As some of you might know, Ana and I just got back from an amazing trip to Washington D.C. where we were honored to take part in LATISM’s first ever #TopBlogueras Retreat. As part of the event, we received a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to go to the White House to attend a special policy briefing about education, health and the economy, among other topics. As soon as we saw that one of the panelists was Andrea Ceja, the chief of staff at the Office of the Undersecretary of the Department of Education, both Ana and I knew we had to ask a question about the state of bilingual education in this country. And that’s exactly what I did.

Below, you’ll be able to see the entire exchange, which Ana caught on video, but I wanted to tell you that our biggest take-away was that in order for us to make this a real movement and show the entire country why we’re part of this bilingual parenting revolution, we first need to make sure that everyone understands the difference between what’s been traditionally dubbed bilingual education and dual language immersion education, which is what we advocate for.

Read more: What are Dual Language Immersion Programs

While they might sound like the same thing, they are not. In this country, bilingual education is the program used to teach English Language Learners to become proficient in English and it more often than not does this at the expense of Spanish (or the child’s first language). Dual language immersion achieves the same results, except that while ELL students are becoming proficient in English, they’re helping monolingual English-only speakers become proficient in Spanish because that’s how dual language immersion education works. Everyone feeds of each other’s abilities in the name of becoming bilingual. In short, it’s a win-win situation for all, including the children who are already bilingual when they enter the program — like Camila, Ana’s daughter, who will enter a DL program in the fall — who essentially become intermediaries and help both their English-only and Spanish-only classmates. What’s there not to like, right?

As you’ll see, my question had to do with whether I’m crazy to dream that one day all children in the United States will have access to this type of education. In the panelists answers, you’ll hear the confusion that exists regarding this topic and see why we feel it’s such a necessity to educate others so they understand that dual language immersion education is the best way to go in order to kill two birds with one stone.

Read on how The Power of Community Was Felt at the White House

To be clear, I’m not saying all children need to attend schools like these — although that would be amazing —, I’m just saying that all children should have the opportunity to do. If you’ve followed us for a little bit, you know I don’t have this option in Denver and thus Vanessa is attending our neighborhood elementary school. While she’s only in kindergarten and is doing great, I’m really sadden that she won’t be getting the same kind of dual language education I got because I know the benefits of a program like this first-hand.

Hope you take the time to watch the video. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

{Image by MamaLatinaTips}

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Often when we sit down in a theater or in front of a screen to watch a Disney*Pixar film we are so enthralled by the story and the true-to-life animation that we forget there´s a whole team and a huge process of many years behind all that movie magic.

My thought process is always more in the lines of a bewildered “How did they do that?” I finally got to dig into the answer to that question when I was invited to the legendary Pixar Animation Studios to be one in a group of mom bloggers to meet many of the people behind the soon-to-be-released and wildly anticipated Brave.

Aside from being fascinated by the Pixar campus and fantasizing about what it would be like to work in a place that is built with the sole objective of letting creativity manifest itself, I was in a for a journey of discovery behind-the-scenes of the story-telling through animation world. One of the people we met and interviewed was Katherine Sarafian, the producer of Brave. Katherine has been working at Pixar for 18 years now and the pixie dust still sparkles all around her as she talks about the role with the company she feels is like her home.

As all these working moms sat on a roundtable to talk with her, we all gained a huge perspective on the long and detailed process of making an animated movie when we found out she had actually gotten married and had birthed two kids during the 6 years she had been working on Brave. In fact, she now feels she’ll birth her third child when Brave hits movie theaters on June 22nd, after half a decade of gestation!

As a producer, Katherine is like the maternal figure as she is in charge of making sure all the teams in every stage of the animation process are taken care of, that budgets are in place, and that timelines are being met. So, she has her hands and eyes on the whole process. Everything from leading the initial research trip to Scotland with the team of story artists, production designers and other crew members, where she says she was the most fascinated with their visit to the Calinish to see the ancient and mystical standing stones which are now an integral part of the movie.

