This giveaway is now closed. Felicidades to our winner, Janelle!
Photo by moi
Guest Posts… An occasional series…
The following is a guest post written by Beth Butler, bilingual educator of young children who strives to create better communication within our increasingly diverse society. She is the founder of the internationally acclaimed BOCA BETH language learning series which has garnered various parenting awards. You can find her blogging at Boca Beth: One Song at a Time.
I don’t quite recall when I gained an interest in learning Spanish as my second language, except that it was during junior high. That being said, it was almost a sure thing this blonde-hair, blue-eyed, freckle-faced Irish/Greek girl would NEVER become the owner of a business whose passion is to teach Spanish to little English-speaking children and English to little Spanish-speaking children!
Yet, here I sit typing a guest post for my new amigas, Ana and Roxana, and their fantástico site SpanglishBaby (of which I have become an avid reader and so very thankful of the resources they continue to share). In this post I hope to convey to you the whens, hows and whys of my bilingual passion and how I have turned into a business called The Boca Beth Program. Funny, you go to our web site, and the title on our home page sums up the why of my passion and my daily drive to succeed: You Don’t Have To Be Bilingual To Raise A Bilingual Child.
Born and raised in Florida, I took Spanish for almost 5 years between junior high and high school. I then traveled to Chile as an exchange student for one summer at the age of 16 followed by an exchange to Mexico one summer during my first year of college. It was while I lived in Chile that I became fluent and biliterate in Spanish – reading, writing, speaking conversationally morning, noon and night, and (the kicker!) finally dreaming in my second language of Spanish! I returned home so changed and so culturally aware! (I thank my mom to this day for the opportunity she allowed me to take during my teen years.)
I obtained my teaching degree in Deland, Florida. I graduated in 1981 when bilingual education was not even discussed. I cannot call to mind one class on ESL. When I got my first classroom of second graders I set up a listening center with a denim bean bag chair and cassette tapes that I made at home. These old-fashioned tapes would introduce Spanish vocabulary words to the children in a bilingual format – I would say, “Sister. Hermana. Sister. Say hermana……Air-mah-nah.”
At conference night, I would have an occasional parent tell me to please not allow their son or daughter visit the Say it in Spanish area in my classroom. They still believed in the myths that two or more languages would only confuse their seven-year-old child and delay the acquisition of English language skills. ¿Pueden creerlo? So I had a short list of students that were not allowed to learn Spanish because of their misguided parents.
You Don’t Have To Be Bilingual To Raise A Bilingual Child
Not sure yourself about your own child being able to successfully be introduced to a 2nd or 3rd language before the age of ten? I would advise you to keep reading SpanglishBaby.com, pick up a copy of a wonderful book titled The Bilingual Edge that addresses the many myths surrounding raising bilingual children, and visit my free resource area at any time!
I spent more than ten years in the classroom never venturing beyond my homemade Spanish lessons on cassette. I married a Latino man whose dad was born in Spain and mom was born in Cuba, and we had two sons. Our marriage came to an end, but never once have I allowed our boys to forget their Latino heritage and their Spanish language. In fact, both of them ended up Spanish student of the year in middle school and our youngest son is currently in Spanish 4. His teachers have called me personally to say, “¡Qué bilingüe es su hijo!“ I attribute it to the fact that I often speak in English followed by the Spanish equivalent with all three of my children. That, my friends, is HOW a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, freckle-faced Irish/Greek girl could get to a point to create a bilingual product line full of CDs, DVDs, coloring/activity books, puppets and mini maracas!
I met my Anglo husband after many years of being a single mom, and he encourages me to speak more often in Spanish so that he too can learn! The birth of my third child brought about the birth of my Boca Beth Program and product line. I became Ms. Music in her preschool in 2001 and started introducing Spanish vocabulary words through piggyback songs (that’s a teaching term for taking a classic children’s melody such as The Ten Little Indians and writing new words for it which I do to teach the days of the week on this song – look for song #12). That, amigas mías, is the WHEN of my journey as a bilingual mom of three and educator of thousands! That year I started the story board for our first DVD and we released our My First Songs in Spanish/Mis primeras canciones en Inglés shortly thereafter.
