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…

Photo by Barnaby

We hope you enjoy our weekly round up of all things bilingual and bicultural:

1) Immigrants’ Children: An NPR occasional series – Immigrants bring many things to the U.S., but their lasting contribution to the country has always been their children. NPR’s series Immigrants’ Children looks at that legacy, telling the stories of those children and examining the issues they face. I can’t wait to read or listen to more of this interesting series. The one about the Germans in Wisconsin is definitely worth reading, especially as it relates to bilingual education. As usual, some of the comments are just plain weird.

2) Libraries to Showcase Bilingual Resources During El Dia de Los Ninos/El Dia de Los Libros – As the nation’s population continues to become more diverse, hundreds of libraries will showcase their multicultural programs and services this April 30th during national El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day). There’s a link to the site which contains more information about this wonderful event. I’m excited because I just found out the Denver Art Museum – together with the complex that surrounds it: other museum’s and the city’s public library – will be hosting a series of events to celebrate this day. Can’t wait to take Vanessa!

3) The importance of a national César Chávez Day – For the the nationwide community of Mexican-Americans, Chavez is a heroic role model because his actions, on behalf of the migrant farmer, resulted in positive change. His courage created a legacy that while remembered is also forgotten until the words he made famous, Si se puede, are randomly invoked by politicians and activists. This past 31st of March, marked the birthdate of César Chávez, a truly outstanding human being. If you’d like to teach your kids about him, but don’t have a lot of information on him, check this website out: Celebrating César Chávez.

4) More minorities in suburban schools yet they experience less diversity and more segregation – According to a report the Pew Hispanic Center released recently, though the student population of America’s suburban public schools has shot up by 3.4 million in the past decade and a half – and virtually all of this increase (99%) has been due to the enrollment of new Latino, black and Asian students – there has been only a modest increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of student populations at the level of the individual suburban school. Not surprising and a call to find a way to change things…

On a lighter note:

5) Expanding Kids’ Horizons: Makers of multicultural toys offer children new ways to see the world – ‘The world does not revolve around me.” That appears to be the message of a number of manufacturers who have recently entered the multicultural toy market. Some of these I’ve heard of before – particularly our fellow bilingual education advocate, Boca Beth – some I haven’t. Some could be real interesting. Hmmm…

6) Free download of Spanish Alphabet Bilingual Song for Children - Here is a chance to get Boca Beth’s cool Rappin’ the Spanish Alphabet / Rappin’ el alfabeto español song off their 2nd bilingual music CD. Speaking of Boca Beth, here’s a great giveaway. Ana calls the song “catchy and fun!” What are you waiting for?

If you like what we’re talking about sign up for free SpanglishBaby updates via email or via RSS. You’ll like it.

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography

Our Week of Mamás Blogueras continues with a post from Jennifer Manriquez,  a.k.a Maestra Jen from Bilingual Fun, who’s raising two young bilingual children in Michigan. A former classroom teacher, Jennifer is now an entrepreneur heading The Bilingual Fun Company-a language education business which teaches Spanish to parents and children ages 18 months to 12 years old.

If you are trying to incorporate Spanish learning into your child’s everyday life, you may be like me, always seeking new creative activities to spice up their learning.  Teaching both my own children and the many children in our language program, Bilingual Fun, continually makes me aware of their incredible ability to absorb and retain languages.

I love to teach children Spanish through games, movement and everyday activities. Creating fun, easy Spanish lessons for kids, not only enriches their development, but keeps the language learning alive.

Some quick, easy ideas for teaching children Spanish and reinforcing everyday vocabulary:

1. Playing Memory is a great activity for vocabulary development and reinforcement as well as an opportunity to present different grammatical structures. Ask  “¿dónde está….? Or, ¿qué es? as you look for the specific picture. Ask children to repeat the word in Spanish each time you say it. Be sure to reinforce pictures after each game. Remember, repetition is one of the keys to language learning success!

2. Incorporate outside play in your Spanish lessons for kids. Practice kicking the soccer ball and counting the goals in Spanish. Jump rope and count in Spanish. Play hopscotch in Spanish.  Draw with chalk on the driveway and reinforce colors and common vocabulary by playing Pictionary.

3. Blow bubbles and reinforce ‘arriba/abajo’.  Play games such as “Mother May I” and incorporate the numbers and ‘rápido/lento’ or ‘ Red Light/Green Light” for color practice.

4.  Make faces in the mirror. Give your kids the Spanish word for a specific emotion, and they have to make that face in the mirror such as: enojado (mad), triste (sad) or feliz (happy), etc. When kids can see themselves as they hear or say the word, it helps to make a language connection.

