Julia and Emmett Go to Paris

I just got back from a trip to France with my son Emmett – a special mommy and big boy trip (little Adrian, just 18 months old stayed home with his dad). We had been to France before to see family and friends but this was the first time we went to Paris. To get ready, we read children’s books about Paris, an art book we love that shows famous paintings in the Louvre, and watched Madeline videos about the adorable Parisian orphan character. It was so fun to see Paris through Emmett’s eyes. I planned a modified tourist agenda which left times for naps and daily ice cream treats. He rode ponies in the Luxembourg Gardens, danced in front of Hotel de Ville (“a castle !”), and of course we went up the Eiffel Tower. He had a chance to practice his French with the children of my French friends and all the shopkeepers (he has DOWN “un pain au chocolat s’il vous plait”). I was tickled that people said his accent sounded very authentic and was happy he was asking more and more about “how do you say... In French?”

When we were on the subway on our last day he heard the announcement for the Musée du Louvre and to my surprise piped up, “I want to see the Louvre!” I cautioned him it is a huge museum and might be overwhelming (we had plans to go to the smaller museum) but he insisted he wanted to see it. We jumped off the metro just in time and visited the Louvre! He didn’t last much more than 20 minutes but it was worth it.

The last day culminated with a visit to the Bon Marché toy department, a tip from a dad friend who had just been to Paris with his five year old daughter. Emmett loved the 6 foot pirate made of Legos and bought a medieval castle and knights to bring home.

As we got on the plane I told him to say “Au revoir!” to France. He chimed in, “Au revoir, see you next year!” Music to my ears.

Little Pim Looks For Its Next Little Stars

In preparation for the filming of Little Pim DVDs 4, 5, and 6, we held a casting call yesterday in our Manhattan offices. Our loft was flooded with the most adorable babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Toddlers, crawlers, and walkers mingled and drank juice boxes in our waiting area, turned into play room. As the kids waited their turn, they sampled our soon-to-be-released Little Pim flash cards and made works of art from Little Pim Coloring pages.

When it was time, the children and their parents took their turn playing in our mock set, outfitted with beautiful toys and furniture by PLAN Toys, one of my favorite kid companies.

Jolene, the production supervisor, has an incredible knack for getting kids to relax in front of the camera. A few minutes with her and the little ones were playing with blocks, throwing tea parties, making faces to express a number of different emotions (one of our new DVDs is called "Happy, Sad, and Silly") with adorable results.

So many cute and talented kids came out and we all had a great time. It will be tough to narrow it down for our shoot! Thanks to all the parents and kids who turned up.

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!