Let’s close up with the WHY would I choose to introduce Spanish to young children since I am a non-native speaker. In addition to the many reports out that conclude being a native speaker is not a requirement to introduce a new language to young children, I have known this is my true calling since my first time presenting a workshop in front of my fellow educators at a state early childhood conference. Millions of parents and teachers feel incompetent to give the gift of language to young children simply because they themselves are not bilingual. Por favor… could we stop that nonsense right now?!?!
I love traveling the country speaking with teachers, homeschooling families and parents about how easy and fun it can be to give the gift of Spanish and English with our Boca Beth music and movement fun. It’s so cool providing hope to a gal from Grand Island, NE who e-mailed me just this week admitting she was a bit skeptical when I spoke of how fun and easy this introduction to Spanish as a 2nd language can be until her little three-year-old answered with ‘Gracias’ just days after hearing our Boca Beth bilingual beats!
Here in my home and in my office we are preparing our children to be global citizens one song at a time, having a blast, and creating lifetime language learners!
Not only was Beth nice enough to write this guest post, but she was kind enough to be giving away a BOCA BETH Beginners Backpack to ONE lucky winner! The backpack comes with a CD, a DVD, a coloring/activity book and BOCA, the puppet – among other goodies. This is a great giveaway you don’t want to miss! (Retail value is $49.99)
How to Be a Winner:
Leave us a comment explaining why you’d like to win this awesome backpack! Are you raising your kids bilingual or know of somebody who is?
If you want to increase your chances of winning you can get additional entries by doing any of the following:
1. Subscribe to Beth’s blog, Boca Beth: One Song at a Time.
2. Blog or Tweet about this giveaway. Just make sure to send us the link in an additional comment below.
3. Email 5 friends and BCC us to: giveaways@spanglishbaby.com. Don’t worry-we’ll never share or collect anyone’s emails.
For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.
This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Sunday, April 26th 2009. Good luck to all!
Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted. Sorry, just need to keep it fair…
My brother and his wife are raising their little boy bilingual (though for them that isn’t hard, since my SIL is Peruvian). My husband and I plan on raising our kids to be at least bilingual (I used to be fluent in two foreign languages…Spanish and Romanian)…but it’ll be a bit harder for us as I am a gringa who has gotten a bit rusty on both of my non-native tongues and my husband is not bilingual at all (he laughs that he at least can say taco, enchilada, and gracias)!! We’ll get a chance soon to see how that goes, since our little boy is due in July!! I’d love to win the backpack set to use with my little boy and any future kiddoes!!
Julie’s last blog post..It’s a learning process…
My Sister just returned from a Spanish Speaking Mission in Arizona. She has been teaching my daughter (2 1/2 year old) Spanish. So far she can say a few phrases and words. I took Spanish for 4 years and I can’t speak at all. Boca Beth will help me teach my little girl when my sister doesn’t have time to! My husband and I have really been trying to teach our daughter Spanish so that she can express herself in Spanish and English! Thank you for the opportunity to enter this giveaway!
K. Smith’s last blog post..Snow White-Red Blossom on Black Stretch
I tweeted about this giveaway/Boca Beth:
http://twitter.com/CherryBlossBaby/statuses/1586122496
K. Smith’s last blog post..Snow White-Red Blossom on Black Stretch
I emailed six friends and CC’ed SpanglishBaby!
