Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

One of the things I want to make sure my two kids understand is that there are lots of children who are not as fortunate as they are — especially this time of year when the words “I want” become part of their daily lexicon.

That’s why we adopted a family through my daughter’s school and why I always ask them to help me go through their toys to pick the ones they no longer use to give to our next-door neighbor who works with local families in need.

This year, however, giving to those less fortunate than us, has gotten even easier thanks to Walmart’s campaign known as Fill the Truck. Working in conjunction with the Salvation Army, Walmart has put out cardboard boxes in the shape of trucks like the one you see in the photo above and all you have to do is purchase a toy or a coat for a child in need and drop it off in there. The Salvation Army will then be in charge of distributing the donated items to local kids in need. Some Walmart stores will also have a special event the next two weekends where volunteers will work together to fill the actual trucks with the donated toys.

I think that the best part about this program is that it really can’t get any easier to donate. Think about it, all you have to do is buy one or two toys while you’re shopping at Walmart and then just drop them off in one of the cardboard boxes by the entrance.

A while back I wrote about my daughter Vanessa having a hard time pronouncing the letter R. She’s gotten better at it, but now it’s her 4-year-old brother’s turn to learn how to roll his R’s and she’s doing a great job teaching him. He still has ways to go, but as with my daughter, I’m not really worried about it because typically Spanish speaking children don’t learn to do it until they’re between 5 and 7 years old.

I helped Vanessa learn how to roll her R’s using rhymes and tongue twisters, and a few days ago I promised her I would look for more so that we could use them with her little brother. Check out some of the news I found…

But first, let me share some advice from one of our very own experts, Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D, CCS-LLP, a bilingual speech language professional, who suggested the following to one of our readers a few years back regarding her daughter’s trouble rolling her R’s:

The trilled R is a D sound with the tip of the tongue moving. Try these drills:

The syllable level:

DRA DRE DRI DRO DRU

TRA TRE TRI TRO TRU

The word level:

PARDO, TARDE, CUERDA, GORDO

Here are the new rhymes and tongue twisters I found that are perfect to teach kids to roll their R’s.

RHYMES

• Por la calle de Carretas
  pasaba un perrito;
  pasó una carreta y
  le pisó el rabito.
  ¡Pobre perrito,
  cómo lloraba
  por su rabito!

• El burrito barrigón
  ayer se dio un resbalón
  por andar detrás de un carro
  se cayó dentro del barro
  ¡Qué burrito picarón
  el burrito barrigón!

• Corre que te corre,
  corre sin parar.
  Corre, corre, corre,
  que si tú no corres
  ¡seguro te atraparán!

TRABALENGUAS (or Tongue Twisters)

• El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo
  porque Ramón Rodríguez se lo ha robado

• Un burro comía berros
  y el perro se los robó,
  el burro lanzó un rebuzno
  y el perro al barro cayó.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Latina Bloggers Connect and WGBH.

Just in time for Halloween, PBS Kids is premiering the first ever Curious George Halloween special called “A Halloween Boo Fest” Monday, Oct. 28. We got an advance copy and my kids and I sat down to watch this super cute movie starring Jorge el Curioso and we had so much fun!

The movie is all about the legendary No Noggin, a spooky scarecrow who is known to kick the hats of the heads of trick-o-treaters every Halloween. But is this a folk tale or a true story? That’s what Curious George will attempt to find out.

Santiago was a just a tiny bit scared during certain parts of the movie, but not enough to not want to watch it two times in a row. At 7 years old, I thought Vanessa wouldn’t be that interested, but she loves Jorge el Curioso, so she really enjoyed it.

Before I let my kids watch the movie a second time, I decided to take advantage of the movie’s theme to talk to them a bit about legends, folk tales and fables. And I did that while we made these super cute Scarecrow Cookies in honor of No Noggin.

