Grande y pequeño is a Spanish ebook for parents and teachers to read with young language learners. The repetition helps children absorb the sound and structure of the language. The text exactly describes the photos and teaches common nouns, the adjectives grande (big) and pequeño (small) and the verb hay (there is/there are). Scroll down for a parent/teacher guide and a translation. Just click for full screen and audio. The free PDF is available to download from issuu.

Guide for Parents and Educators

Grande y pequeño
- Uses vibrant photographs to make the meaning of Spanish words clear.

As you read
- Point to the pictures that correspond to what you are saying.
- Use gestures to reinforce the meaning of the words grande and pequeño.
- Once your child is familiar with the words grande and pequeño, ask ¿Dónde está el carro grande? ¿Dónde está el  carro pequeño? (Where is the big car? Where is the small car?)
- Use phrases like these:

¡Qué perro tan grande (pequeño)! / What a big (small) dog!
¡Ese árbol es muy pequeño (grande)! / That tree is very small (big)!
¿Cuántos caballos hay? / How many horses are there?
Vamos a contarlos. / Let’s count them.
Uno, dos – Hay dos caballos. / One, two –There are two
horses.

Language notes
- The word hay is a verb that means both there is and there are.
- The words grande and pequeño are adjectives. In Spanish, adjectives commonly follow the word they describe: un barco pequeño / a small boat.
- Adjectives agree with the object they describe in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural).

una vaca pequeña / a small cow (pequeña is feminine and singular to  agree with vaca)

- Adjectives that end in –e, like grande, do not show gender. These words do show number. They will always end in –e (singular) or –es (plural).

un caballo grande / a big horse
una vaca grande / a big cow
dos vacas grandes / two big cows

- The word mano is a feminine noun. It is an exception to the rule that feminine nouns end in –a: una mano pequeña / a small hand.

Translation

Grande y pequeño / Big and small

Hay un perro grande. Hay un perro pequeño.
Hay dos perros. / There is a big dog. There is a small dog. There are two dogs.

Hay un barco grande. Hay un barco pequeño.
Hay dos barcos. / There is a big boat. There is a small boat. There are two boats.

Hay un elefante grande. Hay un elefante pequeño.
Hay dos elefantes. / There is a big elephant. There is a small elephant. There are two elephants.

Hay una flor grande. Hay una flor pequeña.
Hay dos flores. / There is a big flower. There is a small flower. There are two flowers.

Hay un caballo grande. Hay un caballo pequeño.
Hay dos caballos. / There is a big horse. There is a small horse. There are two horses.

Hay un árbol grande. Hay un árbol pequeño.
Hay dos árboles. / There is a big tree. There is a small tree. There are two trees.

Hay un tigre grande. Hay un tigre pequeño.
Hay dos tigres. / There is a big tiger. There is a small tiger. There are two tigers.

Hay un carro grande. Hay un carro pequeño.
Hay dos carros. / There is a big car. There is a small car. There are two cars.

Hay una vaca grande. Hay una vaca pequeña.
Hay dos vacas. / There is a big cow. There is a small cow. There are two cows.

Hay una mano grande. Hay una mano pequeña.
Hay dos manos. / There is a big hand. There is a small hand. There are two hands.

Hay caballos, vacas, carros y barcos, / There are horses, cows, cars and boats,
elefantes, tigres, árboles y manos. / elephants, tigers, trees and hands.
Hay flores también y perros buenos. / There are flowers too and good dogs.

Todos son grandes y todos pequeños. / All of them are big and all of them small.

If you liked this post, you might be interested in:
Spanish ebook – ¿Uno? ¿Dos? ¿Tal vez tres?
Spanish ebook – Busca los colores

This short Spanish story is available as a free download from El biblio de los chicos. It is a 24-line dialog by Melina Pogorelsky and has an illustration by Analía Godoy. This is a excellent example of authentic language that can be used successfully with Spanish language learners.

The story is a dialog, but the two characters are not identified at the beginning. One is bragging about how strong, fast and organized she is. The other simply says Cállate (Be quiet). (Depending on how it is said, cállate can be strong. You may want to use another word here, such as silencio.) The reading uses first-person present tense verbs, common adjectives, and simple sentence structures. It has a unexpected ending, when you realize that one of the speakers in an ant and that everything she says is true, relatively.

