My child is bilingual for most basic things in English and Marathi (which is our native language), I had initially started with Little Pim french for her a few months ago but stopped that as our priorities shifted. Now my goal for myself is to be able to converse in Spanish for basic day to day activities for my profession. So I thought why not both me and my child learn this at the same time (different resources). But she seems to be very much against it, she yells out English words when I repeat spanish ones ,for e.g while reading a book. Can anyone suggest what I can do to improve her interest. I even let her watch Dora at times and tell her that Dora says so and so in Spanish. It works for about 1 word!!!
It’s not unusual. Your daughter is starting to speak fluently in those 2 languages she’s heard from birth-which is already a great achievement, mastering 2 systems- and ‘suddenly’ you speak Spanish to her. She probably does not understand why you don’t speak normally- she might even think you are being nasty with her. lol
I would recommend
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slowly introducing the language, using a transition such as ‘Now i’m going to stop speaking English to you. we are going to read a book in Spanish. Vamos a hablar espanol bla bla’ A good routine would be the best, same time everyday to start with. and then increasing. I would also stick to spanish strictly when doing this, even if its 2 mn. when you are finish, you do the same transition technique, the other way. In Spanish: ‘it was fun reading this book in Spanish. now we will speak English again’
It’s a good thing to name the language you use. -
having someone talking to her in Spanish other than you, or better, hearing two adults conversing so she thinks it’s normal.
Many children will ‘fight’ a new language which is not properly introduced to them once they are good speaker in their native language. it has to be natural, i.e they bump into a group of kids talking to one another in Spanish, rather than mum.
I encountered this many times while teaching 4 to 8 yo coming to a French saturday class. You need to find a way for Spanish to have purpose in your daughter’s life.
Good luck…
I think it has to be a different person. I try to do Spanish words with my grandson and he gets upset, because he has learned to communicate with me and does not want to learn again. The best thing would be to get a different person.
Here is something I found on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0OBmvTRMv0&feature=player_embedded
There is many more by Cantajuego
This is the unicorn song:
There was green alligators and long-necked geese
Some hump backed camels and some chimpanzees
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born
The loveliest of all was the unicorn
Another good one is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fcco4xqA8k&feature=related
here is a translation:
http://dotsub.com/view/9b4c3af9-7dde-4e5b-8b7d-543a6a87cb34
I also found these great little animations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOHe_VjspVs&feature=PlayList&p=78019D476E39309C&index=0&playnext=1
Pocoyo is excellent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWIo07g8SZI&feature=PlayList&p=EDE88DB7402722C2
There are many more of these on youtube.
http://dotsub.com/view/e7ccb63a-9562-4ce3-a8da-6c0f21790ec8
This will teach about family and description of people.
try these http://www.123teachme.com they have a free Spanish program for kids that we use for Kindergarten, we also use http://www.livemocha.com and we go to http://www.HomeEducationResources.com for printable free Spanish worksheets, also try a program from www.jumpstart.com they have a software download for teaching spanish, japenese, french, and english. You can also purchase a spanish software at a computer software store. I bought one for 10.00 at Office Max and it is awesome, you actually interact with it, that’s how I taught myslef spanish in one night, then the next day I taught it to 30 children under hte age of 12. I used a computer and a projector, it comes with a printable dictionary that is amazing. Also hooked on spanish is also avaliable, I found mine at Big Lots for 10.00. We love it.
Thank you so much, Hypatia, your suggestion is great, I actually started incorporating basic spanish counting during our circle time routine post nap, just a minute or two . I think clear;y telling her that we are going to talk in Spanish or English or Marathi will help her as she likes routines.
Mother of Faith, As usual you are so resourceful. I will look into all those sites , plus thanks for the Hooked on Spanish link. i will keep an eye on it at BigLots. Also can you tell me the name of the software you used?
Patreiche, I have a wonderful elderly Hispanic couple living next door, I am sure they would love to help us in this.Thanks for those links onyou tube, we actually had agreat bilingual story time at out library but the timings clash wiht my work hours… 
Also I found out my library has Little Pim in Spanish so thats great,
just an update, She wanted to have some tattoos on her hand and we counted upto 20 in Spanish to count the time(it takes 20 secs for those tattoos to transfer) and she loved it.
I will look and see. I lent the cd to a parent and have to get it back to find the name and barcode #. It is an old one but it works with Windows XP
This seems to be a popular children song in Spanish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F61K0f7OZeY
Pin Pon era un muñeco muy guapo de cartón.
