Spanglish Books

We have continued in our Spanish lessons, but it is really hard for me to help the kids review at home.  For one, even when I know the words, I don't have a lot of confidence in how to put together a sentence correctly or how to use the right case.  I was reading Spanish picture books to the kids, but my pronunciation is definitely lacking!  Fortunately, I've found several "Spanglish" books that I can read and I think they help the kids learn a little vocabulary too. 

The Moon is La Luna is a book of clever rhymes - I've been reading it to the kids pretty often and they have memorized several of them, they are funny, like:

To say chair is Spanish is silla.

(See-ya is how it is said.)

So if your friends, to you, say "See ya!"

Yell "CHAIR!" to them instead.

Susan Middleton Elya is an author I've discovered.  She's written several Spanglish books - Say Hola to Spanish, Say Hola to Spanish Otra Vez (Again), Say Hola to Spanish at the Circus, Oh no!  Gotta Go! and others.  All of them are mostly English, but when a Spanish word is introduced, it's done in a way that the reader will be able to figure out the meaning contextually and usually the Spanish word rhymes with a preceeding English word, which helps with the pronunciation.   

Clearly books like these aren't enough to teach you how to speak or understand Spanish, but I think every little bit helps.  And the kids are picking up bits here and there, at least as much as they can without having an actual abuela - a Spanish speaking grandma - but we are pretty partial to the grandmas we have, so that will have to do for now :)