Our friends at Lanugo have put together this Christmas coloring book for us to share with all of you. The Lanugo Christmas coloring book celebrates our cultural traditions during this time of year. Inside you’ll find los tres Reyes Magos, a page dedicated to el villancico “El Burrito Sabanero,” and much more!

Click here for the printable version of the Lanugo Christmas coloring book. 

Celebrate winter and all the new wonders it brings with your niños and these printables. This set of printables in Spanish includes an activity sheet for the seasons of the year to practice reading and retention, and a winter snowman activity perfect for learning geometrical figures.

Click here for the full printable version of the activities previewed above. 

For more Spanish educational materials for niños visit Monarca Language and like them on Facebook.

We are excited to share our favorite bilingual and bicultural Holiday gifts with you! As we do every year, we’ve gathered some of the best regalitos of the season to feature in our 2013 Holiday Gift Guide for Bilingual Kids. This very unique gift guide includes Toys with English and Spanish features, our Favorites (De todo un poco) and Ana and Roxana’s Picks - our co-founders and experienced bilingual moms share their must-haves. Plus, check out the non profit organizations we’re featuring, spread the love this holiday season and donate to those who need it the most.

Click here to check out (and share!) SpanglishBaby’s 2013 Holiday Gift Guide for Bilingual Kids!

The Giveaway!

You know we love to share the love, so to celebrate the holidays we have a huge giveaway of some of our favorite items from our  2013 Holiday Gift Guide for Bilingual Kids!  ONE lucky winner will get one of each of these gifts featured below. The total value of this prize is over $450 USD!!

Looking for a decorative, yet educational and classy gift? Customizable World Maps by Children Inspire Design are perfect for a child’s room or anywhere in the house, really! Place your heart anywhere in the world where your’s belongs… (ARV $60.00)

Baby Alive Baby All Gone Bilingual by Hasbro - By holding her wrist down for a few seconds you can switch from English to Spanish! Doll comes with an outfit, bananas, spoon, bowl and a sippy cup. So sweet! (ARV $36.95)

The Dual Language Translator by Ingenio is perfect for your preschool aged kid. It includes 17 double-sided cards with useful everyday words including numbers, shapes, weather and much more. ¡Vamos a aprender español! (ARV $16.99)

We just love MamaYala’s creations! With the MamaYala Flash Cards  the whole family can play and learn vocabulary from Latin America and Spain. Includes a 100% cotton & customizable carrying bag, ¡Qué cute! (ARV $15.95)

You and your familia are going to love the Celebrations Around the World Activity Box by Lakeshore. You will have materials to celebrate five holidays: Cinco de Mayo, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Chinese New Year and Independence Day.  How cool is that?! (ARV $34.99)

The Orphaned Earring is a non-profit blog dedicated to bringing arts and crafts, school supplies as well as year-round festivities to four orphanages in Latin America, Nicaragua, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico through the sales of hand-made bracelets from donated orphaned earrings. The winner will receive a set of two bracelets. (ARV $15.00)

For kids ages 3-6 Ladybug en español is an excellent reading tool, plus your child will love the illustrations! Read our review A Magazine for Children: Ladybug en Español. The winner will receive a one-year subscription of both the print and digital publications of Ladybug en español, Ask en español and Babybug en español. (ARV of over $150 USD)

As soon as you arrive home from the hospital play Spanish lullabies to your sweet baby with  Twilight Turtle Tunes! With wireless Bluetooth technology you can get the Premium app (available for $1.99) and play your mix of canciones de cuna to soothe your precious bebé. (Prize only includes one Twilight Turtle Tunes, Premium app not included.) (ARV $51.95)

For ages 3-12 Baking Around The World Kit by Handstandkids is the perfect gift for kids who love to cook and bake (and for those who might like to!) With recipes from around the world, our young bakers will enjoy learning about other cultures’ sweets. Yummy! (ARV $25.00)

Lanugo — La Sinfonía de… includes a unique personalized CD with your child’s name sang in each fun & engaging song! Plus the CD comes with your child’s name printed on it, as well as with a set of stickers — we love it! (ARV $14.99)

Se habla Spanglish Tee by Dos Borreguitas - We can’t say the word Spanglish enough so we’d like to wear it as well! This makes a great gift for your mamá, hija, tía, or anyone in your Spanglish familia! (ARV $20.00)

Little Passports‘ mission is to inspire children to learn about the world. Kids can get a package every month with country-specific souvenirs, stickers, photos, activity sheets and much more! Recommended for ages 5-10 years old. Yes, you can raise a world traveler and explorador! Winner will receive a 1-month subscription. (ARV $10.95)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On November 1st, McDonald’s celebrated the joy of reading by including four different original books in their Happy Meals. The books focused on nutrition, imagination and play and were available  in English and Spanish. They’re a great addition to the “on the go” library and a fun reminder for kids to eat right. Below is a short description of the four books pictured above.

