Author Archive

Kids gain neural and cognitive benefits

January 01, 2012  |   Blog   |   Spanish Playtime  |   Comments Off

Kids gain neural and cognitive benefits Kids gain neural and cognitive benefits when they learn two languages at a young age. A Scientific American reports that children "more easily solve problems that involve misleading cues," than monolingual students. Studies show that bilingual students have denser gray matter, which is associated with language, attention and memory skills. Read more

Muévete has sold thousands of copies through Amazon, i-Tunes and CD Baby

January 01, 2012  |   Blog   |   Spanish Playtime  |   Comments Off

Muévete has sold thousands of copies through Amazon, i-Tunes and CD Baby Nine out of ten Amazon reviewers give Muévete 5 star reviews! Because we believe that education - particularly language education - is a critical part of any child's development, we have a special promotion for teachers and educators. Offer Muévete CD's to your students and the school keeps 50% of the purchase price of each CD! Music and movement help accelerate the learning of languages and our new Muévete collection of songs will have your students jumping, clapping, singing and best of all, learning Spanish! The seventeen catchy tunes involve movements with the body or hands to make learning fun and easy. Muévete was produced by professional musicians and sung by native Spanish-speaking teens in Mexico. Contact us

The benefits of learning a language through music

July 17, 2011  |   Blog,Featured   |   Spanish Playtime  |   Comments Off

The benefits of learning a language through music The benefits of learning a language through music are outlined in an article called Teaching the Target Language Through the Lyrics of Melodic Music, written by Tom Blodget, M.A, and published in www.songsforteaching.com.  Learning a language through music is good because music: 1.     Presents the material in a new way, 2.     Imprints linguistic patterns, so students retain vocabulary and grammar patterns, 3.     Makes kids happy so kids participate more, and 4.     Correlates with improved academic performance, which means that music helps students learn languages. The article goes on to say that teaching a language through music is especially effective when accompanied by: 1) kinesthetic (dance, clapping, stomping, body movement, percussion 2) musical (listening, singing, playing, distinguishing) 3) linguistic (interpreting lyrics while listening or through exercises) 4) logical/mathematical (music is math) 5) social (choral, dance, cooperative learning with the exercises) 6) visual (illustrations, dramatizations, video) 7) individual (the fallback for all of the written exercises, as well as with individual projects and culminating activities).

Four reasons why your child should learn Spanish

July 17, 2011  |   Blog,Featured   |   Spanish Playtime  |   Comments Off

Four reasons why your child should learn Spanish Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 35.5 million people in the United States. Spanish is the language most prevalently spoken in the American continent.  More than ever before in our increasingly global economy, we are doing more business, traveling more to and from, and interacting more with Latin America. Speaking Spanish helps you earn more money.   Many employers pay higher salaries to their bilingual employees to better serve their Spanish speaking customers.  Small business owners can sell to more people if they speak Spanish. Even celebrities such as Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez earn more money than their monolingual counterparts because they endorse products, sing songs, or make movies in two languages. Speaking Spanish is now a requirement for many jobs.  In many industries such as hotel and restaurant management, medicine, education, and construction supervision, employment and advancement is possible only if you speak English and Spanish.   Even in other industries, Spanish is necessary.  For example, one of the job requirements to be the Ronald McDonald clown, is to speak Spanish.

Raoul Rodríguez (Advertising Executive)

June 11, 2011  |   Blog,Testimonials   |   Spanish Playtime  |   Comments Off

Raoul Rodríguez (Advertising Executive) "The Muévete package is well executed and utilizes production values that are engaging and should appeal to the intended audience."

Thelma Ginsberg (Spanish Teacher)

June 11, 2011  |   Testimonials   |   Spanish Playtime  |   Comments Off

Thelma Ginsberg (Spanish Teacher) "I teach in a dual-language preschool and my students absolutely LOVE the Muévete CD! They enjoy the songs and learn Spanish without thinking about it."

Learning a Second Language

June 10, 2011  |   Blog,Featured   |   Spanish Playtime  |   Comments Off

Learning a Second Language Learning a second language as a child is easier because the human brain is programmed to learn languages. A child can learn one, two or more languages at the same time. From birth to age five, a child can absorb and distinguish languages with little difficulty. After the age of five, the human brain begins to concentrate on learning other things, and the ability to learn a language effortlessly begins to diminish. Knowing two languages will help your child as an adult in terms of job opportunities and the ability to connect to more people socially and professionally. Even though you only speak one language, your child goes to an all English school, or your child is over the age of five, you should still teach a second language to your child. Exposing your children to a second language will help: increase vocabulary, increase brain activity, and program the brain to look at things in different ways.

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