There are many ways that you can use this dialog with Spanish language learners. I have listed a few ideas below. It is also a fun read-aloud with children who do not read independently.  Cállate is not something that most of us use with children or want to model, so you may want to change it to Silencio, por favor. It has the same meaning, and the por favor allows for even more expression as you say the line.

Pequeñas vanidades uses the vos form, but it is only seen in an accent mark and one other word. If you want use the verb callarse, rather than changing it to silencio as mentioned above, you can change it to the tú form by simply adding an accent mark to change callate to cállate.  Also, in the next to the last line, change sos to eres. I have left the verb form in the original vos. A translation follows.

Use this link to reach the page with the Spanish story, Pequeñas vanidades, and the pdf download with the story and illustration.

Pequeñas vanidades por Melina Pogorelsky

— Callate.
— Pero en serio te digo. No es que me agrande.
— Callate.
— Pero de verdad, no lo puedo evitar, soy muy fuerte.
— Callate.
— Y veloz.
— Callate.
— Y ni te digo qué buena compañera soy.
— Callate.
— En serio, trabajando en equipo soy lo más.
— Callate.
— ¡Ah! ¡Y soy tan pero tan organizada!
— Callate.
— ¡Y responsable! Tan responsable…
— Callate.
— Y no me canso nunca. Voy, vengo. Vengo, voy.
— Callate.
— ¿Ya te dije que soy muy fuerte?
— Callate.
— Puedo levantar y cargar como diez veces mi peso.
— Callate.
— Pero en serio te digo. No es que me agrande.
— Callate. ¡Sos una hormiga!
— Sí, pero la más grande que hay.

Translation:
Little Vanities by Melina Pogorelsky
— Be quiet.
— But seriously, I’m telling you. It’s not that I’m exaggerating.
— Be quiet.
— But really, I can’t help it, I’m very strong.
— Be quiet.
— And fast.
— And I can’t even tell you what a good classmate I am. (compañera can be translated in many ways, including group member, teammate, co-worker and even friend.)
— Be quiet.
— Seriously, working in a team, I’m the best.
— Be quiet.
— Ah! And I am so, so organized!
— And responsible! So responsible…
— Be quiet.
— And I never get tired. I come and go. I go and come.
— Be quiet.
— Did I mention that I’m very strong?
— Be quiet.
— I can lift and carry ten times my weight.
— Be quiet.
— But seriously, I’m telling you. It’s not that I’m exaggerating.
— Be quiet. You’re an ant!
— Yes, but the greatest one there is.

Ideas for using this Spanish story with language learners

There are lots of ways to use this short Spanish story with language learners. Here are a few ideas:

- Read the dialog for the class. You need a student or assistant to read the lines responding to the ant (Cállate or Silencio). For the ant’s lines, use lots of expression and gestures to make the meaning clear.

- Have students read the dialog aloud in pairs. Encourage the student saying only cállate/silencio to think about how his/her expression will change during the dialog to express increasing frustration. Have students switch roles and read the dialog again.

- As a group, list and discuss the ways the ant characterizes herself. Is she telling the truth?

- Have students identify how they are like the ant and how they are different.

- Discuss what other adjectives could describe the ant. Why does she not mention these adjectives?

- Teach the words vanidoso and vanidades. Discuss the title. Why are they pequeñas vanidades?

- Have students illustrate the dialog, showing the different qualities of the ant. They can label the illustrations with lines from the dialog.

- Have students act out the dialog and present it as a play.

- Have students create a dialog using the same structure with a different animal, for example, a dolphin or an elephant.

You may be interested in:
Poem by Douglas Wright for children learning Spanish
Walking and talking in Spanish – Two rhymes to combine with movement
One pretty poem and 15 activities for children learning Spanish

¿Uno? ¿Dos? ¿Tal vez tres? is a Spanish ebook for parents and teachers to read with young language learners. The repetition and rhyme help children absorb the sound of the language and the text encourages children to count the animals, engaging them with the language. Scroll down for a parent/teacher guide and a translation. Just click for full screen and audio. The free PDF is available to download from issuu.

