Bilingual Crossword Puzzles

When I was creating my activity book to go with "Zooprise Party/Fiesta Zoorpresa", I wanted to include crossword puzzles. they are great learning tools. But how could one be made bilingual?

I could have made two puzzles, one in English and one in Spanish, but that didn't feel to me like it would teach which ever was the second language very well. Then I came up with the idea of having the clues in one language and the answer in the other language. Teachers really liked this idea saying they'd never seen it before.

Have a look at one I have in my activity book and then download it and try it yourself.

Have fun!

Loooking for more bilingual fun, hop over to my bookstore and pick up your copies today. They make great Christmas gifts and throw in a bit of learning at the same time.

European Study that Proves Preschoolers Can Learn a Second Language

“Interim results from an international research project which looks at bilingual education reveal that children can learn a second language as early as preschool.”

It seems these days there is more and more talk about teaching young children a second language. Here is another report, this one comes from the University of Hertfordshire. Read about the study they did at six preschools around Europe.

Enjoy the article and let me know what you think.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
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Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Bilingual Friday: What Do You Think of English Immersion?

In the small town of Clovis, CA a suburb of Fresno, CA a successful English immersion program has been set in place.

Many schools in the country are looking at immersion programs. They are turning to what’s proving to be great way to help teachers be better “coaches for English learners.”

Read the full article High marks for English immersion program and let me know what you think.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
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Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Bilingual Friday: Learn Spanish for Kids

If you're looking for a web site that will help you look at many options for helping your children learn Spanish, Learn Spanish for Kids is a good place to start.

The creator of this site has done his reseach. He starts you off with online Spanish lessons. He has links to many sites as well as tips and insight for learning and teaching Spanish.

He shares the best ways to learn Spanish with several links and encourages parents to learn Spanish as well with suggestions for the best ways to learn Spanish.

So, what's your favorite site about learning a second or even a third language? Send them to me and I'll share them in a future Biligual Day posting.

Bilingual Babies - What More and More Parents Beginning to Realize

Here's an exerpt from an article I read. It's timely and very informative for those who are thinking about starting to teach their children a second language.

"Why are so many families jumping on the bilingual bandwagon? "In our increasingly global world, parents realize that their kids will benefit from knowing more than one language," says Nancy Rhodes, director of foreign-language education at the Center for Applied Linguistics, in Washington, D.C. "There's definitely been a grassroots push for more bilingual education in preschools." Exposing your child to a second language will help him learn about other cultures. Research has shown that bilinguals tend to be more creative thinkers than those who speak one language, and one study suggests that their brain functions may stay sharper as they age."

Want to learn the steps they suggest to start your little one down the path to becoming bilingual? Then follow me over to Parents.com and jump on the bilingual bandwagon.

So, now that you've read this article, what are your thoughts?

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Bilingual Friday: Pros and Cons of ESL and Bilingual Education Programs

I recently read an article comparing bilingual education and the ESL program. You can read it over at Bright Hub.

I think both sides of this argument have merit.

Immersing children in a 'foreign to them language' can help them pickup more of the local culture and ways of their new country as well as teach them a new language.

At the same time, letting them see that their own language and culture have a place in their new home is important too.

Why can't schools do both? Not only will it benefit the children from other countries, but it will help those who are native as well. Everyone benefits when they understand each other’s language and culture.

With that said, I think the hardest part of these programs happens when you have children from several very different foreign language backgrounds, like Spanish and Korean.

Do you offer bilingual education in both languages of pick one?

Do you use one language one week and the other the next?

How could you work it out so every child's language is included?

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this very controversial subject here in the USA.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Being Bilingual with Benefits

So, you are or aren’t bilingual. What’s the big deal anyway?

Here are a few articles that give some insight into why being bilingual is a good thing, a really good thing.

