We’re excited! Disney Interactive and Rosetta Stone have joined forces to promote the value of learning languages for our kids!

Together they have launched a new online original series, it’s a small world: the animated series inspired by the iconic Disney Parks attraction that’s always a must-do during our visits to the parks.  Premiering on Disney.com, Disney’s YouTube network and across Disney’s connected TV apps, the new series does a fabulous job at taking the multicultural and multilingual experience of the attraction online for our generation of kids.

Sponsored exclusively by Rosetta Stone and their new language learning apps for kids (our review here), the eight episode series introduces families to unique words and customs from around the world. Our kids will get to join a group of children from different countries across the globe to explore new lands in a digital narrative brought to life through animation inspired by Disney artist Mary Blair’s original designs for the popular theme park attraction.

Beautifully done, in short 4 minute webisodes, we wholeheartedly celebrate that the theme of it’s a small world: the animated series centers around introducing the concept of learning languages and cultures to understand each other better.

The first webisode finds the children at the British Museum of Art and touches upon subjects like  how using the same word, like “football,” can mean different things in different languages and that some words can sound similar in different languages and can cause mix ups.  Oh, how we know about that! A topic near and dear to us parents raising bilingual kids!

To view the first three episodes of it’s a small world: the animated series visit disney.com/smallworld or watch the first episode below.

The Rosetta Stone – It’s a Small World presents on Disney Video

¡Cuéntanos! Did you like it? We’ve been working hard for years advocating with media, apps creators and toy companies to create more products for bilingual and multilingual children and that celebrate diversity. They DO want and need to hear from you, so please share in the comments section so they know we want more of these quality shows for our kids. ¡Gracias!

Semillitas Channel on YouTube has a short and fun animated video in Spanish to teach kids a bit about the history of Thanksgiving.

¡Que lo disfruten!

For more videos in Spanish about Thanksgiving, check out our Thanksgiving para Niños playlist on YouTube.

It’s been almost a month since we celebrated Día de Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, but my husband finally got around to editing this video and I wanted to share it with all of you!

My girl and I got dressed up and had some fun taking pictures from inside our Toyota Prius V while my husband drove us to the famed Mexican-style celebration of Day of the Dead in Los Angeles.

The video really does show you how colorful, traditional and beautiful the celebration is represented here, and what a perfect time it is to immerse our kids in culture. Hope you enjoy it!

We have a super special treat for you! (We love having super special treats for you!) Just last month we shared with you our review of Mister G’s newest bilingual album for kids,  ABC Fiesta, and we all agreed it truly was a fiesta!

Now, we bring you exclusively Mister G’s first music video from ABC Fiesta for the song “Cocodrilo.” He mixes in fun, pop animation with footage of him playing his songs to audiences around the world. Your kids will love seeing other kids dancing with chomping arms and I’ll bet anything they will start doing it themselves and singing to the catchy tune of “Cocodrilo.”

Enjoy! Oh..and head on over to our Facebook page to win one of three MP3 downloads!

Sara is one of our favorite bilingual musicians for kids (and I’m not just saying that because she’s my daughter’s adored music teacher!) because her music is so simple, yet completely fun and catchy.

We’ve debuted several of her music videos here and today we’re delighted to show you this one she has created just for SpanglishBaby amigos!

The song is called “Mi Perrito Cachorrito” and it’s about the different sounds animals make in English and Spanish. Sara is inviting all of you to watch it with your kids and then ask them which animal and its sound they’d like her to add to the song so she can get it done. I asked my daughter Camila and she requested a unicorn. She thinks it goes “neigh.” She might be right.

For more Music With Sara visit her Bandcamp page and Like her on Facebook.

Mariana, who’s newest album of bilingual (English/Spanish) songs for kids Hola Hello is a must-have for your kid’s music library, wanted SpanglishBaby amigos to have a first peek at her “Father’s Day! Feliz Dia del Padre!” video. We hope all the papás in your families love it too!

