One of the best tools in the raising-a-bilingual-kid toolbox is a good selection of music. Heritage and language has long been preserved and passed along with the aid of music. Just think about your childhood and a key songs are sure to start playing in your inner playlist.

Moona Luna knows that and they´ve created a seamless bilingual CD that brings home all the vibrant sounds of our Latin culture in a way that kids are immediately responsive to.

Yes, we´ve written about Moona Luna before and even premiered their first-ever music video with some of our SpanglishBaby readers in a starring role. We are happy to dedicate this space to them again because they are now touring the country (catch full calendar here) and we wouldn´t want you to miss the chance to catch them live. My girl and I are going this weekend to one of their two performances at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.  Since Piñata Party is seriously one of her favorite CD´s, she´s been super excited since I told her about it a couple of days ago. I can´t wait to see if she´ll sing-a-long to the songs being performed live as she does when she hears them playing in the car!

To get your kids singing to Moona Luna´s catchy tunes and to celebrate El Día de Los Niños, Moona Luna is offering SpanglishBaby amigos a free download of one of their most popular songs:  Todas Las Comidas (All the Foods). You can listen to it below, watch the video and download your free song only by clicking here.  Free song download will be available until May 5th

Todas Las Comidas by Moona Luna

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSjetelnlsM

The Giveaway!

To stream the full CD visit moonalunamusic.com.  If you like what you hear (you will!), come back here and leave a comment telling us which was your favorite song from their debut album, Piñata Party.  You might be one of two winners of an autographed CD and poster.

This giveaway ends Thursday, May 5th at midnight EST and is open to U.S. residents over 18 years of age.  Check out the Giveaway Rules.

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

The Spanish version is callled “La Granja de mi Tío” and it´s just as catchy as the English original.  The video is not the best quality, but we´re going for the song here!  Maybe I´m not the only one making up the lyrics in Spanish.

La Granja de mi Tío

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNA56nXD2Ac&feature=rec-fav-watch-cur_emp-exp_fresh+div

We invite you to visit our new sister site, SpanglishBabyFinds, where we review the coolest products made with Latino and/or bilingual kids in mind. Today we’re giving away a set of  bilingual Alphabet Learning Cards, a very unique educational toy from Ingenio bilingual toy makers.

Photo by AndrewEick

I absolutely love summer…for a lot of reasons, but mainly because my daughter is a summer baby which means we get to celebrate her cumpleaños outdoors in the melting heat (as opposed to indoors hiding from the snow.) In fact, both Vanessa and Camila were born pretty much in the middle of the summer, so both Ana and I will be celebrating their birthdays pretty soon.

This got me thinking about a little tradition we have at our house regarding the songs we sing when it’s someone’s birthday. It all started even way before Vanessa was born almost three years ago. As I’ve mentioned in the past, my husband is from Puerto Rico and I’m from Perú, which means we sing completely different songs when celebrating birthdays.

My version goes something like this (to the beat of Happy Birthday):

Cumpleaños feliz,

te deseamos a ti,

cumpleaños (fulanito),

qué los cumplas feliz!

My husband’s version has nothing to do with the original Happy Birthday song. It goes something like this:

Feliz, feliz en tu día

amiguito, que Dios te bendiga

que reine la paz en tu vida

y que cumplas muchos más

We always sing the traditional Happy Birthday and then since our friends are pretty much from all over South America, we kind of go around the table asking each one to sing their version. It takes a while, but it’s fun to hear everyone else’s interpretation.

And, even if there are no Mexicans in the house, we ALWAYS sing “Las Mañanitas“. One, because I like it and two because I spent part of my childhood in México and I just got used to it. In case you don’t know the lyrics to that one, here goes the first part:

Photo by JAG Photography

Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el rey David

Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti.

Despierta mi bien despierta

Mira que ya ameneció

Ya los pajaritos cantan

La luna ya se metió.

If you want to know what other countries – not limited to South America – sing around the birthday cake, check this out. I thought it was pretty cool.

There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to cumpleaños…there’s the whole other topic of  the different names we have for the birthday “cake” in Spanish (pastel, torta, bizcocho, queque – for starters), as well as the different ways we actually celebrate one. So why don’t you please share your traditions with us so we can all learn something new

I admit I tend to get a bit nostalgic when it comes to sharing Spanish-language music with Camila. I rely a lot on the classics I grew up singing during my childhood in El Salvador. One of those songs is La Gallina Turuleca. Now Camila can learn the song while watching the animated video we found from the Spanish clown, Miliki-member of the famous clown act Gaby, Fofo y Miliki.

I can’t remember seeing any other gallina with so much personality! She dances, prances and lays dancing eggs on stage. Click here for they lyrics to sing along and teach your little ones to count eggs from one to ten in Spanish with La Gallina Turuleca.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvoXw5llbTo

Have you found any videos of children’s songs in Spanish that make you nostalgic? Mind sharing the link with all of us?

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