A Guide for Parents and Teachers

¿Uno? ¿Dos? ¿Tal vez tres?
- Uses vibrant photographs to make the meaning of Spanish words clear.
- Helps children actively engage with Spanish to process the language at a deeper level.

As you read
- Point to the pictures.
- Count the animals in Spanish with your child, pointing to each one.
- If you are using the audio, pause (click on the speaker in issuu) to let your child count.
- Use phrases like these:

Hay unos caballos. ¿Cuántos ves? / There are some horses. How many do you see?

Veo muchos caballos. /  I see a lot of horses.

Vamos a contarlos. / Let’s count them.

Unos, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis – Veo seis caballos. / One, two, three, four, five, six – I see six horses.

Language notes
- The words ¿cuántos? and ¿cuántas? mean “how many.”  They are adjectives and agree with the noun that follows.

¿Cuántos perros ves? / How many dogs do you see?

¿Cuántas tortugas ves? / How many turtles do you see?

- The book uses the verb form ves. It is the verb ver (to see) in the tú form meaning ”Do you see?”  To answer, use the verb form veo (I see).

Veo tres vacas. / I see three cows.

Veo diez patos. / I see ten ducks.

Translation
¿Uno? ¿Dos? ¿Tal vez tres? / One, two, maybe three?

¿Uno? ¿Dos? ¿Tal vez tres? / One, two, maybe three?
Dime cuántos gatos ves. / Tell me how many cats you see.

¿Uno? ¿Dos? ¿Tal vez tres? / One, two, maybe three?
Dime cuántos osos ves. / Tell me how many bears you see.

¿Uno? ¿Dos? ¿Tal vez tres? / One, two, maybe three?
Dime cuántas vacas ves. / Tell me how many cows you see.

¿Cuatro? ¿Cinco? ¿Tal vez seis? / Four, five, maybe six?
Dime cuántos cerdos ves. / Tell me how many pigs you see.

¿Cuatro? ¿Cinco? ¿Tal vez seis? / Four, five, maybe six?
Dime cuántas tortugas ves. / Tell me how many turtles you see.

¿Cuatro? ¿Cinco? ¿Tal vez seis? / Four, five, maybe six?
Dime cuántos caballos ves. / Tell me how many horses you see.

¿Siete? ¿Ocho? ¿Nueve? ¿Diez? / Seven, eight, nine, ten?
Dime cuántos perros ves. / Tell me how many dogs you see.

¿Siete? ¿Ocho? ¿Nueve? ¿Diez? / Seven, eight, nine, ten?
Dime cuántos elefantes ves. / Tell me how many elephants you see.

¿Siete? ¿Ocho? ¿Nueve? ¿Diez? / Seven, eight, nine, ten?
Dime cuántos pájaros ves. / Tell me how many birds you see.

¿Siete? ¿Ocho? ¿Nueve? ¿Diez? / Seven, eight, nine, ten?
Dime cuántos patos ves. / Tell me how many ducks you see.

Contaste animales / You counted animals
de uno a diez. / from one to ten.
Aquí están todos –  / Here they all are -
cuéntalos otra vez. / count them again.

Let’s Learn to Speak Spanish: Conversational Workbook and CD is a set of worksheets and activities by Susana Murphy, published by the non-profit One World Foundation. Susana sent me a copy of this book because she realized it would be helpful to many Spanish Playground readers. These activities are an excellent supplement to an elementary Spanish program. The book is also a great choice for parents who want to reinforce a school program or introduce their child to Spanish at home. The exercises cover the most common introductory topics and the pages can be photocopied. It takes tons of material to give kids enough exposure to these basics. This workbook gives teachers and parents an easy way to reinforce what kids are learning.

Most of these Spanish activities are based on translation and there is a glossary in the back of the book. This format makes the book is a good choice for parents who do not have much knowledge of Spanish but want to introduce school-age children to Spanish at home. The workbook comes with an audio CD of native speakers from Costa Rica, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. With this support, parents and kids can hear the correct pronunciation and practice the sounds of Spanish. These are written activities, but I really like how consistently this book reminds kids to use the spoken language. They need lots encouragement to speak Spanish!

Let’s Learn to Speak Spanish includes activities on topics like the alphabet, greetings, numbers, the days of the week, the months of the year, and the weather. There are also worksheets for units like colors, food, animals, clothing, body parts and places. The grammar practice is basic and appropriate for many elementary programs and even middle school programs. In addition to the singular forms of regular -ar verbs in the present, the book has exercises on ir, tener, querer and gustar.

