Three Podcasts Worth Listening to This Summer: Family, Travel, & Culture

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July is here! Does your family's summer rhythm (or lack thereof) feel comfortable yet? Summer in my household means that dishes and laundry pile up, but in contrast, we have a lot of fun as a family and I'm able to finish long-awaited projects like completing my son's baby album and planning next summer's trips. Hopefully you, too, have more time on your hands--time to read, play, and listen. Here are five intriguing podcasts that I've been enjoying while driving or tackling those dishes this summer:

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Swim Lessons: Reflecting on a Childhood Rite of Passage

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Growing up in Southern California, swimming was as integral to my summers as the guarantee of scalding my feet on hot sidewalks. My mama enrolled me in swim lessons at age four, but I clung to her leg with ferocity when I saw that lessons meant joining dozens of unfamiliar kids in the shallow end of an Olympic-sized pool. A male lifeguard tried to cajole me into joining them, but when it became apparent that I wouldn't budge, my mama gave him permission to pry me off her leg and toss me in. By the end of the summer I advanced enough to manage a mean bellyflop off the high dive.

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Joy Cho & Martha Stewart on Work/Life Balance & Raising Creative Children

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Reflecting on Keynote Speeches at Altitude Summit 2014

Bonjour, les amis! I returned Friday morning from the Altitude Summit conference in Salt Lake City, and it was just as inspiring and informative as I'd hoped it would be. My highlights were dining with Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom (did you catch us on Instagram?), gaining practical insights about blogging, and hearing keynote speakers Joy Cho (of Oh Joy!) and Martha Stewart of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

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Daddy Doesn't Speak French: How He (Still) Supports Our Bilingual Children

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My husband grew up speaking Thai at home, but he's most comfortable speaking English because he was raised in the U.S. (This comfort factor is why he chose to speak English to our children.) His French knowledge is limited to what he's learned in hearing me speak it with our kids, and yet he still manages to support our children's French acquisition in ways I truly appreciate. Here are five awesome ways he supports our children's bilingual development:

 

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Co-sleeping and the Family Bed: Why I'll Miss It

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Today I'm flying to Salt Lake City for the Altitude Summit summer conference--a meet-up for bloggers and designers. I didn't expect to attend because of the cost, but a corporate sponsor gave me a ticket after one of my posts for Every Mom Counts.* I'm so incredibly grateful, and I can't wait to meet Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom and to hear speakers like Martha Stewart and Joy Cho. But as excited as I am to go, I expect I will miss sleeping with my family the most.

That sounds a bit odd, I know, because we Americans (and okay, the French too) are not a family bedsharing culture. Unlike most of the world, we generally give our children a separate bedroom starting from early infancy. While preparing for motherhood, I didn't have any reason to think my children would be raised any differently. My husband and I bought a crib and figured our little one would use it at some point, if not right away.

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When Camping Isn't Roughing It: Tips for A Fun Family Experience

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Friends, I just booked two nights of tent camping at a lakeside campground on Mt. Hood, so this will be our third summer in a row with a camping trip. I have many friends who simply stopped camping when they had children--after all, they didn't camp much before children, and the early years of parenting can seem rough enough. But honestly, if you haven't camped in a while, or if you haven't yet gone camping as a family, you ought to know what you're missing.

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Child-Friendly French Events in the Pacific Northwest, Summer 2014:

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C'est l'été (it's nearly summer, anyway)! Here's a list of child-friendly French events in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. taking place this summer:

World Cup / Tour de France Airing at St. Honoré Boulangerie (June/July):

St. Honoré Boulangerie has such delightful French ambiance and authentic pastries (at any of their three locations around Portland) that it's always a treat to visit, but this month you'll have the excuse of enjoying a pain au chocolat with your child while watching the World Cup soccer games on a surreptitious flat-screen télé. Return again in July during the Tour de France programming to enjoy another perfect pastry.

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Summer Children's Activities for Practicing French at Home

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Does it feel like summer to you yet? It's so close here--we have friends visiting from out-of-state, and this is my husband's last week of teaching before his summer break. I've been thinking of simple summer activities that we can do to keep French integral to our days since my family will be spending more time together and we will be conversing more in English (my husband doesn't speak French). Here are my suggestions for simple children's activities for summer fun in French (and most of them can be used to practice another language as well):

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