In FEELINGS, Little Pim helps kids learn how to say useful phrases like “I am happy” and “I am scared” and “I am shy” and in COLORS we learn seven colors, through a balloon treasure hunt that ends in a surprise party! The books are written in English, with French and Spanish words and phrases throughout, and as always, we include easy phonetics so that parents can use these even if they don’t speak the language themselves.

I love reading books to my children and never found the right bilingual books that were engaging and interactive. These books will help you bring French and Spanish learning to storytime in a new, super fun way.

Like all Little Pim products, our books are beautifully designed, affordable, and easy to use. Two more books in this series, published by Abrams Publishing, will come out in the Spring, so stay tuned. For languages other than Spanish and French, look out for our e-books, coming soon!

To order the books, click here.

Brain Child awards are specifically for “exciting products that energize the mind while seamlessly blending fun and learning”. Below are the wonderful things Tillywig had to say about Little Pim:

“It’s been well established that children have a window of time in their early years during which they can easily learn multiple languages. It would be a shame not to take advantage of that golden window, and Little Pim is an early language-learning system designed to do just that. The German Gift Set Plus comes with a boxed set of 60 German word and phrase cards and a boxed 3-pak of German language DVDS introducing over 180 words and phrases, as well as an 8-inch Little Pim Panda plush toy, all packaged in a reusable see-through tote. Little Pim is a cute and peppy panda, appearing throughout the DVDs and on every language card. The live action and animation make the DVDs highly engaging, and each well-illustrated flash card also denotes which DVD teaches that card’s word or phrase in order to help reinforce learning. The DVDs are lots of fun, very child appropriate, and parents enjoy learning from them as much as do children! Little Pim offers products in 10 languages.”

Thank you for supporting us and helping bring access to fun foreign language education to children all over the United States (and beyond!).

This was the subject of a recent blog post on the NYTimes.com, and like any self-respecting parent, Pogue (tech columnist for the NY Times) is somewhat concerned by his youngest child’s newfound infatuation with his father’s toy. He’s concerned, yes, but he’s not worried.

Pogue makes a critical point: his child uses the iPad mainly for learning purposes. He plays mostly educational and creative apps: a program that lets children create animated short movies, write their own songs, or solve challenging spatial awareness puzzles. To parents who remember a world before computers, this may admittedly feel a little foreign. But the technological devices can be an invaluable tool for educational entertainment when used in conjunction with other, non-screen activities.

There’s good TV and bad TV, so why shouldn’t electronics be the same? There’s little doubt that technology like the iPad can be interactive and collaborative, and actively encourage children to think, learn and create.

Poll: What are your rules for electronics or TV?

He notes that by 2050 our nation is on track to be 29% Spanish speaking and we are increasingly doing business with Latin American countries. He also makes the sobering case that more of us will be retiring to Latin America, where the living is cheaper. He says Chinese is more of a “specialty” language that will only help our kids if they become proficient and choose to work with China. which should remain in the foreseeable future one of the world’s economic super powers.

Here at Little Pim we have also seen the rising popularity in Chinese (it is our second best-selling language, neck in neck with French, after Spanish) and have noticed another trend – that more and more parents are choosing to introduce their children to TWO languages in addition to English. Thousands of parents in the United States are getting their babies and toddlers going on some combination of Chinese and Spanish or Chinese and French.

We field many calls and emails about this each week. Often parents explain that the Chinese is to give their kids what they think will be a competitive advantage in tomorrow’s economy, and the romance language is to honor a family heritage, or because one of the parents speaks that language and can help with it at home.

The benefits to kids of learning more than one language during early childhood are widely documented (it improves memory, advances verbal and math skills and analytic thinking). What about the benefits of two? Research shows that a child can learn up to three languages without any confusion. The learning results are even better if one of the languages is spoken at home, and if the languages have a different base, such as Chinese, which is tonal, and French, which is a romance language. A child will never confuse “sourire” with xiao’ or ‘笑’. But they might confuse “sonreía” (Spanish) and “sourire” (French).

