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Welcome to this month’s multicultural carnival. I feel blessed to be a part of this wonderful blogging group.

This month’s theme is words.

I love words in every form. Just dried ink on paper, the smell of fresh newsprint, shouted in joy and whispered in love. I can’t get enough watching the evolution of the words my daughters use. The Franglais or language mixing I once dreaded, I now cherish as I realize how quickly they grow out of these phases. I hope to never forget the nights P wrapped her arms around me saying:

“Maman, I want a ‘gros calin’ and I don’t ever want to let you go”.

I very much hope you will enjoy the wonderful selection of posts below.

Sourcing books in a target language or culture is often challenging when you are living elsewhere. The Piripiri Lexicon shares their wonderful resource for French books.

Mud Hut Mama shows us how through a selection of wonderful books and games, she takes her girls on a tour of the world opening their eyes to different environments and cultures and how rhymes and word games can help reinforce these new lessons.

Children ask so many questions and some are harder than others to answer. I completely fumbled the other day when in a bid to speedy up P so we could avoid the legendary Bangkok traffic, we ended up in a conversation about transportation, leading to blood circulation and oxygen. Talk about digging myself into a hole! All Done Monkey shares two wonderful books about Faith to help find the words to explain difficult concepts like ‘soul’ and ‘reverence’. I particularly love that one is focused on the Muslim faith and one the Bahá’í as I am keen to expose my girls to as many of the worlds faiths I can.

Actions speak louder than words: I am sure we can all agree that any utterance of “I love you” is better when followed by a kiss or a hug! Frances at Discovering the World Through my Son’s Eyes reminds us that books can be more than just words woven into stories when she creates activities based on her chosen book, turning storytime into a hands-on crafty afternoon.

Toddling in the Fast Lane reminds us that when there is a will there is a way with their wonderful spanish mini book describing Chinese New Year. And yes folks there is a free download!

I want to start by saying how jealous I am of Little Artists’s languages: English, Russian and Chinese! Makes my English/French/Spanish seem positively mundane. Living life as an expat can be very lonely especially when new-found friends must make a move.

Here, Little Artists shares a wonderful silver lining, the passing down of books, particularly bilingual ones. Check out the wonderful illustrations. Am now dreaming of these for our bookshelves!

As I wrap up this carnival, is worth mentioning it was due out on the 14th. Sadly my lack of planning and unexpected bronchitis caused a significant delay. So I’d like to end on this wonderful note, with Kids Yoga Stories l post sharing their top 10 Children’s books about love and friendship.

We hope you enjoyed this month’s theme. Coming up March 14: Springtime Traditions will be hosted by Delightful Children’s Books!