Bilingualism's Brain Benefits
Bilingual speakers are better able to deal with distractions than those who speak only a single language, and that may help offset age-related declines in mental performance, researchers say. (read more)

The Advantages of Being Bilingual

Most children have the capacity and facility to learn two or more languages. Research suggests there are advantages to being bilingual, such as, linguistic and metalinguistic abilities and cognitive flexibility, such as, concept formation, divergent thinking and general reasoning and verbal abilities. (read more)

The advantages of bilingual education are many.
Knowing another language, and being encouraged to incorporate it, does not mean that the main language needs to suffer. If done in a way that allows for both languages to coexist then the advantages of bilingual education can be acknowledged without the threat that it will take away from learning the dominant language. (read more)
So, do you agree?

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Spanish Friday: Spanglish anyone?

In my never ending searching on the internet for bilingual sites, I came across a very special one. SpanglishBaby, Raisnig Bilingual Kids. This site has just about everything you'd want at your finger tips if you're raising your child to be bilingual in English and Spanish. Come travel with me through the site.

One of their sponsors is Cody's Cuentos. Here you'll find all types of children books read out loud to you and your child. They have them divided into three levels. Basic, intermediate and advanced. Pop in and listen to a story or two.

Besides great blog posts, they have a wonderful bilingual resource list, a bilingual store called La Tiendita and even forums for parents to discuss raising children bilingually. The list of topics range from one-parent-one-language method of teaching to area playgroups for bilingual children and raising children biculturally. Great stuff!

The blog is broken into several article categories. They have:
Must Reads
Reviews and Recommendations
Daily Learning
The Culture of Food
Traditions and Culture
Your Story
Ask an Expert
They have links in the sidebar to each area so you can see articles that pertain just to the topic you want to look at.

So, take some time today and surf around their site. I’m sure you’ll find something that will help you out in your journey to raise bilingual children.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Bilingual Day: Do you agree?

In looking around the internet for information on bilingualism, I came across a few articles that made sense to me.

The first one, The Advantages of Bilingualism and of Raising Children Bilingual touches on many reasons why making a second language part of growing up is a natural thing in families and should be encouraged. This site has many refrences that would be useful to anyone even just thinking about teaching a second language in their home.

The second article, Benefits Spanish bilingual education is mainly geared towards choosing a daycare center in Brookline, MA. However, there are points in this article that are important to any parent thinking about raising their children bilingual.

One more site I encountered in this search was a site that may be of interest to homeschoolers. This one, edHelper.com has a whole section on printable handouts for teaching Spanish. This is a subscription site costing $19.99 a year, but if you’re seriously wanting to teach your children Spanish (or German, Italian or French) as well as looking for supplemental materials for other subjects, this might be for you.

What do you think? I’d be interested to hear your opinions on bilingualism.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Bilingual Day: Learning Spanish Online

Have you ever wondered how to say something in another language but didn’t know where to turn? Do your children have friends whose first language isn’t English? Are they picking up words in a second language? Do you want to learn a second language too?

SpanishDict is a site I’ve used for several years. They will translate single words or whole sentences. What I like about it is they give you several different ways to say what you are trying to say.

For example: I typed in “Here comes the sun.” They came back with their translation as “Aqui viene el sol.” They then gave me a machine translation (Aqui venga el sol.) and Yahoo! Babel Fish translation (Aqui viene el sol.)
Why the different ways to say the same thing? Because different countries same things slightly differently from each other. Similar to the different ways we say things in different parts of the US. (soda or pop or soda pop)

Another thing this site offers is a link at the top of the page, Learn a new Spanish word each day. This is an easy way to learn words little by little.

Still another great part of this site is the Flashcard page. These are fun. Pop over there and see how you do.

There are so many things on this site, you could use it as your online school to learn Spanish. Other links here are:
Reference
Conjugation

So, if Spanish is a language you want to learn, register, set up your own page and start learning.

Have fun!