Ultimately choosing a language, or languages, for your child is a very personal choice that takes into account your hopes for your child’s future (will she be part of a multi-national company someday? Will he be able to travel, work and live abroad? Can she communicate with family members who don’t speak English?). But whatever language parents choose, their children will be getting a huge advantage over their monolingual peers. Spanish is by far still the leading language being studied in the U.S., with 88% of all foreign language classes in schools in Spanish (per the Today Show – link to the home page video here?).

Picking up a THIRD language is much easier once a child has learned a second one, so rather than dwell on “Which Language is Best,” debate, parents should just dive in and know their children may make their own choice later about what language they want to learn, and it will be fairly easy for them to make that change if they have a solid base in any language.

My own sons, Emmett and Adrian, have been learning French since they were babies, because of my family connection to France (I know Spanish or Chinese might be more “useful” in their careers) but if they get to high school and decide they want to learn Chinese or Spanish I will happily let them change, and know they will have a much easier time understanding the grammar rules and acquiring new vocabulary thanks to their years of French.

What do you think? Are you considering introducing your child to two languages? Do you know people whose kids are studying Chinese and a romance language? We’d love to hear from you. Take our new QUIZ on our homepage about which language/s your child should learn, if you haven’t chosen yet.

Nicolas Kristof

*Kristof is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, who writes powerfully about pressing international women’s issues, such as inadequate maternal health care and the shameful ongoing slavery of young girls, notably in his book Half the Sky, written with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. Kristof resides outside New York City with his wife and their three children: Gregory, Geoffrey and Caroline.

Then it’s school vacation! What to do? When you have run out of the art projects, cooking projects and sorting through old toys to make room for new ones, you might be tempted to resort to TV, the computer or handing over your iPhone/iPad. Or maybe you just want to sleep in, and the TV makes a pretty good babysitter between 6 and 7 am.

This can bring up feelings of guilt and questions about how much is too much “screen time”. I recommend a great book on the subject called “Into the Mind of Babes” which helps you sort through some of the best information – and misinformation – out there about the effects of TV on your little ones’ minds. In the meanwhile, here are some of my tips for keeping screen time in check and using media as a positive force in your kids lives.

5 tips for managing screen time during the holidays:

1. Decide in advance with your partner how much “screen” time is OK to have each day. Tell the kids what that is, and everyone needs to stick to it. If the kids ask to watch their second show you can say “we all agreed to one hour a day and you’ve already used that up, sorry!”

Make sure they know that screen time includes TV, computer and digital media players (iTouch, iPad, etc). That can seem obvious to us, but not always to them.

2. Teach your kids the expression “mush brain” from watching too much TV. This will help them realize there is a such a thing as TV overload (my kids have used the expression on their own since I taught it to them!)

3. Don’t only use TV as a babysitter. Make sure to watch special made for kids movies with them during the holidays (we recently watched “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” as a family and had a great time).

Make sure to talk about the movie with them after viewing. Movies can be great springboards for conversations about emotions and things kids think about. (How did Charlie Brown feel when they made fun of him? How would you feel if you had spell a hard word in a spelling bee?)

4. Use TV time for “soft teaching” – let them watch TV, but try to mix up the “eye candy” entertainment with videos about science, nature, language learning or music. Many parents feel good about Little Pim because their kids are having fun “watching TV” but parents know they are learning a new language.

5. Use TV time as a special reward (“after we read these 4 books… “ or “after we clean up your room”).

Happy Holidays!

MAGNETIC BLOCKS

Tegu Blocks are the kind of invention that makes you think “why didn’t I come up with that?” Take a block and combine it with a magnet, and voilà! Embedded inside each block is a powerful magnet that allows you to build things that couldn’t be done with traditional blocks. To boot, Tegu blocks are made from eco-friendly wood native to Honduras, where they are manufactured.

