We are excited to share our favorite bilingual and bicultural Holiday gifts with you! As we do every year, we’ve gathered some of the best regalitos of the season to feature in our 2013 Holiday Gift Guide for Bilingual Kids. This very unique gift guide includes Toys with English and Spanish features, our Favorites (De todo un poco) and Ana and Roxana’s Picks - our co-founders and experienced bilingual moms share their must-haves. Plus, check out the non profit organizations we’re featuring, spread the love this holiday season and donate to those who need it the most.

Click here to check out (and share!) SpanglishBaby’s 2013 Holiday Gift Guide for Bilingual Kids!

The Giveaway!

You know we love to share the love, so to celebrate the holidays we have a huge giveaway of some of our favorite items from our  2013 Holiday Gift Guide for Bilingual Kids!  ONE lucky winner will get one of each of these gifts featured below. The total value of this prize is over $450 USD!!

Looking for a decorative, yet educational and classy gift? Customizable World Maps by Children Inspire Design are perfect for a child’s room or anywhere in the house, really! Place your heart anywhere in the world where your’s belongs… (ARV $60.00)

Baby Alive Baby All Gone Bilingual by Hasbro - By holding her wrist down for a few seconds you can switch from English to Spanish! Doll comes with an outfit, bananas, spoon, bowl and a sippy cup. So sweet! (ARV $36.95)

The Dual Language Translator by Ingenio is perfect for your preschool aged kid. It includes 17 double-sided cards with useful everyday words including numbers, shapes, weather and much more. ¡Vamos a aprender español! (ARV $16.99)

We just love MamaYala’s creations! With the MamaYala Flash Cards  the whole family can play and learn vocabulary from Latin America and Spain. Includes a 100% cotton & customizable carrying bag, ¡Qué cute! (ARV $15.95)

You and your familia are going to love the Celebrations Around the World Activity Box by Lakeshore. You will have materials to celebrate five holidays: Cinco de Mayo, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Chinese New Year and Independence Day.  How cool is that?! (ARV $34.99)

The Orphaned Earring is a non-profit blog dedicated to bringing arts and crafts, school supplies as well as year-round festivities to four orphanages in Latin America, Nicaragua, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico through the sales of hand-made bracelets from donated orphaned earrings. The winner will receive a set of two bracelets. (ARV $15.00)

For kids ages 3-6 Ladybug en español is an excellent reading tool, plus your child will love the illustrations! Read our review A Magazine for Children: Ladybug en Español. The winner will receive a one-year subscription of both the print and digital publications of Ladybug en español, Ask en español and Babybug en español. (ARV of over $150 USD)

As soon as you arrive home from the hospital play Spanish lullabies to your sweet baby with  Twilight Turtle Tunes! With wireless Bluetooth technology you can get the Premium app (available for $1.99) and play your mix of canciones de cuna to soothe your precious bebé. (Prize only includes one Twilight Turtle Tunes, Premium app not included.) (ARV $51.95)

For ages 3-12 Baking Around The World Kit by Handstandkids is the perfect gift for kids who love to cook and bake (and for those who might like to!) With recipes from around the world, our young bakers will enjoy learning about other cultures’ sweets. Yummy! (ARV $25.00)

Lanugo — La Sinfonía de… includes a unique personalized CD with your child’s name sang in each fun & engaging song! Plus the CD comes with your child’s name printed on it, as well as with a set of stickers — we love it! (ARV $14.99)

Se habla Spanglish Tee by Dos Borreguitas - We can’t say the word Spanglish enough so we’d like to wear it as well! This makes a great gift for your mamá, hija, tía, or anyone in your Spanglish familia! (ARV $20.00)

Little Passports‘ mission is to inspire children to learn about the world. Kids can get a package every month with country-specific souvenirs, stickers, photos, activity sheets and much more! Recommended for ages 5-10 years old. Yes, you can raise a world traveler and explorador! Winner will receive a 1-month subscription. (ARV $10.95)

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Like me, my daughter Vanessa is fascinated by maps, atlases and geography in general. And like most first-graders, she’s addicted to the iPad and it’s endless apps. So I was intrigued when I was approached by Barefoot Books — one of my favorite multicultural children’s book publishers — regarding a new app they recently launched together with Touch Press – the creators of some of the best apps out there.

I knew the Barefoot World Atlas app would be well done, but I honestly didn’t expect it to be so amazing. I mean, I have so many good things to say about it that I don’t even know where to begin. For starters, it’s available in Spanish, English and Catalan, which is a HUGE plus in my book.

As soon as the app finished downloading*, Vanessa took the iPad from me and started exploring it. There was no need to explain how to work it because, like most kids her age, she’s growing up in a world surrounded by tablets and smartphones. Even so, the Barefoot World Atlas is extremely easy to figure out. The first thing Vanessa did was spin the 3D globe with a swish of her little finger. She then zoomed in and started pressing icons here and there.

I decided to sit back and watch her play with the app and all I could hear was “Ooooh” and “Aaah” and “Cool!” as she explored the world.

The app is loaded with endless information regarding each country, including sound effects, animated icons and multimedia features, which allow kids to learn more about many particular features of each country. The written and spoken Spanish is flawless and the possibilities for learning are never ending.

It has quickly become both Vanessa and Santiago’s (he’s only 3, but he copies everything his big sister does) favorite app and it’s the first one they’ll go to when allowed to use the iPad.

This is the perfect app for parents with kids in dual language programs to reinforce what they’re learning in social studies. But it’s even better for parents who, like me, are raising bilingual children by teaching them Spanish at home. The Barefoot World Atlas app is available for the iPad, the iPhone and iPod touch for $4.99 at Apple’s iTunes store.

(*A word of caution: the Barefoot World Atlas takes a while to download because it’s a pretty large file, but it’s totally worth all the space it takes)

THE GIVEAWAY

Two winners will each receive a code to download the Barefoot World Atlas app for free (you need to have an iPad, iPod touch or iPhone) and a copy of the Barefoot World Atlas book.

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Before the days of Google, I remember turning to encyclopedias and almanacs for information. School projects can become excuses to brush up on all kinds of topics when you have a picture-filled reference book. Almanacs have come a long way since I was in school, though.

The World Almanac for Kids 2013 has kept my family entertained for a week straight. We’ve quizzed each other on the order of U.S. Presidents, learned which planets are the biggest and hottest, and discussed the fashions of the 1500s. My 4-year-old can’t even read yet, but he’s been fascinated by the pictures and maps and has invented his own “facts” to tell me. My stepdaughters loved reading about Greek mythology and the world’s population.

Google may be able to produce fast answers, but it can’t generate the level of curiosity that a book such as The World Almanac does. The 2013 version discusses everything from Justin Bieber’s popularity to how dollar bills are made, and is guaranteed to make everyday discussions at your house more interesting.

The Giveaway!

ONE lucky winner will receive a copy of The World Almanac for Kids 2013.

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