El Baile del Sombrero Review and Giveaway

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***

Winners are: #8 Adriana, #1 Queen to my 3 boys
and #6 Tricia

The biggest smiles come on my daughters' faces when El Baile Del Sombrero comes up on our CD changer in our car. They almost want to leap out of their seats to dance along. This has become our latest favorite children's music in Spanish to listen to.

Although it is created for children in mind, I think adults will enjoy the variety and fun lyrics on the CD. Charles and Fati, a couple raising their two children bilingually, decided to create children's music since they already sang and danced with their children during the day. Fati, a native from Argentina, always speaks in Spanish to her children. Charles from Washington D.C. and Brooklyn always speaks in English. Charles and Fati have always communicated this way, even before they had children. What a natural way to raise your children bilingually! They have loved performing in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Lujan, Argentina to other families who speak Spanish or want to learn. Learn more about their story here

The name of their website, Abbasubi, captures the fun, playful style of their music. In Charles' family, his mother would say "Abbasubi" instead of "No!" if the children were getting into mischief. This would usually result in giggles from the silly word instead of getting upset.

Like our last giveaway, this music goes beyond the simple Spanish vocabulary in countless Spanish children's music. They don't teach colors, shapes and parts of the body. They use the Spanish as you would naturally use it in everyday life. I love this!

Things I love:

-Song lyrics talk about the everyday experiences of a child

-The songs teach vocabulary beyond simple words and phrases, so they are perfect for children that have had some exposure already to Spanish

-Each song has a different style, salsa, lullaby, reggae feel and mariachi. We love to dance to the songs after dinner :)

-The songs encourage hand and body movements. My kids know what the songs are about because we dance whatever is being sung. La esponja goes to your head, your nose, etc. You have to move the sombrero between your legs and put it on again.

-Fati and Charles have more Argentine accents. My children haven't really met any Argentine people and so at first they noticed the different accent. I think it is wonderful to expose children to all the varieties of native Spanish accents. Then when they travel or meet people from all over Latin America or Spain, they can easily communicate with them.

By far, our favorite song is La Pulga y Su Familia. A song about a little flea who invites her family to come with her to visit different animals on a rainy day. My girls know every word and love to itch all over as the animals itch in the song.

You have to check out this music. All the creative lyrics to the songs are on their website. You can listen to samples of all songs on their CD by clicking here. You can also listen to full versions of several songs by visiting here.


Fati and Charles are giving away 3 El Baile del Sombrero CD's to 3 lucky readers of this blog!

How to enter:
Go here to listen to samples of songs from El Baile del Sombrero CD's. Come back to this post and make a comment telling us the name of your favorite song you listened to. That's it!

Want more entries?
Blog about this giveaway giving them a direct link to this post and receive 2 more entries. If you don't have a blog, you can e-mail 6 people and cc a copy of the e-mail to wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com. Please come back here and make 2 additional comments so this can count!

You can have up to 3 entries in this contest (this will increase your chances of winning, although you can only win 1 CD)

Contest Ends November 22, 2009 at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to three times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Sunday, November 22th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on November 23rd and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners might lose out on products they win if they don't respond.