Yoga in Spanish for Children- Review & Giveaway

***Giveaway Closed**** Winner from random.org was #4 Tricia.

I am always searching for genuine, real-life experiences for my children in Spanish. I like to use products that aren't particularly designed to teach them Spanish, but used to live in Spanish.


I was so excited to try Umbral Yoga by Lina Navia. I went to her website and saw this wonderful preview of the yoga class for children in Spanish from her DVD.




Lina's soothing voice instantly captured the attention of my children. She takes them on adventures to the beach, flying to visit Africa and the farm. My girls favorite part is acting like a lion and then putting him to sleep. The DVD uses sound effects to help the kids imagine (roaring lion, trumpeting elephant, waves at the beach, etc). It has the perfect variety of fast and slow movements, soft and loud sounds, that kept my girls full attention for the 26 minute class. My girls were all trying each pose even if it was difficult. They practice balance, focus and strength.


At the end of the DVD, I was amazed how my children relaxed completely. I have never seen them lay so still (except when they are asleep!). I did the class beside them and I even felt a little sore after doing this exercise with my children (la bicicleta y remando el barco gets your abs!). The adult work-out of 49 minutes is another bonus with the DVD. I highly recommend this product for children learning Spanish. Children who are just learning Spanish will be able to watch and follow her simple instructions. They will learn animal vocabulary, colors and be able to follow instructions.


I loved interviewing Lina and understanding why she decided to create yoga in Spanish for children in the US. She felt that there is so much offered in English, but not in Spanish. She mentioned why she feels yoga is important for children. She said, "What I like about yoga is that it is a non-competitive way to exercise and an opportunity to connect with themselves. Yoga gives them the chance to relax in a way because it connects them with their own bodies and their breath." We talked about how important it is for children to build confidence in themselves and their bodies. This will especially be important as they grow older and become teenagers. I plan on doing this exercise with my girls at least weekly. Learn more about Lina Navia by clicking here.


Want to win a Umbral Yoga DVD by Lina Navia?


Here is how to enter this giveaway contest:

*Go here and come back to this post, make a comment telling us one thing you learned about Umbral Yoga or Lina Navia



Want additional entries?

After submitting your first entry you can do the following:
-Become a facebook fan of Wanna Jugar with Migo page (you must already be a part of facebook). Click on the Become a fan button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and make another comment saying you are a fan.
-Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry.
-Become a follower of this blog. Make a comment telling us that you follow our blog (even if you are already a follower)

Giveaway ends Sunday, April 11th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. After I announce the winner , the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours to get the prize. 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 or include your e-mail with your comments so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners have lost out on products they win because they didn't respond.

Susy Dorn Interview

A blogging friend recommended that I look at products by Susy Dorn. I am sure glad that I did!

Susy Dorn is a native Spanish speaker from Peru that has created a fun, immersion approach to teaching Spanish to young children. From her website, "she is director and founder of “Juguemos en Espanol”. She has a degree in Early Childhood Education from the Universidad Catolica de Lima-Peru. She is a musician, performer and puppeteer with fourteen years of experience working with children. She has recorded CDs and has created DVDs and books for children in Spanish."

I had the pleasure of speaking with Susy on the phone. Here is my interview:

How do you teach Spanish to young children?

We use puppets and music and a different theme each week to motivate the children to come to class every week and to be able to introduce the children to different things. Music and puppets are the biggest things we use in the class. Of course, we repeat a lot. Every week we have a different theme, transportation or colors, the house, you name it. There are a bunch of CD’s we have created. There are 20 songs in each CD and in each song there is a different theme that we teach every week. Then when they get home and they listen to the CD and the books, they get to review whatever they did in class.

Why do you use music and puppets primarily? Why are they effective?

When you learn something through music, you will always remember it. Even people with Alzheimers , they don’t remember much, but they can sing songs from when they were 2 or 3. If you learn something through music, it stays in your head forever . I remember in college I was horrible on tests and I had to remember a lot things, so I would just create a song. Puppets are huge. Where the adults don’t reach, the puppets will. Both are very effective techniques that teach children. I have been using them for a long time since I was in Peru. We have more than 3,000 puppets. Every week there is a different puppet on the puppet show. Their little faces light up every time. “Vamos a ver los titeres” and everybody runs to the puppet house and they can stay there for hours.

How do you use complete immersion?