Katherine’s job also requires fun moments like putting together a day of picnics and archery lessons at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge for the artists and animators to train with a bow and arrow so they can live it and get every detail right since the story of Brave revolves so much around this skill.  She says,

“Here we are in San Francisco with our little bit of Scotland and our bit of adventure and archery, and everybody on the crew was so excited to learn it because they knew they could really not just use this as a skill in life – in case you ever need to shoot anything – but to be able to learn form and how to do this, so when we animate Merida we’d be able to really get it right and know how you hold your body, where you put your weight, and how you pull it [the bow] back. We wanted to really get it right.”

As with any career, there are always moments that are more challenging than others, and for Katherine that is the process of telling the story since the bar is set so high at Pixar.

“Probably the other producers of the other films here would say the same thing,” Katherine confides with us. “The story is really hard at Pixar.  Trying to tell a great, great story to the Pixar level of quality is a challenge because you really want to…we put pressure on ourselves to do the best that we can. It’s hard work and it takes a long time. You just keep at it; we never stop.  John Lassater [Pixar co-founder] always says our films are never finished, they’re just released.  And that’s really the case.  We’re gonna be putting Brave out into the world, but we could keep working on it because we always want to keep making these better and better.”

One of the many things this movie does much better than any so far, is the intricate detail in Merida’s fiery red hair. It almost feels like the hair is its own character. We wanted to know what went into the process of creating that hair and why it was conceptualized as so. Katherine tells us that Merida’s hair was, in fact, a very important part of the story; so getting it right was a priority.

“It was not easy to do, obviously, because it’s a huge technological and artistic challenge. From the very beginning, Merida was conceived as somebody who was going to be fiery, passionate, strong-willed, a bit of a wild-child, athletic, outdoorsy, and an untamed spirit, which to us equated to untamed hair that was wild. So it needed the fiery redness. Our teams talked about it being so perfectly majestic against the Scottish backdrop, the colors, the greenery, the landscapes, that she would really stand out as a one of a kind character; like no one you’d ever met before.  It was important to her character – in a storytelling sense – that she have this spirit and that it be represented in her hair. Then it became obviously very important to our technology teams to learn how to do that, and figure out how to make that hair, or make those curls, and make them move the way they needed to. Definitely crucial to the story.”

Now that you know a bit more about the making-of Brave through the words of its producer, you can watch this clip from the movie and be in even more awe and anticipation of its forthcoming release on June 22nd.

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1. I Was Just Teased At Pixar. ¡Quiero Más BRAVE!
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Summer is near and if there is anything we love most is all the outdoor and indoor activities and decorations we can make . Bright colors whimsical decorations really make summer special for us.

Pinwheels are one of the easiest and affordable crafts to make for any occasion. The kids and I decided to bring some summer cheer to our home with different patterned paper pinwheels.

You can easily make a batch of 4 pinwheels for less than $6

To make some of your own this is what you will need.

1-Funwire-We picked up some bright colored wire from our local Walmart craft department.

2-Patterened paper- you will need a 6×6 square for each pinwheel (you can make 4 out of one large scrapbook page)

3-Scissors and/or  paper piercer-You will be cutting and making holes

4-Fasteners or Brads- One per pinwheel

5-Wooden sticks- We picked up a pack of 8 at our local Walmart for less than $1

Let’s get started!!!

1-Fold your 6×6 square from corner to corner.

2-Pierce 3 holes in the middle- Adults you may need to help with the step.

3-Cut a line down each corner about 1/2 an inch away from the center holes

4-Pierce a hole at the corner of each flap make sure you do the same corner for each flap. That means only 4 holes.

5-Cut a piece of wire about 3 inches long. Loop it through the center holes skipping the middle hole. See the picture.

6-Insert your brad through each flap hole. Once all are through insert your brad carefully through the center hole.

7-Fasten your brad on the back . See picture this is what it should look like.

8-Place your stick over the brad and fasten it in with wire!

All Done!

Repeat steps to make more pinwheels and enjoy the bright colored decor this summer!

Disclosure: As part of the Walmart Moms program, SpanglishBaby will receive compensation to facilitate this post. As always, all opinions are our own.

