An Aptitude for Languages- and a Giveaway
I have read that babies and young children have an aptitude to learn languages much more easily than teenagers and adults. Matthew and I are not fluent in any languages, but I still want to expose Elias to languages in some capacity. So, I was thrilled when the company Professor Parrot contacted me about their Sound Beginnings CD, which features sounds, nursery rhymes and words of eight different languages set to music, specifically for infants.
We have been playing the CDs every day, while Elias is eating and/or playing. While I know it may not be as good as us speaking these languages to him, he definitely pays attention when they are on, which I think is so cool.
I have one Sound Beginnings CD set and one Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish DVD (for kids ages 2-7) to give away. Just leave a comment and specify which you would like. I will draw two names at random on Friday.
Also, if you have done any language development stuff with your children, be sure to share!
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Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish would be nice for my newly 7 yo. He always asks his older sister to tell him how to say something in Spanish.
Never done anything formal with my kids at a younger age. That’s become more popular now than it was 15-20 years ago, I think.
My little one would love the Professor Parrot. She will be 3 in 2 more months. She loves Dora, but that has been about the extent of her involvement with another language. It does not help of course that neither my husband or I speak anything but “American”. :o)
We would like the Professor Parrot DVD. My 2yo tries to count in Spanish, but that is all. I want to incorporate foreign language early in her schooling!
I would love the Professor Parrot item! My 2 1/2 year old can count to 10 in Spanish and knows “casa” means house. She loves telling everyone she knows some Spanish and then wowing them with what she does know. Dora and Sesame Street are great ways to incorporate new languages, but I would caution against starting too early. Alot of what I read early on said they can comprehend the other languages now, but Saralynn really didn’t start to “speak” it, or show she was comprehending until after she started talking on her own (in English, of course). She is a whiz kid and enjoys her newfound “talent”, but I’m glad she got a handle on her native language before she picked up another one!
Blessings on you today,
Mary Beth
http://peltfamily.blogspot.com
I would love the DVD for my little girl!!!
Thanks!
tbmroberts at yahoo dot com
The PP DVD sounds like it would be wonderful for my little one! Thanks for the giveaway!
I think the Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish DVD would be something my daughter would LOVE!
She already catches onto theme songs from her fave cartoons like Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Mickey Mouse Club house so I know she would benefit from this DVD.
Being a first time mom I don’t have experience but I too want to teach my daughter another language in her early years.
Thanks Jess! LOVE YOUR BLOG!
Jana
We would love the CD set- we have 4little ones and would put the set to good use!!! Thank you for the opportunity. 🙂
-Jenni
The Sound Beginnings CD sounds great for my kids. They’re not even 2 yet. My husband and I both speak Spanish and hope to be able to teach our kids some of the language. That CD would be a great help, too. We’ll see how we do!
My daughter who just turned 2 hasn’t really started talking yet, but we’ve been teaching her sign language, with the Signing Time DVD’s to help. She knows about 75 words now, which is wonderful for communicating with her. I highly recommend this 2nd language for little ones, even if they’re already talking. Also, I’d love for my daughter to learn another language, so please put my name in the hat for either DVD you’re giving away.
Cecilia speaks both Spanish and English, both pretty well. She also knows how to switch between the two, but pretty much just says whatever word is easier. She’s 2 and a half and we have been speaking Spanish to her since she was born, but my parents speak English to her. She also watches all her DVDs set to Spanish. I think it’s a lot easier with a bilingual family; we make learning Spanish a priority, but any exposure to language is fantastic at this age.
Professor Parrot would be nice, but it seems very popular already.
My little one will be 2 this Friday and she is absorbing all the language (spelling/reading words) that her kindergarten-age sister brings home. I think she’d do great with Spanish!