It is very different because we have a lot of props, a huge amount of props for children. We don’t need to speak in English because they see everything that we say. We don’t really need to speak in English in the class. It works really great, we have been doing this for 10 years. Of course, the materials are huge because even if they are not taking the classes, the materials are a great way for children to learn at home with their parents. The classes are only offered here [in California Bay Area ] right now, but we have an idea to offer this to other people who want to teach it around the country but we don’t know how long it is going to take. However, the materials are right there for parents to buy and learn Spanish at home with their kids in a really fun way. That’s why we created the books, because the children can listen to the CD’s and they have a book of reference to understand what the words of the songs are. The songs are very simple and catchy. In the books, there are the illustrations of the words of the songs.

**Check out the current giveaway of CD and Book sets by Susy Dorn!

John De Mado Interview

Here is my interview with John De Mado:

What do you believe the role of “error” is in the language acquisition process?

Here is the bottom line. The research comes from a gentleman by the name of Larry Selinker. His book is entitled Rediscovering Interlanguage. Selinker basically tells us that students come to us with one language or L1. That’s the native tongue. We then try to help them acquire another language or L2. Try as we may, humans cannot move directly from L1 to L2. We naturally move L1 into L2, thus creating a 3rd language of sorts. It is the single most common language learning strategy employed by human beings pandemically. This 3rd language is a less than accurate language, but a language nonetheless. Its name... Interlanguage.

When children begin speaking their native tongue, they don’t begin by speaking it perfectly. “I eated, I runned, I writed, etc.” What they are entering is a period called 'Interlanguage'. 'Interlanguage' is a primordial stage in the language acquisition process. Characteristically, it is riddled with errors... not mistakes... but errors. Errors are caused by 'dynamic' attempts to use the new language. They are not 'mistakes' as the language learner knows no better at that point.

One large problem with language instruction arises when we try to move from no language directly to 'standard' language by eliminating the interlingual stage. Thus, we subvert the entire language acquisition process. Contrary to most instructional belief and practice, error is critical to language acquisition. Generally, language instructors believe that if they allow for errors, these errors will “fossilize”, meaning they will embed. And it’s really not true, any more than it’s true with a little child that says at age three, “I eated, I runned, I writed” and at age six, “I ate, I ran, I wrote.” If you don’t allow for error, that is, Interlanguage, then the psycholinguistic aspects of language acquisition are negated . What do I mean by this?...

There is a certain personality profile or platform that supports language acquisition. It is inherit in all young children. As a mother yourself, you will be able to identify with this very easily. All young children exhibit three salient psycholinguistic characteristics: The ability to risk-take linguistically; the willingness to be vulnerable; and a heightened usage of intuition.

By risk-taking, I mean a tacit willingness on the part of the language acquirer to confront more language than what he/she currently owns. Clearly this is what all youngsters do to acquire their L1. No matter how you, as a parent, pare language down for them, it is greater than what they own. That’s what I’m looking for in the world language classroom. Language students can only risk-take to the degree that the language teacher is a risk-taker.

Vulnerability reflects the willingness, on the part of the language acquirer, to err freely for the broader goal of communication.

Language is essentially insufficient for human communicative needs. If language were sufficient, we wouldn’t have war, we wouldn’t have divorce, we wouldn’t have arguments, we would have no confrontation, everyone would understand one another 100%. These are certainly not the circumstances. As a result, humans essentially intuit messages from one another. We don’t really understand each other verbatim. Much, if not most, of human discourse is guided by intuition.

If you can find a classroom that supports risk taking, vulnerability and intuition, then basically what you have is the foundation for language acquisition. It happens in most households. Kids are allowed to be risk takers, to being vulnerable and to be intuitive. Once they move into the academic environment, however, it is systematically extracted starting at about the third grade. By the time we run into these same kids in 7th grade, all they want to know is what is going to be on the test. "Tell me the answer... And then I’ll take the test." They are virtually devoid of the capacity to risk-take, be vulnerable and to use intuition. Ironically, in many school districts, that's when we decide to begin second language study... After the 'psycholinguistic' profile has been reduced, if not destroyed.

Denise Vega Interview

First of all, I love the book in this giveaway! Click here to enter the giveaway. It is so adorable, perfect for beginners, fun to read and lends itself to lots of related activities. I enjoyed interviewing the author, Denise Vega. Click here to go to her website. You can get to know her a little better...




Why did you decide to create bilingual books?
The short answer is I didn’t! I originally submitted the manuscript for Build a Burrito in English-only as I am not bilingual. Once they accepted it, they contacted me to see how I would feel about doing it bilingual. I told them I wasn’t and worked with some bilingual friends for some of the words and the publishers Spanish editor also helped with the Spanish in the book.