5.  Count items in the kitchen. Since it seems that most days we find ourselves in the kitchen, either eating, preparing meals, cleaning up after meals, etc, I like to use this setting as a realistic teaching tool. We count our snack pieces, silverware and plates as we unload the dishwasher, magnets on the fridge, etc. You can keep little ones occupied as you prepare dinner, just keep them counting!

6. Play I Spy around the house or in the car. This is a favorite activity and can keep kids communicating using many different words and expressions such as colors, adjectives, prepositions and more.

7.  Play guessing games. When packing my daughter’s lunch, we play ‘¿qué hay en la caja?’ and she has to guess what I packed her for lunch.

8. Play Simón Dice/Simon Says. Point to the different body parts. Use the command “ tócate…. la nariz“, etc. Reverse roles and have kids give you commands so that they can practice producing the language.

9. Create rhythmic beats.  Clap and count as you create different beats. Have children imitate you, and then they teach you a new beat. Ex; uno, dos, uno, dos, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, uno, dos, uno, dos…..

10.  Dance Party Fiesta. Play upbeat Spanish music. Stop the music and freeze. Have count in variations (frontwards, backwards, by 2s, or 1-10).

When teaching young children anything, whether it is language or math skills, keeping things fun is important to help foster their interest. Play based teaching is a great way to make learning Spanish easy for kids.

By teaching kids Spanish through activities that are relevant to their lives, you are giving your children a great head start in their bilingual development!

Now it’s your turn. What are some fun activities and games you use to reinforce Spanish at home?

Our Week of Mamás Blogueras continues tomorrow with an inspiring post by Violeta García-Mendoza from Multi-Culti Mami and Turn People Purple. She shares with us her amazing story of how, along with her husband, they strengthen their three adoptive children’s Guatemalan heritage and identity.  Click here to read it.

Photo by shoothead

Today we decided to steer away from what we usually do on Sundays-give you a round up of this week’s links to articles and news regarding bilingual matters. Instead, and as a way to close this five-day series on dual immersion programs and bilingual education, we’ve compiled a concise list of websites that provide useful resources about this heated topic.

The sites below are a great starting point for parents researching this path.

• Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)–Dedicated to providing a comprehensive range of research-based information, tools, and resources related to language and culture.

• Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition–(CARLA) is one of the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI National Language Resource Centers, whose role is to improve the nation’s capacity to teach and learn foreign languages effectively.

• National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs–Collects, coordinates and conveys a broad range of research and resources in support of an inclusive approach to high quality education for English Language Learners (ELLs).

• National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education–Building family-school partnerships that work.

• Directory of Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Programs in the U.S.–Maintained by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL).  The Directory was last updated on August 25, 2008, with 335 programs in 27 states (plus D.C.).

• Directory of Foreign Language Immersion Programs in U.S. Schools –CAL’s searchable directory of language immersion programs. This directory includes elementary, middle, and high schools that teach all or part of their curriculum through a second language. Such programs are referred to as total or partial immersion programs. In general, the programs are designed for students whose native language is English.

• The National Network for Early Language Learning–an educational community providing leadership in support of successful early language learning and teaching.

• Ñandutí–comprehensive resource on foreign language teaching and learning in grades preK-8. Based on the premise that learning another language is beneficial and that students of all ages can learn a language

• Heritage Languages in America–The Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages is committed to advancing language development for heritage language speakers in the United States as part of a larger effort to educate members of our society who can function professionally in English and in other languages.

Please feel free to share if you have any additional links you think might help those wanting to get more information on this subject. We thank you for a great week as together we learned more about the often confusing topic of bilingual education.

And now for a…

You don’t want to miss the special week we’ve prepared for you starting tomorrow.

We’ve rounded up a few of our fellow mamás blogueras to share with SpanglishBaby friends their personal stories of success, defeat, love and passion as they raise bilingual and bicultural kids.

Come back tomorrow, Monday, to read the first entry in our Week of Mamás Blogueras. Tati from Wanna Jugar With Migo writes about how abuelos can be the best promoters of language learning.

Later during the week you’ll read inspiring stories from:

• Jennifer Manriquez–Bilingual Fun

• Violeta García-Mendoza–Multi-Culti Mami and Turn People Purple

• Mónica Olivera Hazelton–Mi Cielito Lindo and Latin Baby Book Club

• Carrie Weir–Bilingual in the Boonies

And, as if it could get any better, we’ll also be giving away four baskets with Victoria Secret’s new beauty line made from natural ingredients-Naturally.

Make sure you don’t miss anything that will be happening here this and every week. Sign up for free SpanglishBaby updates via email or via RSS. You’ll like it.