As soon as the Doc McStuffins video arrived and I opened the box I was super excited to see that the main character, Doc, was a woman of color. My daughter, who is almost 3, has been noticing the color of people’s skin and I have been starting to wonder if she’s timid around darker skinned people or if I am misinterpreting her reactions. I have also noticed that most of the people she interacts with are white so it wouldn’t be too surprising if I were right, unfortunately.

We are a Latino household and I consider my skin to be brown. That being said, it has been challenging to find books that reflect images of minorities in a positive and non-stereotypical light. In fact, all of my nena’s dolls are white which makes me concerned about the messages she is internalizing. I am not the only one that feels this way. As I was reviewing this new Disney product I ran across mom bloggers, such as Cincomom, who were happy to see an African-American in the role of the doctor.

The character, Doc, basically gets help from her stuffed animals to fix toys. My daughter knows what a doctor is since she has been going to many of my prenatal visits and seemed excited to see one working with little toys and animals. Since we are expecting a baby this summer the video has also provided us with another frame of reference to continue talking to her about what doctors do; such as deliver babies. It’s been fun watching her reactions to how, la doctora (since we only watch the video in Spanish), interacts and heals her toys with the help of her friends.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful Disney video as much as we have!

The Giveaway !

We are giving away one copy of Doc McStuffins: Time for your Checkup! to FIVE lucky winners! To enter all you have to do is leave us a comment telling us why you and your little ones like Doc McStuffins. Then enter the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Music with Sara and friends have done it again! They’ve created the most adorable and fun-to-watch video for their catchy tune, Los Monstruos. Sara tells us that Los Monstruos is actually her most-requested song by students ever since she wrote it four years ago.

Last week we premiered the song here and today we bring you a first view of the video that will have your kids going “¡Uuuuuuuu!” {insert scary voice}. Oh, and click on the Close Caption option to read the lyrics! You can also scroll down and find them below.

“Los Monstruos”
by: Music with Sara
Artwork by: Kristine Cruz-Munda
Animation by: Emmanuel L. Munda
copyright 2012: Music with Sara and D-1 Productions

http://www.musicwithsara.com
http://www.ahappymommy.com

Download your copy of “Los Monstruos” here:
http://musicwithsara.bandcamp.com/

Lyrics:

Los monstruos todos salen en Halloween
Halloween Halloween
Los monstros todos salen en Halloween
¡uuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Un murciélago
¡Bam! Vampiro
una araña
una bruja
un monstruo feo
un fantasma
salen …. en Halloween

The monsters all come out on Halloween
Halloween Halloween
The monsters all come out on Halloween
ooohhhh

A creepy bat
Bam! Vampire
scary spider
A flying witch
A big big monster
A spooky ghost
They all come out
on Halloween

Los monstruos todos salen en Halloween
Halloween Halloween
Los monstruos todos salen en Halloween
¡uuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Un murciélago
¡Bam! Vampiro
una araña
una bruja
un monstruo feo
un fantasma
salen …. en Halloween

Los monstruos todos salen en Halloween
Halloween Halloween
Los monstruos todos salen en Halloween
¡uuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Special thanks to Terri on Facebook for sharing this video with us.

The 4-minute video takes us into the lives of a family that has made the decision to enroll their twins into a dual immersion program in San Rafael Elementary in Pasadena, CA.

The beauty of the story is that the parents don’t speak Spanish, yet recognize the importance of a bilingual upbringing for their kids.

The girl, Abby, and her twin brother are in second grade and you will smile when you hear them speaking beautiful Spanish and even teaching it to their parents.

The video is part of a project from Go Public: A Day in the Life of PUSD whose mission is to “be a two-hour video document of one entire day in the Pasadena Unified School District. Pasadena is a racially and economically diverse community in Southern California with 28 public school campuses. Go Public will tell the story of one full day from sun up to long after sundown.” Learn more and support Go Public here.

2nd Grade Student in Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program from Go Public on Vimeo.