I’m excited to be hosting another giveaway! And even more excited that it’s part of Twitter Social – GNO, a TwitterMoms event. You can find out more about this fun online social event at GoodAndCrazyPeople or MommyGossip – these bloggers are the twittermom hosts.
Even though it’s a social event, GNO organizers do pick a theme topic for discussions. This week, the topic is Family Travel. I’ll be logging on to twitter, 6pm-late (PST) to chatter and answer any questions I can and generally own the soapbox on this, my favorite topic of conversation.
I decided that being a Guest Host for such an event was worth celebrating. Hence this giveaway. I have 7 Professor Toto Sing & Learn Starter Kits to give away: two each in Italian, French and German and one in Spanish. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your child starts to pick up vocabulary in another language through learning songs and rhymes with Professor Toto and his friends.
What
In this Professor Toto Starter Kit, children learn by listening to a CD and singing along to vocabulary-building songs, Paging through a glossy, full-color book with pictures of words they hear on the CD, and Coloring pictures of words they hear on the CD. Each kit contains:
1 Sing & Learn CD – 26 minutes. 15 Professor Toto vocabulary-building songs. 1 Sing & Learn Activity Book (24p Full Color). Each song is illustrated and translated. 1 Color & Learn Coloring Book (24p). Children color the words they’re hearing, so they visually reinforce their new vocabulary. 1 Professor Toto’s A+ Kids Club Certificate. Professor Toto’s at-home students fill in their names and hang their Professor Toto certificate on the wall. (7-3/8′ x 9/14″) 1 Full-Color Learning Guide.
How
Leave a comment below with saying why you feel learning another language is important for your child. Don’t forget to leave your email address so I have a way of contacting you.
Winners
UPDATE: I’ll choose a winner randomly and announce the results during the Twitter Social – GNO, at 8pm and 9pm (PST) or thereabouts. GNO gets a little crazy with up to 200 moms tweeting at the same time, so 9pm is a goal. (I’ll use email as my backup method to contact winners – see above).
8pm drawing winners
French: BethComingUp
Italian: 3_diva_girls
German: Jaime
Spanish: Amy
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what a great giveaway! we are always trying to teach our 6yo daughter different languages – she needs to learn how important communication is to travel and understanding. as well, how respectful learning another language is, when you’re in that culture.
she counted tonight in japanese, while playing backgammon with my husband. i think that should be her 1st language!
oh! email address! jessie [at] wanderingeducators.com
This is a great giveaway. Since these langauges are spoken countries I’ve been to and plan to return to with my children, I think they would come in darn handy!
We had a CD of French songs that the children learned before we went to Paris last summer and they learned them by heart. One day when we were going into our apartment, my 3-year-old was singing one of the songs in the entryway. One of the neighbors came out and finished the verse for him and then they sang a little duet. It was so cute! It was very cool to see him interacting with an adult in another language.
I highly advocate playing up the “secret language” angle when teaching kids a foreign language.
My kids got a HUGE kick out of the thought of ordering in restaurants for their non-Spanish speaking father (“El pulpo para mi padre” and so on).
I believe that knowing at least of little of multiple languages makes a citizen of the world. I also believe (or passionately hope) that the ‘wiring’ for learning language can be created by teaching multiple languages from birth. My 2yo is bi-lingual english-spanish now and in the spring I am going to add chinese. I am studying along with her, but it is so easy for her.
HI,
I think a second language is imperative for children. I am from the UK originally and that was compulsory in our schools and I still speak French fluently now. I have chosen a private school for my son that starts to teach a second language in Kindergarten. (Spanish, we live in LA). I don’t speak Spanish well, so will learn as my son does and have already bought a CD rom and car CD to get going.
A sad fact is my husband was from Italian parents who moved to London during the war and in order to try to fit in, they hardly spoke Italian – in public or in the home – they even gave their children “English” names. So I have a Italian husband with no knowledge of the language.
Great giveaway, thank you so much.
Hey! Love this idea. Husband speaks spanish and the kids have taken a few small classes, we’d love to travel to Spanish speaking countries and ALL be able to at least COUNT! Ha!
How exciting!
I saw that you have a book coming out in 2009 and I will be buying that one for sure
I grew up with a family that loved to travel and I married a man from a Air Force background
We both LOVE traveling and want our kids to have the same passion
We are planning a trip to Mexico in June 2009 and Italy in March 2009
So we would love to have our boys be more fluent in another language (they both know a little Spanish)
Good luck with your endeavors and may you be greatly blessed!
Kim
I say the more languages a child can learn, the better! Kids are able to adapt quicky and pick up languages easier than adults and in this melting pot world, multiple languages can only benefit the child in his/her future. I’m half polish and my 3 year old can already sing Polish nursery rhymes!
I’m a Spanish teacher for some wonderful middle school students. Learning a language, especially at a young age is so important. When I learned Spanish, I was in high school and I was hesitant and very self conscious of speaking the language. As a Spanish teacher, I can see how much my students LOVE to learn Spanish and how easy it comes to them.
But there is nothing better than learning Spanish with a song! Kids love song and they it makes it easy for them to learn and practice with their classmates, as well as alone. We just did the Days of the Week in Spanish with the Adams Family Song and the kids just wanted to keep singing!
I need to sing and learn with Professor Toto! If we love Professor Toto, I give parents a list of resources that they can use at home and I will them them to get Professor Toto!
