The BLINGuals Daily Planner is a neat and free tool for parents who would like to be a bit more methodical when allocating language hours for children.

Click to download the BLINGuals Daily Planner Excel spreadsheet.  You'll need Excel installed on your PC.  If prompted, be sure to enable the macros in Excel (the macro is responsible for automatically updating the graphical charts based on your input.)

 The BLINGuals Daily Planner Excel worksheet is based on several concepts outlined in the Bilingual Edge, by Kendall King and Alison Mackey.  The worksheet carves the workdays and weekend days into ½ hour segments, where you can track what kind of activity, language and interactivity level, your child engages in.  Then, check out the findings charts and start tweaking the schedule.

• Your child understands a language, but won’t speak it?  Try increasing the daily exposure time.
• Exposing your child to three or more languages?  Ensure that s/he’s getting equal exposure to each language.
• Considering hiring a nanny or an au-pair?  How might that affect your child’s development?
• Your child doesn’t respond to a designated language?  Perhaps set aside some more weekend time with your extended family.
• Your child doesn’t seem to pick up a language just by watching DVDs (passive activity)?  Replace TV time with book time (interactive activity.)

• Language exercised (up to four may be tracked.)
• Activity (up to eight may be tracked.)
• Interactivity level: Interactive (100% engaged), passive (50% engaged) and sleep (0% engaged.)
• Different schedules depending on type of day.  For example, work day vs. weekend day.