Feliz dia das Maes! Feliz Dia de las madres!

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

speakers!!http://letras.terra.com.br/jorge-ben-jor/594602/

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:

http://astore.amazon.com/easylearn-20/detail/052547248

I wanted to change the way we celebrated Mother’s day this year, so my team started spinning wheels and we came up with a super fun class! Hope you can use some of these activities in your classroom or at home!

We start with matching game, cards printed with family member’s pic and name in Spanish.Then we  use similar cards to place in a family tree and each student places cards which correspond to their families. Other copies of the cards are placed on children’s back and they pass the ball, when music stops, they need to tell who the family member that student has on their back, who they are? Quien soy yo??? The others answer eres….

We colored a mother’s day page which I am placing here as a free gift to all moms and teachers who follow our blog.

We watched a great video and the older ones had to tell us what family members were missing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c89nmoBd9Qk

We also sang bingo tune for my version:

Te amo mama, mucho, mucho eres mi mama!

Amo a mi mama! Amo a mi mama, amo a mi mama, Yo amo a mi mama!

We also read this book, they love hearing about Emma’s family! There’s a version without the read along and this one has the read along!

http://astore.amazon.com/easyleacom-20/detail/1931398585

Enjoy and Feliz Dia de las madres!

EasyLearn Languages Claudia Krusch

Multilingual Mom, CEO and Language Expert

Dear Readers,

I worked a lot to plan the activities for our cinco de mayo classes this week, because I was tired of the same old…..muy cansada! I also grabbed some special ideas to do at home, since the date is on Saturday this year!

I am using the book Fiesta, which I have used before, but with a new spin, I take them through the Mexican Village to celebrate it the old way, the way small Villages still celebrate it! Come and join us!

http://astore.amazon.com/easyleacom-20/detail/0060882263

So we travel through small town markets, looking at toys, games, we make anillos and exchange them for the ocho anillos game! We tried 8 instruments which are shown in the book and I purchased to bring to our classes, the children loved it, the challenge was to find Spanish names for some of them, like the rain shaker! We danced around the hat using La Bamba! Last but not least we look at the piñata and I placed candy, which falls at the end of the class, but we also look at the way they are homemade and serpentinas, we review colors, numbers which are added to the social aspect of the party!

I also show this video which reviews vocabulary as they ispy the video, looking for things we talked about before, I divided them in groups, they became so competitive! You will not believe it! Increible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y5N2hXOKL4

I also used a coloring page made with coloring page from the web, mounted with maracas, Mexico and a sun! Viva Cinco de Mayo as a title!

I hope you enjoyed my ideas and share here if you used some of them!

VIVA CINCO DE MAYO!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages Bilingual Mom , Foreign language Expert and CEO

Dear Readers,

I was singing to my son tonight and I sang all the same Brazilian Lullabies I always sing:

Boi da cara preta, Maezinha do céu, Chu chu chu, Sereia, Samba lele ( I will list those songs in another post)

He said Mom, Im kind of tired of the same songs, can you sing something different and I sang this song which reminds us how beautiful life is! It always makes me cry, because reminds me of Brazil! So I wanted to share here on the blog:

A vida- Gonzaguinha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwDRty6NT6g&feature=related

I hope you enjoy it!

Abraços,

Claudia Krusch

Children-More CEO

Dear Readers,

I absolutely love new gadgets, I must confess I’m a huge fan of apple products, not quite sure if I am a bigger fan of Apple or Steve Jobs, who did to Apple, what I dream to do with my business- bring monetary value to the same level of the quality of our product.
Back to the ipad, I need to share: it is a great gadget! I immediately started experimenting and downloading children’s books in various languages….found out an app for children practicing Spanish called Salta! Now I can sing songs, read bedtime stories and play with my son using a foreign language and everything is done on the ipad! Very interesting….
My son asked tonight, mom, where is the ipad? I answered, it is charging, he said, oh no! No story time tonight???
I know parents complain that technology drive children away from real interaction, family time…I just showed you that is not true!
Whether you have an ipad or not, please consider using technology to bring your little one closer to you, especially bringing a foreign language closer to both of you. Having that in mind, I am creating a series of videos for parents who wish to do something at home related to a foreign language, but don’t feel confident enough to do so. My videos and audio files will help parents use technology to do some cool things at home with the children, as well as follow our activity guide to bring more fun and a foreign language to their summer.

Summer Activity Book and audio files will be available here on the blog, under membership category. I will let all the parents know as soon as we have it up on the site.

Saludos!
Claudia Krusch

Dear Members,

This time of the year brings the best memories of my childhood. When my mom used to stay hours in the kitchen preparing the seafood dishes for Easter! My dad would spend hours stirring Vatapá, Camarão, arroz branco, farofinha…..makes my mouth water. Those sounds and smells still surround me when Easter times come, so I try to make this a special time for my son as well…bringing some of the traditions like purchasing the one pound Easter Egg at the Brazilian store….making sea food on good Friday and working on a two hour sweet bread which allows me to share some of my memories with him.

If you wish to share some traditions with your child or use some interesting materials in the classroom, I would suggest:

Use bunny songs which can be found in YouTube:

De olhos vermelhos or Coelhinho da Páscoa, words for the songs can also be found online

Memory game with Easter vocabulary like, coelho, cesta, ovos, chocolate, colorante, páscoa

Print easter egg from online free coloring pages and cut them in three parts, have the children put pieces of the eggs together, this can also be used to review colors on the eggs.

I hope my ideas help you share Easter traditions!

Feliz Páscoa!

Claudia Krusch

Director of EasyLearn Languages Programs

We recently received an overwhelming amount of calls asking for Italian classes for children! We are happy to announce that we will be offering two new classes starting October 27th, 4pm for ages 3-5 and 6-9.

We are fortunate to have a native speaker teaching the classes at our West Deptford location, bringing South Italian flair to our award winning children’s program.

Parents are also taking classes with their children as a new way to interact and have fun together. We currently have 6 families taking the Parents and Mommy and Me classes with us.

When parents realize the importance of introducing a foreign language to a child in early age, they open the doors to a new world of possibilities! Yesterday a mom said, Nathan has been taking Spanish classes since he was two and now he is interested in starting a second language! That always amazes me! Especially because Nathan is one of the students who demonstrate the highest rate of retaining the information received. So maybe I will be teaching him Portuguese as well in a near future!

Please post your comments, experiences with second language teaching and learning. I would love to hear your comments and questions!

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch

Easylearn Programs Director