I’m sorry I’m really late on this post. In all honestly I simply forgot about it. Our visit to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest in northern Arizona was part of our Sedona & Grand Canyon trip. You can click on each of those links to read about those.
The Painted Desert & Petrified Forest National park is about 2 hours east of Sedona just outside Holbrook, Arizona. We had flown into Phoenix picked up a rental car and drove 2 hours north to Sedona which was our main base for this trip. There are two entrances to the park and we decided to start at the I-40 entrance and drive down through the entire park to exit at the other end on Hwy 180.
The northern half of the park where we started is the Painted Desert. We parked the car at the start of a short mile long trail that goes around the south rim of the canyon. The views are amazing! On the way back to the car we moved a little more into the desert and off the rim so the kids could really see the terrain and ecosystem. Lorelei even spotted a jackrabbit.
Once back to the car we followed the road south to the other half of the national park which is dedicated to the Petrified Forest. The petrified forest is made from trees that were exposed to so much water and sediment they turned to stone.
We exited the national park from the opposite end from where we started so that we made sure we saw everything. This is a really great national park for everyone because you can really get out into the desert for adventure or you can stay in your car and drive from one end of the park to the other without missing anything so there’s definitely something for everyone’s comfort level.
Before heading back to Sedona we stopped in Holbrook to eat at Tom & Susie’s diner. This is a diner in the old Route 66 and it was sooo good! To top it off there’s an entire case full of pies made fresh every day! This was a nice littke unexpected pit stop for us!
With international travel being quite cumbersome these days due to covid we have done a lot of domestic travel over the last year. Our most recent spur of the moment trip took us to northern Arizona to visit the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. We chose to stay in the central location of Uptown Sedona, Arizona and you can read all about that HERE
We had one day to visit the Grand Canyon and for us that was enough. Since our 5 children are all under the age of 6 they aren’t big enough to hike below the rim so one day on the south rim was enough for us to check out all that the Grand Canyon National Park has to offer.
We left our house in Uptown Sedona a little before 7am and headed 2 hours north to the South Rim entrance of Grand Canyon National Park just outside Tusayan, AZ. When we arrived there was just a short line of cars at the gate. It cost $35 per vehicle to get in and they are not accepting cash at this time so make sure you have a credit or debit card to use.
Once inside the park we headed straight for the main visitors center. The actual visitors center is closed right now but the coffee shop with bike rentals and gift shop were both opened were the shuttle buses. You can take the shuttle buses to all the main lookout points or you can use the paved trails to walk to them. Walking is obviously the better way to go because you get to take in all the speculator views. The South Rim Is extremely stroller & wheelchair friendly, all the walkways are paved paths.
Thanks to the stranger who took our pic even though the kids wouldn’t smile for her!
There’s a market near the campgrounds that is a grocery store, deli & serves hot food. There’s also a full service sit down restaurant across the parking lot. Oh and a post office so be sure to mail some postcards to your family and friends! We stopped in the market to grab a quick lunch!
After lunch we headed over to the small museum and observatory to take in a some more views from a different location along the rim before making the 2 hour drive back to Sedona.
There are plenty of clean restaurants and water bottle refill stations located all over the park for guests. I keep seeing in the news that the national parks have been extremely crowded over the past year but this has not been our experience at all. Actually I felt like the Grand Canyon National Park was quite empty but then again we’re very used to peak summer crowds at Disney!
With the farm work caught up and a week of rain in the forecast one Friday afternoon in June I frantically searched for cheap flights to anywhere for the next morning. I would like to say this doesn’t happen often, but the rumors are true; if it rains, we leave. Due to the nature of our business we don’t typically get to plan trips unless it’s the middle of winter. We are very much limited to a few hours notice. “Hey let’s head to the airport tonight!” is not an uncommon phone call for me (Kayla) to get from Andrew on any random day.
If you’ve followed us for a while you may remember that we have airline companion passes with Southwest and American which means free flights for at least one of us and we are extremely savvy airline rewards points accumulators with multiple airlines. I really should do a post about that because we very rarely pay for flights because of it. This allows us to travel a lot and a lot of flexibility, but that’s for another day.
