1More children than ever before are growing up with two or three languages at home.
2One language may dominate at school while another quietly rules the conversation at the family dinner table.
3Many parents sometimes worry that mixing two languages will confuse their young children at home.
4Recent research suggests the opposite is true: bilingual brains develop remarkable mental flexibility over time.
5These children learn very early that every idea can be expressed in several different ways.
6Yet a language is never merely a practical tool for passing messages between one person and another.
7It carries the songs, jokes, and childhood memories that stubbornly resist translation into another tongue.
8A child who loses her grandmother's language may lose a precious part of the grandmother too.
9Schools are only slowly recognising home languages as valuable assets rather than obstacles to learning.
10The real challenge is to nurture each language fully without exhausting the child who speaks them.
11Families who succeed at this often treat language as a form of play rather than a duty.
12In the end, a multilingual childhood is a generous gift that keeps unfolding throughout life.