These cookies were not only fun for my kids to make, but they were so easy that even my 4-year-old was able to help, which made him real happy! All you need for these Espantapajaros cookies is:

• Sugar cookies (face)
• White frosting
• Wafers (hat)
• Bran cereal (hair)
• Chocolate chips (eyes)
• Corn candy (nos)
• Chocolate sprinkles (mouth)

It took us no time to make a dozen cookies that the kids shared with their best friend and also their babysitter. They were so happy of their accomplishment. Hopefully, they also understood what I tried to to teach them about fables and folktales. Now that we’ve talked a bit about the topic, I’m going to be on the lookout for some books in folktales in Spanish to reinforce what we discussed.

All in all, we had a great movie night! By the way, along with the movie, a bilingual book called Curious George va a una fiesta de disfraces, we also got some fun activities you can download for your kids to enjoy too:

Spanish: http://to.pbs.org/19Ls6UU ; http://to.pbs.org/194FvX7

English: http://to.pbs.org/16KfblE ; http://to.pbs.org/GZwiGD

And don’t miss the premiere of A Halloween Boo Fest on Oct. 28 on PBS Kids.

I’d love to say I’m an ace when it comes to doing crafts, but I simply wasn’t born with that gift. However, I have two small kids who seem to adore creating things with their little hands, and they don’t really care if I’m an expert or not. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for simple, yet fun crafts we can do together.

Ever since she started seeing Halloween decorations around our neighborhood earlier this month, my daughter has been asking to carve a pumpkin — something I’ve never done in my entire life. In fact, I’ve never really used pumpkins as Halloween decorations, although I’m not really sure why. This year, though, I decided to do things differently and embrace this American tradition.

Since I wasn’t willing to venture into pumpkin-carving, I opted for decorating a bunch of small pumpkins with black buttons, like the ones you see above. My daughter loved the idea and after helping me choose several cute little pumpkins — which were less than two bucks each at Walmart — we got our materials ready.

To make my life easier, I always go for the kinds of crafts that require few materials. This was no exception. You can choose whatever size pumpkin you want and either put the entire message in just one large pumpkin or you can do one letter on each smaller pumpkin, like we did. Then, all you need is glue, buttons of all sizes and some ribbon to cover the stems. My daughter chose the sparkly ribbon and I thought it was perfect!

We used a Sharpie to write the letters on each pumpkin and we started gluing away. The funnest part, according to my daughter, was choosing the buttons. Next, we’ll be working on a large pumpkin, but the Halloween message will be in Spanish — if only I can find a small enough word!

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

One of the most common struggles for parents raising bilingual kids is getting their children to speak Spanish. This is especially true once the rebellion stage hits and children refuse to use their minority language making their parents extremely frustrated.

Bilingualism experts agree that one of the most important tasks for parents raising a child with two languages is to create a perceived need for the minority language. In other words, your kid HAS to feel there are some circumstances in which she NEEDS her minority language to communicate.

How do you do this? Check out some tips:

1) Invite your Spanish-speaking family/friends to stay with you: As many of you know, we had some of my family visiting us last month from Peru and Mexico. This gave my children the opportunity to experience first-hand how important it is for them to speak Spanish to communicate with their aunts, uncles and cousins.

2) Show them you’re proud of speaking Spanish and of your Latino culture: If your children see you take pride in your language and your culture, they will follow suit. I saw this happen before my very own eyes with my stepson. His father, my husband, is extremely proud to be Puerto Rican. He has always spoken highly of his beloved Island, its music, its food, its folklore. He owns a vast collection of Puerto Rican music which he plays on a regular basis. My stepson, although born and raised in Miami, has always identified himself with his father’s home country. I hope my kids have a similar connection not only to Puerto Rico, but to Peru, my homeland.

3) Give your friends & your kids’ friends a taste of your heritage: Not only will you show your kids how proud you are of your culture (tip #2), but it could also be a lot of fun. Hispanic Heritage Month, which is almost upon us, is a great time to do this. If you happen to be from one of the countries celebrating their Independence Day during this time, you can throw a party. Serve traditional food from your country of origin and teach the children a few words in Spanish. Again, if your children see that you’re proud of your heritage, they will be too!

