Monthly Archives: July 2009

I grew up in El Salvador going to Piñatas, not fiestas de cumpleaños, but Piñatas. If you guessed that the smacking of the hanging toy was the main attraction, you’re right. The thing is I don’t remember ever having fun when it was my turn to grab the stick and hit the swinging piñata. I never felt tall enough, strong enough, or maybe I simply was never interested enough. I was reminded about this feeling of childhood inadequacy last weekRead More ...

When we launched SpanglishBaby almost six months ago, I wrote a post about why raise bilingual children. In the weeks and months following, we’ve tried to write about or at least mention the latest studies related to bilingualism which have given us even more reasons why it’s such a great decision to raise our children bilingual. But we’ve never really taken a closer, more detailed look at why bilingualism is one of the best gifts we can give our kids.Read More ...

The following is a guest post by Deanna Lyles, cofounder of Bilingual Readers, a brand new publishing company which provides resources for bilingual and multilingual families and communities. Bilingual Readers will launch its catalogue of bilingual books in October 2009. Get to know them better at www.bilingualreaders.com A very patient Spanish speaking mom has been reading her daughter Sara’s favorite book Yo Tigre out loud to her in Spanish every night at bedtime for the last month. But tonight Mom’sRead More ...

Poko is a children’s show about a little boy with a magic finger.  The beauty of this show, created for the preschool crowd, is that it helps them to identify their emotions and how to deal with upsetting situations by using simple strategies.  Because we all know how easy it is for anything – like an apple cut the wrong way – to totally throw a kid into a crisis! In this episode, Poko, along with his pet dog andRead More ...

The American Library Association just concluded its 2009 Annual Conference a couple of days ago and according to many in attendance, one of the highlights was the Pura Belpré Celebration. The winners of this coveted award – which recognizes the best in Latino children’s literature – were announced earlier this year, but the awards were actually given out on Sunday in Chicago during a ceremony many call nothing less than a pachanga. According to the ALA’s website, the Pura BelpréRead More ...

I absolutely love summer…for a lot of reasons, but mainly because my daughter is a summer baby which means we get to celebrate her cumpleaños outdoors in the melting heat (as opposed to indoors hiding from the snow.) In fact, both Vanessa and Camila were born pretty much in the middle of the summer, so both Ana and I will be celebrating their birthdays pretty soon. This got me thinking about a little tradition we have at our house regardingRead More ...

Not sure if my discovery is going to come as news to you, but I definitely had a cathartic moment when I discovered Aprende con Sesame on iTunes. One of my best tricks for long car rides is to hand over my iPod to Camila so she can be entertained and mami can have some quiet time to attempt to put some thoughts together, or to at least watch the road ahead of me! The challenge I’ve had is findingRead More ...

Another scorcher here in the West, so we’ll be heading out to the pool soon but before we do, we wanted to share this weekend’s links with you – especially the first one where we get a mention that made us very happy. Yay! 1) U.S. News & World Report: Good News for Those of Us in Bilingual Families – “It wasn’t so very long ago that parents were warned that trying to teach tiny babies a foreign language wouldRead More ...