Maybe I will meet you on Friday at the SIS TV garage sale? Yeah, take the morning off from work and come down! 🙂
That sounds pretty cool! I would prefer the Sound Beginnings CD…I have a baby… 🙂 I agree..I have heard children pick up on the languages at these early ages…I think it is a wonderful thing for them to start learning. Their little brains are like sponges!
Professor Parrot DVD sounds interesting! I have taught my daughter sign language, but that is as far as I can do. All the exposure to different things the better!
I’d love to try the Sound Beginnings CD with my kiddos! I think it would be great in the truck when we go on trips or run to town! My hubby and I know a few words in Spanish and we use them occassionally when talking with DS. He has picked them up now and occassionaly uses them all on his own now.
I would love the Professor Parrot DVD for my son. He’s 4 months old but it is never to early to start!
My lil nephew and niece would love these, we would especially like the DVD. Thanks!
I would to have the Professor Parrot. My daughter is 3 years old.
Rhiannon
I have a 4 and 5 year old who would LOVE Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish DVD! Thanks for offering such a cool thing. We live in TX, so speaking Spanish would be a huge help to our family!
oh that is very fun! And sounds super cool, my dd would adore that parrot 🙂
I love doing small things here and there with my children. We have a few stories with the basics (hi, bye, one, two, three, etc.) in a few different languages. I also have a few musical toys that sing in different languages and whenever we go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant we always use Spanish with our older son (soon to be 4) and the staff just loves to here him say “hola!” and “gracias!”
Since I have a preschooler, an infant, and one on the way, either cd set would be nice! 🙂
We are fluent in Spanish and my daughter (now 7) didn’t speak English until she was 3. She now speaks English and Spanish!
I would love either one of these!! I have a 5 yr old daughter and a 7 mo old son so I could put either one to good use!!
Hi, Jessica! I would love to have the Sound Beginnings CD. I am a part-time nanny and speak Spanish. Families that I've babysat for have told me I'm welcome to speak Spanish to the kids, but knowing that no one else is going to reinforce it and they'll forget it once they go on to preschool, I have to admit I've been a bit lazy about it & only taught them a few words and phrases. I'm hoping to be a little bit more focused about it once I have my own kids someday.
The Sound Beginnings CD set looks awesome. I know some basics in Spanish from school and will do things like count in English and Spanish. Heck, if I don’t win this CD set I am seriously considering ordering one!
Oh wow! I would really love the Sound Beginnings CD for my one-month-old and my 20-month-old. I am a stay-home mom who is always looking for things (like this!) to use up our time during the day and be somewhat educational for the kids. Thanks so much! 🙂
I’d love either the CD or the DVD. I’ve got a 22 month old that would benefit from both. Plus, I’m hoping to have more in the coming years. Besides watching Dora and Diego, our little boy doesn’t get much exposure to other languages. And languages has never been my forte…I had a hard time picking them up and none ever stuck. With how they incorporate it in schools early now, I’m hoping he’ll get to learn it there. Thanks for the giveaway!
I would love the spanish one as well. Living in SoCal and having hispanic heritage I think it’s important and somewhat vital for my kids to learn Spanish. I just don’t know any to teach them! 3 years in high school did nothing for me!
I would love to check these items out. Thanks for offering them. I would especially be interested in the Spanish CD. Thanks.
I would love the Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish. My children love to pretend they are speaking Spanish. It is too darn cute!
Ohhhh!! Would love the Sound Beginnings. What a wonderful idea!! Expecting our first little one in June. 🙂
I would love Professor Parrot speaks Spanish! 🙂
The Sound Beginnings CD sounds great. I have a six month old and I think he would love it.
Thanks!
The Sound Beginnings CD for sure. My babe is only 5 months old and that one sounds great. My husband and I are not fluent in any languages either, but like you, I have always wanted to teach my kids that as well as string instruments! Strange, I know.
Good giveaway Jessica. Please do not include me int he giveaway as I have noone to give the speaking set too.