4) Expose your children to Spanish and their Latino culture first-hand: Traveling to a country where the Spanish is spoken is probably one of the best ways to create a perceived need. Although it’s sad that both my husband’s and my family is dispersed in different Latin American countries, it does gives us the opportunity to go visit them, allowing our children to be immersed in the language while spending time with their family, as we did this summer. Our plan is that as soon as Vanessa and Santiago are old enough, they will spend their summers with their cousins in Puerto Rico. We did this with my now 22-year-old stepson as he was growing up, and I’m convinced this is one of the major reasons he is bilingual today.

{photo by  kate.gardiner}

It was back to school for both my children today and while we they had an amazing summer immersed in Spanish, neither is enrolled in a dual language immersion school. This means we have to work hard at home to maintain the Spanish flowing.

I’m not really concerned about their speaking skills, as Spanish is the dominant language in our home, but I am concerned about their abilities to read and write in my native tongue. This is particularly true in Vanessa’s case since she just entered second grade.

Many people think the definition of bilingualism is being able to speak in two languages, but mine also includes reading and writing correctly in both. Vanessa reads and writes in Spanish and I can’t take the credit for that because she apparently just transferred those skills from English to Spanish as she learned them in school. Even so, I believe she’s at the point where she needs more of a formal instruction. I wish I could say I’ll take it upon myself to give that to her, but I don’t have the skills or the patience to do so, and so for a few months now, I’ve been exploring some options.

Finally, I’ve come to the conclusion that a private Spanish tutor might be just right for her. While more expensive than other options, the obvious advantage of private tutoring is that it can be custom designed to meet your child’s specif needs taking into consideration his pace and level.

How To Find A Private Spanish Tutor

Through my preliminary research, I’ve already found a few options in my area by doing a simple Google search. Check it out:

TutorFind — You can search by language, state, city and even sex.

Spanish Blackbelt — They offer one-on-one Spanish classes for children 6 years and older in several states.

StudyPoint — Another company that offers one-on-one Spanish tutoring in several cities across the nation.

Craigslist — Just go under lessons and tutoring and search for Spanish tutors.

I’ve actually found a couple of tutors on Craigslist and I’m getting ready to make some phones calls to start interviewing them. It never occurred to me to look there, but I was pleasantly surprise with what I found.

Also, remember that, for the most part, all language schools offer private tutoring and many of them start them young.

Another option, is to seek a bilingual elementary school teacher or a Spanish teacher who may no longer be doing it full-time, but might be interested in doing some private tutoring. I know a couple and you probably do to, if you really think about it. If not, ask around.

Finally, while private tutoring can get expensive, you can always get together with another mom and share the expense.

{This is a sponsored post}

My kids will be going back to school in 10 days, which means I’m going crazy getting everything so they can be ready for their first day. Besides all the required materials, I also need to get back into gear in terms of lunches and snacks.

I’m not the most creative mom when it comes to packing their lunch boxes and, in all honesty, mornings are so crazy that I normally don’t have all the time in the world to put something awesome together. That’s why I rely on stuff that makes my life easier.

So when I was asked by Walmart if I was interested in checking out the new Lunchables Jr. line of snacks for children 3 and older, I said yes immediately. My kids are no strangers to the regular Lunchables and I figured it’d be a great idea to try these ones out.

The snacks come in four varieties including Blueberry Bonanza, Teddy Bear Picnic, Very Beary Crunch, and Ants on a Log and the best part is that they’re all made with real dried fruits like raisins and apples. Once I gave them to my kids to try out, it was very clear that each one had a favorite. 

Here’s my 7-year-old snacking on hers: Teddy Bear Picnic, which comes with Teddy Graham cookies, peanut butter and tiny pieces of dried apple. I know the snacks are supposed to be for them, but I had to give them a try and I agree with my daughter that this one is the best one. Meanwhile, my 3-year-old son’s favorite is the Very Beary Crunch.

We have already taken the snacks to the pool and on a recent hike, so I know they’ll be a hit when I put them in their lunch boxes in a couple of weeks. If you’d like to try them out, here’s a coupon you can use to get them at Walmart for just a little bit over one dollar!

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.