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Bilingual Games

Are you looking for ways to teach your child (or yourself) Spanish? I’ve been searching around on the internet looking for fun innovative games to teach Spanish. I haven’t found very many, but here are a few I did find.

link for Maya & Miguel Word Scramble


The Human Body Game - bilingual


Do you know of any other bilingual games? I’d love to hear from you and share your findings.

See you back here Monday with another great book that goes beyond reading.

How Important is it to be Bilingual or Multi-lingual in Today’s World?

Have you ever been someplace, say an amusement park, or walking down the street and heard people speaking in different languages? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to address someone in his or her native tongue?

I feel that being bilingual or multi-lingual is very important in today’s world. Countries that don’t encourage this are falling behind while those that do encourage it are racing ahead.

I speak English fluently and Spanish almost fluently. I understand even more languages. I can pick up words in French, Portuguese, German, Greek, Russian and converse with someone speaking in Italian while I speak in Spanish. Several of these languages have similarities, others don’t. I understand Greek and Russian because I’m of the Orthodox faith and have attended services in both languages.

Here’s a quote from Northwestern News

“…the majority of the world’s population outside the United States is bilingual or multilingual, Marian noted. In the U.S., approximately one out of five American households speaks a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census. And, with higher birth rates among Hispanics relative to the rest of the population, that proportion is rapidly growing.”

To read the full article, go to Evanston Now

What are your thoughts?

Remember, next week starts the "Bounce into Books" book blog tour.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Easy Way To Start Teaching Your Child A Second Language

Even if you don’t know a second language it’s good to have your children learn one. Why? Because in this ever shrinking world, knowing a second language (or even more) will give your child a competitive edge when they set out on their own.

So, here is a very easy first step.

Look around your home and yard. What do you see? Chairs, tables, trees, doors, etc. Now, go to your computer and do a search for a multi-lingual dictionary. For example: to translate words from English to Spanish, I use SpanishDict.com

Okay, now type in the words one at a time and get the translation.
Examples:

Door – Puerta
Window – Ventana
Tree – Árbol

Next, make word cards with the Spanish (or what ever language you want your child to learn) and write the words on them.

Last step, put the word card on the object so your child can read the word in their new second language.

You can go further and work on learning the alphabet, numbers and colors in your new language. (You’re going to learn it too.)

Have fun, you never know when your new language will come in handy!

See you back here Monday with another great book that goes beyond reading.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Are Babies Too Young To Learn To Read?

What do you think about this? If you’re like many parents, you probably started reading to your children before they were born and then continued the habit after they came into this world.

Like learning a second language, children’s brains, young children’s brains are like a sponge and can learn all kinds of things at a very young age. Many agree that before a child is 5 years old they can learn a second language and now studies show they can learn to read as well.

Check out this interesting article and then drop me a note on if you agree or disagree.
http://blogscience.cn/592601-Why-Babies-Can-and-Should-Learn-to-Read.html

See you back here Monday with another great book that goes beyond reading.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Raising Bilingual Children

In this day and age, being bilingual is really a must. Speaking only one language, what ever it is, limits you in many facets of life. For our children growing up in this century, they are at a great disadvantage.

Not sure how to start? Here are a few websites that can help you on your way.

The Multilingual Children’s Association has tips for getting started, resources, a bulletin board and more. They have community pages to help you find other families going through the same things you are. Dig around, I know you’ll find things to help you get started.

Another helpful site is Multilingual Munchkins. On the home page you’ll find links like Language Corner, Parents Corner and Reading Corner. The link I like best is the Activity Corner. In there they have a whole page dedicated to activities based on children’s books. They’ve taken books and found or created crafts, cooking and other activities that relate to the book. This site also has a yahoo group you can join and share with families all over the world as you teach your children multiple languages.

Looking for a book with an activity book and a teacher's guide that can help you get started? Check out mine over at Laughing Zebra - Books for Children. I also have lots of activites and interactive things on my web site.

See you back here on Monday with another great book that goes beyond reading.