For each of the topics covered, there are several different Spanish activities. You will find word searches, scrambled words, and pictures to color. Kids will choose which word does not belong, match words to pictures, copy Spanish sentences and complete sentences by filling in the blank. The book includes flash cards of common phrases and vocabulary and also mini-books to practice the verbs quiero, voy and tengo. All of the worksheets provide sufficient practice, but are not so long that they become boring.  Also, I love the choice of vocabulary in this book. It is truly representative of a standard Spanish that will be understood worldwide.

Many of these topics include a section called ¿Sabes? on one of the worksheets. These sections are a wonderful collection of cultural and linguistic information. The explanations are short with clear examples and include all kinds of fun, useful and very accurate information.

There is no doubt that this book will save teachers time and provide students with an opportunity to practice the basics. I think that Let’s Learn to Speak Spanish is also a great model of the kinds of Spanish activities that teachers can make. For parents who want to introduce kids to Spanish at home or reinforce a school program, there are a variety of activities that will keep kids entertained while giving them some of the essential practice that it takes to learn Spanish.

Disclosure: The company sent me a copy of the book to write this article. All of the ideas and opinions are my own.

I am participating in http://latinaish.com/ ‘s Spanish Friday. Join us!  A translation follows the Spanish.

Ya van varias semanas que no escribo un post para Spanish Friday. Cuando me comprometí a participar, tenía la intención de hacerlo todas las semanas. Ayer, escuchando las noticias del movimiento A Ocupar Wall Street, empecé a pensar en que hay que cumplir con lo que nos proponemos, aún cuando las cosas no salen exactamente como habíamos planeado.

Ayer fueron arrestadas cientas de personas del movimiento A Ocupar Wall Street. Esté de acuerdo con el movimiento o no, se tiene que reconocer que los indignados están cumpliendo con los objetivos que se propusieron. Después de dos meses, miles de personas en decenas de ciudades han logrado comunicar su dissatisfación con la desigualdad económica y social en el país.

Cuando escuché el grito “¡somos el 99%!” en el noticiero de la radio, me hizo pensar en la explicación que da el protagonista de La vida misma por su posición política. La novela es de Paco Ignacio Taibo II, uno de mis autores favoritos. El libro es de 1987, pero la explicación también aplica al movimiento A Ocupar de hoy.

Que disfruten de la elocuencia de este escritor mexicano, que cumplan todo lo que se proponen hacer y que tengan un fin de semana excelente.

– ¿Y usted por qué es de izquierda?
– Porque en la otra vida fui de derecha y me cagó la conciencia.
– No, en serio.
– Deje ver — dijo José Daniel Fierro rascándose el bigote con el caño de la escopeta nueva, un tic que el Ciego deploraba por poco profesional –. Con lo que tiran a la basura en Queens en Nueva York en una noche, se podría amueblar un pueblo de Cuzco diez mil veces mejor de lo que está ahora. Con los desperdicios de un restaurante clase media de Caracas, comen 60 familias argelinas cinco días. Los solteros que pasean en la noche en Buenos Aires harían las delicias de las solteras que sueñan solitarias viendo las estrellas de Bangkok. Los libros que he comprado y no leído resolverían los problemas de una biblioteca para enseñaza media en Camagüey. Con el salario mensual de un tranviario del D.F. se vive un día en el César Palace de Las Vegas. Con los discursos de un gobernador priísta mexicano se pueden volver locos seis detectores de mentiras. Con la lumbre que hay en los poemas de Vallejo se cocinan todos los hot dogs que se consumen en un día en Monterrey. Con las palabras que he usado en 35 años para explicarlo, si las hicieramos piedras, podríamos haber construido en Texcoco tres pirámides de Cheops. . . ¿Está claro?
– ¿Me lo repite para grabarlo? — le solocitó Canales muy seriamente.
– Nunca me sale igual.

                                                            – La vida misma, Paco Ignacio Taibo II

I haven’t written anything for Spanish Friday for several weeks. When I promised myself I would participate, I had planned on doing it every week. Yesterday, listening to the news of the Occupy Wall Street movement, I began to think that we should do what we propose, even when things don’t turn out exactly as we had planned.