What would be some advice you would give parents who are trying to teach their children Spanish?
IMMERSION if at all possible. If the parent is not fluent, surround the child with the language – on television, radio, books, music. Enroll them in classes if possible. See if you can find a bilingual speaker to talk with them. And learn it yourself so you can converse with them! If you don’t use it, you lose it.


Tell us a little about the book, Grandmother, Have the angels come? that you wrote.
This book came from watching my own grandmother go through what we all go through as we get older – some of our parts don’t work as well as they used to! And we often complain about all of our aches and pains and what we can no longer do. I began to explore some of the positive aspects of aging and the story grew into a relationship between a grandmother and a granddaughter, with the granddaughter noticing a deficiency and the grandmother pointing out the gift it has given her.

How did you up with the idea for Build a Burrito?
Wow. It was so long ago that I don’t recall specifically! I do remember that I was exploring the Mexican side of my heritage (and still am) and wanting to write stories that connected with that. I probably was looking at different concept books and wondered how I could combine looking at my heritage with a counting book. And of course, I love burritos (even though I hate cheese!) and they can have lots of ingredients so it seemed like a good fit.

Jose-Luis Orozco Interview

I had a wonderful time interviewing Jose-Luis Orozco. He is a well-known children’s author, songwriter, performer and recording artist. I was given his CD, De Colores, along with the beautiful picture book as a gift from my sister when my first daughter was a baby. I love the way he sings traditional Latin songs and rhymes. Visit here to learn more about him.







What motivates you to write bilingual music?
I am very lucky to work for public schools in California. There are many communities that speak Spanish. It is very important to reach all children through the English and Spanish language. I am an educator and I like teaching languages through music.


How do you think children are best motivated to learn a second language?
In my case, I think music is a BIG motivator because I am a musician and an educator. Music is a great motivator to teach language, history, culture and movement.


Did you teach your children to speak Spanish? If so, how did you do this? Did you only speak in Spanish? What challenges did you find as you taught them?
Yes! At an early age, we were in a bilingual setting in California. We did it all: speaking, dancing and singing in Spanish. We took them on many trips to Mexico to visit with relatives and to live the Mexican culture. They picked up both languages as they attended a bilingual school. Their mother is a bilingual teacher. They had both cultures in their home. The challenge was to pay for the trips to Mexico. They have also participated in many multicultural community events.


What tips would you give parents that are teaching their children Spanish?
- Talk, sing and play with them in Spanish.
- Read books to them.
- Visit the local library.
- Participate in multicultural community events.


He is giving away 5 De Colores CD's to 5 different readers of this blog! Click here to enter.

Second Language Learning from a Speech Pathologist

I love everything that has to do with language learning. As my children learn, I'm curious about their development of pronouncing Spanish. How is their speech affected if they are learning other languages? Erika Levy answered my questions about this.

Erika Levy is Director of the Speech Production and Perception Lab at Teacher's College of Columbia University. She does research on the effects of second language learning on speech performance. Please visit here to learn more about her.

You have studied Linguistics and Speech and Language Pathology. In what languages do you specialize?

My research questions involve bilingualism in general, as well as the particular languages. (I am a French/English/German trilingual with knowledge of other languages.) Currently, I am examining Spanish-English bilinguals' perception and production, but my past research has been on French and German. I am particularly interested in children's perception and comprehension of accented speech.

What motivated you to study language acquisition?

How can one not study language acquisition?! I was probably influenced by my mother’s being a French teacher, my father’s being a writer, and growing up in a bilingual (French/English) home in Czechoslovakia and in Austria. I received a master's in linguistics, became a speech pathologist, and my interest in bilingualism and language learning persisted. So I continued to research bilingualism and second-language learning for my Ph.D. As a professor at Teachers College, Columbia, I have the opportunity to continue to perform research in the field.

How does learning a second language affect speech development?

Whether children are monolingual, bilingual or trilingual, they say their first word at approximately 12 months. So learning a second language does not seem to make a difference in terms of first words or the ultimate ability to speak languages. It is very normal and common for people to speak more than one language--in many countries, monolingualism is the exception and bilingualism or trilingualism is the norm. The evidence suggests that introducing a second language is not harmful to a child's first language. That said, while a child is acquiring two languages, some differences do emerge between monolinguals and bilinguals. For example, at 18 months, a monolingual English-speaking child might have 50 words in English. A bilingual (Spanish-English-speaking) child of the same age is likely to have the same total number of words (50), but 25 in English and 25 in Spanish. This may reflect the cognitive/memory load that an 18-month old child is able to manage. If you look at just one language of the bilingual then, s/he might look delayed compared to the bilingual at that point in development. However, if you look at both languages, they are performing the same. Another way to think about it is that the bilingual is about 3 months behind the monolingual for a couple of years in the acquisition of English. Within a couple of years, they catch up. (Much of my response is based on E. Hoff’s work.)