I went through all the mainland USA options I could come up with until finally settling on flying into Phoenix, Arizona mostly due to easy nonstop flights. Before I did anything else I booked our rental car because they have become pretty scarce these days due to rental companies selling their fleets during COVID. It’s especially hard to get a car big enough for 7 people. On the plus side COVID has made the rental car companies up their car seat game. Once again we got brand new still in the packaging carseats.
Waiting on our rental car
Based on what we wanted to accomplish during this quick trip we decided to head 2 hours north of Phoenix to Sedona. We rented an amazing house on AirBNB in Uptown Sedona that was absolutely perfect for our trip! It was conveniently located 2 hours from the airport, 2 hours from the Grand Canyon & 2 hours from the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest. This ended up being an excellent central location for all our activities. Even better is the adorable town of Uptown Sedona. Sedona is a pretty well known town in northern Arizona and it’s quite large. Uptown Sedona is an area just outside of the hustle and bustle that they have created as a little boutique town. Everything is within walking distance and the streets are lined with adorable little shops and restaurants. The first thing you’ll notice besides the amazing red rock mountain views is the mobs of pedestrians and lack of traffic. Coffee shops, bakeries, hamburger joints, Mexican restaurants, and upscale eateries line the streets so there is truly something for everyone!
Our rental house was called the The House of Views Uptown and it certainly lived up to its name! With 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a huge kitchen/living area and a pool this house was perfect for us! Not to mention every single room had an amazing view of the red rock mountains all around! Nestled up on a hill in a quiet upscale neighborhood, I would highly recommend it to any family!
Master bedroom viewSide PatioChipotle down the street was perfect for our late first nightView from the driveway
We grabbed espresso and breakfast at the Pink Cafe every morning. The staff there was so friendly! There’s several other breakfast locations but we were up and gone by 6-7am so we needed grab & go.
Outside the Pink Jeep Tours buildingView from the Pink Cafe outdoor seating
There are a ton of restaurants in Uptown Sedona ranging from casual to upscale. Our Airbnb rental had a binder that listed all the local restaurants in it and it was super helpful! The fancier places fill up quick and reservations are highly recommended. Our first dinner we chose The Vault Uptown. Our server was awesome, the views were great and so was the food! The next night we had dinner at The Hudson which is a little bit hidden at the back of a shopping center but it was packed in there so people obviously had no problem finding it! The Hudson also boasts wonderful views and exceptional food!
The Hudson
Uptown Sedona is such a cute little town it’s a destination in itself! Especially if you’re kid free there’s lots of great spas in the area! It’s also in such a great location for all that northern Arizona has to offer. You can read about our trip to the Grand Canyon HERE. More posts to come about our trip to the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest!
I’ve been wanting to stay at Disney’s Aulani resort in Hawaii for a long time now. We are huge Disney fans and even though we travel to Walt Disney World multiple times a year we’ve never made it out to Aulani. We spent 10 days in Hawaii in February 2021 so I finally got to stay at Aulani! Because of all the covid restrictions we decided not to spend our entire trip there but we did stay for a few days to really get a feel for the place. Unfortunately all the restaurants were closed, no luaus and no character meets. When Aulani is fully open though I highly recommend it! You can also book it through me as your travel agent 😉
We stayed in a beautiful 2 bedroom villa that sleeps 9 people. With 2 separate bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a full size kitchen & dining area and full size washer & dryer this 1,125sf villa is super spacious and perfect for large families & extended families. Aulani also has an even larger 3 bedroom villa, smaller 1 bedroom villas, suites and of course standard size hotel rooms. Something for a family of every size!
Our main reason for spending a few days at Aulani was for the pool and splash pad area! Our rental house for the rest of our stay was on the beach but didn’t have a pool and our kids really enjoy swimming. Aulani did not disappoint! There are multiple pools to choose from! There’s a large family pool, a pool with a big slide, a quiet pool, a lazy river, and a giant splash pad! With 5 kids age 5 and under we spent almost all of our time at the splash pad. The beach are of Aulani is great too. It’s set on one of the coves in Ko Olina which are shallow water coves with big rock wave brakes so it’s a perfect calm area for babies, toddlers and little kids to splash around and swim in.
