If you already know everything on Carnival about Bilingualism please jump here for the Schedule or click here to subscribe to the Carnival’s Newsletter, so you’ll always know when and where the next Carnival will be.

If you read this you’ll probably find we have two things in common:

  • we are bloggers
  • we are parents of bilingual children.

Some of us write mostly on bilingualism, like me for instance , others write on other topics but also occasionally on bilingualism. But we are all interested in bilingualism and meeting other bilingual families. Which is why a Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism might be really a good idea for us… and I’ll tell you right now:

  • What is a blogging Carnival
  • Why you should join
  • How to join the carnival
  • What does it mean to host a carnival

What is a blogging carnival?

  • It’s a fixed appointment on the subject, which is hosted each time by a different blogger and which presents a review of some interesting posts on the topic
  • The carnival’s host introduces and links to articles published on other blogs, like yours, whose authors have sent the link (i.e. the authors selected the specific link for this carnival).
  • You could send a link to a new post, or an old one which you consider to be particularly interesting
  • Each contributing author can signpost to this carnival on their own blog (this is optional, but it’s usually done).

Why should you join in? Few reasons:

  • To promote a larger discussion on bilingualism and create a wider community of bilingual parents.
  • To see in one go what others are saying about the issue, so you can keep regularly updated very efficiently
  • To get your word out to a wider community
  • To get to your blog people who othewise would have little chances of stumbling there
  • Once the carnival becomes a regular thing your readers might start looking forward to it, as a fixed appointmen

How can you join the carnival?

All you have to do is send an email to the blogger hosting the Carnival saying which post you would like to contribute, and providing the link for such post. The issue though is how do you know who is hosting the Carnival and their email address? That’s where the newsletter comes in handy. By subscribing to the newsletter you will receive a reminder about 10 days to a week before each carnival, telling you who is hosting and where to send your contribution, so please subscribe here and join the party!

What does it mean to host a carnival?

It means just a bit of work… You call for content (similar to what I am doing here) and as people submit it you’ll have to choose what you are going to publish and build a post on it. Once the thing takes momentum and there’s a bit of content available you might have to choose, because a carnival with 100 links is useless. I suppose 20 is the max one can reasonably handle.

How do I host a Carnival?

  1. Get yourself on the schedule. Send me an email (details below) to let me know when you would like to host a Carnival and once your date will be confirmed you’ll see your Blog on the Schedule.
  2. About 10 days before the date prepare a nice email to ask bloggers to send articles for the Carnival to your email address, send me a copy of the email and we’ll circulate it to the newsletter, but don’t stop there! Send yourself the email to anybody you know who might be interested and may be search around for some blogs we haven’t heard about yet. Give a deadline for submission and allow some time for you to go over all the material you have received.
  3. Review all the posts you have received, decide what you will insert in the Carnival and write a post that brings it all together. In the final post make sure you point to this page for info on the Carnival and for the Schedule, and you offer people the opportunity to subscribe here.
  4. Also before the Day do some promotion around, so people know there is a carnival on his way. Blog, Facebook, Twitter, that kind of stuff…
  5. Publish the Carnival on the scheduled day.
  6. Write another nice email, telling everybody that the carnival is out, asking them to post the carnival on their blog and reminding them to let us know if they want to host a carnival. Send me the email and again I’ll distribute it to the newsletter.

If you have any questions, just ask. My email address is bilinguepergioco AT yahoo DOT com.

SCHEDULE FOR NEXT CARNIVALS:

To sign up to host a Carnival please write to bilinguepergioco AT yahoo DOT com.