From the creators of ¡A la granja! and some of our other favorite apps, When I Grow Up/De mayor seré is a great resource in addition to being a fun app. It introduces children to all the career choices they will have as adults, and makes all of them seem equally fun with its cute graphics.

Sanoen, a Barcelona-based digital publisher, gives us six languages and five modes to choose from. Your youngest children can watch the automated version of the careers without having to touch the screen. Older kids can go from simply touching the words to basic spelling, advanced spelling, and reading complete sentences.

Whether you have boys or girls, little scientists or mini teachers, they will love finding out what’s involved in each life path, and you will love how this app teaches them to spell what they want to become!

Find When I Grow Up/De mayor seré in iTunes

Available for iPad

Recommended for ages 0-5

Price: $1.99

Check out Sanoen on Facebook and Twitter for more info about their educational apps.

Apps that teach letters and numbers or read us interactive books are fun…but what about going above and beyond the basics? Now, we can have a companion in guiding our young readers (1^st – 3^rd graders) to an understanding of Spanish phonics and spelling. Spanish Word Wizard: Spanish Talking Movable Alphabet with Spell Check + Spelling Tests is a great app to supplement formal Spanish lessons, or as an introduction to the sounds of el alfabeto.

The Spanish version of the acclaimed Speak ‘N’ Spell for the iPad Generation, this app talks in customizable voices (your kids can change the pitch of the speaker’s voice), features cursive and block letters for practice recognizing both, and multiple levels of predefined spelling lists, as well as the option to create your own.

I particularly love that this app demonstrates the effect that accents have on Spanish words. If you choose an unaccented letter when an accent should in fact be used, you can hear how the word would sound without the accent. The app is comprehensive in its stress of the all-important stresses in the Spanish language!

Even my husband, a native Spanish speaker, found himself loving the challenge of spelling in a language he rarely uses for writing. It’s an excellent tool for all ages — like having your very own Spanish spelling bee at home!

Find Spanish Word Wizard: Spanish Talking Movable Alphabet with Spell Check + Spelling Tests!  in iTunes

Available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Recommended for ages 3 to 10

Price: $2.99

Check out L’Escapadou on Facebook and Twitter

¿Qué dice acá? This is my three-year-old’s favorite question lately. She wants to know what the logo on her Papito’s t-shirt, the ingredients on the box of cereal and the headline on my magazine all say. Su tía–my sister– has already taken it upon herself to teach her a few letters. She knows the V (that’s because it’s the first letter of her name), O, M, I, X and J.

I guess it’s time to get a bit more involved in teaching her the alphabet and now I have a great way to do it. Today’s second review ever on SpanglishBabyFinds is another one of the 10 Ingenio toys we’ll be introducing you to during the next two weeks. As you can see in the picture above, it’s basically a combination of blocks and crossword puzzles.

Although Vanessa is way too young for the actual crossword puzzles, we can definitely start using the blocks to begin teaching her the alphabet–as well as the numbers. Each of the 20 blocks has two letters and things that start with those particular letters in both Spanish and English. The blocks are pretty sturdy, the images on them colorful and the letters simple and legible.

The game comes with six bilingual crossword puzzles in the following categories: el transporte, los animales de la granja, las mascotas, las frutas, la casa and el cuerpo all of which you can hopefully use to start teaching your niños how to spell. The blocks can also be used for what they are: to build towers, in this case, word towers. As I said yesterday, one of the best things about Ingenio toys is that they are intended to grow with our children. Ideally, this means we can a get a few years of use out of them.

I think they are just a fun and different way of teaching our kids letters and words through play. In other words, I believe they won’t even know they are actually learning since it really feels more like a game. And, how many times have we suggested that the best way of reinforcing the minority language is by making sure it is FUN, right?

All of Ingenio´s bilingual toys are available via Amazon.  Of course, the best way to get them is via La Tiendita.

The Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to our winner DONNA HUNT!!

As we mentioned yesterday, Ingenio, the first educational bilingual toys and games brand in the U.S., has chosen you to be the first to get a chance to win every single one of their ten toys.  Today you can enter to win Bilingual Blocks + Crossword Puzzles, simply by telling us any fun strategy or game you use to teach your kids the alphabet.

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 tonight, Tuesday, August 25, at midnight EST.