children

Her original name was not Dora and Latina she was not. More than 10 years ago and after working with outside creators to come up with new ideas, Nickelodeon’s Valerie Walsh Valdes and Chris Gifford were given the opportunity of a lifetime: to develop their own show. This is what they thought up: a show about a preschool girl who has a bunch of animal friends and goes exploring every day. Her name was Tess. But the network’s executives hadRead More ...

Have you ever heard of a blogging carnival? I hadn’t until we were recently invited to participate in one. A carnival is basically a blog event dedicated to a specific subject and including several links to other blog posts dealing with said subject. This carnival’s topic? You guessed it: raising bilingual children. So, how does it work? In this particular case, Eve, over at Blogging on Bilingualism, is the host of October’s carnival. So, last week she wrote this postRead More ...

As a German mother living in Scotland with a Scottish husband I’m attempting to bring our 2 1/2 year old daughter up bilingually. We are encountering a situation where our daughter understands German, the minority language, perfectly, but most of her utterances are in English. She needs a lot of positive encouragement to even say single words in German. This is worrying, and from reading other parents’ experiences, I know that our daughter isn’t unusual, and neither are our worriesRead More ...

I’mfeeling like sharing a classic today.  This music video was created by the Plaza Sésamo production and was included in the Putumayo Kids Sesame Street Playground CD/DVD set.  This set is a great way to watch some favorite Sesame Street characters with their amigos around the world and to listen to music from different cultures. This song is called “Ricas Frutas” and features Mexcian signer Aleks Syntek along with Pancho, Abelardo, and Lola from Plaza Sésamo. ¡Qué lo disfruten! PlazaRead More ...

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 ...