I did want to say though that your right they do have a better apititude for new skills and development. My friend’s daughter is 5 and the other day I went to visit and as she was playing she counted to five in French and she knew how to say happy birthday! Her Mum said they have been doing it in the nursery/playschool. I thought it was pretty cool!
I would like the Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish DVD for my 2 year old. However, I am expecting a baby in June so if you want to put me in the running for both, that would work too 🙂 Thanks for the offer!
I’d be happy to teach Elias Chinese if you want! 6-month-old is about my level now after five years of rarely speaking it!
The Sound Beginnings CD sounds awesome!
I would love the Professor Parrot one for my son. Thanks for sharing about these!
My dad used to put on Spanish radio for us to listen to to try and counteract the fact that my mom couldn’t speak Spanish.
I think it helped a lot!
Cd Would be great!
Our children are learning some Spanish language in preschool…days of the week, months of the year, colors, etc. We would love to have the Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish to give them further experience with Spanish. Thanks for the giveaway, Jessica!
I tried sign language with my son, but he didn’t really pick it up. I’d love to try Spanish though!
Cool. I would love this for my son (the 2yr one). I haven’t really done anything with Miles yet, but I plan to get a few books like “goodnight moon” in spanish and read them to him (I speak spanish, although not fluently enough to speak it to him all the time).
Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish would be awesome! I have a 19 month old son and I am the same way as you…..I have no language experience (except English) but I would LOVE for my kids to be exposed to them! Good for you! Thanks for sharing the idea!
-Amy
I would love the Sound Beginnings CD set. I have a 7 month old and just found out I’m expecting again!
I have two Baby Einstein videos and my daughter loves them. The Baby Mozart one uses different languages to tell nursery rhymes, colors, and numbers. We don’t speak other languages, so I like the concept of Baby Einstein – it’s supposed to help develop a certain area of their brain (but I forget how exactly it works).
My husband’s sister married a guy from Turkey. He speaks fluent Turkish to their son while she speaks English and I think some French too. Pretty amazing! Maybe he’ll teach my daughter some Turkish words as they grow up!
Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish DVD would be great for my 2 year old and 5 year old!! My son is so proud that he can count in spanish and my little one loves Dora!
I would love to try the Sound Beginnings for Eli. Lee and I want to teach him a language and how great to start at his age now!! He sounds like he is speaking a different language with his little squeals and sounds. 🙂
By the way, the Valentine pictures of Elias were SUPER cute! OMG!!
I think the CD set sounds great!
Thanks for having a great giveaway!
Ooo, I’d love the Sound Beginnings CD. I so wish I’d kept up with the 5 yrs of Spanish I took.
I would love to have the Spanish one if I am chosen. Love your blog, btw. My son is 7mo older than yours and it’s so fun to watch Elias develop and to remember those fun times. It gets better each day–trust!!
Jen C. from CA
If you’ll ship internationally The CD would be great for me – I’ld love to share it with a friend who has two little ones.
I saw your post below about reading. As a teacher who has taught 5 year olds up to 13 year olds, having the Dad read is great for boys so that they learn that reading is “cool” and a thing that guys do. Too many Dad’s only watch TV or are completely absent some their son’s learning. Have Dad involved and his learning should go far! 🙂
What a great idea. I’ve never heard of this before. My hubby speaks French and I know a little Japanese and we want our little man to learn a little of both. Would love the sound beginnings CD. Thanks for the chance.
Ohh I would love the Professor Parrot spanish DVD for my 5 year old. She loves Dora & learning the spanish words from there. She would love this. I took 2 years of spanish, but don't remember much! I used to play the language Baby Einstien DVD for her. Thanks for the give-a-way!
Christy in OH
Jessica
I would love the CD – we are expecting our 3rd miracle son on May 18th!! Yeah! Have a wonderful evening!
Kristin
I would love to win the Spanish tape. My 3 year old is learning how to count in spanish at preschool.
Thanks for the give away.