Yesterday hundreds of people from the Occupy Wall Street movement were arrested. Whether or not you agree with the movement, you have to recognize that the protesters are fulfilling the goals they set for themselves. After two months, thousands of people in many cities have managed to communicate their dissatisfaction with the economic and social inequality in the country.

When I heard the shouts of “We are 99%!” on the radio newscast, it made me think of the explanation that the protagonist of La vida misma (Life Itself) gives for his political position. The novel is by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, one of my favorite authors. The book was published in 1987, but the explanation also applies to today’s Occupy movement.

Enjoy the eloquence of this Mexican writer, have an excellent weekend and do what you set your mind to do.

– And you, why are you a leftist?
– Because in another life I was on the right and my conscience bothered me.
– No, really.
– Let me see, said Jose Daniel Fierro scratching his mustache with the barrel of the new pistol, a tic that the Blind Man hated because it wasn’t professional.  – With what they throw in the trash in Queens in one night, you could furnish a town in Cuzco ten thousand times better than it is furnished now. With the waste from a middle-class restaurant in Caracas, 60 Algerian families can eat for five days. The single men that stroll the streets of Buenos Aires at night would be the delight of the single women that dream alone watching the stars of Bangkok. The books that I have bought and not read would solve the problems of a school library in Camagüey.  With the monthly salary of a streetcar conductor in Mexico City you can live one day in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. With the speeches of a Mexican governor of the PRI you can drive six lie detectors crazy. With the light that there is in the poems of Vallejo you can cook all the hot dogs that are eaten in a day in Monterrey. With the words that I have used in 35 years to explain it, if we turned them into stones, we could have built three Cheops pyramids . . . Is that clear?
– Will you repeat it so I can record it? – asked Canales very seriously.
– It never comes out the same.

Singalingo is a fabulous way to introduce children to Spanish. En mi casa is a CD of songs to use Spanish as a part of daily routines. The book Buenas noches, amigos and a set of Lyric and Vocabulary Cards compliment and support the music on this award-winning CD. You can visit Singalingo to read about all of their great products.

I always encourage parents to use Spanish with daily activities, like setting the table or getting ready for bed. Singalingo makes incorporating Spanish into these everyday routines easy and fun.

The songs on the En mi casa CD are short and lively. They are songs that you can listen to over and over, and even more important, they are so singable. I listened to these songs as I was driving to interpret at a clinic about twenty miles from where I live. I sang the whole way; it was impossible not to! Many of the songs are also designed to be combined with actions and that makes them even better learning tools. The CD is called En mi casa, but this music would work really well in a preschool or other class setting, too.

With the CD, Singalingo sent me the Lyric and Vocabulary Cards. These are reference cards with the lyrics to the songs on one side and related words and phrases on the other. They are compact, study cards on a ring that you can take anywhere and flip through easily. I think these cards are a really valuable tool to go with the CD. They make it possible to sing and speak Spanish wherever you might be.

The picture book Buenas noches, amigos also compliments and reinforces the songs on the CD. The text is the lyrics of two songs, and the pictures exactly explain the meaning of the words. This book is available to buy separately with the two songs as downloads. The combination of the CD, the cards and the book are a worthwhile investment and a wonderfully effective way to begin to teach a child Spanish.

Several of the songs in the En mi casa CD use the music itself to create a context for the language. For example, the song Marcha has music that accompanies each action (marchar, correr, bailar, saltar, caminar). The music is a clue to the meaning of the verb children hear and act out.

The music also reinforces the language in the song Escóndete. This might be my favorite song on the CD because it is so clever. The song Escóndete (Go Hide) is about playing hide-and-seek. There are three parts to the song and the first two are sung as a round. I like rounds, but this is the first one I have heard where the overlapping voices reflect simultaneous activities. The first part of the song is counting to ten, which makes the round easy. The second part is about hiding. As children sing the round, they will relate the Spanish to these familiar routines of hide-and-seek. The third part of the song ¿Dónde estás? is about looking for the others players. All three parts of the song reinforce the meaning of the Spanish by mimicking the familiar structure of the game.

