Table of Contents
In today's blog post, I'd like to walk you through a typical day in our life as a trilingual Chinese-Russian family living in the UK. If that's something that interests you, keep reading and/or check out the video!
Morning
I wake up at 6 am and do my own "thing“ between 6 and 7 - coffee, journalling, working out, getting ready for the day.
Around 7 am, my kids get up, and the “fun” starts!
The children have a quick breakfast, which consists of oat porridge, or what we call “kasha” in Russian.
By 8 am my husband would have got up from bed, and we’re ready to start studying.
Morning Study Routine
Every morning, I study with Alina, while my husband studies with Alexey.
As you can see here, Alina and I sit down at our dining table, and we study Chinese together for half an hour.
My husband and Alexey sit in the kids’ bedroom and study for half an hour – this could be Russian or Maths or English.
After this, it’s time for the kids to brush their teeth and off we go to school!
My Work Day
While the kids are at school, I'm usually busy doing my freelance translation work or working on my YouTube channel, blog or other content creation projects.
That's when I do things like meal prepping and taking care of other household chores.
Evening Routine
I pick up the kids from school at 3.30.
Between 4 and 6, they are allowed to relax, watch some TV or engage in "free play". During this time, I do a bit more work and start prepping for dinner.
My husband finishes work at around 6, and we all sit down for dinner together (at the time when I filmed the video, we hadn't got into that routine yet!) - this is perhaps my favourite time of the day, when all four of us sit together eating and chatting, in a mix of Russian, Chinese and English!
And crucially, no screens are allowed at the table!
Evening Study Routine
Between 7 and 7.30, we sit down for our evening study routine.
In the evening, we swap around so that I study with Alexey, and my husband with Alina. I would typically read a few pages from a Chinese story book with Alexey and practise writing some words and sentences together.
Getting Ready for Bed!
Between 7.30 and 8/ 8.30 is free-play time!
This could be playing video games, doing some arts and crafts, just playing with their toys, doing silly role play… Whatever they fancy doing, really. I
If work’s busy, I may try to squeeze in a bit more work in the evening too.
After that it’s bathtime! We try to make sure the kids are washed, in the pajamas and ready for reading time by 9. We then read a mix of English, Chinese and Russian books together.
This is fun reading time, and I like to let the kids enjoy themselves and read stuff that they like.
And finally, sometime around 9.30/ 10 pm, the kids will (hopefully) be asleep!
So, that wraps up a typical weekday for our family!
The kids get exposure to all three languages, and we’ve established a good routine to help them learn to read and write in our languages.
And as you saw in this video, our life is pretty regimented – our routines are really well established, and that’s what works for us as a family.
We’re all about routine and consistency, while still having fun!
Our days can be exhausting but are also purposeful and fulfilling.
Having said that, though, I do look forward to the school holidays when we can relax a little and not stick to such a regimented schedule!
What's your day like as a multilingual family? Share in the comments below!
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