Niños and Nature: Bilingual Nature Studies

After being cooped up for a long pandemic year, families are embracing nature studies - especially in their homeschool lessons. But finding nature-based programs have been difficult in the past. Which is why Niños and Nature is so fantastic! 

The Back-to-School Fiesta only has a few giveaways left this month, and I sure love this one! I have seen SO MANY bilingual homeschoolers searching for a nature-based curriculum. So when I saw this one, I was ecstatic! 

Read on and enter the giveaway if this sounds like a good fit for your familia...

Screen free Spanish learning for nature lovers

Niños and Nature is a series of play-based, nature-inspired Spanish courses for children ages 1½ to 6. They currently offer two courses:

Con mi Familia

A play-based Spanish course and preschool curriculum for nature lovers! These Spanish courses are designed for families who want to grow their language skills, while creating a bilingual learning environment for their children right at home. This is the perfect Spanish preschool curriculum for families that love nature, play and connecting with each other! For children 2-6

Spanish in the Wild

These seasonal bilingual nature study courses are designed for families who want to immerse themselves in Spanish, while learning more about the world around them. This is the perfect blended curriculum for language and nature study for your children and teens. This course helps you learn Spanish in every season, and encourages you to get outside for all of your language learning. Whether you are studying the anatomy of a mushroom, the lifecycle of a butterfly, or learning more about gemstones and crystals: this course helps bring Spanish to life with real world context and experiential learning. For children 5+ (even teens!)

If you'd like to see samples, click here. 

Other Posts that May Interest You

• 7 Alphabet Learning Toys
  
  
• New Bilingual Explore with Animals Series for PreK
  
  
• Learning Toys for Toddlers and Preschoolers
  
  
• Blossom and Root Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Review
  
  
• Bilingual Flash Cards for PreK & Kindergarten

Nature Study Book Series in Spanish - Giveaway!

 

Today's Back-to-School giveaway is a fantastic collection of nature study books by the homeschool curriculum company, Nobis Pacem. You can read more about this Spanish curriculum company that follows the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling here on my site.

This series is designed for children up to 9 years old, but may be enjoyed by the entire family. Here's what Nobis Pacem says about them:

Children are, by nature, curious, and nature is a propitious place for them to enjoy, and apply, that curiosity.

The study of nature prepares them for the scientific understanding they will use throughout their education, through the acute observation of nature that leads to natural scientific discoveries and fuels the thirst for knowledge and more scientific discoveries.

Nature is found in all the subjects we will study, from science, literature, and art to how nature has affected the course of history.

This book series is designed to make it easier for parents to promote the study of nature, in a simple way since everything is included.

The Giveaway

Nobis Pacem is graciously offering a complete set of this book series to one MommyMaestra reader. 

To enter to win, simply use the rafflecopter below. 

¡Buena suerte!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cometa Creativa: A Preschool Spanish Workbook

 

The following is sponsored post with Nacho Books. All thoughts and opinions are mine. 

The new school year is quickly approaching for many, but for some of us, schooling happens year round. We take long breaks whenever we need them to clear our minds or to travel. My middle kid is taking a month off for summer, but my preschooler comes up to me almost daily asking to "do school."

A Spanish Preschool Activity Book

Right now, he is in love with Cometa Creativa 1, a preschool workbook that is in Spanish. You can find a copy on Nacho Books' website. 

It is great for both Spanish-speaking students AND for introducing Spanish to your preschooler. It uses art as the bridge for language acquisition. This activity book is full of opportunities to color, trace, match, cut and paste, and more. It covers important concepts such as color and number recognition, opposites, shapes, and introduces the vowels. 

The layout is perfect, too. It is a big book, or at least bigger than your traditional 8.5 x 11. Actually, it is about the size of a placemat (approx. 9 x 13 in.). 

Each page can potentially be removed from the book in case your child is easily distracted or you want your child to only focus on the one activity at a time. And if you do remove them, they come with holes already punched in the side in case you want to keep them all together as your child completes them. I've chosen to leave them in the book for now, since my preschooler likes having it all in front of him and doesn't seem to move on until he has finished each activity. 

The front of the page has an activity with some simple directions. The back of the page is for the parent or educator and lists the objective(s) of the activity, theme, contents, suggested methodology, teaching and learning strategies, as well as additional activities that allow your child to dive deeper.

