LITTLE PIM BLOG
Brad and Angelina, Fans of Little Pim and Multilingual Education
Brad Pitt recently said in an interview that raising multilingual children and spending so much time in France is making him wish he'd learned a foreign language (Parade, September 9th). While it's never too for Brad or any adult who wants to pick up another language, experts agree it is much easier to learn a new language before the age of seven. We've all seen how easily young children soak up information, and their brains are hard-wired to absorb up to three languages with ease.
The Jolie-Pitt children are all learning French and we're proud to be a part of their language education. Last November, Angelina Jolie told US Weekly that she was using Little Pim to teach Shiloh French.
Whether you're a celebrity parent or not, giving your child the gift of a second or third language is something you'll never regret. And they will thank you for their rest of their lives!
BiculturalFamily.org
Raising a child to be bilingual or raising a bicultural child can be a great joy yet also challenging to families who are just starting out. The two best things you can do to give yourself peace of mind is 1) Know that there are many families who have navigated these waters with beautiful, successful results and 2) Know that you aren't alone. BiculturalFamily.org is a wonderful resource for parents who'd like practical advice, how-to's, and stories from other parents on living a multicultural and/or bilingual lifestyle.
The online magazine is rich with content spanning the research of bilingual education, essays from readers, and more.
Their Playgroup section lists many offline opportunities for friendship and connection within the bilingual community.
Browse the website, make friends, and don't forget to have fun!
Unraveling How Children Become Bilingual
Unraveling How Children Become Bilingual Yahoo! picked up a great article by Associated Press medical author Lauran Leergaard on the widely discussed topic of how children learn languages with such ease. Scientists continue to unravel the neurology behind language learning. This research says that the ideal window for one to become fluent in a second language is between the ages of birth and age seven.
"While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty."
And take note parents:
"Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work."
That's why Little Pim was created in 5-minute episodes. It's the perfect length for you to stop the DVD and interact with your tot. Play with the new words together. We have several games and coloring pages to share on the website, and new print and music materials are coming soon to make Little Pim the multifaceted language learning resource you've always dreamed of!
Little Pim on BharatBhasha.com!
We enjoy seeing Little Pim featured on websites of all shapes and sizes. A new review was just posted on the article sharing website, BharatBhasha.com.
Father, Little Pim reseller and author Ray Ritchey had this to say about teaching children Chinese using Little Pim:
"Little Pim DVDs are very useful for little children to learn to Chinese. A lot of learning-Chinese DVDs for children focus on individual words for children, like colors and numbers. Little Pim DVDs also feature these words, plus more. Little Pim teaches action phrases that small children use in daily life, such as “I am playing,” “One more time?” “Mama is sleeping,” and more."
Little Pim in American Baby magazine!
Pick up this month's issue of American Baby magazine for a peek into the family behind Little Pim!
Little Pim is Going to BlogHer 09!
BlogHer 2009 takes place this weekend in Chicago. The conference is arguably the biggest event for women bloggers in the nation. We're so excited to be represented at BlogHer by Melanie Edwards of ModernMami.com. Melanie, a Latina working mother, has received numerous mentions and accolades for her blog.
If you're going to BlogHer, look out for Melanie! She'll be distributing Little Pim goodies. Be sure to catch her before she runs out!
A Visit to a DVD Production Center
Sometimes my older son likes to find out How Stuff is Made, and he had a wonderful opportunity when we both had the chance to see the Little Pim DVDs being manufactured at our new replication and fulfillment center. We learned how the DVDs start as clear plastic discs and then a layer of silver - which contains all the content encoded - gets pressed onto the top of the clear disc with a hot press. About 1,000 DVDs pass through this system in a mere 10 minutes. It was pretty cool to see!
Fun with languages while traveling
With the arrival of summer you may be planning a family trip by car, plane, train, or in this economy, bicycle! When you have your little ones captive during travel time, it's a great opportunity to play language games that reinforce their budding skills. And most importantly, it is something fun to do together. By initiating these games you will be showing your child that foreign language matters to you. That will make it much more likely it will matter to them too... You don't have to speak the language yourself to play most of these games! Fun things to do in the car: 1) Play a game where every child gets a point for naming an object you see out the window in another language. Whoever gets the most points gets a treat at the next rest stop or on arrival. you can help out by naming objects the first time (a tree = "un arbre" or a car = "une voiture") and your kids can call them out the next time. 2) Print out the Little Pim coloring pages from our web site and have kids color them in the back seat (you'll need crayons and a lap desk or a hard cover book to lean). Go to GAMES [link removed] on the web site and print out up to 10 pictures of Little Pim to color in, with vocabulary included. 3) Play music in a foreign language and encourage your kids to sing a long 4) Bring flash cards and award prizes for the child who gets the most right, or with one child, a small treat if they can get 5 right in a row. 5) Play "I spy" in the language they are learning. Point out things in the car, in other cars, or in the scenery.
Fun stuff to do on an airplane: 1) Play with flash cards (home made or store bought) 2) Color in Little Pim coloring pages (see above) 3) Get some snacks and put them on the fold out table (i.e. peanuts, pretzels) and count them in the foreign language 4) Write a letter to a member of the family with some foreign language words included (or pictures your child draws, labeled in French/Spanish/Chinese, etc.). Make a big production of mailing it when you arrive at your destination.
Fun stuff to do on a bicycle (you thought I was kidding!): 1) Shout out all the parts of the body in the foreign language 2) Sing verses from simple foreign language songs you both know together 3) Play a made up game where each time you stop, point out an object and if your child can name it in the foreign language (i.e. bus, ice cream, car) then they get a point. When they get to 5 points they get a special treat at home!
Little Pim now at Barnes & Noble
As of today, you can find Little Pim at any one of the 543 Barnes & Noble stores that carry DVDs. We are proud to be part of their new educational DVD section - and part of the month-long "Buy 2 DVDS and Get 1 Free".
Meals Around The World... In Your Kitchen.
I am always looking for ways to introduce my children to newlanguages, and also to the idea that we live in a world with many different cultures, traditions, foods and lifestyles. A friend recently shared an idea her mom used to help her brother and her learn about the wide world from their home in Maryland. Once a month they had a "French night" or "Spanish night" or "Chinese night" where they would eat the foods of that country (imagine crepes, burritos or dumplings) and learn about the places the food came from. They would cook together, look at maps, browse through guide books, play music from the country in question, and talk about what they knew about that country. Sometimes they had a guest at dinner from the chosen country or watched a movie in that language. She and her brother loved these festive, themed evenings, and they are among her happiest family memories. I thought that seemed like a pretty easy and fun way to bring the world to your dinner table, without having to wait on any long lines for check-in!
If you want to try "country night" at home, here are some web sites that can help you fill in the gaps. I suggest you plan three nights at once so you can stock up on ingredients, music and images. It's also a really fun thing to do with other families. Your kids will get even more excited about country night if they see that other kids are also participating. And remember, kids will only sometimes do as you say, but they will *always* do as you do! By making this a regular event and spending time on it, they will learn from you how important it is to know about, respect and enjoy other cultures. If your kids are very young, you can still do this activity to broaden their palate and introduce them to the sounds and rhythms of other languages. You might find you have a pint-sized flamenco music enthusiast or sesame noodles-lover in your family... Bonne chance!
Links:
To order a GeoPuzzle, Travel Mania game or other Geo Toys
If you have favorite foods from other countries you like to make for your family, please tell us about them and we can add them to our blog, which is read by thousands of parents interested in their children having a multi-national experience from an early age. Email us at info@littlepim.com.
