Family English Language Holidays
Bring the Squirrels!
You shouldn’t have to choose between giving your English serious attention and spending your holiday with your children.
Bring the Squirrels is our small-scale family version of Experience English: a week in Scotland where you explore, make things, visit places, follow interests and spend time together — with English woven through what you’re doing.
This isn’t an adult English course with something arranged for the children on the side.
You have the holiday together.
I work with the different opportunities for English as they appear — through games, stories, conversations, places we visit and things we make, with more focused attention on your own English when the moment is right.
There is no fixed family programme because every family is different. I shape the week around your children, their ages and interests, your own English goals, and the things you enjoy doing together.
What stays consistent is the approach: lots of English contact, without turning your family holiday into a sea of language work.
Available in August & September. We usually have space for only 2 or 3 families each year.
Bring the Squirrels!
A Family Holiday, Filled with English
We use Scotland as our starting point. Your week might include woodland walks, castles, wildlife, cafés, creative projects, local events, stories, games or simply following something that has caught your family’s interest.
These aren’t excursions added around an English course. They are where much of the English happens. I use the places we go and the things we notice, make and talk about to create language opportunities for your family.
Sometimes everyone is absorbed in the same thing. Sometimes a child is busy making, playing or exploring while I have a more focused conversation with a parent. Sometimes English becomes a game without anyone planning it — a new word spotted on a walk can become a joke, a challenge or even a song.
There is time to slow down too. A good family holiday needs space for children to be children and for you to enjoy being together.
I don’t try to turn every moment into a language-learning opportunity. Languages need downtime and processing time too.
August & September
Bring the Squirrels family holidays are available during August and September.
We usually have space to work with only two or three families each year, so if you have particular dates in mind, it’s worth getting in touch early.
For families with younger children, I recommend two weeks if you can manage it.
Getting a family to Scotland involves a fair amount of faff, and younger children often need a little time to arrive, settle in and find their rhythm.
Two weeks gives us more space to slow down, follow interests and let English become part of everyday family life rather than trying to squeeze everything into seven days.
One week can still be a brilliant family holiday, particularly with older children.
I usually have space to work with only two or three families each year, so if you have particular dates in mind, it’s worth getting in touch early.
Looking for something longer, or travelling outside summer?
We also have an off-season invitation for families who want to spend longer in Scotland, combining more traditional English learning with the experience of living here for up to 3 months.
→ Explore our guide to learning English in Scotland as a family
Families Who Want to Learn — and Holiday — Together
Bring the Squirrels is for families who want to give English meaningful attention without separating the family to do it.
You don’t need to have the same level of English or the same learning goals. I work with what each person needs while keeping the holiday centred around experiences you can enjoy together.
Option 1 , Two Adults + Child/Children — Private Family Week
Your family has Blue Noun entirely to yourselves for the week, with your own lovely two-bedroom apartment in Crieff.
Because the week is private, I can shape the English, activities and pace around your particular family. This option works well with younger children too.
Option 2, One Adult + One or Two Children — Private Week
You can also have Blue Noun entirely to yourselves for the week when travelling as one adult with one or two children.
You’ll have your own two-bedroom apartment in Crieff, and the whole week can respond to your children’s ages and interests as well as your own English goals. This option can also work with younger children.
→ See what a real parent + child English holiday day can look like
Option 3, One Adult + One Child, Aged 11+ — Shared Family Week
Option 3: One Adult + One Child, Aged 11+
A shared family week — £2,850 including 7 nights’ accommodation
I created this option especially for parents travelling alone with a child, including solo parents, who want the Blue Noun family experience without paying for a private family week.
For two weeks each year, I can bring together up to two parent-and-child pairs and create a shared Bring the Squirrels holiday around both families. Your booking goes ahead whether or not another family joins you.