My preschooler is about to turn four and has just now discovered the joy of coloring, so introducing him to this book just happens to come at the perfect time. He loves this book as you can tell from the picture. The cover is already showing wear from him getting it out and plopping it open everywhere.

Here's a little peak at some of the pages:

And finally, the very last section of the book introduces English vocabulary and is intended, I believe, as an introduction to English as a second language. The instructions are still in Spanish for the parent, but the activities have English words. 

Overall, I think it is an excellent activity book for young children. And it is long lasting with more than 200 pages (100+ activities) for preschoolers to enjoy.

A Discount for YOU!

MommyMaestra readers can get a 30% discount on any order of Nacho Books. Just use this link and the discount code MommyMaestra at checkout.

El Gran Nacho: A Spanish Literacy Workbook

The following is sponsored post with Nacho Books. All thoughts and opinions are mine. 

Last month, I told you about Nacho Books' new website and that they had added new titles to their selection of books they sell. Today, I want to tell you about one of those titles that I think many of you will really like.

A Spanish Reading and Writing Master Activity Book

El Gran Nacho is 288 pages of literacy developing activities. It is definitely THE activity book to get to engage your kids during the summer or throughout the school year.

It's designed for children in the first grade. The book's introduction says that the exercises emphasize the following:

• stimulates the development of literacy skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing
• exercises basic function such as visual perception, auditory skills, fine and gross motor skills
• and motivates children to follow the instructions of their teacher (you!), while helping them understand their leading role in the building of their own knowledge.

Okay, so what does this all mean? A LOT of experience and work has gone into creating this book.

It presents letters carefully; the most frequently used letters in the Spanish language are taught first. So naturally, the book begins by teaching the vowels and vowel sounds. The book teaches letters and words in a structured manner so that your kids can start building sentences.

Really, there's an entire process to how the alphabet, sounds, words, and language are taught in this book. And it's all backed by sound pedagogy.

But it's totally fun for kids. The illustrations are very well done, and the activities include things like tongue twisters, poetry, riddles, and crosswords. I even like how they mix print and cursive together to teach children how to read and write both.

I really love this book. And I think that you will, too.

Take a peek at some of the inside pages. Check out how they progress in difficulty...

If this looks like something you're looking for, click over to Nacho Books now and purchase your copy.

A Discount for YOU!

MommyMaestra readers can get a 30% discount on any order of Nacho Books. Just use this link and the discount code MommyMaestra at checkout.

New Website & Titles from Nacho Books

The following is sponsored post with Nacho Books. All thoughts and opinions are mine. 

Friends! I've been highlighting Nacho Books for a few years now because they are so well done and are hugely popular among the bilingual homeschool community. 

New Website

Well, I'm excited to share that they have just launched a brand new website! It's easier than ever to find their amazing products, including new ones such as the ones below.

Susaeta is a leading publisher of children's learning books throughout Latin America. In fact, I've heard from many homeschooling moms that they learned to read with Nacho books when they were kids in Venezuela, Colombia, and other Spanish-speaking countries. Their products have been really hard to find here in the United States, but thanks to Nacho Books, they are now available!

New Titles

The response has been so positive that Nacho Books has decided to expand the number of titles that they carry. They were kind enough to send me several for review, which I'll do over the next few months. 

The first two titles I want to highlight for those of you who are preparing to homeschool (again or for the first time) next year, are below.

Lecturas Integradas is ideal for emergent readers in 1st through 2nd grades. This book is packed full of stories that boost vocabulary, as well as comprehension questions to reinforce what they've read. The book still reviews the alphabet here and there simply to help students master it. But the focus is on reading and writing. 

Matemáticas A is best for students in 1st and 2nd grade (in my opinion). It begins with number recognition (1 - 100), quickly moves into double digit addition, and continues all the way through understanding how to interpret different types of graphs. 

These activity books should not be used as complete curricula (they don't teach how to do the various concepts), but rather they make excellent supplements as a fun way to practice in addition to their lessons. I think I would use these as activity books for car rides, on trips, or simply to pass the time at home.

If either of these sound like what you are looking for, go and check their website out! Or if you are looking for books in Spanish that teach concepts in grades PreK through 2nd grade, take a look at all the other titles on their website. 

A Discount for YOU!