DeAnne
Although I do not have any children I am a kindergarten teacher and it is so true that babies and small children learn languages a lot easier at a very young age! They are just little sponges waiting to soak up all the information they possibly can! Good luck with it and keep us posted on how it goes! I have to tell you that I have been following your blog for a few weeks now. I came across it on another blog and really enjoyed it so much that I have kept up with it. You have inspired me to start my own blog. I felt silly at first because I didn’t really feel that anyone would read my blog, but it’s sort of like a therapy to me! So, thank you for the inspiration!
Christy
our son is taking french after school one afternoon a week. while he was younger i would teach him bits of spanish and some sign language also. the sign language was really easy.
Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish would be awesome for my 4 yr old and 6 yr old that we are homeschooling =)
I just finished reading: 7 steps to raising a bilingual child by Naomi Steiner and she believes that you can raise a bilingual child even if you only speak one language! Check out the book. I was raised on a French Island and spoke French and the island’s dialect. I studied English at school starting at age 11 and German starting at age 13. When I graduated highschool at age 17, I went on to graduate college in German studies and lived in Germany for a while and became fluent. I met my American husband, moved to the USA and am now fluent in English. We traveled to Italy regularly and Italian is so close to French, I can carry on a conversation fairly well(I do not write or read it well though. I love speaking so many languages and it truly expands the mind. I am planning on raising our child speaking at least French, Creole (the island’s dialect) and English. Hope this helps, Aloha, Sarah
Cool! I would love the DVD for my 2 boys…they need to learn Spanish..we live in CA after all! 🙂
Amy in CA
I started teaching my kids spanish when they were 2 yr old. It’s not that hard. The internet has a wealthy of knowledge and website to teach you different topics. I started w/ numbers, colors, object etc. At the publich library is a bilingual book section – Spanish/Eng is usually in there. At dollar stores are Span/Eng flash cards that have the picture and Eng word on 1 side and Span on the other. Even if you don’t know things as an adult you still learn w/ your kids.
Thankful my son’s school teaches Chinese and Spanish so I don’t have to work so hard on Spanish but I still do it so he doesn’t forget.
I would love Professor Parrot for my almost 2 year old son. Thanks!
I would love the professor parrot for my 15 month old. that will be great when she turns two later this year!
We’ve been doing baby sign language with our son since he was born. It’s opened so many doors to communicating with him and I would highly suggest it to any new parent. We haven’t had a single tantrum yet because he can tell us exactly what he wants and what he’s thinking or talking about.
He had his first sign about 6 months old and it just took off from there. Now at about 19 months old he can hold a full conversation with us between babbling and “talking” with his hands. I’d guess he has about 150+ signs and 25+ spoken words. Not bad for a child just a year and a half old.
I’d love to try either of those videos as to just expand his language development even further.
both my husband and I\ are fluent in spanish. we lived in Peru South Aamerica for almost 4 years, 1 of those was formal training, the remaindered was OTJ – sink or swim, speak or don’t eat!!!
What I find interesting is that my childern, then 2 and 5, now 10 and 13 have vastly different levels of comprehension and remembering. My daughter, the 10 year old, understands everything you say to her,but WILL not speak back- simply refuses. She knows how and can…just won’t I think herheart was broken when we left, and she just decided not to speak again. My son, however, does not remember how to speak phrases but can translate from spanish to english in a blink of an eye. I encourage everyone to teach their children simple phrases and put a love in them for language and the world. You never know, you may have the next ambassador to the UN on your hands!!!!
Oh how neat..Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish sounds perfect for the 2 y/o that I care for. Always looking for something to distract and entertain him…hope I win.
I would love the CD- I have a 2 month old, so this would be perfect for her! Thanks!