What can parents do to help their bilingual children with their speech development?

Parents can foster the enjoyment of both languages just as they foster the joy of communication in one language. Forcing it won't work. Play music, sing songs. A babysitter or parent who speaks the second language is probably the most effective way to help a child develop that language, especially if that person doesn't speak the child's other language. The more high-quality, consistent input in both languages they have, and the more motivated the child is to speak, the more successful the language learning is likely to be. The one-parent per language technique appears to be effective in helping the child understand the form of each language. I also tend to be explicit when teaching a child a new word. For example, I'll use the word "fromage" and say "Maman dit 'fromage'. Papa dit 'cheese'." (Maman says "fromage", Papa says "cheese".)

Why did you decide to create the CD and book series Baby's First Words in Spanish (and other languages)?

Random House approached me after hearing about my research. They asked me to write a proposal for a book and CD that would introduce babies to languages early, which I did. They liked it, so I started writing.

How should a non-native speaker of a second language go about teaching their children the second language?

Non-native speaking parents can brush up on their second language and do their best, but in order to expose their child to the "target" language/speech pattern, they will need to rely on babysitters who are native speakers of the language and other immersion sorts of environments. There are dual language immersion programs at some schools in NYC, for example, that are very effective. The more the child needs to communicate in a language, the more effective the learning will be. Children's brains are so plastic that if the motivation and input are there, they will absorb the language like sponges.

I also had another personal question for her about how my daughter still cannot pronounce the Spanish r. I asked her by what age would it be a concern if they cannot roll their r's.

An article by Brian Goldstein (reference below) suggests that trills are often not mastered until about 1st grade. But these norms are for monolingual Spanish speakers. I attended a talk recently by Fabiano-Smith, who worked with Goldstein. She reported some work on bilinguals. It seems that sounds that are similar in the two languages (e.g., f and m) are mastered at similar ages by bilinguals as by monolinguals, but sounds that differ across a bilingual’s two languages (e.g., r) are mastered a bit later in bilinguals than monolinguals. So no worries about your daughters’ r production yet.

Reference: Goldstein, B. (1995). Spanish Phonological Development. In H. Kayser (Ed), Bilingual speech-language pathology: An Hispanic focus, 17-38. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.

I loved understanding how speech affects second language learning. I heard of Erika Levy first by listening to her CD, Baby's First Words in Spanish, that introduces children to songs through traditional rhymes and songs. I highly recommend the product. My girls love it and it helps them practice Spanish sounds and pronunciation. This product also has versions in French, Chinese and Italian!

Sue Young Interview

I had the pleasure of talking with Sue Young, a wonderful musician who creates bilingual children's music. Here are the answers to some of my questions.

In what parts of Latin America have you lived?
I lived in Quito for a year, actually it was my junior year of college. Then I traveled around South America to some other countries when I had breaks in my schooling.

What do you love most about the Latin American culture?
I loved the warmth and friendliness of the people that I met there. They made me feel so welcome. Friendship is so highly valued in that culture and I found I really enjoyed that.

What do you love most about the Latin American music?
I am a musician and have been my whole life. I come from a musical family. We moved to New Mexico when I was starting high school. The Hispanic culture has a big influence in New Mexico, so I started getting interested in it there. For example, we would sing some songs in Spanish at church and things like that.

How did you learn Spanish?
I started studying Spanish in Junior High and just continued in college. Of course, when I got to spend a year in South America, that’s when I really learned to speak Spanish.

Why did you decide to create Bilingual music for children?
It kind of grew organically out of teaching. When I moved to Austin in 1985, I started teaching first music to young children and then some of the parents of the students asked me to teach their kids Spanish. So I started teaching Spanish. The way that kids learn best is through play, through songs and games and rhymes. It was just a very natural way for me to teach kids through music. I had fallen in love with Latin American music when I was in Latin America. There is so much wonderful Latin American music.