MommyMaestra readers can get a 30% discount on any order of Nacho Books. Just use this link and the discount code MommyMaestra at checkout.

Holiday Gifting: Nacho Books

 

The following is a sponsored post in collaboration with Nacho Books. All thoughts and opinions are mine. 

I hope you all had a lovely holiday last week. It was very different for us. I celebrated at home with just my husband and kids. We missed getting together with extended family, but their safety means more to us this year. 

Today, I'm kicking off another week of holiday gift recommendations! And I'm starting with one of my favorite resources for families who are homeschooling bilingually or in Spanish.

Nacho Books

I've shared these amazing books before on MommyMaestra, so I'm sure you've probably seen them. For families raising bilingual children and who are looking for resources to help their kids learn to read in Spanish, check out NACHO workbooks. They are entirely in Spanish and are recommended for those students who are familiar with Spanish or parents who speak Spanish and want to teach their students/children. The method has been used for more than 60 years and has helped millions of people learn how to read and write in Spanish. Nacho Books offers those books and its variations in Math, Reading Comprehension, Drawing, and more! (Seriously, did you know that they had books in subjects other than reading?!? I didn't!)

These books are great for students PK-2nd grade.

Get a discount!

Nacho Books are offering a discount code for Spanish teachers and/or homeschool moms that subscribe to their website. The discount code is: SPANISHTEACHER  

It'll give you 25% off of your entire order.

Upcoming Giveaway

Also, be sure to check back here for a holiday giveaway in December with Mommy Maestra that includes titles that are not shown in their website yet! SO exciting! I can't wait to share them with you!

Martín y Pepe - Spanish Beginning Reader Books

 

Friends, I'm excited about today's giveaway! (I know, I'm excited about ALL of them!) But this one is special to me because this series of books is loved by my 3yo. 

Last year, I shared these books with you in a sponsored post. Not only did I fall in love with the simple storylines and the beautiful illustrations, but so did my youngest. 

THEN, when I was hosting the Migrant Children's Book Drive last year, Dana Ryan - the author of this series - reached out to me and donated 40 copies (10 of each book). Y'all, I just really love this series and both the author and the illustrator. 

Rosa C. Lopez is the artist. She's brilliant. I actually had her create some art for me for a current project I'm working on and it was remarkable the choices she gave me. I had such a hard time narrowing it down and had to ask my own children to help me choose. And they had a hard time, too. Rosa is THAT good. 

Here's a time-lapse video of her working on the most recent book released in this series. Watch her brilliance in action... 

The Giveaway

Dana has SO kindly offered to give away one complete set of these beginning readers to one MommyMaestra reader! 

To enter, simply use the Rafflecopter below. 

Good luck, friends!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spanish Alphabet Books for PreK & Kindergarten

So many families raising young bilingual children are searching for resources right now to help their preschoolers and kindergartners learn to read in Spanish.

We are lucky to have Spanglish Schoolhouse participating in this year's Back-to-School Fiesta! They have generously offered their Spanish Alphabet Books Bundle. And what I love about it is that parents don't have to be native speakers to help their children learn!

Why? Because this set comes with QR codes . And although the student resources are 100% Spanish, the teacher instruction pages are in English.

This DIGITAL DOWNLOAD bundle is fantastic for practicing letter identification, syllable counting, and beginning sounds in Spanish (or sonidos iniciales).

Every consonant book has all five vowels represented. (The exception is c & g, because there are two versions for those letters: hard and soft.)

Each letter comes with five resources:

Flipbook with QR Code

A printable book children can color, cut, staple, and read to practice beginning sounds in the context of a predictable sentence. These have QR codes, so children can scan and read along with the flipbook using any QR code reader on a phone, tablet, or computer.

Video

This is a full-color version of the above flipbook being read. NOTE: The QR code connects children to files in Google Drive. You will want to be sure your district does not block Google Drive files. 

 

Trace & Match

Trace the word and match it to the correct picture.

Word Puzzle & Syllable Count

Children use the word bank to match the word to the correct picture, then count and circle the correct number of syllables.

Word & Picture Puzzles

Use these to introduce the vocabulary for each letter, as matching puzzles, or to play memory or Go Fish.

What a FABULOUS resource, no?!?

Visit Spanglish Schoolhouse to learn more and watch the video. 