I wish that I had been given the opportunity to learn a 2nd language at a young age. It’s important that my daughter understand that English is not the only language there is. Not only that but to be able to communicate in various languages opens a door of opportunity for her in the future. What’s better than having fun and learning a language at the same time!
Besides speaking Spanish myself and wanting my kids to be able to speak it as well, we are planning a trip to Guatemala next summer. We are going with our two boys to visit their grandparents who are living there. I’d love to get them a little more ramped up on Spanish before we go. This sounds like an excellent way to get the vocabulary to stick and a motivating way to get them excited about the language in general!
My oldest is currently studying Spanish-having a tough time too. I know very little Spanish as I studied French for 8 years, until moving to Florida and finding out I knew the language better than the high school teacher. Unfortunately, I never use my French here in Florida but Spanish is very important to know here-especially if you want to order foo at McDonalds after10pm.
I am bilingual… but have been too lazy to teach my kids my language. They know a few words, but only what they’ve learned on Dora and some limited lessons from me. I have really been regretting it lately as we are planning to travel down to Mexico. I would love for them to be able to switch and enjoy a conversation with other Spanish speaking kids like I used to when I traveled.
I studied French for years and years, to the point of near fluency. I never felt like the language was second nature to me, so I would like to start my daughter very young with foreign languages so that the language will become part of her brain rather than a second language.
I think learning a second is important because the kids can get ahead and it helps them to pick up quicker when they are young!
My older daughter is taking Japanese in school and boy, is it tough,lol! But fun:)
YAY! A contest!
Well for starters, I think kids learn languages easier than adults. I homeschool two of my four kids and I would love to be able to incorporate language learning lessons too!!
Pick me! Pick me!
I love the spanish language and This will help with there listening skills as well as getting to know another language will help there self esteem and sense of accomplishment!!
I still want to learn to speak italian and I keep trying to introduce language to my son, who would be more interested if it was possible to learn while bouncy and running around.
I would love to start teaching my son a second language early. He is one and I know children pick up languages much quicker when they are small. What a great celebration of GNO!
My dd is already learning Spanish & enjoys it. She loves “showing off” her skills with family and friends who speak the language.
All children should know a second language to make it easier for them as they grow up in our world that is quickly becoming closer together.
(ConnieFoggles on Twitter)
My kiddos are learning languages early to broaden their horizons, enhance math skills, and prepare them for the global economy.
Plus, it’s so much fun!!!!
What a great idea! I would love for my kids to learn a second language. Spanish would actually be VERY useful!
What a great giveaway! I really want my kids to learn and speak a second language. Living in the state that we do, it’s almost essential that you know or speak some spanish. My step-mom speaks fluent spanish, and I’d love for my kids to be able to speak to her in her own language
Love languages.. always have.. and currently trying to teach our little one Korean, French at the same time.. it’s been a challenge.. but would love for her to learn Japanese as well.. (doing it at different times works – and all this inspired by my father who learned 6 languages when he was little
This is great! Thanks ~
This is awesome! I hope I win! I’m a Spanish teacher by trade and trying to teach spanish to my gringa daughter because I think it’s so important- opens up more opportunities in life and good for the brain too!
Too late for me, but I do believe that kids that exercise that part of their brain by learning a language early have it easier learning languages their whole life. At a work event the other night and learned that a lawyer who speaks fluent Mandarin (from college era) lived as a small child in South Africa and spoke Afrikaans (sp?) as one of her early languages (nanny) and attributes her language ease to that.
Unfortunately I have never learned a second language and I really want that for my son. I think it will make him more well rounded. And now is the best time to teach him while he’s young. Maybe I’ll even pick it up too!! That would be a bonus
Learning different languages are very important especially in today’s SMALL world. It is now a global market for any business, even a small work at home business. You can leverage your business and marketing by working with assistants from all over the world. Knowing other languages can help one to communicate with assistants around the world, helping with productivity. The future will only bring more opportunities for working, and entertaining, globally.
I appreciate the world around us and want my children to be prepared to talk to all kinds of people in the world. Spanish is a good place to start and while they are young they can pick it up easily…
It’s very important to learn a new language…it’s stimulates the brain, and also helps root you in your culture. We are a multicultural family, Filipino, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and Spanish…hope to learn them all one day!!
Other countries teach english to eager ears…I want my children to be blessed with Knowing about another country through their own words..also great on a resume!!
to add – learning is important to my child primarily because to “communicate” with her family and extended family members.. and we honor all of these languages listed above.. Also, learning new language helps with her developmental thinking process..which we continue to encourage…and it’s also fun!
My daughter is 6 and basically trying to teach herself Spanish. It’s pretty cool. Half my family is from Mexico, and being in CA, she’s started to identify herself as Mexican-American. With a tan, she looks it (I can’t bear to tell her that she’s actually basically black and white).
But the cool thing is that she decided for herself to learn Spanish, even before we moved to CA. Sooner or later she’ll be able to speak to her grandfather and grandmother in both languages.
Our country is multi-cultural. I took Spanish since 4th grade through Senior year of high school (ages ago). I use it at work on occasion, however it came in handy once I was on instant messanger & DD posted in Spanish where she was at when I was told she was at a different place. Guess she didn’t realize I knew another language fluently. Anyway, ‘Lil Moomette received a doll for her 2nd birthday this weekend that’s bilingual and is already picking up some words. Technology is rendering our world culturally smaller and smaller and being bilingual to keep up with the rest of the world that speaks more than one language is important.
Thanks to everyone who participated – this was a blast!
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