The CD En mi casa has earned the National Parenting Seal of Approval, the Parent’s Choice Foundation Seal of Approval and won an iParenting Media Award. You can hear samples of the all the songs on the Singalingo website. You can also learn more about the creators of Singalingo and get tips for helping your children learn Spanish. I encourage you to try Singalingo and introduce your children to Spanish with these wonderful songs!

Tito, the Firefighter / Tito, el bombero, by Tim Hoppey, is a picture book about being bilingual. It is the story of a boy named Tito, who explains at the beginning of the story that he speaks two languages, inglés and español. I like this story because it illustrates one of the biggest advantages of being bilingual. That is, if you speak two languages, you can help more people. Often adults focus on the higher test scores or job opportunities that come with two languages, but those are very abstract to children. They will recognize, like Tito in the story, that being able to help the people around them is an important part of speaking two languages.

Tito is fascinated by firemen and wants very much to ride in a fire truck. One day he is in the fire station when a man arrives and explains in Spanish that there is a fire. The firemen do not speak Spanish, but Tito can help. Kids will be satisfied with the action and how the story unfolds.

This story is mostly in English with Spanish words masterfully woven into the text. The Spanish is included naturally as Tito explains being bilingual or interprets for someone. If the Spanish words are not repeated in English, the context and pictures make the meaning clear.

For example, explaining that in his neighborhood almost everyone speaks Spanish, Tito says “When my mother sends me to the store for milk and eggs, I ask for leche and huevos.”  He also explains, “If you ask how old I am, I might say eight in English or I might say ocho in Spanish. I am bilingual. I speak two languages, inglés and español.

Tito, the Firefighter / Tito, el bombero is an excellent choice for children beginning to learn Spanish. It includes useful words like inglés, español, hola, ocho, tres, bombero, camión de bomberos, rojo, gracias, de nada, and siesta. The action and bright illustrations will appeal to kids, and they will absorb the basic vocabulary and the encouraging message as well.

The Brainy Company makes a variety of products for introducing children to Spanish. Last week they sent me the Bilingual Baby DVD, the Brainy Baby Spanish/English:Simple Words and Phrases Book and the Brainy Baby Spanish/English:Simple Words and Phrases Flashcards. These items are available individually or as the Brainy Baby Spanish & English Bundle Collection.

Bilingual Baby DVD
The Bilingual Baby DVD is a wonderful collection of images to support a voice-over narration of basic Spanish words and phrases. There is no story, but this DVD is surprisingly engaging and entertaining. The live-action video of people and animals has wonderful colors and the pacing is just right. It holds a child’s attention and yet it is never too busy or overwhelming.

The DVD is intended for children ages 1-5 and introduces basic words and phrases. For example, the video teaches niño, niña, manzana, cama, libro, comer, dormir and leer. Children hear individual words pronounced and then combined into sentences. The video shows fun images of exactly what they are hearing. The DVD also introduces the numbers one through ten, the question ¿Cuántos hay? (How many are there?), colors and the question ¿De qué color es? (What color is..?). The structure of the video provides for lots of repetition of language with a great variety of images.

The native-speaker narration on this DVD is excellent. One woman does all of the voice-over and she has a warm, expressive voice. The inflection is just what you would use talking to children.

The video shows the Spanish text on the screen, but I do not think children get anything out of seeing the words. I understand that parents may want to know how the words are spelled, but children in this age group who are being introduced to Spanish as a second language are not learning to read in Spanish. They are learning by watching and listening.

At the beginning, the DVD explains that the English words are only on the screen for a moment in order not to distract the kids. The Spanish text could also be distracting for some children at first, but they will quickly ignore it. The pictures are too engaging for them to pay much attention to text in any language.

The DVD is about 40 minutes long. Children certainly do not have to sit through the entire DVD at one time. There is lots of repetition and recycling of language, so you can stop and start at any point. This is a video that children will continue to learn from as they watch it again and again.

Brainy Baby Spanish & English Simple Words and Phrases Book
This is a sturdy board book intended for children ages 1-5. The book is big, a great size for kids, and it has really wonderful photographs. The pictures illustrate common Spanish words and phrases including greetings, body parts, colors and numbers. The vocabulary in the book corresponds to a large extent to the vocabulary in the Bilingual Baby DVD.

To make the most of this book, move the language beyond the pages. With the parts of the body this is easy. After you point to the pictures in the book and say the words, point to your own eyes and nose, or your child’s, and say the Spanish words. With the numbers, count fingers and toes in Spanish. The verbs in the book are in the infinitive (comer – to eat, dormir – to sleep). An easy way to move beyond the book is to say Vamos a comer (Let’s eat) or Vamos a dormir (Let’s sleep) and then act out the action together.

This is a short book with relatively few Spanish words, so I was disappointed to find several misprints in the Spanish. For example, after introducing the words perro (dog) and gato (cat), the book asks “Do you have a dog or a cat?” The Spanish in the book is ¿Tiene un perro o un gato? The verb should be tienes. Tiene can mean “do you have,” but it is not the verb form used with children in most of the Spanish-speaking world. Later in the book the less formal form is used in the phrase te quiero, so tiene without the s is probably a misprint. If you get this book, read the question ¿Tienes un perro o un gato? Also, the word for the number ten, diez, is misspelled. The book spells it with an “s” instead of a “z.”

This is a book that you will read aloud to your child, so the errors will not affect its usefulness. It is just disappointing that more care is not taken in proofreading Spanish language materials for children.

Brainy Baby Spanish & English Simple Words and Phrases Flashcards
I do not use flashcards with children of any age who are learning Spanish. but I think these cards can be useful as activity cards. As activity cards, they serve as a reference or a label as you play with your child using Spanish words.

These cards are big and sturdy, meant to be handled by little fingers. You can use them to do lots of different activities with your child. Here are a few simple ideas:

1. Match objects to the cards. Play with three or four words at a time. Assemble objects shown in the cards and match them up. Say the words on the cards as you put the card with the object.
2. Move around the house placing the cards next to objects. La puerta, el reloj, los zapatos, un huevo (the door, the clock, the shoes, an egg) – label objects where they are and then collect the cards again. Say the Spanish words as you play.
3. Put three or four color cards out on the floor. Collect things of that color around the card. Repeat the Spanish color word as you collect and point to the objects.
4. Put three or four number cards out. Bring objects to make the picture on the card (2 cookies, 3 blocks) or the same number of different objects.
5. Take the cards in the car.  Choose one color to look for. When you find three things, choose another card.
6. The color cards are hand prints. Make your own hand prints in the different colors. Say the color words as you make the pictures.

Again, I was disappointed to find several misprints and vocabulary errors.
- The number diez is misspelled, as it is in the book. It is spelled with an s on the card.
- The number dos is also misspelled. The card shows the pronunciation guide (dohs) as the Spanish spelling.
- The words for basketball and baseball on the cards are not the words for the balls. The cards show a basketball and a baseball. They are labeled with the words baloncesto and béisbol. These words can only be used to refer to the sports. On the other side of the card there is a related word, anaranjado (orange) for basketball and círculo (circle) for baseball. Given these descriptive words, and the fact that all the cards refer to objects, it is unlikely that the cards were intended to refer to the sports and not the balls in the picture. The most common words are balón and pelota.

As with the book, these cards can be useful in spite of the errors. It is just too bad that the same attention to detail that went into the Bilingual Baby DVD was not given to the book and flashcards.

Talking to The Brainy Company
I always send companies a draft of a review before I publish it. When I sent The Brainy Company the draft of this post, I wrote a very nice email (really!) saying that I hoped the representative would forward the review to someone who could see that the errors were corrected if they ever updated the products. I pointed out that the review was positive and said that I thought they would want to know about the mistakes. This situation comes up fairly often, and companies usually appreciate the feedback and free proofread. Last week someone offered me a job.

The representative at The Brainy Company told me that they had consulted with several professionals when they made the products, that there are differences in dialect and usage and that they were never going to make 100% of people happy.

Needless to say, I do not agree. I think that you can make 100% of people happy by spelling diez with a z, and dos without an h.

Getting beyond the misprints, obviously there are differences in dialect and usage, but as professionals we have an obligation to teach a standard, useful vocabulary. I believe that companies selling educational products to teach children Spanish have the same obligation. I am the first to recognize that although I have never heard or seen baloncesto used to refer to the ball, and cannot find it used that way anywhere, someone somewhere may say it. Does it follow that the word be used on cards for children beginning to learn Spanish as a second language? I am not usually one to turn to the Real Academia Española for backup, but if they do not think baloncesto refers to the ball, I would vote for a more standard word choice.

