I have basically used and tried any strategy to help my son grow up bilingual, making it fun, a part of our lives! Showing him pride in being a latino, love for foreign languages, culture and all they represent, embracing who he is and knows, along with the new elements, the new words, a whole new world!
If tell you it has been an easy task, I would be lying, but I would not trade nor would do anything different!
My son is growing and the foreign languages are slowly becoming something mom brings and does, more than a part of his life, something disconnected….since my lack of time and my husband’s lack of foreign language knowledge add obstacles to my life goal to raise a bilingual child!
I was reading some of my friend’s facebook pages and came across a friend, Ana Flores who is sponsoring a child abroad and went to visit that child! I was inspired by that story and decided to do some research to sponsor a child and make it a fun and inspiring bond between my son and another child who lives and breathes the language and culture I teach and talk about!
I am still research, therefore don’t endorse or recommend any organizations at this time. We are going to spend the next two weeks looking at faces, reading info and deciding who we will sponsor, write to, share care packages, etc! He is very excited, so am I! My goal is to embrace the organization and promote it in our bilingual events!
My husband recently retired, so when I shared my idea with some friends, they thought I was crazy since our income decreased to even consider this right now! I replied, I walk in faith, not in fear! I believe this is something my son and I need to do together and it will amazing for both of us and specially for the child who will benefit from it!
I hope sponsoring a child will bring more love for foreign languages, for another culture, will develop friendship and compassion in my son’s heart and move him from associating bilingual time with mommy as his only foreign language memories at home to a place out of his comfort zone where the curiosity and love will lead him in a whole new journey! We even started talking about him blogging about his new friend and making vlogs!
I will be updating our journey as we move forward!
This year our Easter season was followed by some mixed feelings when one parent asked me not to mention the word Easter in one of our classes. We normally do a class pretty low key, more towards bunnies, eggs and egg hunt, but we do have Happy Easter in all the coloring pages and her request made me think about how people have a more exclusive than inclusive mentality. It is about excluding Christian values, so the other values are respected and uplifted. Sounds like double standard to me. As a Christian, I feel insulted, as a business owner, I feel my program and its content, since it is announced beforehand, prior to enrollment, should not be subject to change for whatever reason. I believe all religions are important and should be respected, I also believe God does not have a religion and he should be the center of any and every faith.
I had to share what happened this year, which has never happened before, because I believe foreign languages should express the culture of language learned and Spanish and Christians walk hand in hand, there is no denying it!
My comments don’t have any intention to offend any of clients which are not Christians, they do offer my perspective on this issue, though. Now let’s get to the important topic! Easter!
Happy Easter – Feliz Pascua
We started with flashcards, showing pictures and words in most of our classes in South Jersey:
We also Played the Carrot Baseball, children had to use my oversized carrot to hit the eggs on the other side of the room saying just color, huevos + color or Yo veo un huevo amarillo, depending on level.
We colored a page with bunnies in some classes and we wrote a letter to a friend saying what we like about Easter using vocabulary and me gusta…
We played domino, they loved it!
We showed this video: Caramelo!
We absolutely had a blast looking for matches of Easter words and placing them in the canasta!
Hope you enjoyed our class and you use some of the activities at home or in your classroom!
I am a confessed bookworm, as such, I have always kept books on my desk, after my teenage years they came in different languages and to suit my broad taste. I am trying to pass my legacy to my son, we love going to Barnes and Noble and picking out new books and he has a reading chart where he gets a new toy for every 30 days of reading!
Since books have been my best friend for as long as I can remember, they taught me so much! Made who I am! I owe my books so much! The fact that I am able to read English, German, Spanish and Portuguese classics in its original language is a priceless gift!
When planning my classes, I try to bring the joy to the children, specially the ones who can’t read yet, because I can’t always find Spanish and Portuguese books to match my units, but I can always find an English one and read them my way!
I have been using story time as one of the components for my class planning for as early as I can remember!
The key is to reduce Spanish Classics to meet baby’s short attention spam and one sentence page for toddlers is a must! After all, if you wish to make the experience fun, you must cater to your audience, otherwise the children will associate reading with BORING and my program is called Spanish made fun, not Spanish made boring!
So, I wanted to share some tips on how to make story time a powerful tool in your foreign language classroom, at your home, in your library story time, anywhere!