A really cool feature at Aulani is the reef. It’s a large outdoor tank full of reef dwelling fish that you can snorkel in. Kids need to be old enough to swim on their own with a life jacket on but there isn’t an age limit. Our two 5 year olds and our 3yo had a blast while I watched from the windows with our newborn and 2yo. Honestly though our 2yo would have been just fine to go too!
Once everything is open at Aulani it’s definitely a great vacation spot! We would have loved to have done the Polynesian luau there and the kids would have enjoyed seeing the character. Most importantly though, we just wanted the restaurants to be open! We will have to put it on our list to go back!
Once Hawaii reopened for tourism flights there were still incredibly cheap and thanks to our endless amount of Southwest points they were actually completely free for us! So pretty much a no brainer to head to Hawaii! There were lots of hoops to jump through first though and I go into detail about them HERE and because of those hoops we spent the first several day of this trip in Northern California which you can read about HERE
As soon as we landed in Hawaii and got approved for our quarantine exemption we picked up a rental car and headed to Marriot Beach Club Ko Olina. Our Airbnb house wasn’t going to be ready until the next day and we knew the kids would enjoy the pool at the Marriot resort so we took advantage of our Marriot points and stayed one night there for free. I’m glad that it was free because it was horrible! Don’t get me wrong, our 2 bedroom villa was spacious and beautiful but there were some crazy COVID restrictions that we weren’t prepared for! You had to make reservations to be in the pool and you could only be in the pool for 2 hours a day. Yep, 2 hours for the whole day! The pool reservation spots filled up too so if you didn’t make them a day in advance you may be out of luck for pool time! We weren’t able to get pool reservations for the pool with the slide but we were able to get them for another pool. The beach was accessible without reservations and it’s a really nice shallow cove that’s protected by a rock wave brake so great for little kids.
The next morning grabbed breakfast at Eggs n Things which is right next to the Marriot and Disney’s Aulani resort. They had awesome breakfast food and we ended up eating there twice.
Next we headed to Pearl Harbor. We had been told by multiple people that we would not like Pearl Harbor but Andrew is a huge WWII history buff so it was definitely a must do for us. Unfortunately everyone was right and we were really disappointed in Pearl Harbor. I’ll let you make your own decisions about it but it did not live up to the high hopes we had of it being a great memorial for all the people who lost their lives there. Fortunately our kids didn’t understand and they thought it was great. We also picked our own pearls at Pearl Harbor!
After Pearl Harbor we drove across the island to Haleiwa where our Airbnb was. Haleiwa is an awesome little surfing town with tons of restaurants and food trucks. Bad news though, our Airbnb was awful! I mean really awful! It had the beautiful views that were pictured on the listing but it was so dirty! We definitely couldn’t stay there so I immediately got on the phone with Disney’s Aulani resort to get us a couple nights there and Andrew found us another house to rent for the rest of our stay! Side note: I did message the Airbnb host about the dirty house and encouraged him to go look at the property himself since he uses an outside cleaning service. He did end up driving over to the property the next day and refunding our money! You can see the picture below the house had an amazing location in Haleiwa right on the beach!
I’ve been wanting to go to Disney’s Aulani resort for a long time now so this was a good excuse for me to get a few nights there! The splash pad did not disappoint for our kids! They loved every second of the splash pad and the pool areas! I’m actually going to dedicate a post just to Aulani because there’s lots of info packed into it!
Finally we got to our new Airbnb, got settled in and really got to dig into Oahu for our last 5 days! Our new Airbnb house was amazing! Seriously spectacular! It was right on a completely isolated sandy beach, huge and sparkling clean! It was the perfect island home base for us and we spent many afternoons just enjoying the beach and each other. We even got to watch a pod of humpback whales from the back deck 2 different days!
We decided to check out Waimea Falls one day. It had rained a lot the day before so the water was pretty muddy and freezing but it’s an easy hike to the falls and actually an all paved trail, we even saw people with strollers. The other waterfall we wanted to visit was closed due to the heavy rains because it’s more rugged terrain.
We really enjoyed the food in Hawaii and especially all the food trucks! We had some of the most amazing food from the food trucks on the side of the road! We also enjoyed all the chickens everywhere! The kids felt right at home with the chickens wandering around while we ate!