The Giveaway

Spanglish Schoolhouse is offering their Digital Download Spanish Alphabet Book Bundle to one MommyMaestra reader.

To enter to win, simply use the Rafflecopter below.

¡Buena suerte!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hispanic & Bilingual Homeschoolers

For a couple of years, now, I've been dragging my feet. It's been apparent to me for a while that Hispanic and bilingual homeschoolers need one national group where we can ask questions and get support from each other. I'm talking about answers to questions not normally found in other homeschooling groups, such as where to find bilingual materials, how to incorporate culture into our lessons, where to find co-ops with other Hispanic or Latino families, and how to find basic homeschool information.

With this crazy pandemic, the need for this group finally overwhelmed me. So I have finally gotten my act together and asked a few other Latina homeschooling moms to help me get this group off the ground.

I'm happy to announce that today, we are launching the Hispanic & Bilingual Homeschoolers group on Facebook. Are you looking for answers, curricula, or simple support? Come and join us!

Our mission statement:

Hispanic & Bilingual Homeschoolers is a supportive community which brings together homeschooling families from across the United States and the world. We work to provide information and support among homeschoolers in our community and oppose any kind of discrimination. Our mission is to inspire and support homeschooling parents, caregivers, and educators raising the next generation of global citizens. We do this by creating educational and parenting content which celebrates Hispanic and Latinx cultures, languages, and belief systems and by promoting diversity in all its forms while recognizing our common concerns and dreams for our children.

We aren't there to criticize members in the group or others outside of it. We're here to help each other succeed in our journeys to homeschool our children, whatever the reason may be. 

If you are a Hispanic or bilingual homeschooler - newbie or veteran - we would love for you to join us and ask questions or share advice. We even have a few giveaways to celebrate our launch!

Abrazo!

Monica

Other Posts You May Enjoy

• Book Review: A Place to Belong
  
  
• The Latino Family's Guide to Homeschooling
  
  
• 2022 Virtual Homeschool Summit
  
  
• #RespectEachOther: A FREE Download for Parents & Teachers
  
  
• 15 Ways to Raise Non-Racist Children
  
  
• An Open Letter to Latino Parents

Brenda's Story on Homeschooling

Friends, a MM follower on Facebook reached out the other day to share her featured video on Education Today. I wanted to share it with all of you here today because for those of you who are on the fence about homeschooling your children, this may be the encouragement you need.

Brenda's story is in Spanish. Feel free to share it with your Spanish-speaking friends! She's a great example of how and why more Latinos are homeschooling their kids.

¡Gracias, Brenda!

Encouragement for Parents with Children Reluctant to Learn Spanish

© Can Stock Photo - creatista

My oldest son ended our fall semester at our homeschool co-op with a C in Spanish... and that's only because he participated in class and that was factored into the grading!

I'm telling you this because the truth is for some of us, it's hard passing on our heritage language. Even though Spanish was my first language and was spoken most of the time at home, once I started going to all-English schools and - most significantly - once my great-grandmother passed away, Spanish wasn't spoken all that often. And I was certainly never formally taught it. 

So although I understand it perfectly and can speak it well enough (I do make a lot of mistakes at times), Spanish hasn't been something that I easily passed on to my kids. 

Maybe you feel the same way?

When my kids were little, we did a lot of Spanish. I have bookshelves bulging with Spanish-language and bilingual books. I read to them in Spanish all the time because I wanted their ears to hear the nuances of the language and my daughter had excellent pronunciation (and still does). She currently takes Spanish in high school at a private school and is getting A's. We're planning on her going to Spain this summer to stay with my family, which should be a really great experience for her and help her to improve her Spanish.

But that middle kid has resisted me the whole long way. 

We've tried so many homeschool Spanish curricula and classes. And I thought, well, maybe he just doesn't want to learn it from ME. So I signed him up for Spanish in our new homeschool co-op that we attend each week. Pero nada. His teacher says he's a great kid, but he totally bombed the tests. And I would beat my head against the wall every week helping him with his Spanish homework. 

So this semester we are doing something different and so far, I'm hopeful. Now he is doing Duolingo on a daily basis. And I haven't had to help him once. And he doesn't resist when I ask him to get it done. He even does it on his own without me asking!

I'm hoping to mix in some Spanish for You! lessons as we go along this semester. I'll let you know how this goes.