2027 starts: 27 August + 3 September
Family Holiday Prices
→ Private Family Week
£5,750 per family, per week
For:
Two adults + child/children
or
One adult + one or two children
Your family has Blue Noun entirely to yourselves, with your own lovely two-bedroom apartment in Crieff.
The week is shaped around your family’s ages, interests and different English needs. The price is for the whole private family experience, rather than a course fee multiplied by the number of people coming.
You can book for one or two weeks. For families travelling with younger children, I particularly recommend two weeks: it gives everyone time to settle in and gives English more space to become part of family life.
→ Shared Family Week
£2,950 for one adult + one child, per week
For children aged 11+
Scotland — at a Pace That Leaves Room for English
We are based in Crieff, Perthshire, with much of the holiday spent outdoors. August and September are wonderful months for exploring on foot, getting out on the water, following woodland trails, spending time beside rivers and lochs, visiting castles, wildlife parks and local events.
Of course, you may also have famous Scottish places on your wish list. This is your holiday, and seeing Scotland matters. But racing from one major attraction to the next doesn’t always leave much room for language learning. There is a lot of travelling, looking, photographing — and moving on.
So we balance the two.
We’ll choose some bigger adventures and places you really want to experience, alongside slower days closer to Crieff where there is time to walk, notice things, talk, ask questions, follow children’s curiosity and let conversations develop.
And not every great experience needs to become an English exercise. Sometimes the best thing I can do is let your family experience a place together, then allow the language, memories and conversations around it to emerge naturally.
You still get to explore Scotland. We just leave enough space inside the exploring for English to happen.
→ For example, See how we share a visit to the Wallace Monument
“We had an unforgettable holiday in Scotland with our English language holidays. We travelled as a family (two adults and two children aged 4 and 7), and had an amazing time. Ruth, the host, is a wonderful person who adapts at all times to the needs and preferences of each family member. She and her family are simply incredible — warm, welcoming, and always ready to help.“
Eduard S.
Exceptional Accommodation
Your family accommodation is a little unusual too.
Blue Noun has access to one lovely, fully furnished two-bedroom apartment in Crieff, with a large sitting room and private garden. Its owner previously offered it through Airbnb and now gives me the opportunity to use it for Blue Noun family holidays.
That’s how I can include a genuinely lovely private family apartment in the £5,750 weekly price. But there is only one — and its availability has to coincide with mine. It’s another reason Bring the Squirrels weeks need to be arranged well in advance.
Why English Feels More Comfortable Here
This holiday starts from a simple belief: you shouldn’t have to choose between giving your English serious attention, giving your children more English, and spending your holiday together.
So English becomes part of the family adventure.
We use it while exploring, playing, making things, following stories, asking questions and deciding what to do next.
And I make it fun.
With children, I am always looking for something I can turn into a game, a challenge, a story or a running joke. New English might be picked up on a walk, shouted from the car, drawn, acted out — or turned into a song.
Adults get something different from the same shared experiences: richer conversation, new ways to express themselves and focused help with the English that matters to them.
Sometimes I also bring other people into our week. In this family songwriting workshop, Scottish singer-songwriter Jacqui Hutchinson helped us turn ideas, stories and English into a song together.
This is what I mean by learning English through experience. Nobody has to stop having a family holiday in order for the learning to happen.
→ Watch the results of a family songwriting workshop
Family English Language Holidays
Private Family Week: £5,750 per family, per week
Shared Family Week: £2,950
The Story of this Holiday
Bring the Squirrels began when my sister asked me to find something similar for her family — somewhere she and her children could go and learn Spanish together.
I thought there must be loads of options.
There weren’t.
I trawled through language-school websites and kept finding versions of the same idea: the adults went into one classroom with other adults, while the children went somewhere else with other children.
I thought the choices for families were surprisingly poor.
Why assume that parents want to spend their holiday in an adult classroom while their children are corralled into another version of school? For some families, that might be exactly what they want. But where was the option for families who actually wanted to learn a language together?