Of course we had to visit the Dole Plantation because it’s something everyone says you have to do on Oahu but it was a major disappointment. May not be to most people but as farmers ourselves we saw a lot of stuff that shocked us.
Our last day on Oahu we hiked up Diamond Head Crater which is an old volcano. This hike is intense. The path is rough, narrow and steep with a set of steep stairs at the very top. It’s not shaded and hot too so be sure to wear sunscreen and bring water. The views at the top are amazing though! Perfect views of Waikiki beach and Honolulu! We made it to the top wearing a baby and a toddler and with 3 other little walking so you can do it too! There’s a great little park at the bottom with bathrooms, tables, shade and a food truck!
Our Hawaii trip had a lot of hiccups but overall we enjoyed it. Oahu is very very commercialized and touristy. Next time we visit Hawaii we will definitely try Maui!
Seeing the massive coastal redwood trees in Northern California has been on Andrew’s bucket list for quite some time now. When we were able to score cheap flights to Hawaii from San Francisco but needed a few extra days to get COVID tested, we decided this was the perfect opportunity to make a pit stop on that trip!
We flew into San Francisco the last week of January and picked up a rental SUV. We brought with us Briar’s infant car seat and the twins booster seats but rented 2 full size car seats for the 2 middle girls. Thanks to COVID renting car seats has been even better than before! The past 3 times we have rented car seats they have been brand new still in the box and plastic packaging! We spent a few hours in San Francisco seeing the sites like the Golden Gate Bridge and we also had to stop by City Health Urgent Care to get our COVID tests done for Hawaii. You can read all about how to get into Hawaii HERE
From San Francisco we headed north to our AirBNB rental in a tiny little town called Trinidad, CA. This town completely stole our hearts! It’s right on the pacific coast with a beautiful harbor and pier full of crab fishing boats and a nice sandy beach! The town itself has several little restaurants and coffee shops. Due to covid regulations everything was open for take out only but we still enjoyed every bit of it! Our rental house was spectacular with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and it sure helped that the host was wonderful! Him and Andrew exchanged numbers and struck up quite a friendship. The pictures posed below are from the backyard of our rental house.
The main reason we chose this house, aside from is fantastic views and amazing living space for our large family, is because of its location. Trinidad sits just outside the Redwood Forest National and State Parks so we took a full day to explore the forest and we’re not disappointed! The amazing size of these trees just blew our minds!
Between our house and the park entrance pretty much in the middle of nowhere we found a little wood carving shop on the side of the road. We stopped in and chose a giant slab of redwood for the man to carve our name into. He carved it and shipped it home for us so we didn’t get to see it until weeks later but it turned out perfect! For dinner that night we also discovered that the kids love clams! The devoured and entire bucket full of them!
The next morning we needed to head back to San Francisco for our early flight to Hawaii the following day, but since we had all day we decided to start our journey at the beginning of California’s famous scenic Highway 1 and follow it all the way down the coast. This route is not for the faint of heart! I repeat, if you are scared of heights or cliffs, don’t do it! I barely made it through this part of our journey. All of Highway 1 terrified me! The road just crumbles off giant cliffs into the ocean and I’m not even exaggerating, there are multiple places where the road has actually fallen off into the ocean and they are repairing it. The cliffs are insanely high and the road is nothing but 90 and 180° curves around them. I honestly was scared and it was hard for me to enjoy the beauty of the scenery because of it. Oh to be a blissfully ignorant child in the back seat.
Before we made it to the beginning of Highway 1 though we started through the scenic trail of the giants detour which definitely lived up to its name!
Just before dusk we made it to a beautiful beach right outside San Francisco and stopped for a little fun before heading to our hotel by the airport for the night. We loved our short time in Northern California and highly recommend the beautiful town of Trinidad! I can’t imagine how fun it is there in the warm summer months and without COVID!
Every year for our annual beach trip we stay somewhere along the gulf coast between Gulf Shores, AL and Panama City Beach, FL. Where we go and stay largely depends on where we have hotel points at that point in time so that we can stay for free!