K. Smith’s last blog post..Snow White-Red Blossom on Black Stretch
I’d love to win this! I’m of Colombian parents and my wife is pure gringa. We have 3 toddlers. I am trying to raise them as bilingual. We do the OPOL method but it’s hard since I am the minority (Spanish) language speaker and I work full time and my wife who is the majority (English) language speaker stays home with the kids. I recently ordered several books on Amazon that I saw here or on one of your links (books like Pon, Pon juegos para bebe) b/c I need to learn spanish kid songs. When my trio is melting down, I revert to English songs like the “itsy bitsy spider” to calm them down b/c 1. it works and 2. I don’t know Spanish kid songs. Despite growing up in Miami, with a Colombian mother and spending all my summers growing up in Colombia, somehow I never leanred kid songs… my mom didn’t really know any and so she would sing me Mexican ranchero songs… LOL, they’re more like drinking songs than kid songs but they were the only songs she knew and when I would beg for her to sing me something, that’s what I’d get. So now, I have these books to try to learn songs for my kids but I’m not very muscially inclined so despite one of the books having sheet music with it, I have no idea what the melody is. I was just thinking of e-mail you girls about my problem when I saw this post. I desperately need a DVD to help me learn the melodies!
Steph’s last blog post..A great weekend!
I recently became a follower of your blog. I have a 10 month old daughter and I would LOVE to raise her bilingual but we do not speak a second language fluently. This looks like a great way to get started and I will continue to follow your blog as well.
tweeted it http://twitter.com/SaraMama/status/1586647010
subscribed to boca beth in reader
I work in education and I know how beneficial learning a second language is to cognitive development. We are trying our best to raise our son to be bilingual (my husband speaks some Spanish), but I would love to have this to help supplement learning Spanish!
Shari’s last blog post..Eco-Spotlight: Happy Heinys (and Giveaway!)
I subscribed to Boca Beth’s blog!
Shari’s last blog post..Eco-Spotlight: Happy Heinys (and Giveaway!)
I am not currently but would like to.
My kids are not bilingual and neither am I, but I think this would be educational.
I want to win this for my granddaughter. Our son is dating a bilingual girl, and it would be wonderful for all of us to learn Spanish, but since our granddaughter is so young, she’ll be able to really absorb the language. Great prize!
Tweeted: http://twitter.com/cdziuba/status/1588481981
I’d love to win because I know this will help with my learning and teaching my kids Spanish.
At present I don’t know Spanish that well but know a bit and want my children to be very fluent and it’s exciting to see them learn. I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish and I must admit that even though My goal is teaching my kids…on this journey I’m also learning!
JamericanSpice’s last blog post..Oliver’s Labels Review And Promotional Discount
Already subscribed to Boca’s blog
JamericanSpice’s last blog post..Oliver’s Labels Review And Promotional Discount
Tweet
http://twitter.com/calliesan/status/1588781552
JamericanSpice’s last blog post..Oliver’s Labels Review And Promotional Discount
My daughter is trying to raise her son bilingual and since he loves music, this will certainly help. Thank you,
have anew baby on the way and would love to get her going right
I would love to introduce my children to a second language
I am glad to read an article from someone who doesn’t consider herself bilingual. My husband who is bilingual and myself only partly bilingual are teaching our daughter to be bilingual. Sometimes I think I am teaching her “bad” Spanish since I am not totally fluent.. and it is reassuring to know there are people who think that isn’t true. I also subscribed to Boca Beth’s blog.
I would like to win this to use it in my classroom.
I tweeted: qwills2cats
My daughter is from Guatemala, so I’d love to have some resources to encourage her learning of Spanish.
Thanks for the opportunity,
Beth
I so needed to read this post! Thanks for the inspiration, Beth! I’m a non-native who dreams of a bilingual family, too. I would love to win this in helping me teach my 2-year old Spanish at home. ¡Gracias!
Nicole aka Gidget’s last blog post..The Jimmies Teach Spanish Vocab!
I subscribed to Beth’s blog!
Nicole aka Gidget’s last blog post..The Jimmies Teach Spanish Vocab!
I tweeted the giveaway!
http://twitter.com/NicoleakaGidget/status/1592069594
Nicole aka Gidget’s last blog post..The Jimmies Teach Spanish Vocab!