Chose the right book! Depending on what you trying to accomplish, your thematic unit or the age or all the above!!!
Reduce the amount of reading to suit your audience, early ages, short one word-3 word sentences, words will increase with age!
Pictures will help children understand your story better, so definitely lots of pictures when reading in a foreign language to non native speakers.
Bring stories which speak to their lives, to the things they know and love! Authentic shouldn’t always mean foreign, should mean close to their heart! I am against the thought that only authentic literature should be used when teaching a language.
This Holiday I changed my plans made in the summer for my holiday unit and incorporated the elf, el duende! Brought my story time to a whole new level, connected to the children like never before and brought the Spanish closer to their heart, so mission accomplished! I used the book The Elf on a Shelf™ in Spanish
I paired the book, which can only be found at Target online, with hide and seek, tell the elf (since he can’t talk) what you want for Christmas and Elf chat activities! My Spanish elf came in a darker color which creates a conversation about ethnicity I would never be able to bring to the classroom, if I did not have my special friend! Shared, that different is beautiful and we are all beautiful, no matter what language we speak!
I hope you enjoy our ideas and that you make the great decision to bring books when teaching a foreign language, it will inspire children to read, will open the doors to the fact that books speak that language as well, increase vocabulary and bring the fun to a whole new level!
Off course we talked about advent and Los Reyes in our Spanish classes and the shoes in Portuguese ones, but the elf was definitely the highlight and resulted that I was invited to read the story 1000+ children in December, in the most popular Santa story times in our area, so it is all about sharing bilingual love!
Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on using story time to teach or bring a foreign language to children and get your book, elf, out of your shelf and use it in your next bilingual experience!
It’s that time of year and you are thinking, how can I sneak in some bilingual toys and make my child enjoy it and help him/her learn a foreign language at the same time???
Well, I looked around and will share some of my favorites!
Books:
Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other book stores have a whole section of Spanish, French, Chinese or bilingual versions of classics like Dr. Seuss and others, so if you like adding books to your child’s list, this is a favorite way to share great moments and bring some bilingual fun to your child’s bed time or reading time!
I did not find Christmas Classics in foreign languages available in bookstores, trust me, I looked for it, but I believe you should look at your child’s preferences and classic stories. I wanted to share my activity book, which combines a cd which reads the story in both languages and suggestions on activities in each page!
Many other options are out there like Dora™, Curious George™, and Other famous characters books!
You can also download them in your tablet or computer and have a paperless version of them or do a surprise dowload to your child’s tablet! My son loves comic books and character books, I have found some of his favorites in Portuguese and will download them into his tablet before Christmas!
Itunes has so many options!
Music
It’s always a great way to connect with children! The holidays bring the magic of showing children favorite tunes in different languages!
I have this cd and we always play it on weekends and when we are decorating the tree!
I have a Brazilian Cd with songs in Portuguese with the character Monica, a famous comic book character in Brazil, but I could not find the link to share, I have found this one, not sure why it so hard to find music in Portuguese when you are here in the US! Sharing the songs and culture like the fact that South American countries don’t have stockings but shoes where Santa brings the toys and other traditions I will be sharing in a later post, will bring your child to a magic new world where America traditions are added to the new ones! Priceless!
Basically any movie you purchase nowadays, has the Spanish and French options, so your child can watch the movie in a foreign language. I would recommend showing them the movie in English first, unless they are totally fluent in the second language. You would be surprised how children sit down and watch the elf, Christmas Carol and Mr Magoo in Spanish and love it! Brazil has a different zone for movies, so I purchase my dvds there when I go or in the sendex.net store and load to my laptop as they will not play on my blueray/dvd player!
Toys
Dora, Elmo, Diego, so many toys are now offered with bilingual versions, Dora has a new gymnastics doll which sings in Spanish! So cute!
Clothes
I ordered a shirt on vista print, it is green, long sleeve and it says Feliz Natal! Every year we have a tradicion to wake up in new jammies on Christmas morning and I ordered this shirt for $ 15,00 with the printing in red and will buy the pj bottoms and surprise my son with it! You can also place granparents pics and saying in a foreign language if your in laws or parents are from a foreign country or make the shirt your child/children’s pic in it, place the Merry Christmas in their native language and ship as a Christmas gift! Shipping of a shirt to a country like Brazil is only $ 4,50!
