Now that my daughter is in a Spanish-language dual immersion program, I realize more than ever how important it is to have quality Spanish-language and bilingual materials and books in the school. We’re lucky that the parents and the Foundation in our school is very active and involved and our multi-lingual library is growing leaps and bounds. But, still, you can never have enough enriching in-language material for children and teachers.

Vme Spanish-language television network and Santillana USA Publishing Company recognize this need and have just announced the kickoff of the 2nd annual “Libros Para Mi Escuelita” Book Contest. The nationwide contest encourages parents, students and teachers to create a video entry stating why their school is in need of Spanish and bilingual reading materials. Evaluated on their creativity, persuasiveness and presentation, entries will be voted upon by each school and its surrounding community.

Families, friends and neighbors will have a chance to vote for their school every day from November 9^th until November 25^th.  The three schools that have the highest number of votes will win a total of $10,000 worth of Spanish-language education materials from Santillana USA.

1^st place prize:
$5,000 worth of Spanish-language materials

2^nd place prize:
$3,000 worth of Spanish-language materials

3^rd place prize:
$2,000 worth of Spanish-language materials

And if you haven’t yet, you should click over to Santillana’s Plaza Santillana for some great “resources for your Spanish classroom” or for teaching/enhancing the language at home. I’m particularly loving this article on how to throw a sugar skull making party for Day of the Dead!

For full rules and regulations, visit “Libros para mi escuelita” on Vmetv.com, and while there check out their awesome Spanish-language and educational programming for kids!

We´re fast approaching another year of  El Día de los Niños (Day of the Child) festivities and we´re excited to be celebrating a lo grande  the next couple of weeks with a Twitter party, special posts and even a Celebrating Bilingual Readers grand giveaway.

Each year the United States Congress names April 30^th as El Dia de los Niños to support the intellectual and emotional development of young people.  Over one hundred cities across the nation will be celebrating this day with parades, book festivals, and other entertainment; we couldn´t be left behind!

WGBH Boston’s Emmy Award winning preschool science series Peep and the Big Wide World has been selected as the special featured guest at this year’s El Dia de los Niños celebrations held around the country. You might already be familiar with WGBH Boston’s Peep and the Big Wide World, a science and math series for our preschool age niños that can be seen in Spanish on Vme . We’re are happy to announce that we’ve partnered with WGBH Boston to celebrate Día de los Niños with Peep and the National Latino Children´s Institute. Peep and the Big Wide World gives Latino families the resources we need to encourage science and math learning in our kids through educational episodes and online resources available in Spanish.

In the next few days we´ll be publishing a series of posts featuring arts, crafts and activities inspired by PEEP and the Big Wide World that you can do with your child and celebrate their natural curiosity for the world around them, as well as nurture their bilingual dreams.

PEEP has really expanded its bilingual episodes and activities, and they will be launching a new website with more of those activities soon. Check out the current site with tons of videos and activities in Spanish!

We´ll also be hosting a fun Twitter party this Tuesday, April 24th at 1pm EST/10am PST. To join the twitter party all you have to do is follow the hashtag #PEEPDia (it´s super easy if you go to this Tweetchat link) and jump right in to the conversation we´ll be leading with six other fabulous co-hosts. At the end of the party we´ll be giving away three sets of prize packs, each with a $50 gift card and a PEEP series DVD with the Spanish-language option included. To RSVP for the Twitter party, get a reminder before it starts and check out the co-hosts to follow, go to this link here.

To find the cities that will be celebrating El Dia de los Niños you can click here.

¡A celebrar se ha dicho!

PEEP and the Big Wide World airs in Spanish on Vme, Monday thorough Saturday from 9:15-9:30am.

For more fun Día de los Niños articles, giveaways and activities, check out these posts:

Celebrating Bilingual Readers Contest–over $500 in prizes, including books and a Kindle Fire!

Día de los Niños Parachute–your kids will have a blast making this parachute, inspired by PEEP!

PEEP Science Videos and Activities in Spanish–useful tips from a bilingual teacher and Spanish Playground blogger on how to use the Spanish-language videos and activities on the PEEP website with your kids.

Fun and Easy Activities to Introduce Basic Science Vocabulary in Spanish–a collection of fun games in Spanish from Spanish Playground.

Disclosure: We’ve partnered with WGBH Boston and are receiving compensation for a series of posts and a Día de los Niños twitter party.

Can you imagine being taken on an all-access tour that crisscrosses the rich and diverse country of Mexico with the one person that holds the golden master key: the President?  Well, that’s exactly the VIP virtual treatment you will get on September 22nd when PBS broadcasts nationwide Mexico The Royal Tour, hosted by Peter Greenberg.

Greenberg, the nation’s most-respected travel news journalist, has already been on royal tours with the president of Peru, the Prime Ministers of Jamaica and New Zealand and the King of Jordan. This time he’s on his fifth adventure and being led by the hand of Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón who takes Greenberg on an adventurous and culture-filled journey through the beloved country.

By the looks of the trailer, The Royal Tour was a massive production just by the sheer fact that the President had to travel with Greenberg and his production crew for a total of two weeks.  Calderón makes use of this time to give viewers some amazing access to places we would normally have no access to, such as inside a pyramid to discover its hidden and ancient treasures.

The Royal Tour also gives us a glimpse into the flesh and blood life of the leader of Mexico.  We see President Calderón zip line across a rain forest, scuba dive into cenotes (sinkholes) in Yucatan, whale watch in Baja California, rappel hundreds of feet deep into dark caves in San Luis Potosí, and climb almost 100 steps onto the top of a pyramid in Chichen Itzá.

This is a Mexico most of us haven´t seen, until now. Don´t miss it. Mark your calendars and your recording devices to the premiere episode this Thursday, September 22nd on your local PBS station or on September 23 on Vme if you want to catch it with Spanish subtitles.

Meanwhile, watch the trailer and get as excited as we are:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-nhlnrT384

Disclosure: I am being compensated for my work in creating and managing content as a Community Manager for the México Today Program.  All stories, opinions and passion for all things México shared here  and everywhere are completely my own.

We will always jump at the chance to be invited to talk about our favorite topic of all times:  Raising bilingual and bicultural kids and the rewards and challenges that come with it.

One of our constant partners and promoters is Vme TV.  We have been organically writing about Vme ever since we launched, even before they believed enough in us and you to sponsor SpanglishBaby, because we´ve always believed they have the best free educational programming for Spanish-speaking kids.

One of their most popular shows is TuBebé, hosted by Minerva, Venezuelan mom of a 2 YO boy being raised in Miami. TuBebé covers topics concerning pregnancy, maternity and babies. The producers called me to set up an interview via Skype since I´m in L.A. and their studios are in Miami.  It was the first time they were doing this, so it was a great experiment for all of us.

As you can tell in the video, I had a great time talking to Minerva and totally forgot this was going to be broadcast to hundreds of thousands of viewers!  Her and I just got chit-chatty about our kids, their Spanish, las familias and everything the SpanglishBaby community is about.

Hope you enjoy it!

Disclosure:  Although Vme is a SpanglishBaby sponsor, this is not a sponsored post or part of an advertisement commitment.