Yes, I’ll admit it, Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday! From the hearts, to the colors, to all the cheesy one liners! I love it all.

To me, the importance of this holiday comes not only from the fact that I get to shower my favorite people with an extra dose of love but, that I also get to teach my preschoolers how important it is to love and recognize others around us.

Here are some ideas on how to make your Valentine’s Day extra special for you and your children:

• Wake them up with a heart love fest.

Write affirmations in heart shaped sticky notes and leave them around their bedroom. Tell them how much you love them and what they mean to you and others in their life.

2. Enjoy a yummy Valentine’s day breakfast.

Need I say more? Here are some great ideas to get inspired:

• Heart shaped eggs from Mommyhatescooking
• Valentine’s Day Pancakes from Country Living
• Bacon Hearts from TheSpruceEats.com
• Valentine’s Day Fruit Kabobs from SimpleandSeasonal.com

3. The lunch box of love.

Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make a heart sandwich and watermelon hearts. Add a Valentine’s day themed napkin, a sweet love note and a red or pink treat like these amazing cookies from Alicia’s Delicias (our favorite!). They’ll be the ones giving you hugs and kisses when you pick them up after school. 

4. Share the love.

Take some time in the afternoon to call close family members and tell them how much they mean to you. Little ones can also make fun Valentine’s Day crafts as gifts for the next time you see them. Some of my favorite ones are:

• Cardboard Roll Heart Stamp from Housing a Forest
• I Love You to Pieces from I Can Teach My Child
• Valentine Butterfly Treats from Craftymorning.com

5. Heart shaped pizza dinner.

Who doesn’t love pizza night? Just roll out a pizza crust, cut it into a heart shape, add tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, stick it in the oven and voila, an easy Valentine’s day dinner! You can add as little or as many toppings as you and your kids enjoy. 

6. Get extra bedtime cuddles.

Have them pick their favorite Valentine’s Day book and have a “cuddle party” after you’re done reading. Maybe play some music too, my kids love the Canticos bilingual songs, Amor and the I Love my Mommy Song / Te quiero mamá which are perfect for preschoolers and easy to find on YouTube. There is nothing like some tickles, kisses and laughter to end your day on a high note!

There is a common misconception among parents that simultaneously learning two or more languages can be confusing for a child, or that being multilingual negatively impacts language development or academic success. In fact, the opposite is true. For decades, research has shown that the benefits of language immersion programs include higher academic achievement, better literacy and language skills in both languages, and stronger cognitive skills. 

The benefits are clear, yet parents still have many questions about raising bilingual children, starting with “when is the best time to introduce a new language?” Some families simply wait until language classes are offered at their schools. Some private and public schools start second language instruction as early as Pre-K, while others wait until children are much older. When I was a student in suburban New York, my public school district didn’t start to offer Spanish until 6th grade. 

Luckily, I grew up in a Spanish-speaking household and my parents did everything they could to support  my Spanish development at home while I learned English at school. My mom read to me in Spanish from when I was a baby, and then taught me to read Spanish around age 5.

Today, as an educator and expert in bilingual education, I treasure my parents’ gift of early bilingual language and biliteracy. I’ve learned that introducing a second language early sets children up to gain native-level proficiency in all of their languages, and takes advantage of the fact that children’s brains are primed for learning.

Recent research has brought more clarity to the question of whether or not there is an ideal or “critical period” for language acquisition. In 2018, researchers conducted a large-scale linguistic study of more than half a million English speakers and found that native grasp of grammatical fluency is attained by those who start a new language before age 10. Learning languages is possible any time in life, but those of us who have tried to learn as adults know that it can take more time and we can never quite get rid of the accent or grasp grammar as well as a native speaker.  

There is also fascinating research being done on infant neuroscience that shows how advantageous it is to start a second language right at birth. In a powerful 2017 TEDx Talk, Dr. Naja Ferjan Ramirez explains her latest research on creating bilingual minds. Early on in her talk, she unequivocally states that “the human brain is fully capable of achieving native fluency in two languages at the same time, and that we don’t necessarily have to struggle to get there.” In studying the brain processing of language of bilingual babies between 0-3 years of age, she’s found that before babies can even speak, their brains are becoming specialized to process the sounds of both languages they are exposed to at home. As they get older and neural connections are lost, so is the opportunity to hear and produce nuanced sounds of different languages. 

