BhashaKids has a grand vision to be a one stop shop for bilingual learning materials for families of the South Asian diaspora. We want to create and curate resources to help grow bilingual and multicultural kids. We aim to create:
✅ Reviews of bilingual TV shows, YouTube and movies that are family friendly
✅ Articles dealing with all things related to raising multilingual and multicultural kids
✅ Guidebooks and language coaching sessions for parents
✅ Coaching for teachers and language schools: build instructional skills for virtual and in person learning that is relevant to children growing up in English dominated environments
✅ a podcast to bring all these topics to light
✅ promote new voices in the multilingual space
✅ promote bilingual picture and board books for kids ages 0-8
To do that, we need your support. Tell your friends about us and engage with us on social media. That’s FREE ☺️
If you don’t need our products but support our vision, consider donating to our new crowdfunding platform on “Buy Me a Coffee”. Of course, in true Desi spirit, it’s “Buy Me a Chai”. For increments of $2, you can help us realize this dream, one cup at a time.
Can you chip in and help us raise $1000?
At this point, we are entirely self-funded and haven't solicited capital investments. We hope the community will help invest in our vision so we can create these resources to help South Asian families avoid the language loss that plagues so many of us. Studies have shown that by the 3rd generation of immigrant families in the USA, the majority of children cannot speak their heritage language and cannot communicate with their grandparents except in English.
BhashaKids launched in 2019, dreamed up by Anita K. Sachariah Srinivasan, a 1st generation Indian American raising multicultural and differently wired kids. Her husband Arun speaks 7 languages, and she speaks 3, but the only language they had in common was English. Having lost her heritage language of Malayalam as a child, she was determined to raise a multilingual family - but struggled with finding the right resources that would engage her children.
As her young child was showing signs of having special needs, and having to take care of elderly parents, Anita stepped away from a career as a Learning Specialist and Master Trainer with the US Agency for International Development. She immersed herself in learning about child development, learning disabilities, neurodiversity, and social emotional resilience.
Anita then applied this knowledge, her experience as a language learner, and her skills in learning and training to develop inclusive bilingual learning materials for children. She simply wanted to help her kids learn Tamil (Arun's mother tongue), which she did not speak. Seeing the ease and success her kids had, she turned this into a product that other families could use.
A couple years later, Anita is at the forefront of the South Asian language and kidlit community. BhashaKids has evolved from simply being a producer of bilingual vocabulary cards, to advocating for multilingualism in children, to promoting representative South Asian kid lit and bilingual books for children, to counseling multicultural families on identity development. BhashaKids is going to embark on a launching a new coaching platform for parents, families, teachers, mompreneurs and schools.
Will you help us meet this urgent community need? Consider donating and sharing this blog post to spread the word.
Dhanyavaad / Nandri / Nanni
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