My husband and I learned “Amazing Grace” in Spanish before going as sponsers with our church’s youth group to Costa Rica several years ago. When we became pregnant with our children, we would sing it to them before they were born and every night when they were born. By age two, my daughter could sing it. It was precious to hear. 🙂 I used to be sort of fluent in Spanish but going years w/out speaking it has taken its toll. I hope to re-learn some this winter and spring as my hubby and I are going back to Costa Rica in June (just as a vacation)! Woohoo! 🙂
I would love the DVD too!! I am actually fluent in Spanish. I speak to my girls in Spanish a lot, but it’s hard when my husband is around because he doesn’t speak it or understand it. I am so glad my parents pushed both languages as much as they did. I am grateful and hope my girls will be grateful one day also.
Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish would be great for my 3 yo. Would be great to have another language to teach my daughter, but i’m afraid 8th grade French won’t cut it 😉
Merci
What a great opportunity! I’d love the beginning sounds cd. I speak some Creole and I try to speak it to my daughter when I can. Mostly I sing her a few songs and say a few phrases. I’d love the Sound beginnings cd. Thanks!
Hi Jess,
It would be great to win the Spanish one for my 19 month old.
I have a great recommendation for you! It’s not so much for language but for reading which goes hand-in-hand I suppose. It’s called Your Baby Can Read. You can my son (18 mos at the time) reading the words on flashcards at my blog: http://www.enjoyingevanandemmaeveryday.blogspot.com
It’s in a post from January and I’ve also created a link at the upper right to take you right to it via google video. It’s a great product and it really, really works! I’m sure Elias would love it.
Love you blog!
Lynn
I would LOVE to win this giveaway! I have 3 boys so I could definitely use this with all of them!! Thank you! 🙂
I would love the Professor Parrot DVD. I have three children in this age category (a 2 yr old, a 5 yr old and a 7 yr old). All of them knew some sign language when they were younger but the youngest knew the most. Some of them were “real” signs and some of them were made up between us but it helped him to get his point made!
Well, I would love to have both of them since my daughter will be 2 in June and I have a 5 week old but if I had to choose I would pick the CD set since my daughter loves music too. Thanks for the give away!
My husband speaks some Spanish so we try to use words in Spanish and English with our kids. We also have a variety of toys that use both English and Spanish. I also have taught my daughter a few signs in sign language too.
I’d love the DVD. My daughter will be 2 in June and I’ve been trying to talk to her more and more in Spanish. My parents talk to her in Spanish too and we have some toys that do both English and Spanish.
Thanks for sharing this 🙂
Nathalia
nathagager@yahoo.com
Sorry if I’m leaving this comment again, I can’t tell if it worked the first time.
That CD with the sounds is a neat idea because I’ve read that babies have the ability to make all of the sounds used in all languages, but then only develop the ones that they hear regularly.
That said, I’d like the Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish because we live in a area with Spanish-speaking people (like much of the USA) and because I lived in Spain and Mexico during part of college. I occasionally use Spanish words and phrases with my kids and read them books in Spanish.
We would love either one. We would probably put the Sound Beginning to most use at this point in my newly 1 year old. My MIL is Korean so she speaks to our daughter on Korean often.
Thank you for this opportunity (:
My kids are American. brazillian and canadian. SO they listen to quite a bit of portuguese at home ( and on the 18th we will be moving to Brazil) It is amazing how fast they pick up phrases and words. I am excited for them to become fluent like their daddy.
We love different languages and inspire to speak many 🙂
I think the CD would be great. I’ve been trying to remember the french and spanish alphbet that I learned in High School and College, but tehy are not all coming back to me…So I think that Isabelle would love to sing songs in anyother language.
i would love the sound beginnings! i speak spanish but have no idea how to go about teachingmy little one another language! thank you!
I would love the Sound Beginnings Set. I do sign language with my kids and love to learn it myself. It’s great to help them be able to communicate before they’re able to speak. I did it with my daughter which helped out a lot with her whining and now that my son is 7 months, I want to do it more consistently with him. Thanks for this giveaway!