After all, it’s all about bringing the holiday cheer to your children, making the foreign language, a part of it!
We are proud to announce two new satellite class locations!
Moorestown
Open House
Come and join our fun and super cool open house at Kids’ MusicRound Moorestown,330 Young Ave, Moorestown, NJ.
When: Sep 29th
Time: 11:45- 12:45
We will be serving light refreshments, sharing benefits of introducing foreign languages early on and enjoying a super fun demo class and wait, a special guest will be coming to greet us! Guess who?
Free events, all siblings are welcome!
Classes start Oct 18th, 11:00am Mommy and Me class where children and parents will play, sing and enjoy our Spanish Station™ Fun! For ages 14m-36m. Rates are just $ 15.00 per class!
Turnersville
Open House
Come and join our fun and super cool open house at Monkey Town, Turnersville,Whitman Plaza, Turnersville
When: Oct 3rd
Time: 10:30 – 11:30am
We will be serving light refreshments, sharing benefits of introducing foreign languages early on and enjoying a super fun demo class and wait, a special guest will be coming to greet us! Guess who?
Classes start Oct 17th, 10:30am, ages 3-5 years old
Rates start at $ 15.00 per class
We will be sharing our great fall topics, basic themes, music, games and art where Spanish is a synonym of FUN!!! Children will receive a complimentary play time, being able to play on the moon bounces and other attractions after our event!
Come and sign up at the open house and save $25.00 on the enrollment fee!
This post is dedicated to all the moms who read and support our efforts to bring foreign languages into their homes and enable us to do that!
Being a multilingual mom has been a challenge for me and has proven to also be very rewarding at the same time. I have been walking my son through learning two languages while building up his native language and some of my efforts have being successful, others not so….Mother’s day should be celebrated all year , but I try to bring a special meaning at this time of the year! I hope you try and enjoy some of my suggestions!!!
My son loves music, so we always hear music in Spanish and Portuguese….I still laugh when I hear him sing, tomo guarana, such de caju, goiabada para sobremesa!!! He blasts this song out on his iPod
We also read some books, I try to read some of the books I am using in my classes and some in Portuguese as well!
We play his favorite game: mela mela tin, where we rub our noses agains it each other and then bang heads ( softly) sometimes he prefers not so softly, LOL, boys! I make ovinho ( eggs for breakfast) on Saturday and he and daddy cook on Sunday for me!
He likes rock and fast paced music, so I like showing him some j-lo and Ricky Martin songs and dancing around the house, have not done that this week! And reading is a must!
I read this one last night, Quiero a mi mama porque:
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!
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 Members,
When thinking about what activities to sign my son up in the fall, I faced many choices….music, sports, drama classes, arts and more…..I decided to look for classes which were fun and educational, so I kept him on our Easylearn programs for foreign languages, math at Mathnasium to keep his math skills, music to develop brain connections and concentration and a sport, which will be football due to his size!!!!!!I had no trouble picking a sport, I must say that!
Parents often talk to me about continuing with foreign language classes and I tell them it is for the children’s benefit to continue while they are young and learning is as easy as playtime!
This fall choose well, ask for demo classes but above all choose something your child enjoy doing!
It’s all about having fun!
Saludos,
Claudia Krusch
Director of Easylearn programs
I’m so excited to announce that we listened to parents and we are now offering our summer book with activities to be used at home! The book contains 20 pages of pure fun, coloring pages, games, suggestions on activities and more! The book is recommended for children 2-7 years old, but some of the activities can be done with older ones as well!
Make it a family fun time and join us in the great journey of bringing foreign languages to little ones!
To purchase the book only, go to our site: www.easylearnlanguages.com and make a payment of $ 10.00 + shipping and handling and you will receive your book at home or receive instructions for download.
To join the membership portion of our site, you will click on the membership icon on this blog and follow instructions, that will give you the book, personal consultation on how to use it, newsletter with great articles, class plans and more!
I am proud of our new venture and I hope you enjoy it too!
Saludos,
Claudia Krusch
EasyLearn Languages Programs Director
The owner of this website, Claudia Krusch, is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking Easy Learn Languages Blog to Amazon properties including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com.