Another key advantage of starting early is related to how we learn second languages. Using repetition, conversation, and visual cues are well-known ways to develop a new language, and they are also common strategies for general early childhood education. Songs and nursery rhymes are used to introduce and reinforce vocabulary, pretend play lends itself to children speaking in their new language out loud, and the tangible nature of their learning and play materials (blocks, books, etc.) set them up for better language acquisition. The activities that are fun and developmentally appropriate for children 0-5 are also perfect tools for helping them acquire a new language.  

This is why we do what we do. Canticos is a bilingual learning platform. We don’t just teach English or Spanish, we teach in English and Spanish. We care deeply about setting up children for success on their bilingual education journey. Starting at birth, children’s brains are ready for multiple languages, and it’s the perfect time to celebrate language and culture with the whole family.  

Like me, you may love bedtime with baby for the bathtime scents, the snuggles, the giggles and the stories. 

Bilingual songs and nursery rhymes in particular are wonderful for little ones, as there is a cadence in the rhyming that helps little ears become attuned to phonics and develop early literacy skills. 

Why not give toddlers a bilingual advantage by exposing them to nursery rhymes in two languages?

Won’t you both be proud when your toddler effortlessly rattles off a rhyme in English and in a second language, like Spanish?

So, what are some of the benefits of bilingualism? 

Countless studies support the idea that bilingualism is good for babies, linking it to:

• Improved cognitive skills which influence how babies learn, remember, pay attention and problem solve.
• Improved executive functioning which involves self-control and self-regulation.
• Protecting the brain later in life which includes the offset of dementia.

And of course, if you’re raising bilingual babies, you’re raising global citizens – opening up their world to more people, cultures, and experiences to enrich their life. Now that feels good! 

How can you raise a bilingual baby if you don’t speak a second language?

Surprise! You don’t need to speak a second language to expose your little one to a language like Spanish. Spanish is a completely phonetic language. Each and every letter makes the same sound consistently throughout all vocabulary, making Spanish much easier to read than English!

• Read:  One of the easiest ways is to pick up a bilingual book and read along one language at a time. Knowing the story in the dominant language helps them process the story in the second language much faster, facilitating their language acquisition. All Canticos books are designed to give kids foundational math, literacy and social emotional skills as they start their bilingual education. 
• Sing: Lullabies and nursery rhymes are a great way to introduce a second language through music. Babies love repetition and hearing the words again and again makes it easier to remember. Canticos’ Emmy-nominated educational videos are all available to watch on YouTube and stream on Spotify, Amazon and Apple music too. Simply press play and they’ll build up that baby brain as they doze off to sleep. 
• Don’t get discouraged: Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Even if your baby never develops full bilingual proficiency, simply exposing your little one to a second language for some period of time has huge benefits! 

¡Vamos! Let’s go! It’s never too early to start.  
Bedtime just got better.

They say the pen is stronger than the sword. This is usually positioned in the context of Plato, Marx, Niche or journalism, history books or political works. 

So can we possibly help bring people together in a country full of friction with a pen, the paintbrush, and our good old Macbook Pro?

Certainly children’s books have been used to encourage the best of our human nature and discourage the worst for hundreds of years.

Beautiful books become even more important when you are introducing a collection of traditional nursery rhymes from one culture to a whole new audience completely unfamiliar with either the language or the roots behind these works.

The marriage between concept and culture, along with lyrics and illustrations, designed to appeal to all, are part of the special sauce in what we do with Canticos.

Canticos books ease audiences into a whole new culture with rhythm, humor and charm. With books like “Little Chickies” or “Little Elephants” children with little to no experience with Hispanic culture can sing some of Latin Americas’ most beloved nursery rhymes. 

All of a sudden there is a bond between them and their little Latino classmates who may or may not speak very much English and will feel more welcomed with classmates who can relate to this little bit of his World.

Moms, who understood the value of bilingualism for the brain, rhyming for phonics, and concept books for preschool prep will enjoy our books for toddlers for all of the above. With this simple thing they will also have a little more in common with the average Latina mom that will pick up one of our books and be whisked back to her childhood.

Teachers can also play a role building on concepts that are a fundamental part of every bilingual education while building on cultural celebration and understanding at the same time.

In an era where divisiveness has been at forefront of the media, it’s important that we as artists who serve, find ways of bringing people together with our craft.

It is through telling our stories as best we can to the broadest of audiences that we help shape an integral part of this American tapestry.