As a Malagasy mom raising my son in Germany, I look for stories that give him pride in both his roots. This week, I found one at a robotics competition in South Korea.

He learned to read in Malagasy years before Vorschule even touches reading — and before German. I worried it would hold him back. It didn't.

Around age 4, our children hit a huge developmental milestone: The Comparison Phase. They start noticing skin tones, hair textures, and the languages spoken around them. This is the moment we have to be ready. This is the moment we decide what "home" feels like for them. 1. Why Malagasy and German? In our community, there is often a lot of pressure to teach French or English early for "success." Also, I know, having a child speak French or English sounds special in Germany.

When you raise a child far from home, you start noticing small moments that carry big meaning. Maybe it’s when your child asks why their name sounds different from their classmates’. Or when you realize that the songs and stories you grew up with in Madagascar are not part of their everyday world here in Germany. I know that feeling deeply. I’m a Malagasy mother living in Germany, raising my son between two cultures, two languages, and two ways of seeing the world. This blog