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Jenny & Flo of Quiero Mi Baby

MTV Tr3s’s new show, Quiero Mi Baby premiered on Monday April 16th – it’s a new series that shows the realities of cross-cultural parenting including language, religion and tradition clashes, in addition to many other issues unique to bi/multicultural families.

Check out this exclusive preview (meaning YOU WILL ONLY SEE IT HERE!) of tonight’s episode and then see our interview with the couple, Jenny and Flo, below.

Episode description: “Although Jenny & Flo are both Cubans, they are very different since Jenny was born in what they call “Cubanlandia” (Miami) and Florentino was raised in Chicago. Even though they grew up in very different places they both are in love with each other, and of course with their baby girl Valentina, who is about to turn one year old! Now, she is starting to eat solids and the couple starts disagreeing in a very important aspect of feeding their child. Would this be one out of many differences that the couple could face?”

SpanglishBaby talks to Flo

SB: We see in the preview video of your episode that you and Jenny disagree on whether television should be used to put the baby in a good mood so she can be fed. How do you guys usually resolve disagreements to find common ground?

Flo: It usually begins with an argument about our backgrounds and how we were brought up. Then it is followed by both of us proving our points with examples stemming from childhood to present. Ultimately it ends up with Jenny getting her way because Valentina has been spoiled and has learned the bad habits portrayed in the video. Do I agree? No! But if the baby doesn’t eat it’s worse so Jenny ends up getting her way but for the sake of Valentina’s well being, not because I agree.

SB: While you both have Cuban heritage, you were raised in Chicago and Jenny in “Cubanlandia” (Miami). When you have disagreements with Jenny about how to raise your child do you feel like they usually fall into the normal “different perspectives” that all parents have at times, or do you feel that some are due to cultural differences?

Flo: I feel that it’s a little bit of both. There are the standard “different perspectives” but also there are the differences of how we were brought up. I was brought up in Chicago, very American. We celebrated all the Holidays as any “American” would, almost like the pilgrims had started it with the Indians. Traditional meals and customs. Jenny’s idea of a Thanksgiving dinner for example is Lechon (pork), Congri (Black beans and Rice), Yuca (Cassava) and Flan (Cuban dessert.) She was raised by her grandmother and mother as I was raised more by my mom. The differences stem from eating habits to speaking. But at the end of it all I feel we have a great mix and Valentina is going to come up with the best from both worlds.

SpanglishBaby talks to Jenny

SB: Do you feel that you’re very close to your Cuban roots since you were raised in Miami? Tell us about a favorite childhood memory!

Jenny: Yes. I have grown up with only Cuban family and friends, so yes my Cuban roots are deep. All I and my parents have are Cuban family and mostly friends. So my roots are very deep. As for how I grew up, my favorite childhood memory is when my big Cuban family would go skiing in Colorado and invade the resort. We would be the loudest and funnest of the whole resort. I loved it.

SB: Do you plan to raise your child bilingual? Why or why not?

Jenny: I plan to raise Valentina bilingual as it’s important to raise her to know her Hispanic roots. She should know her background and also it will benefit her in the future.

Do you relate to Jenny & Flo’s story? Want to see what happens?

Watch Quiero Mi Baby on MTV’s Tr3s Mondays at at 9pm ET or on Tr3s.com.

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Have you run out of ideas of how to maximize your Cielito’s outside play?  Or maybe you´re just secretly aburrida of playing the same things outside – Like I am!

Well, in order to add a little zing to our outdoor play, we created a new game, which we call, El Juego de Números en Tiza, The Chalk Number Game.  Plus, there are MANY not-well-advertised benefits of exercising and playing outdoors in addition to keeping physically fit.  Exercise helps us develop the hand eye coordination that we need in order to be good readers and the upper body strength needed for pre-writing skills.   But other than that….hey it’s just plain FUN!

Sofía was sooo excited to see the big bright números written in chalk that I almost didn’t need to tell her what to do!  She immediately started running from one número to the next.  (And in the case of the picture above, dancing from número to número.)

What you will need:

• Chalk
• Flat surface space (I used an area about 20 feet X 15 feet but you can adjust the space according to your child’s developmental ability)
• Energía

First, we wrote the números 0-12 outside on the pavement of our driveway.

