and why we both love the idea of forest preschools. More about Andrea Imhof TED Talk about "Serve and Return" (Molly Wright: How Every Child Can Thrive By Five) Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

This episode is all about food! Tina Laboy and Rachel Coleman are the co-hosts of Mom Genes the Podcast. Tina is a Registered Dietician and certified personal trainer who lives in Austin Texas, and Rachel is a Marriage and Family Therapist and a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who lives in Southern California. Together on their podcast, they take listeners on a journey of unpacking their old beliefs about food and weight to increase their confidence and raise body confident kids. I was curious to find out what advice Tina and Rachel could share about what language that can use - and what language we should avoid - when talking to children about food and about their bodies. I think this is a topic that a lot of parents and teachers struggle to approach in any language, and I knew they would have some great advice. Plus, Tina and Rachel are both moms (Rachel is a mom of three and Tina is a mom of one, with another due at the end of January) and Tina’s son goes to a Spanish-immersion preschool, so we also chatted about what that experience has been like for her family. Follow Mom Genes: Website Instagram Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Welcome to this bonus episode of the Multilingual Montessori Podcast! Since starting this podcast in September, I’ve interviewed ten incredible Montessorians, mothers and child development experts, from all across the United States and the world, who so generously shared their knowledge and wisdom about raising and educating multilingual children from a Montessori perspective. At the end of each episode, I invited each guest to share some advice that they had for listeners. I decided to compile all that advice into one episode that I hope you will find as inspirational and informative as I did! Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Renee Chen is a mom of two girls, who moved with her husband and children from Shanghai, China to Austin, Texas five years ago. In this conversation, Renee shares the joys and challenges of raising bilingual children, and of being bilingual herself, in a country where she isn't a native speaker. She talks about her experience starting a Mandarin-language class for her daughters' friends, and how she helps her daughters maintain their Mandarin fluency as they grow older. We also discuss differences and similarities between Montessori in China and in the United States! Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon