I am sure that Bilingual is Better was written for me. After all, I have been waiting 20 years for this book! Let me explain. When I decided 20 years ago that my three children would speak Spanish, I had many advantages. I had a deep understanding of how children learn language, summers free, the resources and freedom to travel and a supportive husband who to this day stays home to work while the rest [...]
This article is by Debbie Annet, the author of Spanish for You!, a Spanish curriculum for grades 3-8. She offers insight into how children learn languages and a discount code on her curriculum. You CAN give the gift of language. Parent or teacher, Spanish speaker or not, you are able to accomplish more than just vocabulary learning with your elementary and middle school students. It just takes knowing a little about the language learning process [...]
This article is by Laura Anaya de Zuchovicki, author and founder of Conversa Books. A Mexican native, she has been teaching Spanish to elementary and middle-school students for over 10 years. As an expert in TPRS, she speaks to the exciting new technique of embedded readings. As a foreign language teacher, my priority has always been to provide my students with the ability to speak fluently. This is the reason why I’m always on the [...]
Spanish for You! is a curriculum for grades 3-8 that can be used for self-study, home school, in classrooms or in after-school programs. It was created by a Spanish teacher as an affordable, easy-to-use program that engages children with the language and also teaches grammar basics. I have not had the pleasure of teaching with this curriculum yet, but looking at the structure and materials, I believe that it is an effective, well-designed program for [...]
Congratulations to María (random.org number-22) on winning the Conversa Books giveaway! ¡Muchísimas gracias a todos por participar y por leer Spanish Playground! I loved reading about what you are teaching and all the different situations in which children are learning Spanish. Thanks everyone! I am so happy to offer this wonderful giveaway from Conversa Books! Conversa Books is giving away an upper elementary teachers’ starter kit of their Spanish curriculum to one Spanish Playground reader. [...]
We are so excited to be co-hosting the first annual Hispanic Heritage Month Blog Hop Fiesta! Hispanic Heritage Month is going on now through October 15, so join us as we celebrate the rich cultural heritage given to our country by generations of Hispanics. The term Hispanic or Latino, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, refers to Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race. Link up [...]
52 Weeks of Family Spanish is a little book with a big goal – to help families speak the language, one weekly lesson at a time. Author Eileen McAree took up learning Spanish with her four children. Based on her experiences, she wrote a book that is more than Spanish for children; it offers manageable Spanish lessons for families. 52 Weeks of Family Spanish is available on Amazon in print or for the Kindle. These [...]
Talk about this photo of kids on the first day of school to help your child learn Spanish. The questions that follow, like all the Learn Spanish with Pictures activities, are ordered to help children master the vocabulary and gain confidence with the language. Start with Describe the photo (1) and be sure to point to the objects in the picture as you talk about them. Use gestures, facial expressions and actions to help your [...]
I just cannot bring myself to write a real back-to-school post yet, but I know that a lot of us are thinking about classes. If you are exploring resources for school or to use at home with kids learning Spanish, take a look at ARASAAC, the Aragonese Portal of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. The site offers “graphic resources and materials to facilitate communication for those with some sort of problem in this area.” The users [...]
I often get questions about Spanish programs for adults from parents who want to learn Spanish with their children. I recently had the chance to try Visual Link Spanish, and I thought it might be something Spanish Playground readers would be interested in. I tried Level 1: Sentence Building and Conversation. This Spanish software program is intended for adults, but it could certainly be used by motivated high school students. The Basics of Visual Link [...]
I am in Lima, Peru spending a few weeks with my oldest daughter who lives here. My son is traveling with me and from here we will go to Mexico to spend several weeks before heading home to Wisconsin. Spanish Playground has been getting less attention these days, but traveling with my kids gives me time to reflect on raising them with Spanish and English. When I was teaching my kids Spanish, I did not [...]
Stories from BookBox are a wonderful resource for building reading and listening skills in Spanish. BookBox creates animated books with Same Language Subtitling (SLS) to support reading and literacy development around the world. They have a great website with dozens of stories that can be viewed in different languages at no cost. The not-for-profit enterprise PlanetRead is the parent organization of BookBox. Through PlanetRead, BookBox gifts one hour of reading to a beginning reader for [...]