Do you have thoughts on the quality of Spanish language products for kids? How can parents who do not speak much Spanish make good choices when buying language products for their kids? Would you buy a children’s book in English with misprints? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Do you have children starting Spanish in school? If you are looking for games and activities to supplement what they are doing in class, The Everything Kids’ First Spanish Puzzle and Activity Book has lots of fun ways to practice basic Spanish.

Kids who like word games and activity books will love this book. It is packed with mazes, codes, word searches, hidden pictures and other puzzles that reinforce basic Spanish vocabulary and concepts. There are brief explanations, but the book does not teach the material in depth. It provides an entertaining way to review and expand on what a child has seen in class. If the information is new, the activities serve as a brief introduction to the vocabulary. The book has the answers to all the puzzles in the back.

Most of the activities are based on translation, so there is a mix of English and Spanish. For several of the activities, kids do a puzzle in English to discover a Spanish word or phrase. Because of the English, the book is not a good choice for children in immersion programs. However, for kids using books that include English translations, lots of the activities match material taught in beginning classes.

I like the variety of short, quick activities like mazes, codes, dot-to-dots, word searches, crosswords, tongue twisters. Also, the pages are big enough to write on easily and there is enough space in the blanks to make the activities fun to do. The book is for ages nine and up, and it could certainly be used with middle school students. Because the Spanish makes these games and activities more challenging, it appeals to a wider age range.

This is a book of written activities, but I like the way it encourages children to speak Spanish. There are pronunciation keys for all the Spanish words and the instructions tell kids to say the words out loud, or to try to say a phrase three or five times fast. There are never too many words on a page, so saying the words is fun, not overwhelming.

The Everything Kids’ First Spanish Puzzle and Activity Book has too many activities to go into much detail, but I want to mention a few of the ones that I particularly liked. One is called Sad Man, Glad Man, where kids draw expressions in labeled circles before following the happy faces like a maze. Drawing the faces is fun! The models for the faces are easy, and kids will quickly learn the Spanish words feliz, enfadado, triste, cansado and miedo.

There is an activity with con (with) and sin (without) where kids match simple descriptions to pictures. This is an effective way of teaching these two important words. I also like the group game in the book that teaches how to tell time in Spanish. There are several written activities on telling time too, so kids can get more practice.

If you are considering getting this book for your child, you should be aware that there are a few misprints. These matter because they cause agreement errors and several of the activities teach agreement. Here are the ones I noticed:

p. 28, the book has pan tostada, but it should be pan tostado (pan is masculine).
p. 65, the word quarto should be spelled cuarto.
p. 78, tengo mucho hambre should be tengo mucha hambre (hambre is feminine).
p. 92, the written accent and pronunciation key are wrong for the word alergias. There is no written accent on the word (the book has one on the i). The stress falls on the e in the next-to-the-last syllable.The ia combine in one syllable (a dipthong).
p. 118, the book has una papá for father. It should be un papá.

The book is still useful, even with the mistakes; you can just correct them. Kids will have a great time doing the puzzles and they will spend more time thinking about Spanish as they do. I would just use the errors as an opportunity to talk to kids about how it is important to be careful with spelling and agreement and about how everyone makes mistakes, even busy copy editors.

Disclosure: The company sent me a copy of the book to write this article. All of the ideas and opinions are my own.

 Learn Spanish Today 

I am participating once again in latinaish.com‘s Spanish Friday.  Join us!

Leí una vez un artículo de Anna Quindlen donde decía que el día más feliz de su vida fue cuando se dió cuenta de que su hijo podía leer. Me identifico complétamente con este sentimiento, porque cuando mis propios hijos aprendieron a leer sabía que les iba a traer un mundo de alegría.

Los libros siempre me han acompañado, en las buenas y en las malas. Leo para el trabajo y para aprender, pero más que nada, leo porque me hace feliz. Es por eso que me gustan los videos de Litteratum.com para fomentar la lectura. Hay varios, la mayoría apropiados para usar en las clases de español.

¡Que tengan un buen fin de semana! Y ya saben, lean más y sean felices.