My daughter and her husband are currently living with me and they have two children 2 and 3 months. They are raising their children bilinguinal and since I know very little spanish I would love to be able to help learn with them!
My 3 yr. old granddaughter would love this and feel like a BIG girl having her own backpack. This is a terrific giveaway filled with things for her to do. She loves to color & draw. The DVD would be wonderful to begin her in learning Spanish and the puppet looks adorable. Thank you for the opportunity to win this for her.
I’m already a subscriber to Boca Beth.
My little girl is currently in english/spanish classes. This would be so perfect. Thanks for the chance.
mogrill@comcast.net
I subscribed to beth’s blog in google reader
Steph’s last blog post..A great weekend!
My 4 year old granddaughter is adopted from Guatamala and I want to encourage her heritage of Spanish in any way I can.
This looks like a great way for me (as the non native Spanish speaking one) to help our 3 little ones continue to learn Spanish! We need all the help we can get!! Thanks!!
carey’s last blog post..A great weekend!
And I tweeted it…
https://twitter.com/findingchaos
carey’s last blog post..A great weekend!
I, too, took Spanish in high school and was hoping to continue with it in college; however, it wasn’t an option for me at my university at the time I transferred. I have lived in three different states, each with a significant Hispanic population: Texas, California and now Georgia. I understand the benefits of learning a second language. Even now I am working to re-learn Spanish to better assist my community as a 911 operator. I believe my twin boys should also learn Spanish. I think it will help them go far in our community and in the job market when they are old enough to work. Thank you so much for considering my family for this promotion.
I would love to have this for my daughter!
Our first son was born 2.5 months ago, and we’ve been discussing how to make sure he’s exposed to other languages (my husband & I don’t know much besides English). I enjoyed the article & would love to win the prize pack! Thanks for the giveaway.
I subscribed to Beth’s blog!
I subscribed to Beth’s RSS feed.
we would love to have this nice. mverno@roadrunner.com
Thank you, Beth, for being such a positive inspiration for those of us who are non-native speakers teaching kids language. All of my kids’ please’s and thank you’s are in either French, Spanish, or German. I’m trying to sneak in exposure to many languages as often as I can so that their world is just a little bit bigger. I speak French as a second language, and I’ve been having a blast learning Spanish along with my kids. Thanks for the generous giveaway
diane’s last blog post..Earth Day Language Lesson: Practice French and Spanish R’s with the Three R’s of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Hi! I would love to win this for my three kids! We have been doing the Muzzy program for about 3 years now, and I must say they cannot speak much spanish at all from it. It is so important that our children learn a second language and Spanish is my 1st choice! Would love to win this to get to try it out with my kids!
Shelby
Bigmacmom@cox.net
Shelby Barone’s last blog post..HOW WE CELEBRATED EARTH DAY ~ CLEANING UP OUR LOCAL BEACH!
I follow Beth on her facebook page!
Shelby
Bigmacmom@cox.net
Shelby Barone’s last blog post..HOW WE CELEBRATED EARTH DAY ~ CLEANING UP OUR LOCAL BEACH!
Tweeted the giveaway! #Glitterfulfelt
Shelby
Bigmacmom@cox.net
Shelby Barone’s last blog post..HOW WE CELEBRATED EARTH DAY ~ CLEANING UP OUR LOCAL BEACH!
I have signed up for Beth’s email list!
Shelby
Bigmacmom@cox.net
Shelby Barone’s last blog post..HOW WE CELEBRATED EARTH DAY ~ CLEANING UP OUR LOCAL BEACH!