This year instead of going to the beach we planned a trip to Universal and then another trip to Disney so we were going to skip the beach. It sounded like a good idea in theory but when it came down to it after our Universal trip everyone still wanted to go to the beach so when the farm got a big rain we headed out! Unfortunately since it was so last minute all of our hotels we had points for were completely booked. We barely found a condo available at Phoenix V in Orange Beach, AL.
Phoenix has several different condos in this area and they all range in amenities such as pools, lazy rivers & splash pads. Phoenix V has an indoor pool, outdoor pool and a small splash pad area. There are also beach loungers, chairs and umbrellas for rent on the beach. This is a large condo building and the pool area is not big enough for the amount of people staying here. It was extremely crowded. The building itself was in pretty rough shape too. Our specific rental unit was nice and had been taken care of but the entire condo building and pool area needed some tlc. Also, there’s 4 elevators for the entire building and at rush hours like the evenings you could be waiting 30+ minutes for an elevator!
We stayed at the beach for a couple days then decided to drive over to New Orleans, LA which is less than 2 hours west. We love New Orleans and try to make it down there every year. For this trip I was able to use our Holiday Inn points to get our rooms free. We stayed at the Holiday Inn French Quarter which has an excellent location on Dauphine Street.
We weren’t planning on going to New Orleans or anywhere but the beach for that matter so we didn’t have our strollers with us. New Orleans is a lot of walking so we stopped at a Target and grabbed 2 umbrella strollers before we got into town and they were well worth the purchase!
As soon as we checked into our hotel we headed over to the Gumbo Shop to eat. Gumbo Shop is on Saint Peter street and one of our favorite French Quarter restaurants. After eating we were on a mission to find stuff for our new house so we hit up every single antique store in the French Quarter and made some awesome purchases. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of everything we bought like the old wooden bi-plane toy and large airplane picture for our youngest’s bedroom.
Mainly I wanted to find the Bevolo lighting store and we were successful with finding exterior lighting from them for our house. Bevolo hand makes gas lanterns that are seen all over the French Quarter. You can custom order lanterns for residential homes and they will ship them to you. I’ll discuss these more when we get to that part in our house process but we decided to go with all gas lanterns from Bevolo for the entire exterior of our home. They are stunning and I can’t wait to see them!
New living room light fixtureCopper gas lanterns from Bevolo
The next morning we got up early and headed back home. Unfortunately Cafe Du Monde didn’t open for several hours after we were already gone so we didn’t get to have coffee and beignets before leaving. On the way home we saw a random road sign for the Mississippi Petrified Forest so we decided to stop and check it out. This ended up being a great stop on our trip. It was a nice break from the car for the kids. They were able to run around and play for a while before we got back on the road.
A lot of the path around the petrified forest was paved but even the parts that weren’t we didn’t have any trouble pushing our cheap umbrella stroller around and we were even there after a big rain. There’s even a nice little campground there if you needed a break from driving and wanted to stay the night.
We only had one night in New Orleans and a goal in mind to hunt for house stuff but for future reference for anyone else you can easily spend days there even with small children. New Orleans has a really great aquarium, zoo and butterfly garden. For older kids you can take history tours around the French Quarter and Garden district that are full of interesting information and sights. For adults I highly recommend a haunted history tour through the French Quarter. The haunted history tours are done at night and they’re so interesting!
Ingredients: -2 cups flour -1 cup sugar -2tsp baking powder -1/2tsp baking soda -1/2tsp salt -1Tbs corn starch -8Tbs melted butter -2 eggs -1/2 cup sourdough starter/discard -3Tbs sour cream -1tsp vanilla -1 cup blueberries (frozen works best)
Directions: -In a stand mixer bowl or large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and corn starch. -Next add melted butter, eggs, sourdough, sour cream and vanilla until a nice batter forms -Add in blueberries -Spoon batter into muffin tin -Bake at 350* for 30 minutes *This makes 12 muffins so I usually double it to give me 24 and bake about 5 minutes longer
Ingredients: -2 cups corn meal -2 cups flour (I use bread flour because its always what I have but all purpose or pastry flour is fine too)
-1/2 cup sugar -1/2 tsp salt -16 TBS butter (2 sticks) -3/4 cup sourdough starter (I never measure this so a little more or a little less is okay. I think I always have a lot more) -4 eggs -2 tsp vanilla -2 cups blueberries (frozen are easier to work with. I also don’t measure this so add more if you want!)