Then I began our game by telling Sofía to run to número 7 or to jump to número 10!

I progressed to telling her to make like an elephant to número 9!  I ended with timing how long it would take Sofía to run from número 3 to número 12 and so on.  It was muuuy fun!

Of course I couldn’t be the only one in charge all the time!  Soon, Sofía had me skipping and walking like a duck from número to número .  (Notice that she is a bit molesta with me as I am taking photos and not following directions!)

This game really is adaptable for children of ALL ages.  You can use geometric figures or letters of the alphabet instead of números.  For older children, you might call out multiplication sentences like, “What is 5 X 2?” or “What letter does the word vaca begin with?”   If you have artistic ability, then you might even draw pictures of animales  and ask questions about sounds they make, their colors, or where they live.

Whatever you decide to do with this Chalk Number Game, just have your engería, creativity, and tenis ready!

Hope you and yours enjoy this game as much as we did!

іEn sus marcas, listos, … Have Fun!

For more super outside  activities, check out our post on Fun and Easy Science Activities to Introduce Basic Science Vocabulary In Spanish.

To read more about Reading Skills, don’t miss our post on How Reading Skills Transfer Across Languages.

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It’s safe to say that we’ve all had a Fisher-Price toy at some point in our lives. Whether we played with one as kids or bought one for our little ones, we’ve built many memories involving our favorite Fisher-Price toys and baby gear. That’s why we were thrilled when we got the chance to host the Fisher-Price’s Room to Bloom event in Los Angeles. We got to catch up with some of our fellow bloggers over brunch and discover fabulous nursery decorating tools and baby gear.

Fisher Price’s innovative attitude is always keeping up with our needs as parents. That was very clear during the event. We got to try out the new  Room to Bloom Tool  which helps expecting parents get started on decorating a nursery without having to make several trips to the local hardware store. The virtual tool allows us to design our own nursery by picking out the flooring, wall patterns, colors, and our favorite Fisher-Price baby gear collection. During the event each baby gear collection was beautifully displayed and definitely got everyone in the redecorating mood.

One of the reasons why we love Fisher-Price is because they pay attention to what parents need as times change. We’ve already shared some of these great products before, like the bilingual Smart Tablet, and how we love that Fisher-Price is making an effort to put more bilingual toys out there. We got to hear about the research that goes into making more products and how much they focus on the family home for their ideas. We hope they keep expanding their bilingual toys to their already amazing collection.

Photographs by Rachel Matos

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My girl and I enjoyed our family visit to the Universal Orlando Resort so much last year, that we went back for more a few weeks ago during our trip to Florida. We´re so thankful we got to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel since Camila´s favorite water slide is there and it was a tough time getting her out of the pool! We were able to convince her by reminding her how much fun she had at Dr. Seuss´Landing at Islands of Adventures and at the Curious George water play area in Universal Studios. Not only that, but we got to check out the brand new Blue Man Group show and had even more of a blast this time.

What we didn´t get to do because we were there just a week too early is to check out the two brand new entertainment experiences Universal Orlando Resort just launched - Universal’s Superstar Parade and Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular.

It’s great to see the look on our niños faces when they get to meet their favorite animated characters in person, and they get to do just that when they visit Universal. The parade happens daily and features Dora, Diego, Boots and Baby Jaguar,  Spongebob and his Bikini Bottom friends, and characters from HOP and Despicable Me! During the day guests get to meet and take pictures will all the before mentioned characters.

We also missed out on getting to experience Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular – 100 Years of Movie Memories. This all new lagoon show, also at Universal Studios, features a collection of the best moments from iconic Universal pictures movies, which are all projected onto huge waterfall screens in an awe-inspiring show.

Check out the video below and get a little peek at these new additions:

photo: © 2012 Universal Orlando Resort. All rights reserved.

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What is culture? Marisol asked me that last week as we drove to preschool for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. I found myself saying something like, “Culture is something a group of people share, usually from the same place, like a country, like food and music and, well, you know, like we speak Spanish.” I know — explanation fail.