What advice would you give parents who are teaching their children Spanish?
First of all, make it fun. Make it a game. One idea that I had, one thing that I do when I am teaching, when I try to teach a conversational type thing in Spanish, is I use puppets. You can tell the kids that this puppet and every puppet has a name (Diego el gallo, Rosa la rana). [Like] this is Guillermo and he is from Mexico and he can only speak in Spanish and he only can understand Spanish. If you want to talk to him, you have to talk to him in Spanish. Then you come up with some scenario where there is a conversation and you can model the conversation with the puppet. You say something and the puppet says something back and then the kid gets to talk to the puppet.

Do you ever give performances to groups?
I do performances for storytelling and music…for kids and families. Sometimes it’s in Austin, but more often I travel around Texas in schools and libraries mainly. Usually I end up telling the stories in English since most of my audience is primarily Spanish speaking, but I always throw in some Spanish and the songs that I do for the Latin American show will mostly be in Spanish or they will be bilingual.


Please click here to enter a giveaway with her CD which includes traditional Latin American legends and songs.

Claudia Rueda Interview

I love reading so many of Claudia Rueda's books to my kids. Her illustrations are wonderful and stories so clever! I enjoyed getting to know Claudia better. I hope you can learn more about here also.

Here is her bio from her website: Claudia Rueda grew up in Colombia. There she went to Law and Art School, worked as a political cartoonist and published educational books with UNICEF. In 1997 she moved to San Francisco, CA with her husband and started working on children's books and computer graphics and had her two girls. Her first book published, 3 bilnd men and an elephant, was her final class project at a UC Berkeley CD illustration program. Since then, she has lived in Madrid, Reston VA and Bogota and has published in the US, Spain and Mexico.

She also answered some of my questions:

I love your wonderful illustrations, when did you start drawing?
Every since I can remember. When I was a child my box of color pencils was my favorite “toy”.

Why did you decide to create bilingual books?
I grew up in Colombia, so my first language is Spanish. But I always had an important cultural influence from English speaking cultures (Rock music, movies, books, travels). When I grew up, I moved with my husband to San Franciso, CA. I learned most of the things I know about picturebooks while living in California. Now I have an editor in New York and an editor in Mexico, so I write in both languages.

Tell us how you came up with the idea for Mientras Se Enfria El Pastel?
I have always loved the traditional story “The Little Red Hen”. When you are a mother, you feel like this red hen very often. On the other side, my younger daughter was having a hard time trying to figure out the concept of time, clocks, hours, etc. So I decide to make a book about a hen named Dorotea. She would bake a cake cut in 12 pieces, and then different animals would grab a piece while the cake was cooling. After talking to my editor about this project, he suggested a birthday party, and I thought that was a great idea (children love birthday parties). There would be 5 chicken, and one of them would eat all the pieces of the cake.

Which is your favorite book that you have written/illustrated?
That is a very though question. I feel something special for my second book published, “La Suerte de Ozu”, maybe because it was very fresh and experimental. I also love the Zorrito and the Pastel books, since kids LOVE those two books, and that is something very special for me. There is a recent book that I like very much, because it is humorous and clever: “Dos Ratones, una rata y un queso”. But, my favorite is always the one I am working on.

Did you teach your children to speak Spanish? If so, how did you do this?
My husband is also Colombian, so we always speak Spanish at home.

What would be some advice you would give parents who are trying to teach their children Spanish?
It is always good for the children to see the cultural opportunities of having access to a second language. So I would tell them about Spanish speaking countries, their cultural heritage, their food, their music, their books, their children. If you have the chance to visit a Spanish speaking country with your kids, they will want to learn more. Look for Spanish speaking kids.

Where is the best place to buy Mientras Se Enfria el Pastel online in the United States?
You can find copies at Amazon or Abebooks. If you want several copies, you can contact the publishing house at http://www.rbalibros.com/

Just a few of her books: Click on the images to be taken to an online store

If you would like to win a copy of Mientras Se Enfria el Pastel, click here to enter the giveaway.

Maria Del Rey Interview

I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Maria Del Rey. She is a Latin Grammy Nominee and sings wonderful Bilingual children's music. One of the first CD's I found for my children was The Peanut Man. It is a fun collection of songs of Latin America. I love the Latin rhythms and beats. My girls loved singing along with it and I honestly loved listening to it as well. It does make you want to dance. I can't wait to try her Lullabies of Latin America CD that was nominated for a Latin Grammy.

Look at the next post for details on the giveaway!

Here are the answers to my questions:

When did you first start singing?