Directions: -Preheat oven to 350* and line a large baking sheet or 2 small baking sheets with parchment paper. -In a stand mixer bowl mix together all dry ingredients (corn meal, flour, and salt) -Cut up butter into cubes or slices and add to dry ingredients. With paddle attachment cut the butter into the mix until it crumbles. -Mix in sourdough, eggs and vanilla. You will have to stop and pull all the dough off the paddle and mix again to make sure all the sourdough gets mixed in. -Add blueberries and mix until well combined. If you want them to be really purple keep mixing until some of the blueberries get smashed in and color the dough. -Flour an open countertop and roll the dough out into a long rectangle about 2 inches thick. The dough is extremely sticky so flour your hands and rolling pin too. -Once you have your rectangle rolled out to about 2 inches thick, use a bench scraper (or knife or whatever you have) to cut each triangular scone. Scones are traditionally shaped like triangles but there’s no law saying you can’t make them any shape you want. If your kid wants dinosaurs, by all means, cut them into dinosaurs! -Lay them out on your parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 350* for about 30 minutes. They may take a little longer if they’re all on one sheet. The bottoms will just be turning golden when they’re done.
The benefits of learning a second language are plenty. Understanding and learning all the aspects of a language—like phonetics, writing, and speaking—is a hard task for your brain, proving them to be the ultimate brain workout.
Improving your overall brain health is one of the many outcomes of learning a new language. In fact, it’s one of the most practical, effective, and enjoyable ways to resist aging, expand your intelligence, and sharpen your mind!
Decades ago, people believed that being bilingual or multilingual had negative effects on a person, leading to confusion, inability to multitask, and cognitive impairment. Today, studies show that second language acquisition is quite the opposite and prove the importance of learning a language.
In this article, I answer the following questions:
What are the brain advantages of speaking more than one language?
How is it possible to gain the benefits of learning a language?
Read on to discover the brain benefits of learning a second language as a child or as an adult.
¡Aprendamos de los beneficios cerebrales de aprender un segundo idioma!
Let’s learn about the brain benefits of learning a second language!
This Is Your Brain on Language
The human brain is magnificent. With more than 100 trillion neuronal connections and impulses that travel at 268 miles per hour, nothing in the known universe is more complex than your brain.
Several distinct regions in the brain form an interconnected network to make language comprehension, expression, and learning possible. As you actively study a second language, these areas light up and strengthen their connections, resulting in a healthier, more robust brain.
Your brain on language promotes faster responses, better adaptation, and more competent cognitive function.
According to specialist in language educational products, Dan Roitman,“As a language learner, you’ll not only become a more conscious thinker and listener who can communicate clearly and think creatively, but you’ll also gain the most significant benefit of multilingualism: a broader, more global perspective.”
Are you ready to reap the benefits of learning a second language?
Learning a Second Language: Children vs Adults
A second language is any language you learn that isn’t your first or native language.
People used to think that only children could learn a second language successfully thanks to their sponge-like brains. Luckily, decades of research have proven this to be untrue.
It’s easier for a child to imitate the phonetic sounds of a new language, but as an adult, you have the capacity to follow a disciplined learning routine, implement complex grammar structures sooner, and reap the brain benefits of learning a second language.
Scientists are determined to prove the brain benefits of bilingualism. Considering that our brain function starts to decline in speed, memory, and execution at age 25, it’s pretty clear that it’s an excellent idea to learn a second language in adulthood!
How long does it take to learn a new language? Depends on the language you choose. According to the US Foreign Service Institute, it takes around 480 hours to learn Spanish.
In the following list of benefits, we’ll explore the rewards that children receive at an early age for learning a second language as well as the benefits for adults.
1. Better Executive Functions
Benefits and improvements are evident in people as young as seven months old. Agnes Kovacs led a study in the International School for Advanced Studies, where babies were exposed to two languages at home. They showed more executive functions—such as memory and self-control—than babies in a monolingual household.
As a child, functions start to evolve and so do the studies that follow. According to another study, bilingual 5-year-olds answered faster and better in memory games.