• “La Hormiguita Campeona”  is a book about Ant, a bodybuilder, who encourages physical fitness through exercise and eating right.
• “Doddi La Dodo y su Viaje Fantástico” – Tells the story of Doddi, a bird who travels the world. Doddi eats right to have energy to take flight again and travel even farther each time.
• “Dina la Soñadora” – Dina is the world’s smallest dinosaur, but she has big dreams. She learned that by eating right she could accomplish her dreams of growing strong and tall.
• “Billy el Cabrito Comelón”– Billy has a big appetite and eats anything and everything in his path. Until one day he get’s sick. His family teaches him how to eat right and Billy becomes a happy and playful kid.

 
The best part is that all of these books are available for free download at McDonalds.com and MeEncanta.com . Just click on the See What Goes Into Your Happy Meals icon at the bottom of the page, then click on the image of the book and you’ll see an option to download the book in English or Spanish.

We are excited to share with you Hablah blah blah’s new collection of multilingual music because their first CD in Spanish was the very first album we reviewed when we launched in 2009! Not only that, but Amy Conroy, the company’s founder, has shared with SpanglishBaby many stories of her family’s immersion trips to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

After almost a five year hiatus, Habla blah blah is back, but with a new multilingual and immersive-style concept that will not only get our niños singing along and dancing, but will also expose them to familiar words and phrases in English, French and Spanish! These catchy tunes feature songs with themes that appeal to a child’s everyday life and their curiosity of the world around them. El Baño, Los Grandes Elefantes and Escondidos are a few of the songs you’ll find in these CD’s that are reminiscent of songs we might have heard as kids, but with a modern twist.

The songs are the same across all five albums, the only thing that changes is that the voices and lyrics are in a different language. First, kids can listen to the songs in their native or preferred language and then switch to the album with the target language. The idea behind this method is that when your kids switch to the album in the target language their brain will start making the connections before they even read the translations. You can read more about the music and how it works on their website.

Listen to a preview of the first song in all three languages here.

The Giveaway!

We’re giving away one complete set of the 5 Habla blah blah CD’s featured above to one lucky winner! All you have to do is leave us a comment letting us know what language(s) you’d like your niños to learn. Then, enter the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanksgiving, or Día de Acción de Gracias, marks another beautiful holiday during which we get to spend time with our family and share traditions. To celebrate, Monarca Language put together a fun Thanksgiving-themed bingo game in Spanish that’s perfect for family game night during the holidays!

The best part is that once you print out the pages for this game, you can also use it to play a game of memory or memoria! Two games in one!

 Click here for the full printable version of this game.

For more Spanish educational materials for niños visit Monarca Language and like them on Facebook.

¡Ha llegado ya!, el día de los muertos hay que festejar. Well, it’s almost here. Day of the Dead is celebrated November 1st and 2nd. To get the excitement going we are sharing this coloring story book in Spanish with you! The book introduces kids to basic Day of the Dead vocabulary. Just print it, have your kids color it and then follow the instructions to fold it into a story book. Perfect for home or the classroom!

Click here for a printable version of the previewed coloring story book above. 

For more Spanish educational materials for niños visit Monarca Language and like them on Facebook.

And for more Day of the Dead finds, crafts, printables and recipes visit our Celebrate Día de Muertos page!

With  Día de Muertos just around the corner we were inspired to bake up something sweet that reflects the flavors of this special holiday. We also wanted to make something that we could enjoy creating with our niños. It helped that we attended the Nestlé Dia de Muertos event where our creative juices really got going. How do some Abuelita Sugar Skull Cookies sound ? Yes, you read right. That tasty and traditional cup of Mexican hot chocolate that many of us enjoy is what inspired these treats. We followed this Nestlé recipe and then gave it an extra Day of the Dead spin with the calavera inspired icing.

Although we are not culinary artists in the kitchen we enjoyed making these cookies and decorating them. They were surprisingly simple to make! Most of the work goes into the decorating. Let yours and your kids imaginations soar and add more colors and designs to your calaveritas de azúcar cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 2 tablets (90 grams each) NESTLÉ ABUELITA Chocolate
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

PLACE butter and Abuelita chocolate in medium saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until completely melted and smooth; let cool for 10 minutes.

BEAT Abuelita mixture and sugar in large mixer bowl. Add egg; beat until combined. Gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended.

SHAPE rounded tablespoon of dough into ball. Flatten ball into a disk and shape into a skull by pinching sides of bottom quarter of dough. Repeat with remaining dough. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 8 to 9 minutes or until golden around edges.

SpanglishBaby’s Decorating Tips:

• We used white icing to cover the cookies after they had cooled.
• It helps to place the cookies with the icing in a cool place so that the icing hardens a bit. 
• After the icing has hardened a bit you can draw out your design with a toothpick. Then, color in the design lines with colorful icing!

 Find this and more delicious recipes with Abuelita Mexican Hot Chocolate at the Nestlé Meals website.

Monarca Language shared this awesome Day of the Dead inspired coloring sheet for our niños. Stay tuned for more Day of the Dead printables and check out our Celebrate Day of the Dead page for more activities, recipes and informational posts.

Click here for the full printable version of the coloring sheet pictured above. 

For more Spanish educational materials for niños visit Monarca Language and like them on Facebook.

Just print it out, have your kid color it, cut each individual card and have fun coming up with different story lines using the Halloween and Fall words. So much creativity to be had!

Click here for the full printable version of the activity sheet above.

For more Spanish educational materials for niños visit Monarca Language and like them on Facebook.