Sukey’s Circle! Vol. 3: Mini Shows, a bilingual DVD with 15 mini televised episodes featured on Baby First, is the perfect example of what a true circle time should be for young children.  Circle time for young children is one of the hardest jobs (at least for me it was) to do well because children are always growing at different stages.  From the moment a baby is born, his instinct is to learn, grow, and make connections with the world around him. Each one reaches his or her own milestones at different stages which makes entertaining while educating difficult.

What I loved about Sukey’s circle! is the relaxed nature and gentleness of movements that engages a child’s interest.  Her approach at circle with a soft voice and relaxed style helps children feel comfortable. Infants and toddlers are especially vulnerable to being overstimulated without such elements which makes Sukey’s style perfect for the youngest children.  Her movements are slow, simple, and easy to follow for any child who has mastered walking.  The mini shows are also just the right amount of time; just enough to get their attention, get involved, and learn something new.

Each mini show is begun with a simple greeting song that is catchy, welcoming, and easy to remember (as any good transitional greeting circle time song should be).

A few of our favorites were…

• I Like to Move My Body; A video that invites children to join her in practicing different movements with their bodies.
• Pat the Ball; which encourages children to explore different forms of ball play and ball skills.
• Puppet Dance; A display of computer animated bubbles that Sukey gracefully maneuvers through and catches as she demonstrates a variety of movements with music.  It’s probably the simplest out of all the episodes, but both my five & two-year-old were watching and following along saying “catch one, catch one!” to Sukey.  They loved this one!

Sukey Molloy has studied developmental movement with former Olympian, Garland O’Quinn, Ph.D., and infant development at the School for Body Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.  ”I look for ways to promote quiet reflection, while also engaging children in physical play, to create a sense of invitation, trust, and relationship” (Sukey Molloy).

Sukey’s Circle! Vol. 3: Mini Shows DVD is available at Sukey Molloy and Amazon.  You have the option of watching the mini shows one at a time in English or Spanish, or you can choose to play all in either language.  The total run time of the DVD is 33 minutes with 15 mini shows.

{Image Copyright © 2013 Sukey Molloy! - All Rights Reserved}

The Giveaway!

We are giving away one copy of Sukey’s Circle! Vol 3: Mini Shows DVD to one lucky winner. All you have to do is visit Sukey Molloy’s video page and tell us which video you enjoyed the most and why. Then enter the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There’s so much floating around the internet about New Year’s Resolutions this time of year! I don’t tend to make resolutions, but I do love setting a few goals for myself and getting myself organized. As for my boys’ bilingualism, we’ve been chugging along the status quo has been working for us, but I thought I’d take stock of things this January and maybe formally set a few goals for myself in this area, too.

So here you have it, my list of resolutions for the year:

1. Number one is obvious:  keep talking to my boys in Spanish, all the time. They are 7 now, and I still speak to them — and they answer me — in Spanish.
2. Rule number one notwithstanding, I need to limit how much I speak to them in English. I do this in two specific kinds of situations. One, I’ll occasionally speak to them in English when we are around other English speakers in order to be polite, and I do so perhaps more than I should. This year I will try to be more mindful of this, because I’m aware of the fact that it can be a slippery slope and it isn’t always necessary. The second reason I sometimes speak to them in English is much more non-negotiable. My boys, like many autistic children, are often better prepared to deal with certain situations if they can use a script, or a stock question or answer. In the past year, I’ve often found it necessary to provide them with different scripts. I don’t want to leave any room for ambiguity by providing the answer in Spanish and letting them interpret it into English, I want to give them the exact words they should use. We often tweak our scripts together and they suggest good alternatives, but they’re always in English.
3. Keep up with Spanish school on Saturdays. This is an easy one, for now. They’re in their second year there, and still love it. They even think it’s special they have Spanish school and their other classmates don’t.
4. Keep speaking Spanish to the dog. A quirky Boston Terrier puppy is the newest addition to our family, and I speak to her in Spanish. Since I do, I’ve noticed the boys do, too…it’s funny hearing them use the same diminutives, commands and regañadas with her that I do. I don’t know that I’d recommend going to the extreme of getting a dog to motivate your children to speak a second language, but it’s a nice side benefit.
5. Keep my technology close. I’m hoping to find a few good, age-appropriate TV shows in Spanish, though the boys are much more into video games this year. The iPhone is still one of my closest allies. I have a great bilingual dictionary on it and look up vocabulary for my boys when they ask me how to say something in Spanish, several times a day. Their interests are becoming so specific that I often can’t come up with the words they are looking for — piranha shoal, pyroclastic flow — on my own.
6. Take advantage of more cultural events in our area. We’ll see how I do with this one — again, autism makes it kind of tricky. Last year I came home with a flier for a Hispanic Heritage Month festival and excitedly showed it to the boys. Music! Singing! Traditional foods and games! After I finished telling them about it, Secondo said, simply, “No quiero ir. Habrá mucha gente y demasiado ruido.” And when I think back to the days of speech delays and unexplained tantrums and remember feeling like I would give anything if only they could tell me what was wrong in any language, well, I’m just so blown away and happy that he can express himself so clearly that I respect his wishes. Sometimes they can be persuaded if I prepare them in advance (our recent ice skating outing, for example, was a huge hit), but I tend not to push the issue.
7. Find more good books in Spanish. We had such a wealth of wonderful picture books in Spanish when they were going through that stage, but they’re moving on to chapter books now, and though we have many translations of English classics, I’d love to find more books written in Spanish for older children. And although they’re really into nonfiction, I feel like none of the books we have in Spanish can compete with the many beautiful National Geographic books of facts and atlases we own.
8. Give myself some credit. We all should. I know it’s easy to think that I’m not doing enough, that there’s always something else I could do to ensure my boys bilingualism, that I know people who are doing more. But I’m doing what I can, and so far, so good.

{photo by Esparta}