I Would love to win this back pack. It is full of so much FUN!!!! We have a 2 and a half year old little Mexican-American. Me being the American ofcoarse lol. We are teaching her spanish. she doesnt really have a choice but to learn his side of the family ONLY speakd SPANISH. If she can ever possibly talk to them she has to learn. lol no pressure or anythign she is only 2 lol. But every day we have a lil mommy and me spanish class i put in a cd and be silly. or print out the flash cards and we watch a video or two and ask lots of questions. Well i stay home with her during the day and work nights..6pm to 2am her papi. Mexican ofcoarse is with her at night. so the little bit of native tounge that he is able to use she picks up on but still not like i have him when were taking walks to tell her in spanish what things are. I as many others on her commented have taken years of spanish classes and yet retained and am not fluent as i wish i was. With the Help of Boca Beth me and my daughter are learning at the same time spanish. Any new video that comes out we watch. Our Youtube.com is the most visited site as it is saved in the favorites since my daughter will ask to watch boca beth on her own. It always amazes me how just one time she hears a word sees boca say it laugh and repeat it…. and retain it. and i realized that it is the same with adults i once had to memorize 345 lehmans terms for my anatomy and physiology class… i was like how do they expect us to remember this.. this is not going to happen. well the instructor put in this CARTOON ridicilious movie we all laughed were like oh my 345 of these. were going to die =(. well it was amazing simple things like for instance the word Hepat = kidney. so in the video it was a man and a little kid on his knee. the video said… he pat he pat kid on the knee KIDNEY! 5 years later i still remember all 345. and think of the silly cartoon. Boca beth is just that but WAY funner lol. i am sure she thinks way faster than me but that is all it takes. we have boughten a lot of boca beth items only a few from the actuall site itself.. that is bad i know but a friend of mine had ordered some things that her son no longer used so she was selling them at a yard sale lol i scooped em up.. We use Boca beth to learn spanish and that is it. no other class or program or website it gets confusing. and boca is fun. that is why I would like to WIN this SUPER fun back pack. =)
I’d love to win this for my cousin. She is raising her twins to be Bilingual. When I have kids I plan on doing the same.
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Tweet! https://twitter.com/meredycat
Meredith Rogen’s last blog post..Easter Tiime
As a preschool teacher in a predominantly English speaking rural community it’s nice to have this resource. As more Spanish speaking families move to the area, it’s so important for my preschoolers to have some understanding as to what those children are saying. It’ s helpful for me as well since I haven’t had Spanish since 1982 (high school).
It’s a fun way to bring the world a little closer together and create some common ground to base a friendship.
Blogged your giveaway here: http://foreignlanguagefun.com/2009/04/win-a-boca-beth-spanish-learning-kit-a-giveaway-from-spanglishbabycom/
diane’s last blog post..Win a Boca Beth Spanish Learning Kit: A Giveaway From SpanglishBaby.com
My partner and I have 3 year old twins. They were in daycare for a short time in an in-home daycare where the provider spoke mainly Spanish. I was in awe of how quickly my twins picked it up and responded to it even when they couldn’t speak it. I learned what I know in high school (and one quarter in college) but am now at a point where not only do I want to know more, I really want my kids to have early 2nd language education.
Kim’s last blog post..Birthday
tweeted it (twittered it?)
http://twitter.com/twinmomma
Kim’s last blog post..Birthday
Great giveaway! I’m always looking out for fun ways to practice Spanish with my kids. Unfortunately, (like many out there) purchasing new materials is not in our budget right now. My kids and I could definitely use this beginners backpack since our Spanish books and DVD collection is very small, and we’ve already gone through most of our local library’s resources.
Glenda’s last blog post..RJ works on Color Sorting
I try to introduce my children to foreign languages by teaching them some of the more common words. My knowledge of Spanish is limited so this product would be a great help. Thanks.
Janelle’s last blog post..Full to the Brim – Kid’s Book Giveaway List (4/24/09)
Blogged: http://www.brimfulcuriosities.com/2009/04/full-to-brim-kids-book-giveaway-list_23.html
Janelle’s last blog post..Full to the Brim – Kid’s Book Giveaway List (4/24/09)
I do not know anyone who speaks Spanish so that is why I want this for my granddaughters and nieces. This would be a great help.
sign me up
I’d love this for my nieces and nephews
I teach Spanish classes for kids, and could really use the Boca Beth resources. Thanks!