You can get them in New York at Doodle Doo’s (11 Christopher) or on line at

http://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Set-Magnetic-Wooden-Building/dp/B003TU7ZIS

PUZZLES THAT TAKE YOU PLACES

My kids love GeoPuzzles, and are always excited about a new game or puzzle from this wonderful company. GeoPuzzles makes jigsaw puzzles with pieces shaped like individual countries, so children learn as they put the puzzle together. Invented by a dad, these great puzzles are made by a a family-run business. They make Geo Cards and Games too (like Geo Bingo – which is what it sounds like!).

http://geotoystore.com/

PAINT A ZOO

My kids love doing art projects, and Alex Toys keeps coming out with cool new crafts to keep us busy on cold winter afternoons. This zoo kit lets kids paint bright colors on fun animal shapes and add silly accessories to create a zoo full of creative fun. The activity kit includes 6 cardboard punch-out animals, 12 poster paints, 6 crayon bright crayons, wiggly eyes, glue and easy instructions. Even better, my six year old and my almost three year old can both take part in this zoo-stravaganza. It’s tough to find activities for them to share, but big and little kids alike love zoo animals, so you can’t go wrong!

http://www.alextoys.com/product/132735/145/_/Paint_A_Zoo

CITIZENS OF THE WORLD T-SHIRT

For one of those 8 nights or Hannukah or a stocking stuffer: You can’t go wrong with these adorable Tea brand t-shirts that announce your child’s membership in the global kids citizens club in four languages!

“for little citzens of the world” written in four languages on the shirt – comes in blue or pink

http://www.teacollection.com/product/TS3201F/Little-Citizens-Tee.html

SPANISH INTRO GIFT SET (NEW)

At Little Pim, we have just come out with an intro gift set to help you give the gift of language to little ones in your life – at a new little price! Our $29.95 intro gift set comes with the Little Pim Spanish DVD 1, Spanish Bop CD and plush panda, all in a see through vinyl tote that can later become a home for doll clothes, blocks or overnight at grandma’s supplies. A terrific value, and provides hours of play and learning.

http://www.littlepim.com/store/spanish-language-for-kids/little-pim-intro-gift-set-spanish/

Happy Shopping!

We’ve just been featured on Savvyauntie.com! If you don’t already know this site, it’s a great resource for the hip aunts and godmothers out there who are looking for ways to indulge (and in our case, educate!) the little ones in their lives. I was interviewed by Melanie Notkin – the site’s founder and original Savvy Auntie – about the best ways to get kids learning new languages from a young age. So much of language learning happens at home, and helping kids on the road to fluency is very much a family affair.

Melanie and I spoke about how best to engage children (and their families) in a plan to foster a love of languages. We discussed everything from the benefits of speaking a second language to the ways you can best help a child with their learning, even if you don’t live nearby. Enjoy!

Read the whole interview!

As a mother myself raising bilingual children, we had so much to talk about! Dr. Steiner’s children speak German, French and English — and her teenage daughter started Chinese this fall! I am so happy Dr. Steiner is helping to advance the pediatric field’s understanding of the ways speaking two languages benefits young children’s brain development and she will be making important contributions in this fields. Keep an eye out for her.

Boston has a very international population, which is why it isn’t that surprising that our soon to be Brazilian distributor calls this city home. This is Heloisa Fitzgerald, a talented and passionate fellow mom-preneur I met through Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO).

Heloisa is launching “Little Pim Brazil” in 2011. Little Pim is already distributed in 6 countries outside the U.S. and we are very excited that Heloisa, a native of Brazil who is raising her own two daughters bilingual in Portugese and English, is going to introduce the Little Pim method to English learning tots in Brazil. Magnifico!

This was a whirlwind 24-hour trip that left me charmed by Cambridge, energized by the people I met, and looking forward to going back for more Little Pim language fun events. Next time I’ll bring my boys, but may not be able to get beyond Curious George & Friends if I do…

Have you seen DVDs 4, 5, or 6? They are available in Spanish, French, and Chinese.

Contest: Win one DVD from Volume II in French, Spanish, or Chinese. Just leave a comment with which DVD you’d like to win and in what language!

Happy, Sad, & Silly

I Can Count!

In My Home

If the winner is a Facebook Fan and newsletter subscriber (subscribe by going to LittlePim.com), at the time their name is announced, they will also win a Little Pim plush panda!

Good luck!