Se lava la carita con agua y con jabón.
(pretenda lavarse su cara con la mano)
Pin Pon se peina el pelo con peines de marfil.
(pretenda peinarse su pelo)
Cuando se da tirones no llora ni hace asÃ.
(frote sus ojos como si estuviera llorando)
Cuando toma las sopas no mancha el delantar.
(pretenda comer sopas con su mano)
Y se las come todas como un buen general
(dé un saludo de soldado)
Cuando las estrellitas empiezan a lucir.
(con sus dos manos haga como si fueran estrellas brillando)
Pin Pon se va a la cama y se acuesta a dormir.
(haga como si se fuera a dormir)
Pin Pon dame la mano, dame un buen apretón.
( dele la mano a su niño/niña)
Que quiero ser tu amigo…
Pin Pon … Pin Pon …
Pin Pon… Pin Pon!
Pin Pon was a boy doll, made out of cardboard.
He will wash his face with water and soap.
(Make gestures with your hands pretending to wash your face)
Pin Pon combs his hair with Ivory combs.
(Pretend to comb your hair)
When he pulls his hair he will not cry nor go like this.
(Rub your eyes pretending you are crying)
When he takes his soup, he will not stain his bib.
(Pretend to eat soup with your hand)
And he will eat it all like a general.
(Make a soldiers salute with your hand)
When the stars in the sky start to blink.
(Pretend your hands are like stars and they are blinking)
Pin Pon goes to bed and goes to sleep.
(Put your hands on the side of your face pretending to go to sleep)
Pin Pon give me your hand, give it a good squeeze.
(Shake hands with your child)
Because I want to be your friend,
Pin Pon… Pin Pon…
Pin Pon… Pin Pon!
This video only does first two verses and the last verse.
Here is another popular Spanish children’s song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH0bRvpn3E
La rana cucú
Cucú cucú cantaba la rana
cucú cucú debajo del agua
cucú cucú pasó un caballero
cucú cucú con capa y sombrero
cucú cucú pasó una señora
cucú cucú con falda de cola
cucú cucú pasó un marinero
cucú cucú vendiendo romero
cucú cucú le pidió una ramito
cucú cucú no le quiso dar
cucú cucú y se echó a llorar.
The Frog Cucu’s
Cucu, cucu, sang the frog,
Cucu, cucu, under the water,
Cucu, cucu, a man walked by,
Cucu, cucu, with a coat and a hat,
Cucu, cucu, a woman walked by,
Cucu, cucu, with a long dress,
Cucu, cucu, a sailor walked by,
Cucu, cucu, selling rosemary,
Cucu, cucu, the little frog asked for a sprig,
Cucu, cucu, but he didn’t give her any,
Cucu, cucu, and she burst into tears.
http://www.kidsspeakspanish.org/esp_Songs.shtml
Here is the Itsy Bitsy Spider, head shoulders legs and toes, the wheels on the bus, what’s your name, one, two three amigos, On José’s Farm (old mcdonald), the colors etc.
This site has a lot of good stuff for teaching children spanish.
Here is another excelllent site:
http://www.storyplace.org/sp/preschool/other.asp
Hi SANISO,
my daughter is really is bilingual too, she speaks spanish and english. She is 20 months old, she understand 100% both languages but now she is being part of my program where I have preschoolers and they speak english, So my daughter is starting to speak more english than spanish. But I just have to keep taking in spanish with her 100%.
What is going on with your daughter is really popular in kids,where they haven’t heard this new words before and they seem like surprised about it. In most of the cases they will say" no"“no” this is not a casa…this is a “house”…you are wrong mommy!! What we need to do is tell them yes honey we say house in english but in spanish we say “casa”… can you say casa with me? and they will say no mommy…yeah…probably it will take you over a month for they to start taking back to you in spanish or repeat what are you saying in spanish…they will feel confortable and understand that is just a new word in different language. After that they will start speaking more and more.
hope this helps.
There is Barney in Spanish on youtube here is wheels on the bus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWwcT6WsNwc&feature=related
Barney song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249yqJfj6UM&feature=related
Mr sun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249yqJfj6UM&feature=related
If your happy and you know it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N135lYGz0c&feature=related
BINGO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0AVzvBlU4U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_2n4_BlKnQ&feature=related
This video has all the sounds of the Spanish language:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SopapoProductions#p/u/15/2TsVZUO92_E
They have several other videos too