I’m still not sure how to answer her question. We share a culture, stemming from the costumbres of a particular place, but people in the same place, like Los Angeles, can be part of many different cultures while participating in some kind of shared culture as well. There are cultural foods, music, dress, and language, but we don’t participate in all of them, and certainly not all the time. There’s a Latino supermarket just down the street, but we usually shop at the Trader Joe’s which is further away. We love buying pupusas at the the great Salvadoran place in our neighborhood, but I can’t tell you the last time I made pupusas. And yet…

We are Latino, Mexican, Salvadoran, American. All of these things mean a lot to me and inform the way we raise our girls. I can’t define it properly, but I feel it. It’s the reason I speak Spanish with my girls, despite my terrible accent, despite turning to google translate daily, despite knowing that I’m not doing it perfectly. The fact is, we love going to our favorite Salvadoran place, and buying burritos from the farmer’s market taco truck. We read books in Spanish and English. My girls love their Abuelita and Gammy, and eat platanos fritos and salted seaweed. We’ve just started looking at maps, and I want them to know that they have family in places far and wide. I can’t help feeling like we have a lot of culture to celebrate, but what does that mean to a four-year old?

I tell her, “We speak Spanish because that is part of our culture, and so is dancing, and mangoes, juicy and sweet. Mexican is Great Grandma Gomez’s chile rellenos and her thin dark arms hugging you. Mexican is Great Grandpa Gomez making you laugh. Salvadoran is Abueita touching your face, and Tia Mayte talking loudly. Salvadoran is me singing to you in Spanish. American is family, friends, neighbors and us, all different but together having fun.”

It still doesn’t make sense, but it’s the best I can do.

How do you explain culture to your little ones? I’d love some ideas!

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We’re totally loving this infographic created by BestCollegesOnline.com! The graphic speaks for itself and we’re sure many of you are already aware of the info included, but we think it’s a great way to share with others why we consider bilingualism such an amazing benefit!

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Is it just me or does it seem that there are more baby showers in the spring than in the other seasons of the year?

Recently, some friends and I hosted a baby shower for another amiga.  When I commented to my mother-in-law that I would need her help taking care of Sofía for the day because the shower would be at my casa, her eyes lit up! And then the stories started pouring out about how much she and her gals LOVED baby showers when she lived in Peru.  I love to hear stories about the way things are done in different countries, in fact, the cultural traditions fascinate me.  As she spoke, the visions of waiters in black ties carrying trays of mini sanduches and recuerdos (party favors) for the guests danced in my head.

I’m sure that somewhere here in La USA that there are people who all customarily pull their dinero together and hire caterers and waiters to serve baby shower guests so that the hostess doesn’t have to lift a finger. I personally haven’t been to any of those showers, not in La USA nor Latinoamérica, but I can only guess they exist.

As I prepared, organized and decorated our casa, I made sure to explain to Sofía the significance of each. I want her to learn about customs here as well as in Latinoamérica, but unfortunately I’m not very well-versed on them in any country. ¡Gracias a Dios for Pinterest! One quick search and you are served up a platter of current cutesy baby shower ideas (mostly) from La USA!

It also seems that baby shower decorations and arrangements today are a lot more creatively complex than before.  I mean the invention of the Silhouette Machine has opened doors to some dedo-parado/fancy schmancy personalized banners, detailed wall hangings and custom decorations. I feel like I woke up one day and everyone was making Diaper Cakes for Baby Showers. We were no exception!

From Pinterest, I used the idea for a Rubber Ducky Punch Bowl and the recuerdos for the guests — personalized home-made cookie pops. ¡DELICIOSO!

Cookie Pops are much different than the recuerdos that my mother-in-law described used to be given to the guests in Perú. Evidently those recuerdos must be a current local Latino tradition as well — an insight I picked up from a quick trip to our neighborhood Dollar Store.

In my quest to consciously raise my daughter Sofía to be bilingual as well as bicultural, I continue to culturally dissect just about every experience that comes our way. Maybe you reading this could help me fill in some blanks, por favor?

Old or new, borrowed, blue or rosado, I would love for you to share what you know about baby showers in your culture.

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