Bilingual Fun is so honored to have been nominated and then chosen for the Top 100 Language Lovers Blog Contest 2012! There are 4 categories and Bilingual Fun is included in the Language Learning Category. We would be so honored if our readers and amigos would take a second to vote for us. It is fantastic that Lexophiles has created this contest and is bringing awareness of the importance and benefits of language learning!

Please click on the link below to vote.  Mil gracias!

Kids will have fun with this interactive lesson about La Mariposa y Las Flores. There are many different ways you can reinforce the language with this lesson. We chose to focus on color recognition. Check out this video to see how you can use this lesson with your children.

Happy Mother’s Day!    We wanted to share a simple craft that children can make for their bilingual moms!   This simple heart bouquet spells out MADRE with special descriptions of the special mom.    You can reinforce the vocabulary words with the kids as they are creating their special gift.  This is a fun activity that can also be a simple lesson for teaching Spanish to children.  Pass this along to dads and significant others…. super easy and Moms will love it!

Download craft instructions here.

Feliz Dia de Las Madres 

In honor of El Dia de La Madre, I wanted to introduce a fantastic bilingual mom who has created Cds for teaching Spanish to children.  Sara Quintanar is a mom of 3, who is passionate about teaching children Spanish through music.  She has created 2 wonderful music Cds called Music with Sara:  Canciones en Español and Más canciones en Español.  We listened to lMás canciones en Español and loved the traditional songs mixed in with fun, upbeat original tunes.  Sara is a music teacher and also offers classes for children in the Los Angeles area.   For parents and teachers that are looking to add to your music library, check out this bilingual mom’s site at www.itsmusictime.com.

Check out Sara’s video premiere here!

Just wanted to share some other great bilingual moms’ sites who are passionate about language learning!  Muy bien Mamis!

Spanglishbaby

Mommy Maestra

Teaching Learning Spanish

Spanish Playground

Multilingual Living

Here is another fun learning resource for your bilingual children!
We enjoyed listening to Fun Spanish for Kids!  Beth Manners has created language learning products that entertain children through upbeat songs, sounds effects, and basic Spanish stories.  My bilingual preschool class loved listening to the Three Bears, as a reinforcement to our ” Familia” theme.  Fun Spanish for Kids makes learning fun, and will be requested over and over again by your kids!

Fun Spanish for kids will teach your child over 100 Spanish words and phrases. Fun Spanish conjugates verbs and has an important review section. It has a system of short segments to hold the interest of the young child. 

Developed with the help of parents, Spanish teachers and
young children, this child-tested audio really teaches and is fun. 
Created especially for 2 – 6 year olds – the best age to learn languages

To learn more about Beth Manners and her language learning products in both Spanish and French, please visit Fun French and Spanish.

Los números en español

I finally found my son’s niche in his bilingual development…. Los números!

As a family that is raising bilingual children, my husband and I are always looking for different ways to stimulate our kids’ language development. My 7 year old son, whom we affectionately call ‘el tremendo’, has always given us a run for the money. He has been exposed to Spanish since birth, hears it everyday, understands it, and can communicate when we has the desire, but never is a willing participant in language games or conversations. Long ago, I learned my two children’s learning progress is very different because of their very different personalities. My daughter embraces being bilingual and is constantly growing and developing with her skills. My son has been known at times to call my husband the “Spanish monster’ and to run out of the room. Good times.

During a recent road trip, we were having fun doing oral math problems in Spanish with my daughter and nieces. The goal was to challenge my nieces with their number knowledge and to challenge my daughter with her multiplication fluency. You can imagine my surprise when my son began quickly piping up with the answers to the problems correctly… and in Spanish! As a first grader, he is working on addition and subtraction, so when he quickly shouted out ‘ochenta y uno’ for nueve por nueve, I was so surprised! Not only has he grasped challenging math concepts ,he quickly was able to transfer his knowledge and say the answers in Spanish. He loves numbers and math and since this was a fun game for him, he didn’t even realize he was participating in a Spanish activity. We continued on for over 30 minutes with the math problems and only several times did he have a question on particular numbers. I think I have found his niche! So now, on our next trip to Mexico he will handle all of the restaurant bills and money exchanges.

I know we will have to continue to challenge him and motivate him, but any positive response we get from  “el hijo tremendo”, we will take it and run!

What do you do to motivate your kids to speak Spanish? Tips, stories, ideas? Please share!