But I wanted to share all this because so often people say, "Oh! You're MommyMaestra! You've raised bilingual kids! You know how to do it. Tell me how." Ummm, no. I've never claimed to be an expert on raising bilingual kids. I struggle with it just as so many of you do. But I am always happy to research your dilemmas and help you find answers so that we can all learn from them. 

And I wanted to tell you: Don't give up. 

Don't give up because your kid refuses to learn. Don't give up because they're "too old." Don't give up because it's so hard. 

Sometimes you just have to keep trying different ways until you stumble upon the best program or practice for your kid.

I hope I've finally stumbled upon the one that works for my middle kid.

Fingers crossed!

2018 Online Spanish Homeschooling Conference

Do you know about Lemonhass? They are an American missionary family living in Mexico and they homeschool their kids in Spanish.

Next week, they'll be hosting a Spanish Online Homeschooling Conference.  It's a week-long and features many presenters from Oct. 22-29.  If you register, you will have access to all the speakers.  It is only $15-$16 with the exchange rate in US dollars or $300 MXP.

I'm assuming that once you register, you'll have access to all the videos to watch at your convenience, even if you cannot watch them live.

My friend, Mayra Rodriguez, of Estilo Familiar will be one of the presenters. Here's a quick video in Spanish in which she tells you a little more about the online conference.

You can register for it here.

Reading in Spanish Program: Nacho Books

I OFTEN receive messages from homeschooling parents who are looking for a Spanish reading curriculum for their kids. If this sounds like you, read on!

I'm happy to remind you of another fantastic resource on our recommended Spanish Reading program list! You might remember me mentioning Nacho Lectura last year. Well, they recently sent me copies of some of their new books. And by new, I mean that they have now released a United States edition with reading passages dedicated to American symbols such as our flag, coat of arms, and even our national anthem lyrics in Spanish!

I can't stress enough how engaging these materials are. In fact, when I posted about it last year on the MommyMaestra Facebook page, many of you instantly recognized the book (with fondness!) from your own childhood. They are simple and colorful, and they make learning to read and spell fun for kids. I love how they focus on letter combinations, letter sounds, and syllables. And in the back of the book are short reading passages. Take a look...

I also love their Spanish dictionary! Not only does it give the definition of thousands of words in Spanish, but it also has sections dedicated to:

• the parts of speech (i.e., nouns, verbs, etc.)
• synonyms
• capital letters
• spelling
• the universe
• anatomy
• the senses
• animals
• plants
• inventions
• and musical instruments

And these books are just the tip of the iceburg...

These resources are a bilingual homeschooler's treasure trove! The dictionary alone is totally worth buying online, and the writing workbook is excellent for beginning writers.

To learn more, visit Cultural Bytes.

Disclosure: I received copies of these books for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Los Matecitos: Spanish Math Site for 1st - 3rd Grades

Resource alert! Are you homeschooling in Spanish or bilingually? Do you have children learning basic math? If so, you should check out Los Matecitos! The interactive website is designed for kids in 1st through 3rd grades. When they open the site, they can choose their grade level and then begin completing fun games to learn:

• number recognition
• adding
• subtracting
• sequence
• multiplication
• shapes
• greater than/less than
• the calendar
• units of measurement
• time
• days of the week
• and more...

The Spanish site is fun for kids and helps them learn basic math concepts through videos and interactive games.

My kids are too old for this site. But if YOU'VE used Matecitos before, let us know what you think! Would you recommend it to other families?

Spanish Immersion Homeschool Resource

For those of you homeschooling your children with full-immersion Spanish, this is a gold mine of Spanish resources. The Mexcian department of education has an amazing online account with Issuu and they've uploaded 641 publications, all of them Spanish texts as far as I can tell (I haven't gone through all of them). They appear to all be centered around 1st through 6th. Lots and lots of great information here. Obviously, the history is focused on Mexican history, but you should be able to use the math, science and other resources for homeschooling here in the U.S.

I haven't used any of these, so if you have, please share your thoughts. Of course, you should look through it first and see if it is of use to you. Just for fun, I'm sharing one book below and will try to remember to do so every now and then as a reminder.

**For those of you looking for a comprehensive list of Spanish learning programs, click here to see my post dedicated to them.

Enjoy!