My son would love it, make me a winner!
i’d love it because i am trying to teach my son spanish – so extra resources are always helpful!
autumn398 (at) yahoo.com
i would like my grandkids to know another language.
We live in Texas, where Spanish is quite popular. We’d really love our son to be bilingual. Thanks for the giveaway!
Bing’s last blog post..Calling All Fashionista–$100 Up For Grabs
I subscribed to Beth’s blog via email.
beatspammer at gmail dot com
Bing’s last blog post..Calling All Fashionista–$100 Up For Grabs
Yes, my nieces are bilingual!
Tweeted
http://twitter.com/luckytoddler/status/1615465274
Bing’s last blog post..Calling All Fashionista–$100 Up For Grabs
Just emailed friends and BCC’d you.
Bing’s last blog post..Calling All Fashionista–$100 Up For Grabs
I need the bag pack to cart my things. My sons who were adopted as toddlers from Colombia, came to our home speaking Spanish.
The bagpack would be useful to help carry my things. My boys who were adopted as toddlers from Colombia, came into our home speaking Spanish.
I would love to win this for my sister’s kids.
I think that they could really benifit from this.
Being bilingual is almost a must for this country, and also for when
they get older and enter the job market.
My daughter is half spanish and I want her to know her other culture and to be able to speak to her fathers family so who only speak spanish
thanks
vicky’s last blog post..NASCAR Star Finally Does It
I would love to win this for my nephew who is being raised trilingual – English, Spanish and Punjabi. This prize would be wonderful!
Chrysa’s last blog post..Free Chicken at KFC on April 27
I would lvoe to raise my children bi or tri lingual. I am fortunate to have learned Spanish as a little girl from my grandmother. She lived with our family and only spoke Spanish to us. It was so beneficial that I learned the language at an early age and it has stuck with me forever. I began to learn Mandarin about 5 years ago and I can speak it. I am trying to teach my daughter both the languages, but it becomes frustrating for her to learn. She’s five years old and I try to speak Spanish to her regularly, but she always answers back in English. This pack would be so beneficial for us to start teaching my daughter Spanish lessons and eventually my 6 month old son can learn as well.
I subscribe to Boca Beth’s Blog.
here’s my tweet http://twitter.com/MACMOMof3/status/1618657033
my friend’s daughter is learing spanish
I would love to win this backpack for my granddaughter. I want her to becone bilingual.
i like to win this for my little one.i will raise her to learn as many languages as she wants.
I saw her at a conference and her music was infectious. Would definately love to have this for the kids. THanks
I subscriber to her website. Thanks
LIVING HERE IN FLORIDA I WOULD LIKE TO TEACH MY GODSON NSPANISH, I AM PUERTO RICAN/AMERICAN, BUT HE
IS NOT
I can’t wait to see who wins our Boca Beth Beginner Backpack. Thank you to all / gracias a todas for sharing our fun bilingual information and product line.
Boca Beth’s last blog post..Celebrate Earth Day with Boca Beth Bilingual Products Giveaway
Great giveaway. I’d love it for my niece, who my sister and brother in law are raising bilingual. Illeana is taken care of often by her 2 sets of grandparents and the one set speaks exclusively to her in Spanish – the most fun of that is in her teaching my mother rudimentary Spanish. : )
I’m teaching mine to be bilingual (Italian and English) Would love to add a third to it
Both my husband and I are bilingual and my kids are enrolled in Spanish class.
I want to homeschool this year, and I want to teach my children Spanish.
I subscribed to her blog.
I tweeted:
http://twitter.com/donnak4/status/1625926630
I would like to win this awesome backpack because my friend is raising his child to be bilingual.
these items would be perfect for my grandsons:)
I subscribed to Beth’s blog.