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

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

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!

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!

The following readers were chosen via random.org.  Please contact us at info@bilingualfun.com with your mailing address.

Felicidades!

Veronica Hannah

Amy Saucer

Ryan Dibble

Kathleen Moll

Talon Harvey

Rosalva Rodriguez

Melissa Parra

Lynne Baldwin

Sandy Siuta

Fabiola Woerner Chamberlin

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!

Feliz Dia de San Valentin!

 If you and your children are making special Valentines this week, add some bilingual fun and create some in Spanish.   Here is a simple coloring sheet that your kids can personalize, decorate, and give to a special family member.  Be creative and use this activity as a fun communication tool. 

Ideas for Spanish practice:

1.  Add heart stickers and count how many are on the card.  ¿Cuántos corazones hay?

2.  Encourage children to make it a colorful card and identify Spanish colors. 

3.  Practice the date and phrase by using a calendar for recognition.  El catorce de febrero.

Spanish Valentine Vocabulary:

el corazon-       heart

el amor-             love

te amo-               I love you

te quiero-          I love you

Eres especial-   you are special

Sé mi valentin-  be my Valentine

el chocolate-       chocolate

los dulces-            candies

¡Feliz Dia de San Valentin!