multilingualism - The Elephant Mum

Sheylan is a talented 11-year-old girl and she is pursuing a project: publishing her first book. Sheylan lives in a multilingual family in ...

Read More +

adoption, expats, finland, life, multicultural families, multilingualism, parenting

Cultural Identity and Expat Parent Grief

January 16, 2021

Today I want to share part of my personal journey as an immigrant. I hope this will be useful to other expats, to people living in a ...

Read More +

books, child development, favorites, multicultural families, multilingualism, parenting, reviews

Bedtime Stories: 10 Sweet and Inclusive Children’s Books

November 14, 2020

I am always on the lookout for new relaxing bedtime stories for my children. Over the years we have read hundreds of books together. I am listing ...

Read More +

expats, finland, life, multicultural families

Being a Support Family in Finland (as Foreigners)

September 7, 2020

This might be my post with the biggest time lag between intention and actual execution. It’s not that I lacked motivation to write it, but ...

Read More +

child development, expats, multicultural families, multilingualism

Bilingual Kids – Our Experience Teaching a Second Language

June 1, 2020

I write this post as we complete our first year homeschooling R on Italian language. I am proud of her and us for sticking to it, and proud of ...

Read More +

books, child development, expats, multicultural families, multilingualism, parenting

6 Reasons Why Reading to Children is a Parent’s Superpower

October 24, 2019

Recently fellow mom blogger Sarah Forestwood of Books and Beyond asked me to share why reading is important to our family. A book lover myself, I ...

Read More +

expats, finland, multicultural families, multilingualism

Should Expat Parents in Finland Learn Finnish?

May 22, 2019

Becoming friends with the Scandinavian natural scenery and its equal societies is easy, but facing Finnish language is quite a challenge. ...

Read More +

blog series, Growing up in a multicultural family, interviews, multicultural families, multilingualism

Growing up in a multicultural family. Parallel identities: Kasia’s story

March 27, 2019

Since when I became a mother, I’ve kept wondering how will our multicultural family influence our children’s cultural identity. Adopting our ...

Read More +

books, expats, finland, multicultural families, multilingualism

10 Reasons Why Espoo City Library Is Awesome

March 20, 2019

Last week Espoo City Library was awarded the international prize Library of the Year at the London Book Fair 2019. As an enthusiastic library ...

Read More +

Paola

I was born and raised in Italy, now I live in the winter wonderland that is Finland. I worked as a mathematics researcher, an IT project manager and consultant, and now I work as product owner. I love nature, reading books, playing boardgames, cooking and eating good food. I enjoy learning languages: I speak Italian, English, Finnish, Hindi, and I understand some Spanish. I am grateful to have three wonderful kids who call me "mamma". One came from my belly, the other two from fateful encounters.