Teach Spanish to Children with Music from Sing with Señor

Sing with Señor teaches the basics of the Spanish language through simple lyrics and infectious melodies.  As a bilingual teacher and mom, I am always looking for ‘teachable songs’ that will reinforce our lessons.  The Sing with Señor songs are  fun and easy to sing along. The songs consist of relevant themes that enhance pronunciation, fluency, and reinforce the basics of the language.  My kids really enjoyed listening to the CD and I know this will quickly become one of our favorites!

We have 2 copies to giveaway to our readers!  This will be a great addition to your bilingual resources!

1. Like Sing with Senor on Facebook

2. Leave us a comment on why you would like to win a copy of this great CD!

Check out their latest video Los Números:

About Sing with SeñorSing with Señor is an idea born years ago while Felipe Canete was teaching
Spanish to middle school students in Seattle, WA. Having realized that a lot of the songs used to teach Spanish were traditional music from different countries in South America, he wanted to introduce art into his teaching and one day, inspired by his students, started to play the
guitar and wrote an original song for the students. They loved singing the song and then asked to make more. It was clear that the students were learning while expressing themselves through songs that they could sing and through simple lyrics that they could follow. He started to write songs that would fit the curriculum but at the same time would be fun and catchy to sing.

About the founders

Felipe Canete

Felipe has a degree in business and works as a professional actor and
musician teaching theater and Spanish in different schools in Seattle. He is also a member of a Seattle world band called
Luc and the Lovingtons. He started to develop his artistic career when, as a
child, he participated as a singer and dancer in different local festivals in Chile.

Soleil Kelley

Soleil is a musician and producer from the Methow Valley, WA. He is a
talented, versatile, multi-instrumentalist that wishes he had catchy songs to
learn Spanish with as a kid. When he’s not performing with Luc and the
Lovingtons, Soleil is a full time musician, crafting his own music and
producing the music of Seattle’s
local talent.
Visit Sing with Senor to learn more about using music to teach children Spanish!

Teach Children Spanish with Poetry and Music

We are rounding out the month of February ‘ el mes del amor”, and we want to share some LOVE by offering you a great resource for your bilingual library!We are proud to be offering a fantastic giveaway that includes a CD and book set from the series called Música Amiga.  Bilingual Fun had the opportunity to review the Música Amiga series, composed of 10 books and 10 CDs with 12 songs each,  and we are thrilled to find yet another great product from Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy.   We are huge advocates of the power of using music to enhance language development.  The Música Amiga series is a compilation of beautiful, traditional folklore and original songs for early language exposure. The music of the original songs has been created by renown composer  Suni Paz, who sings all the songs. Children will love singing the songs, as well as reading the accompanying book with lyrics and whimsical illustrations by Ulises Wensell.  This is a great resource for parents and teachers who are raising bilingual children.

The impor­tance of songs in the class­room can­not be overly empha­sized. Songs are a vehi­cle for both teach­ers and stu­dents to develop flu­ency in the lan­guage, improve pro­nun­ci­a­tion and into­na­tion, build vocab­u­lary, and develop their under­stand­ing of His­panic cul­ture. Learn­ing the tra­di­tional folk­lore cher­ished by fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties will strengthen Latino children’s sense of iden­tity; for English-speakers learn­ing Span­ish, songs and folk­lore will deepen their appre­ci­a­tion of the Span­ish language.

We have 10 sets to giveaway!  

To enter, please, leave a comment here or on Facebook and tell us why you would LOVE to win a copy!   ¡Muchas gracias!

Games and Spanish Learning

You don’t have to create brand new games to help your children learn and practice Spanish.  By using classic, fun games that you may already own, kids will have a blast practicing their bilingual skills!  Playing fun, easy games is a great way to build confidence and practice the language in a relaxed environment.  Kids will learn Spanish and have fun with games you may already have in your closet!  Here are a few of our favorites that we play while teaching Spanish to children.

CandyLand:  this classic simple game is always a favorite with young children and very easy to incorporate Spanish.  Even if you are not a bilingual parent, the simple objective of the game and repetition of colors and counting is an excellent practice

Memory:  There are many different versions of this classic game.  If you have the original, it has a plethora of pictures to practice a wide range of vocabulary

Pictionary:  Kids love this interactive game.  You can use the original Pictionary, or merely make your own list of items to draw.  Depending on our child’s vocabulary or the theme you want to practice, this is so much fun and allows everyone involved to produce the language by guessing.

HeadBanz:  This is a new game that has become popular within the past few years.   This is an excellent game for communication and comprehension practice, as it involves lots of speaking.    If the players are not fully bilingual and cannot give clues in Spanish, simply play in it English, but try guessing the picture in Spanish.  This is a great game for elementary kids and older!

