We’re excited! Disney Interactive and Rosetta Stone have joined forces to promote the value of learning languages for our kids!

Together they have launched a new online original series, it’s a small world: the animated series inspired by the iconic Disney Parks attraction that’s always a must-do during our visits to the parks.  Premiering on Disney.com, Disney’s YouTube network and across Disney’s connected TV apps, the new series does a fabulous job at taking the multicultural and multilingual experience of the attraction online for our generation of kids.

Sponsored exclusively by Rosetta Stone and their new language learning apps for kids (our review here), the eight episode series introduces families to unique words and customs from around the world. Our kids will get to join a group of children from different countries across the globe to explore new lands in a digital narrative brought to life through animation inspired by Disney artist Mary Blair’s original designs for the popular theme park attraction.

Beautifully done, in short 4 minute webisodes, we wholeheartedly celebrate that the theme of it’s a small world: the animated series centers around introducing the concept of learning languages and cultures to understand each other better.

The first webisode finds the children at the British Museum of Art and touches upon subjects like  how using the same word, like “football,” can mean different things in different languages and that some words can sound similar in different languages and can cause mix ups.  Oh, how we know about that! A topic near and dear to us parents raising bilingual kids!

To view the first three episodes of it’s a small world: the animated series visit disney.com/smallworld or watch the first episode below.

The Rosetta Stone – It’s a Small World presents on Disney Video

¡Cuéntanos! Did you like it? We’ve been working hard for years advocating with media, apps creators and toy companies to create more products for bilingual and multilingual children and that celebrate diversity. They DO want and need to hear from you, so please share in the comments section so they know we want more of these quality shows for our kids. ¡Gracias!

Today, I’m sharing a different kind of app with you. Generally, we prefer to review only apps with a Spanish language option. However, we’re making an exception for Voyager Kids because it is such a fantastic resource for globally-minded kids, like the ones we are hopefully all in the midst of raising.

With four categories (Travel, Learn, Explore, and Play) and tons of fact-filled pages inside each one, Voyager Kids is a wealth of information about animals, plants, landmarks, culture, and travel.

Kids can read about and see breathtaking pictures of countries and regions and then test their knowledge with games. One of the most unique games is called Aviator, in which you choose the correct word for each letter in the “aviator’s alphabet.” This one is a challenge even for some adults!

I particularly love the Travel section for SpanglishBaby families. Even if you don’t have an international trip planned anytime soon, your kids can virtually explore the Wonders of the World and come up with a list of new places they’d like to go. This is a great way to start a conversation about other languages and cultures, using your child’s immersion in the Spanish language and Latino culture as a basis for understanding others.

Find Voyager Kids in iTunes and Barnes & Noble Nook Store

Available for iPad, iPhone, and Nook

Recommended for ages 6 and up

Price: $3.99

Check out more about Voyager Kids on Edissey, Inc.’s website and on Facebook.

We’ve already shared many of our favorite Putumayo World Music CD’s with you. We love that they focus on introducing children to other cultures, and they are a blast to dance and sing along to! Putumayo just released the World Sing-Along CD that features family-friendly jams from around the world.

There are a lot of catchy songs to enjoy including two Spanish songs by artist Jorge Anaya who sings a cumbia version of “La Cucaracha,” and Jose Conde and Ola Fresca who sing a salsa tune, “Pititi y Titi.” Our bilingual niños can also enjoy “A Little Mandarin” with Shàng Xué Gē, and Portuguese with the greeting song, “Como Vai” by Brazilian artist Hélio Ziskind. Also in the CD will be the Pihcintu Multicultural Children’s Choir, which features refugee girls mostly from war-torn regions.

What’s great about  purchasing this CD is that a contribution of $5,000 from sales of World Sing-Along will be donated to Five and Alive , a non-profit campaign whose goal is to ensure that every child, regardless of where they are born, reaches the age of 5.

