Dear Readers,

This week was my birthday! I share this joyful time with some of my students who had the class on Friday. I promised I would share the vocabulary here! If your child had another class, please look on archive for other topics.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

We looked at birthday vocabulary using a bingo sheet:

Los globos – balloons

Las velas – candles

El regalo – gift

El juguete – the toy/game

We did Ispy looking for those objects in the room. We also colored a cake ( Torta) and placed candles for each child’s next birthday. Older children received some candles and had to add the amount to make the total for the amount of candles on his next birthday. We broke a piñata, ate cupcakes ( pastelitos) and reviewed tableware.

We also sang Happy Birthday in Spanish:

Feliz Cumpleaños a ti, Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti!

We showed a Sesame Place video  about Fiesta in Spanish and read a book on the same topic which taught children how they celebrate birthdays in Mexico.

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch CEO

Dear Readers,

Many parents asked if there is Halloween in Spanish speaking countries and I used to say no, there is a Dia de Los Muertos celebration which is more religious and not child oriented. Well, a parent of one of my students recently shared that in Colombia they do Dulces o Travesuras (trick or treat) and children dress up like in the US. That surprised me!

 In Brazil, my native country, Halloween is only celebrated in English Schools, not as a real holiday…..They have dia das crianças, October 12th when little children receive toys.
I will share later this week some linkswith information on dia de los muertos and Spanish Halloween worksheets and songs. Stay tuned!

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch
CEO EasyLearn Languages LLC

Dear Readers,

This week’s post has the objective of bringing your reflection on what activities you bring into your child’s life and the consequences of each one of them. My questions are not condemning or supporting any activities, they are questions I raised in the past years before signing my son up for classes.
Karate promises foccus and discipline, but how about the aggressive part of repeatedly exposing children as early as three years old to kicks and punches???
Dance will help body coordination and self esteem. How about girls who are overweight and the classes will bring a low self esteem issue which shouldn’t be present in her life until at least pre teen years???
Sports bring competitive spirit and they are a great exercise. How about children who don’t like to run, are not coordinated enough to follow games and play and who could care less about what’s going in the field and feel left out by the other children who excel in sports???
Musical Instruments are a great way to bring concentration and develop brain connections. How about children who are tone death or who can’t play anything after trying one song for three months?
Foreign languages are great to stimulate brain connections, promoting early reading, reasoning among other skills. How about children who have speech impairments or whose parents don’t speak the language and can’t help them develop them at home? It is proven that foreign languages will not harm and sometimes help speech impairments and home input can be substituted by effective use of the foreign language class to build skills.
Science experiments with complex concepts…..really???No comment on that.
I don’t think I have all the answers, but my questions hopefully will help guide your own questions which should be confronted with your child’s unique personality and abilities to promote enrichment time as fun, educational and above all, HAPPY TIME!

Email me for more questions on how to bring foreign languages closer to your little one!

Saludos,
Claudia Krusch
EasyLearnlanguages LLC CEO

Dear Readers,

I have answered this question more than 5 times this week, which motivated me to bring this topic to our blog.

Children who are exposed on a 30min foreign language class a week, will basically forget a lot of what was learned if the stimulus cease.

I highly encourage parents to buy cds, invest on classes, books anything that can keep the foreign language present in their lives!

Amazon offers many options of cds with songs and programs, classes as also offered nationwide and Bookstores like Barnes and Noble offer many offerings for at least 5 different languages, which can be easily downloaded to an ipad with the B&N reader, an app for ipads.

Please e-mail me privately if you wish to receive recommendation for specific materials and to receive a free sample of my spanish summer activity guide!

Enjoy the summer!

Claudia Krusch- Director of EasyLearn Language Programs

Dear Readers,

A lot of homeschooling parents and teachers e-mailed us, asking  for materials to use on Easter. I have couple ideas to share, which can be used in any foreign language class:

1)Plastic egg decoration- children will glue decorations they colored on the eggs and you will review or teach Spanish colors while doing that

2)Hide and seek, children will take turn counting(numbers) and try to find students.

3)Word egg hunt- I hide eggs and words/candy seeing during the month, they will hunt for eggs, but they will only get the candy if they can tell me what that word is.

4)I also use the song Los Pollitos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4y6PEWhGmE&feature=related

5) We make baskets, chicks as crafts

6) We do an animal class with Easter related animals, they will toss them into a basket, saying their names.

Feel free to contact me for more ideas! Above all, let’s help children have fun with a foreign language!

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch

Director of EasyLearn Programs