Guess Who?  This game focuses on descriptions, so it is a perfect adjective practice.  The players have to guess and eliminate people based on descriptions.  

Pictureka!  Bonus, the playing cards are bilingual!  The set that we own, has English and Spanish words on all cards.  It is a good practice for identification and vocabulary development.

Taboo! This is an older game that my high school students loved!  It can be fun for elementary age kids and older. It involves a lot of speaking and players must have good comprehension and fluency.  The objective is to give clues by using a wide variety of words and phrases and not saying certain words on the cards.  It is an excellent game for bilingual speakers!

Battleship:  If you want to practice numbers and letters, this is the perfect game!   It is slow moving, but for kids that know numbers and letters, they can focus and play this fun game of strategy!  Give kids phrases to practice while playing…. Está cerca- it’s close, or está lejos-  it’s far.

Connect Four:   Simple and repetitive practice for counting.  Great for all ages!

Mastermind:  This is such a fun game of strategy and guessing.  The color combinations offer a good opportunity for color repetition and recognition, as well as memory strategies.

Sorry!  This is just as much fun as CandyLand and often older children relate better to this game.  The primary focus is colors and counting, but you can also incorporate communicative phrases using ‘ lo siento- I’m sorry”, when you knock an opponent home.

3 Libros For your Bilingual Library this Christmas!

These books by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy are treasures that shouldn’t be missed!  Whether you are a teacher or bilingual parent, adding books to your library is an ongoing process and these texts are sure to be a highlight for your children.

All three books uniquely highlight the Hispanic culture and traditions, with beautiful storylines and illustrations.   If you are looking for materials to supplement your teaching curriculum, or merely to enhance and reinforce your children’s bilingual development, these holiday books are definitely worthwhile. As always, my children were enthralled by the whimsical illustrations and enticing stories.  We love any chance we have to enhance their bilingual literacy exposure.  My young Spanish students have been enjoying singing the Spanish villancicos as well.  What a fun way for children to learn Spanish!

To read further about these books, including personal notes from the authors, please visit www.almaflorada.com and www.isabelcampoy.com. To order your own copies for your bilingual library go to www.delsolbooks.com.

Merry Navidad. Christmas Carols in Spanish and English

By  Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
Illustrated by  Viví Escrivá
English Translation by  Rosa Zubizarreta

Come share the joy of a His­panic Christmas!

In this warm and vibrant col­lec­tion of tra­di­tional Span­ish Christ­mas car­ols, or vil­lan­ci­cos, noted authors Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Cam­poy bring to life the hol­i­day tra­di­tions of Latin Amer­ica and Spain. The cre­ative Eng­lish adap­ta­tions by Rosalma Zubizarreta both cap­ture the spirit of the orig­i­nals and add a new dimen­sion to the songs. And Span­ish illus­tra­tor Viví Escrivá‘s spir­ited illus­tra­tions are per­fect back­drops for the lyrics, adding rich hol­i­day flavor.

Come sing along! ¡Feliz Navi­dad! and Merry Christmas!

Celebrate Christmas and Three Kings Day with Pablo and Carlitos
Celebra la Navidad y el Día de los Reyes Magos con Pablo y Carlitos

By  Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
Illustrated by  WALTER TORRES
Available on CD:  Stories to Celebrate / Cuentos para Celebrar
Series:  Stories to Celebrate / Cuentos para Celebrar

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Story:

Car­l­i­tos writes a let­ter to the Three Kings, los Reyes Magos, ask­ing for lots of presents. Later, he decides to write a new let­ter and gives up some of the things on his wish list in exchange for a big­ger gift for his older brother, Pablo, who is very good to him and is teach­ing him how to ride a bike. The Three Kings are truly wise and sur­prise Car­l­i­tos and his brother with just the right gifts

Non-fiction section.  Information about the celebration of Christmas and Three Wise Men Day is included in a non-fiction section highlighted with interesting and colorful illustrations

The Golden Cage

By  Alma Flor Ada
Illustrated by  Viví Escrivá
English Translation by  Rosalma Zubizarreta
Available on CD:  Stories the Year ‘Round / Cuentos para todo el año
Available on Cassette:  The Golden Cage / La jaula dorada
Series:  Stories the Year ‘Round / Cuentos para todo el año

BOOK DESCRIPTION

A grandson’s desire to find the best gift for his grand­mother results in an explo­ration of giv­ing, love, and free­dom. A good story for dis­cussing extended fam­i­lies, as well as ill­ness and disabilities.

One of the beloved titles of the series Sto­ries the Year’ Round, or in Span­ish, Cuen­tos para todo el año.