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 !

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’ve always liked what Putumayo already does in terms of music, so I was pretty curious to see their new products in the publishing arena. I was not disappointed at all.

We got the Latin America sticker collection which is a hardcover “book” that comes with a ton of stickers related to the geographic area being explored. The fact that the stickers are reusable makes them great for storytelling. Vanessa took to this idea very quickly and, as you can see in the photo below, she started placing different stickers on the book as she made up a story about a man who played the cuatro and a boy who fished by the river.

The book also included a colorful map showing all the countries in the area. I’ve always loved geography and I guess I’ve passed my curiosity about the world down to Vanessa because she’s pretty obsessed with maps, too! She knows that I was born in Peru, papi was born in Puerto Rico and her brother and her were born in Denver.

Because she’s learning how to read and already recognizes all the letter of the alphabet in both English and Spanish, as soon as she saw the map on Putumayo’s sticker collection package, she looked at Venezuela and asked me what country it was since it started with the same letter as her name.

We also got the Africa oversized coloring book which includes an introduction, a map and a glossary to help children identify the animals and musical instruments found on that continent.  Here’s Vanessa’s attempt at drawing her own African scene:

A great way to get kids interested in geography!

THE GIVEAWAY!

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner: Monica!

We’re giving away one copy of a Latin American coloring book one copy of the sticker book to one lucky winner.

To enter, just leave a comment telling us how you teach geography to your children.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to receive blog updates and subscriber-only content via email and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber. Make sure to leave the comment using the same email you subscribed with.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post and @SpanglishBaby. Copy the link to the tweet in an additional comment on the giveaway’s post.

3. Like SpanglishBaby on Facebook and join a thriving community of parents.

This giveaway ends Thursday, Oct. 27 at midnight PST and is open to everyone over 18 years of age.  Check out the Giveaway Rules.

Disclosure: We received a sample to review the product. All opinions are our own.

It’s here! Take a tour around the world with Putumayo’s new Latin Beat album. This album features latin music that ranges from Salsa and R&B to Latin Pop; by artists based anywhere from the US, Cuba, and Colombia, to even New Zealand. In other words, it brings a variety of musical cultures together for a good time.

Some of the artists that this album features are Moneda Dura adding the voice of Buena Vista Social Club legend Ibrahim Ferrer, Colombian’s Jontre and Mariposa Solar, and Spain’s Digitano.

This is truly feel good music that can get a party going. How could it not when there are hints of modern beats and a whole lot of tradition that blend to make great music for all generations and tastes. Kids will love the upbeat music and want to dance along, and grandparents will appreciate the traditional rhythms. Not to mention all that Spanish that just rolls off the tongue when singing along to this album. This CD presents another great way to incorporate language fun into our everyday routines.

THE GIVEAWAY!

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner: MamaGames!

Putumayo is giving away one copy of Latin Beat to one winner.

To enter just leave a comment telling us what is your favorite Latin rhythm and why.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to receive blog updates and subscriber-only content via email and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber. Make sure to leave the comment using the same email you subscribed with.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post and @SpanglishBaby. Copy the link to the tweet in an additional comment on the giveaway’s post.

3. Like SpanglishBaby on Facebook and join a thriving community of parents.

This giveaway ends Thursday, September 8 at midnight EST and is open to everyone over 18 years of age.  Check out the Giveaway Rules.

Disclosure: We received a sample to review the product. All opinions are our own.

We mostly review CDs of children’s music with Spanish or bilingual lyrics, but Putumayo Kids Presents deserves a rank of its own.  The children’s and educational division of the well-known Putumayo Music CDs dedicate themselves to the mission of introducing cultures to kids through the art of music. And they do it very well. As a parent raising a bilingual and bicultural child, I appreciate companies that create materials that reach out to to this generation of global citizens.

I recently received Putumayo’s latest yummy release from their Playground series, “Picnic Playground.” They’ve put together a collection of 12 songs from around the globe in a smorgasbord of languages, tastes and rhythms, all with the common theme of food.  And what could be more global and bridging than food and music?  Of course, I immediately put on the only track in Spanish-Jose Conde y Ola Fresca’s “Bolitas de Arroz con Pollo” and I suddenly got an urge to cook up a batch of this classic and heartwarming dish.

My girl has a blast shouting out “Ice Cream” to the tune of Asheba’s song.  I know, I know…she should be screaming out “Helado” or “Nieve,” but Ice Cream is one of those phrases that’s just much more fun in English.  And you’ve gotta scream it out.

I’m thankful for the English, Spanish and French song descriptions included with the CD because I was able to figure out that Pascal Parisot was singing in “Mes Parents Sont Bio” about a kid’s parents who only eat organic. The tune is incredibly catchy, and now I can pretend to know what I’m singing in my bad French.

“Picnic Playground” is a real treat for the whole familia to enjoy at any time.  ¡Buen Provecho!

Oh, and I need to let you know about a great contest Putumayo is hosting which ends this week:  The Putumayo Kids Dance-Off Video Contest.  Head over to their site to find out how you could win their full kids collection (retail value of $285)!

A great way to keep up with Putumayo Kids Presents latest releases and contests is to follow them on Facebook. Sign up here.

A Giveaway!!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to Random.org the winners are:  #6 Stephanie and #11 Ashley. Congratulations!

TWO lucky winners will each receive a Putumayo Kids “Picnic Playground” CD. For your chance to win all you have to do is leave a comment telling us which of the 12 tracks on this CD is your, or your child’s, favorite and why. To sample the songs go here.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, December 13th Monday, December 14th at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

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