Mama Lisa's Books

Bringing Up Multilingual Kids

For all of you who speak Spanish or French and are bringing up your children multilingual, check out Pluribus Linguis to see how one family goes about this ambitious task.  (The site is in French and Spanish.)  Feel free to share your own experiences bringing up multilingual kids in [...]

Learn 40 Languages for Free on the Internet

Open Culture has a page of free language learning links covering 40 languages. Here are some of the languages you can find links for... Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, [...]

Quince – Sweet Fifteen

The fifteenth birthday is very important for girls in many Latin American countries and in some Hispanic communities in the US.  It's called Quince or Quinceaera (15 years).  It marks a girl becoming an adult.  It's a bit like the Jewish Bar Mitzvah, a Sweet 16 Party and a [...]

The Spanish Song "Saco una manita" made into a Hello Song

A teacher in Spain has taken a well-known Spanish kids song called Saco una manita and turned it into a Hello Song.  You can hear her version below.  After the video you'll find the Spanish lyrics with an English translation. Enjoy! -Mama Lisa Saco una manita (Buenos das) (Spanish) [...]

Noche de paz – Silent Night in Spanish with an MP3 Recording

Noche de paz is the Spanish version of Silent Night. This Christmas Carol was originally written in German in 1816 by Joseph Mohr. It was called Stille Nacht. Below you can listen to Noche de paz, read the Spanish lyrics and then a literal English translation of the Spanish version. MP3 [...]

Jeringonza – A Spanish Word Game Like Pig Latin, with Portuguese and Italian Versions

Jeringonza (aka jerigonza) is played in Spain and throughout Latin America. It's also found in Portuguese speaking Brazil and even in Italy. It's a secret language for kids – just like the English word game Pig Latin. (I'm going to make all the changes to the words in bold below to help [...]

Can Anyone Help with Any Songs from Honduras, Guatemala and/or Belize?

I received these two notes below on the Mama Lisa's World Facebook Group and was wondering if anyone could help? 1) Juanita Edington wrote... “Love all of the resources on mama lisa's world regarding songs of countries around the world. I needed songs from various Central and South [...]

Only a Mother's Love – A Spanish Poem with an MP3 Recording

It's May, the month for Mothers Day around the world! Here's a Spanish poem called “Slo el Amor de Una Madre”. You'll find it below in the original Spanish, with an English translation and an MP3 recording of it being recited in Spanish... Slo el Amor de Una Madre Slo el amor de una [...]

Can Anyone Help with a Cuban Rhyme/Finger Play that starts with “Chiquitica así”?

Jeannie Backer wrote to us for help with a Cuban Finger Play. Here's her note... My mother from Cuba used to sing a song/rhyme to usthat I only partially remember, maybe you have heard something similar. It's not a song as much as a cute thing that a child says to adult to ask for

The [...]