Show at El Taller a Family Affair

Our show at El Taller Latino Americano could best be described as a family affair. I think most of that has to do with the space and feeling of El Taller. It feels kind of like a big house party and you automatically have something in common with everyone that's there. It was also that our kids, my mom, our friends from New Jersey with their kids, the mother of an old friend, and the director's family were all there probably had something to do with it too.

The families that came out through the snow to see us were particularly wonderful too. Everyone seemed up for getting out of the house and having some fun so adults and kids seemed happy and engaged throughout the show.

We performed Que Puedo Dibujar for the first time and used
pictures the kids are showing pictures the kids had drawn themselves!

Washing up with Esponjas

The kids were working hard to wake me up after La Pulga

El Baile del Sombrero

Giveaway Over!

Our giveaway is closed. We're happy to announce the winners!

Susana won prize #1 and Wendy won prize #2. Thanks for entering our giveaway and we hope we'll see you at El Taller Latino Americano on Saturday February 27th at 11:00 am despite the snow!

Giveaway! Free Show and Free CD! Two Great Prizes!

We're very excited to be hosting our first ever giveaway!

Here's the prizes!

Prize 1: An all expenses paid trip (i.e. subway fare) for your whole family to El Taller Latino Americano in New York City to see Fati & Charles on Saturday February 27th at 11:00 am and a copy of El Baile del Sombrero.

We'd love to be able to fly people in from all over the country and the world for our show but we're not quite there yet. We can however cover MetroCards for the whole family, the price of admission, and send you home with a copy of our CD! Plus you'll have a great time singing and dancing with us!

Prize 2: An autographed copy of El Baile del Sombrero by Fati & Charles

The autograph can actually be optional but it makes it more exciting right? We'd love to share our CD with you and get your family dancing and singing together! We'll be happy to send it wherever you are with a few extra little surprises inside.

How to enter:

Entering our contest is easy. All you have to do is be a part of our mailing list and make a comment on this blog post that you'd like your name thrown in the hat (include your name), and which prize you're interested in (1 or 2). If you're not already on our mailing list, you can join by filling out this form.

Once we get all the names, we'll put them in a sombrero and Chloe will draw for prize 1 and Kylen for prize 2!

The last entry will be accepted at 11:59 pm on Friday, February 19th! The winners will be announced Saturday, February 20th!

Wait!! There's more!!! Additional entries!!!

If you'd like to stack the odds in your favor and have more chances to win our fabulous prizes, there's a few ways to do that.

• Blog, Facebook, or Twitter about our exciting giveaway and show at El Taller and leave a comment with the link on our blog.
  
  
• Start following us on Twitter or Facebook and let us know by posting a comment on our blog.
  
  
• Make a comment on our videos on You Tube, or about our CD on Amazon or CD Baby! Leave us a comment with the link on our blog.
  
  
• Put up a flyer (English or Spanish) for our show at your school or in your neighborhood! Post a comment on our blog!

You'll get one extra name in the hat for each and anything you do!

Best of luck!!! Let's see how it goes!!!

Some blogosphere publicity for show at Vox Pop!

It's so neat the way the blogosphere works! I sent in some listings to Time Out NY Kids and our Vox Pop show got mentioned which I think led to a listing at Mommy Poppins, Momme Talk, and at the Examiner.

It's great to get some mentions in the virtual world and it's great to find out about these "what to do this weekend" resources that I didn't know about. What's better than finding a great list of free and cheap things to do with kids on the weekend in Brooklyn?

Grupo ñ inaugural storytime

Our friends Mariana and Jonah, a bilingual family who live in Westfield, New Jersey, decided they wanted to start a story time in Spanish at their local library. The inaugural meet up was this past Saturday and we trekked out from Brooklyn to be a part of it.
The turnout was great! Lots of families with everything from babies to tweens. Everyone listened to Mariana and Jonah read "Buenas noches, Gorila", "Huevos verdes con jamón", and other great stories. We used shakers, sang, and danced and had a great time. After we all clapped enthusiastically when the 45 minutes were over, we got a chance to meet and talk with the families that were there and the kids got a chance to play together and look at books in the amazing library.
It was a really fun day and really inspires us to start our own version of Grupo ñ in Brooklyn!

World Brooklyn Event Great For Adults and Kids

We had a great time last Sunday at the World Brooklyn: Tips To Raising A Bilingual Child event! We felt kind of funny with our little table decorated with El Baile del Sombrero and Abbasubi gear--coloring sheets, stickers, cards, and of course CDs. We've never presented ourselves like that before but as soon as parents started arriving and we got a chance to talk to them, we had a great time!
Most of the families that came had babies and were trying to figure out how to raise them bilingually. Fati & I were thrust into the role of "experienced parents with bilingual kids" and got into great discussions about that we had done and the situation of the families we were meeting. Oh yeah! And here's this CD we did!
The panel discussion was a lot of fun and there were just the right amount of people so that the Q&A session really allowed everyone to participate. The most important thing I think I got out of the panel was to make and plan and then be consistent. It's not always easy but it helps children to clearly distinguish between languages and have a constant context for when to use a certain language.
The other nice part of the afternoon was that our kids had a great time! They made a number of crowns for Los Reyes which they kept running in to show us. The staff from Lango were really welcoming and great with the kids. There was a crafts room and a playroom that were both buzzing with activity the whole afternoon.
After some great demos by Musica para Mi and El Pequeno Artista, Fati cranked up El Baile del Sombrero while we were all cleaning up and a spontaneous dance party of little ones broke out on the little stage in the meeting room.
It was a fun time for the whole family and we look forward to the next World Brooklyn event!

January Newsletter

I just churned out the January Newsletter while Kylen is asleep and Chloe is off with Nana. I will pay for this long nap when it's 11:00 PM and Kylen is still bouncing off the walls but it's a give and take right?

Here's a link to the newsletter but you should just join the list and get the newsletter! Click here to sign up.

There's a lot of info on an event we're participating in this Sunday about raising a bilingual child. We'll be there as Abbasubi but we're bringing the kids because I think it will actually be a fun, interesting, informative time for the whole family! I'm really looking forward to it.

Here's the basics from the website.

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World Brooklyn: Tips for Raising a Bilingual Child
Sunday, January 10
2.30-5.00 PM
The Coop School
87 Irving Place (Clinton Hill)
Cost: $15 per family

Advance registration encouraged as space is limited

http://worldbrooklynkids.eventbrite.com/

Enjoy an afternoon of class demos, a school expo and a Mandarin, Spanish and French children’s book fair.

3-4 PM Bilingual education panel and book fair
4-5 PM Free Mandarin, Spanish and French demos for your kids to enjoy

Panel topics include:
* How do you define bilingualism?
* If I introduce a second language, will my child experience speech delays?
* At what point should a parent introduce a second language - how
much, how often?
* Bilingual, full immersion, once a week programs?
* What are the merits of raising a child bi-lingual if both parents
only speak English?

Meet representatives from:
· Hands on World
· El Pequeno Artista
· International School of Brooklyn
· Lango Foreign Languages for Kids
· Language and Laughter Studio
· Musica Para Mi
· The Laurel Project

Kids welcome!

Free babysitting and cultural art activities provided by Lango from 2.30-4.00 PM during panel and expo.

World Brooklyn is the first of a series of events informing parents about their options in bilingual education. Lango Brooklyn will bring vendors and bilingual experts straight to parents to learn more about Brooklyn resources for raising children bilingually.

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Okay. Time to wake up Kylen!