My sister wanted to be part of her children’s learning — to hear the new words appearing, laugh at the mistakes, make discoveries together and enjoy watching their Spanish blossom.
And I realised Blue Noun could offer the thing I couldn’t find for her.
What if learning a language became part of your family life for a week?
You explore together. You get curious together. You make things, play, get outdoors, have adventures, get tired, get hungry and work things out together — with English running through all of it.
There are quiet moments and big days out. There’s time to throw stones into rivers, find the perfect stick, photograph flowers, curl up with a book or linger over something that has caught your child’s attention. There are castles, hills, boats, wildlife and whatever interesting things are happening in Scotland while you’re here.
For busy parents, holiday time with their children is precious. Bring the Squirrels isn’t another summer activity to put your children into while you go somewhere else to learn.
This is learning English while having summer with your kids.
And when you learn a language as a family, something else can happen. English becomes part of the things you’ve done together — the jokes, stories, adventures, words and memories you bring home.
It can become part of your family identity, rather than another subject that belongs to school.
I’ve shared Bring the Squirrels with three families so far. This isn’t a big summer programme, and I don’t want it to become one.
I make space for a small number of family weeks because I love them. They bring a completely different energy into my year — more play, more spontaneity, more stopping for sticks, snacks and things nobody planned.
Sharing Scotland with a family like this feels a little like a holiday for me too. It is high-energy work — I couldn’t do it all year round — but I genuinely look forward to my family weeks.
Bring the Squirrels is deliberately a small part of my year. And I think that’s part of what makes it special.
“We are delighted with everything we experienced during these days, thanks to the hospitality of Ruth, her family, and her friends and acquaintances.
All in all, highly recommended, and we hope we can do it again another year.“
Mireya M.C.
A Simple Next Step
If you're wondering whether this holiday will suit you, the next step is a short Zoom call.
It's a chance for us to meet, for you to ask questions and tell me what you're hoping for from both your English and your time in Scotland. This isn't a language test or assessment.
Blue Noun holidays are unusual, and the conversation gives us both a chance to make sure this is the kind of experience you're looking for.
Afterwards, if you're joining us, we'll move to WhatsApp. I'll stay in touch as you prepare — helping with travel plans, what to bring and practical questions, while learning more about your interests so I can begin shaping the week around you.
If this sounds like the kind of English experience you've been looking for, let's talk it through.
Book a Zoom call to explore your holiday
What People Notice By The End Of The Holiday
By the end of a Bring the Squirrels holiday, English has had a chance to become part of ordinary family life.
It has been used to order food, make decisions, tell stories, understand people, play games, explore places, ask questions, solve little problems and make each other laugh.
For children, that can be an important shift. English stops belonging only to school. It becomes a language connected to people, places, adventures and things they wanted to do.
Adults have had the same week through a different lens — using richer English in real conversations, noticing gaps, trying new ways to express themselves and getting individual support when it is useful.
And you’ve done all of that together.
You go home with more than memories of Scotland. You have shared jokes, words, stories and experiences that happened in English — things you can refer back to long after the holiday is over.
English has started to acquire a place in your family’s story.
Further Information
During August, we also offer a special Edinburgh Festival Edition combining family English coaching with time exploring the atmosphere of Scotland’s world-famous arts festival.
If you’d like a clearer sense of how a week unfolds — how families spend their time, how children take part, and how English becomes part of everyday life — you can read more here:
What to Know About Our English Holidays
Before you decide if you want to book a Zoom chat, you may find it helpful to explore how we design our English holidays and support your experience.
→ Real-World English
How English develops through lived experience, conversation, and everyday moments — not classroom performance.
→ Discover the Mix that Makes a Blue Noun Holiday Unique
A simple visual diagram showing how activities, schedule and support combine across a week.
→ What’s Included
Practical details, support, and what your holiday fee covers.
Interested in Future Family Weeks?
Blue Noun only supports a very small number of families each summer.
Join the priority list to hear first about future dates.