Other great things going on over at Putumayo World Music are the launch of the weekly children’s radio show World Playground with Putumayo on Kids Place Live which is on Sunday’s at 10 a.m. EST on SiriusXM Kids Place Live channel. Also recently launched is the Children of the World 2013 calendar which features photographs of kids from around the world shot by Jon Kaplan and it includes over 300 international holidays. Only 65 short of a holiday per day ! This is a great way for us and our niños to become aware of other cultures celebrations and learn a little every day. Ten percent of Putumayo’s sales of the calendar will be contributed to Seva, a nonprofit organization which builds sustainable health programs for people in need.

The album is now available on CD and digitally from Leapfrog’s App center November 6th. It includes 11 lively songs which you can take a listen to here !

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My 7-year-old daughter sat at the base of the slide, letting the other kids run by, and watching as they laughed and played. Some older boys got a little too close and she asked them to be careful with their ball: “Please- you’ll scare her…. she’s protecting her babies.” Vivi took her self-appointed position of bodyguard seriously; she wasn’t going to let anyone near the mother duck, who had unfortunately chosen the base of the stairs to lay her eggs. While Vivi participates in the normal sibling and friend squabbles, one of my favorite qualities is her authentic empathy towards others.

I recently read an interesting article from UC Berkley that asked the question “Can empathy reduce racism?” The author discussed a recent study that suggests that the ability to put ourselves in another’s shoes allows us to reduce unconscious biases, and actually enhances the interactions we have with people who look different from us. We are living in an interconnected world, where our children will work and interact with people from a multitude of cultures. If parents want to raise children who are accepting of all ethnicities — and if empathy helps to eliminate racism — how can families teach this compassion to their children as they grow up?

Empathy is the awareness that another person (or any living thing) is suffering. Empathetic children understand the feelings of others and wish to relieve their pain and better their experience. It’s not just that we feel sorry for someone; it’s moving beyond sadness or pity, and aspiring to change it. One way that kids learn empathy is when they learn about other cultures and differing perspectives. Being able to truly understand another person’s point of view shows us that we all have similarities on some level.

How else can parents teach or model empathy? Despite being inherently compassionate, children benefit from witnessing kindness towards others, respect for other cultures and races, and examples of how to stand up for what’s right in the face of discrimination. By modeling compassion and empathy towards our partners, children, friends, and even strangers, we demonstrate how to put feelings into action that helps the person suffering and alleviates their situation. Our children observe how we react empathetically when we assist someone who just dropped their groceries, return a phone left behind, stop a joke based on stereotypes, bring dinner to a new mom, or stick up for kids who are getting picked on.

Another wonderful way to teach kindness by example is by volunteering together as a familia. On a trip to Acapulco, we spent a day at a local children’s home to play with the kids, set up a basketball hoop and help them make Christmas cards. On every visit to Mexico we involve our kids in packing donations for orphanages and schools: what toys would the toddlers enjoy? What school supplies do the kindergarteners need? We try to teach our kids to put themselves in the shoes of others and relate to them as peers.

This year, we visited a couple of local foster homes for refugee children who are unaccompanied minors. Before arriving, I prepared my kids. Their eyes grew serious as I explained that we would be making a craft and sharing a snack with kids who are here without their families. They vowed to help the kids have a fun afternoon — not because they would be rewarded or punished, but because they understood that this was the generous and kind thing to do. Although shy at first, everyone warmed up quickly. Ricky’s silly antics elicited laughter, Vivi’s genuine compliments about the girls’ hairstyles drew shy smiles, Maya respectfully listened to the kids talk, and Tonito and his new friend from the DR Congo found common ground in their interest in cars.

We left the group home feeling inspired and a bit euphoric. As we’ve volunteered more, I’ve seen my children’s empathy begin to develop. They now initiate random acts of kindness, and are a bit more tolerant on the playground and with each other. One day last spring my son came running home from school: “There’s a new boy at school, and he doesn’t know anybody! We have to invite him over so that he can meet some friends!” Though we can’t measure empathy in standardized tests, experiences like these tell us we’re on the right path.

{Photos courtesy of Becky Morales}