2. Creativity and Achievement
The cognitive development in children and teenagers who are bilingual or multilingual have shown benefits of learning a second language, such as being more creative and doing better on tests.
A study conducted in the US and the UK during the World Wars showed that bilinguals at a young age weren’t focused, performed poorly in school, and had confusion or developmental delays. Scientists even thought that the exposure to more than one language could lead to a split personality and other mental illnesses!
Hence, the word spread that it was a terrible idea to learn a second language. Scientists later discovered that this study was flawed, as the subjects probably had PTSD due to trauma. The myth wasn’t debunked until the 1960s when doctors conducted more controlled research.
One of the benefits of learning a second language is the unleashing of “feel-good” brain chemicals. Students were shown to have less stress and more self-confidence, self-esteem, and better self-image according to the National Education Association (NEA).
4. Problem Solving and Cognitive Flexibility
During the same study by the NEA, they realized that bilinguals scored better at solving problems and memory skills, as well as listening aptitudes and cognitive flexibility—which is another term for “adaptation.”
Bilingual children show abilities when it comes to associations and the abstract parts of a second language. They can understand better how consonants or vowels have different phonetics in different languages.
6. Math and Verbal Aptitude
Students who have studied a second language for at least four years get better scores on the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). They rank better than their monolingual counterparts, specifically in math and verbal aptitudes.
7. Prevents Mind Aging
According to scientists, learning something new leads to increasing volume in gray matter which leads to neuron stimulation and creation of new neural pathways. That volume points out the quantity of neurons and dendrites—neuronal branches—that we have.
This implies that you have more cells, therefore information and impulses can travel faster. This way, our brain gets used to more activity. It is called “neuroplasticity” and it’s what children have when it comes to learning new skills.
On the other hand, white matter is the fat that covers the connections between neurons. Thanks to it, information travels efficiently around your brain. One of the benefits of learning a second language is that those connections become stronger according to a study.
A study involving intelligence tests showed that elderly people could outscore their younger selves even after only one intensive course week of exposure to a foreign language.
A new study conducted by York and Baycrest University, published in the paper reveals a game-changing fact. The people that participated in this study—ages 65 to 75—showed cognitive and brain improvements even without becoming fully bilingual.
With only 16 weeks, 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, scientists started seeing differences and positive results. After this, evidence points that one of the main benefits of learning a second language is that it has a protective consequence against mental illnesses like dementia.
In fact, 35% of dementia risk can be erased by adding lifestyle changes to our day-to-day lives. Monolinguals are more prone to dementia than bilingual or multilingual people.
A new study conducted by York and Baycrest University, published in the paper reveals a game-changing fact. The people that participated in this study—ages 65 to 75—showed cognitive and brain improvements even without becoming fully bilingual.
With only 16 weeks, 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, scientists started seeing differences and positive results. After this, evidence points that one of the main benefits of learning a second language is that it has a protective consequence against mental illnesses like dementia.
In fact, 35% of dementia risk can be erased by adding lifestyle changes to our day-to-day lives. Monolinguals are more prone to dementia than bilingual or multilingual people.
The benefits of learning a second language enhance memory, increase sustained-focus, help you with mathematical and verbal functions, compensate for damage, raise your cognitive reserve, help you cope and adapt faster, and lower the risk of mental illnesses.
One of the best languages to learn, based on the amount of people who speak it, is Spanish. Learning Spanish involves interlocking levels of brain functions that promote intellectual health. Other benefits of learning a second language include getting to know other cultures, connecting with more people, going abroad to study or retire, and having once-in-a-lifetime experiences outside your comfort zone.
One of the best methods of learning a new language is by engaging in conversation with native Spanish-speakers. You’ll speed up your learning process with the help of Homeschool Spanish Academy. Tailor your Spanish package to suit your needs and interests and enjoy individualized sessions with a certified, native-speaking instructor. Check our affordable pricing and flexible programs. Try it out by signing up for a free trial class today!
Author Information
Nicole Canún Freelance writer, content creator, and marketer. Proudly Mexican. Been to 30 countries. I love learning from different cultures and trying their cuisines. Obsessed with Asia. Fluent in Spanish and English, not so much in French.
Raising Rowletts 