Today is Bastille Day, or as the French say, le 14 juillet. On July 14th, 1789 the Bastile prison was stormed and the French Revolution officially began. If you’re lucky enough to be in Paris today you’d be enjoying fireworks, parties, and an incredibly jovial environment.

Today is the perfect excuse to use the French word in your vocabulary. Eat traditional French foods like croissants, baguettes, French fromage (cheese), wines, fondue. Make reservations at a French restaurant and be sure to learn the words to La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

My son Emmett with a pain au chocolat in Paris.

]]> http://www.littlepim.com/happy-bastille-day/feed/ 0 http://www.littlepim.com/world-cup-2010-celebrate-won/ http://www.littlepim.com/world-cup-2010-celebrate-won/#comments Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:05:05 +0000 Julia Pimsleur Levine http://www.littlepim.com/?p=4956 Everyone at Little Pim is very excited about the World Cup games taking place right now in South Africa. And it’s not just because the Fifa mascot bears a striking resemblance to Bob the Bobcat of Little Pim Volume II.

It’s always amazing to see some of the world’s best soccer players take to the field for their countries. Did you know that soccer is the most popular team sport in the world?

One can only imagine the number of languages being spoken in Cape Town right now as tourists from all over the world flood the city to support their players.

The World Cup games are a great opportunity for you to teach your child about other countries. The blogosphere is full of posts by mom & dad bloggers who have made teaching crafts centered around the games.

• Consider printing out pictures of the flags of different countries and hanging them up in your child’s room. Point out the the corresponding country’s name and language.
• Look up how to say “hello” in the language of the two teams playing at any given time.
• Use a globe or large map to show your child where the different countries are located.

The World Cup games are not only exciting, they’re an opportunity for you to spark an interest in your child about cultures & language. Have fun and may the best team win!

Did you know that most Australians take a year or two off to travel between high school and college? Australia is a diverse cultural landscape and its children speak a variety of languages. In primary school Australian children are encouraged to learn a second language from a young age.

Below are two images from the Brisbane Dymocks display. Dymocks is the Borders equivalent in Australia.

The last image is from a Sydney York Street Display.

The children were so excited to be at their first premiere party surrounded by Little Pim crew and staff and could hardly believe it when they  saw themselves on the big screen! They were among the first to get a sneak peek at our new characters, Bob the Bobcat and Lola the Elephant, and learned  words in Spanish, French and Chinese.

After we screened the episodes featuring our kids, the whole crew answered questions from the audience. One boy wanted to know how we got all the different languages onto the DVDs, a little girl asked about how animation is made, and they all wanted to know more about the “white screen” we used for the background. It was a mini media literacy lesson!

We ended the party by digging into a homemade Little Pim cake, and all the kids took home their DVDs and goody bags. I was so pleased to learned that the kids at Hanover Farms are now using Little Pim to learn French in their classroom.

I have been to dozens of film openings, from Sundance to the Berlin Film Festival, but this was perhaps the most fun I’ve had yet! I am so grateful to the kids who starred in Little Pim and to the Little Pim crew for their hard work and the high standard they bring to everything they do. It was really special to share the new DVDs with the kids who helped make them come to life (with a little help from a panda…).

We hope you enjoy watching them as much we enjoyed making them.

Today commemorates the unexpected 1862 victory of the Mexican army over the French army in the battle over the city of Puebla. I’ve compiled some Spanish vocabulary words that follow the theme of today’s festivities.

La batalla – battle
La revolucion – revolution
La bandera – flag
El heroe – hero
La independencia – independence
La victoria – victory

Get the kids together and practice your espanol today! If you’re heading out to a party, I’ve included a guacamole recipe below that will entice even your pickiest eaters.

Yummy Guacamole

Ingredients

2 large ripe avocados
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp (30 mL) lime juice
1 medium tomato, seeded and finely chopped
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp (5 mL) ground cumin
1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt

Cooking Instructions

Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit, and peel them. If they are ripe, the peel should come off easily. Dice the avocado flesh, and dump into a bowl.
Add all the remaining ingredients, and toss to combine without mashing. The ingredients should remain separate, and the salsa chunky.
Serve with tortilla chips for dipping, or as an accompaniment to tacos or burritos.

Servings: Makes about 2 cups (500 mL).

recipe from Kaboose.com
photo from score.rims.k12.ca.us

The store is chock full of beautifully selected colorful toys, clothes, baby products and gifts. My 5-year old was the first to win our “treasure hunt” by finding the Little Pim DVDs, Word & Phrase Cards and CDs!

I was a giggle customer back when Little Pim was just a twinkle in my eye and always appreciated their great sense of design and excellent customer service. I later learned that their sales people all go to a “giggle University” where they get intensive training. This is probably why when you shop online or visit one of their 11 stores, they will go above and beyond to find you what you are looking for!

I once needed a new part for my Stokke high chair and they were calling all over town for me and were really nice about it; this is pretty uncommon in the baby retail world. I’m so proud to be part of the giggle family.

When we left the store, my husband, boys and I went to the 78th street playground and then had strawberry milk and pretzels before heading home. A perfect Sunday afternoon! If you are in New York, stop into the new Upper West Side giggle store. You’ll love it. A bonus: Kate, the lovely store manager, speaks French and Spanish.

I hope you had a great weekend!

I received a personal email from Laura this morning letting me know the review had gone live and that we’d received four stars!

“Since I don’t have children to tell me how fun this is to watch and what they’ve learned, my review can only be based on my opinion of the program from an adult point of view. The native speaker providing the panda’s voice pronounces the French very carefully and clearly…”

Merci beaucoup, Laura! C’est tellement gentil!

Read the review here: http://french.about.com/od/listening/fr/littlepimfrench.htm

First, I run him quickly through the ten flashcards telling him how to say each word in French and asking him to repeat (“le fromage” …”le toboggan”). He does not need to say the English, just the French. Then I start over and it’s his turn to remember! He gets so excited when he can say the new words and we have a great time. He loves my silly hints: for “noir” which he has trouble remembering, I tell him to think of his favorite fruit, “poire” – pear – and then he gets it!

Emmett practicing at home

I like making up the “sounds like” part (“sounds like revenge meets today… ‘reveille!’”) and he has started making up his own mnemonics as well. There’s always quite a bit of giggling! What’s also wonderful is that a few days later I’ll say “how do you say “cheese?” and he pipes right up, “fromage!” with the biggest grin on his face.

P.S. We have phonetic spelling on the back of each card, so you don’t have to speak French (or Spanish, the other language in which we offer flash cards) to play the game I played with Emmett!

Little Pim French Word & Phrase Cards

Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards

How do you use language flashcards with your kids?

Seeing them move effortlessly from French to English – even my little two year old – is the best confirmation that starting young makes a difference!

By marrying beautiful graphic design, our signature music, and the always lovable Little Pim panda, Little Pim Word Bag has already become a favorite in the blogosphere. iAppFun, a popular blog that reviews apps as they are released had this to say:

“With great artwork, music and sound effects these Little Pim interactive “flash cards” are the perfect way to educate and entertain young language learners on the go.”

Child Mode also reviewed the app:

“The clean and clear format makes this app fun and easy to use and it is also an excellent way to keep children occupied while on the go or during a trip. If you have an iPhone or iTouch, I highly recommend purchasing this for your children. It has become my toddler’s favorite kids app out of the 10 I have downloaded!”

The $1.99 sticker price for the app makes it an affordable way to support your child’s language acquisition and the perfect compliment to our DVDs, CDs, and Word & Phrase Cards.

I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think.