Our last trip to the Library was……tiring. Anything is tiring when you have to carry a one-year-old, a bag of books and make sure your other little one doesn’t wander off too far. What was I thinking not taking in the stroller?! Big mistake! I don’t know how parents with more than two children do this. Call me a weakling, but this sh** is hard. This last trip to the library was my first time alone with them there and boy was it exhausting. Luckily we made it out with some good finds.
This was also the first time that we went into the Spanish books section. Sad, I know. This is exactly why Spanglish Roots Blog exists. There is no excuse to be depriving my children of their family’s culture. Having this blog helps me not only document our progress, but also helps keep up my momentum in doing so. Our library visits will now be including a visit to the Spanish books section first. As for the smallest member of our family, well, he’s gonna have to wait a while longer to go back. At least until my husband is able to go with us. That kid is an adventurist at heart with arms and legs that are always set on GO! Every night we read to our oldest in bed (our little guy doesn’t stay still and just throws the book aside so we haven’t started with him yet). Now that we are trying to expose her to and teach her Spanish, I’m going to be reading the bilingual and Spanish books, and her father will be reading the English books. Books like The Cazuela That The Farm Maiden Stirred was a perfect book to kick off our new routine.
While at the library I was in hurry to get us out of there before my son started pulling books off the shelves (cause that’s what one-year-olds like to do apparently), so I quickly scanned whatever books where lying on the shelves and display racks, paying close attention to the titles looking for anything that had Spanish words in them. Sure enough I found one, grabbed it, and put it in the bag that my daughter had filled with her own choices. We got home and put the books on the kitchen table and forgot about them until later that night when it was time to put her to bed. She picked her own and left the one I chose before heading off to her room to have story time with Daddy. The next day however, I read The Cazuela That The Farm Maiden Stirred to her and the children at circle time. What a perfect find for the Arroz con Leche recipe that I had been working on the last two weeks.
The Author Samantha R. Vamos does an excellent job of introducing new words in English first then in Spanish. She does it in such a creative, fun and easy way that you don’t feel like you’re getting a vocabulary lesson even though you are. At the end of the story is her recipe for Arroz con Leche along with a glossary of the Spanish words she uses throughout the book. It’s an excellent read for children and parents who do not yet know Spanish well enough to follow a conversation or understand full sentences. We all absolutely loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone with young children who love animals, cooking, and learning Spanish.
THE CAZUELA THAT THE FARM MAIDEN STIRRED
Samantha R. Vamos
Illustrated by Rafael López
Published by Charlesbridge
ISBN 978-1-58089-242-1
Samantha R. Vamos
Illustrated by Rafael López
Published by Charlesbridge
ISBN 978-1-58089-242-1