Well, I started as a concert cellist when I was ten years old. I was very inspired to play beautiful Latin American cello music, things from Villa Lobos. By the time I was 21, I realized that my cello professors had me singing all the arias, all the beautiful pieces. A great cellist is like a great singer, you study the same type of operatic phrasing as you do as an opera singer…. Here I was 21, one day I got an opportunity to sing on something just for fun, and I realized, “Wow, I can really sing!“ It started kind of late...[but] I went, “Woo, this feels nice and you don’t have to carry a big heavy cello." The next thing I knew, it naturally moved into singing, more singing, and more singing. I still play the cello of course, but it became such a delight [to sing]. That was in Miami and then when I moved to Los Angeles, I got on the ground floor of singing on a lot of Spanish advertising and Spanish records: the first versions of Coca Cola in Spanish and Sears and Roebucks in Spanish. …And that created my love for bilingual music at that time.

Tell me about the products that the Maria Del Rey Company offers.

For 20 years now, we have produced beautiful children’s music that is a cultural celebration of Hispanic and also multicultural [people], generally just opening our eyes to children around the world. So my talent has been not just singing… I am a producer. That’s my greatest love because producing is a little bit of every single thing that I love to do. So for the last 20 years, I have produced many beautiful works out in the world and some have gone [out in] up to six languages. So the body of the work I have done the last 20 years is preparing us now. We are actually launching a brand new company on Mother’s Day this year…It is a focus on comfort and friendship for families. … We’re really excited about it.

How did you learn both English and Spanish?

Well, I had the great fortune to grow up in Miami, where it’s like North Havana, so you can go two or three days without ever having to speak English in Miami. So not only are you completely bilingual in language, but you are bilingual in culture… Actually I learned English second, I learned English when I was about seven years old. So Spanish is my first language. My mom and dad are obviously both from Cuba. I was born in Cuba as well and my brother. We spoke Spanish all the time, and then, when my brother and I got a little bit older… we would just speak in English all the time, because that’s what you do in school, right? My dad made a rule: no Spanish, no food… so we were quite motivated… it was food that brought us to our senses, to always speak in Spanish. I don’t think that I would do that now, but… it worked in our family. My sweet dad is probably one of the main reasons I do what I do. He was so proud of the Hispanic culture and he constantly said people just don’t understand how beautiful and rich and varied Latin America is and all the different types of people that make it go round.

What do you think motivates kids to learn a second language?

Well, I have to say that I think if you follow a Violin study method (I come from that background), called Suzuki. They do something extraordinarily well, they first teach kids how to play the instrument. You play for the love of it, you just play. You don’t talk about theory; you don’t bore anybody to death. You don’t learn 500 conjugations of how to play that chord. I think that the experience of songs is why we have been successful in doing what we do. The experience of songs, it brings joy and it brings movement and it brings opportunity to try new things on your tongue. Kids like it. It’s fun…

We believe and know …in our hearts as producers that children are brilliant. They are very, very intelligent…I think to inspire kids is to [let] them have small successes…Like just teaching them how to order [at] the Mexican food restaurant, …You could go once a month, and every month, they [order] the whole thing…Making fun, little field trips and [teaching] little scripts… builds confidence. You want to build confidence a little bit at a time. This makes it fun for the family. Then the whole family learns the little script. They all just speak the language together, before anybody gets bored out of their mind about how to conjugate Spanish… To follow the Suzuki method in Spanish would be an extraordinary thing to do.

How did you come up with the idea for The Peanut Man CD?

The story of the Peanut Man is a real life story that I am going to someday make into a film. In the meantime, I just couldn’t wait any longer, and I had to record the song. It’s a fabulous story about a real man from the 1920’s who lived in Havana. He decided that words were a waste of time and he never spoke to anyone, speaking, he only sang to them. He even had a little rhyme [be]cause he felt that words were for the birds and that song is the only way to really truly communicate to humans. It is going to be a live, action… non-animated [film], a beautiful, sweet story about this man who really valued the power of song and communication versus words. That will probably take me about 5 years to make that film. But I look forward to doing it because it is a great story. A great story about personal responsibility of what you say. The record became Songs and Stories from Latin America…

I absolutely love the Lullabies of Latin America. It was an experiment of intentionality. We organized a very quiet studio setting. Every musician who played, everybody who came in, it was the intention to really nurture and create a beautiful environment of adoration, of enjoying the beautiful parent and child connection. So Lullabies of Latin America, I feel, has magic fairy dust on it because it was really truly blessed. It has been our best seller. The Peanut Man is a very fun version, but the Lullabies, to me, is wonderful, wonderful. It was nominated for a Latin Grammy. (end of interview)

*Click on CD's to be linked to cdbaby.com