Recommendations on Toys to Teach Spanish Vocabulary?

My daughter is also a Dora/Diego fan. Since I teach Spanish, she has been around Spanish since before she was born. Unfortunately, her Daddy does NOT speak Spanish, so she only hears it from me(I am not a native speaker). She really seems to have learned alot from the Dora/Diego cartoons - and she uses it appropriately. Also, many movies on DVD have a Spanish Language track - and we watch the videos in Spanish as much as we watch in English - her favorite is Nemo. My little one doesn't care which language is beign used, so I usually pick Spanish, and her dad picks english :)

I have found that there are many toys that have Spanish and English on them, and Mija just switches the language when she wants. We have a little farm that plays games in both languages, and Tad & Lily (both leapfrog dolls that sing, do numbers & colors in English & Spanish). There are some greate Usborne books (you would need to find someone that sells them) that are available in English and Spanish.

I applaud you and other moms that are willing to let their children explore other languages!

1 mom found this helpful

Usborne Books have some great teaching tools that include flashcards, books and stickerbooks. We got my cousin, who is almost 2 and goes to Mexico every year, the English version and Spanish version of some look and say books when he was born and they love them.

V-tech also has some hand-held toys that teach colors/numbers/shapes, etc. in spanish/english and my girl can switch between the two languages as she chooses.

I have a laugh and learn activity table that has a setting where it teaches everything in spanish it also has other features so you are not just stuck with learning spanish all the time everyone likes a mix of activities and this give you that. My one year old loves it and it will grow with him. Hope this helps.

A.

Leapfrog toys are excellent for that- they have an english or spanish button so that the child can go back and forth. We have a Tad doll that teaches numbers, colors, etc while singing in spanish. My kids love to switch between english and spanish with it.

Check out Usborne Books and More for some great Spanish learning resources - flash cards, beautifully illustrated books and more - all geared toward kids! http://www.ubah.com/g2687

My son has a farm toy by Chicco that has numbers 1-10 and animals and colors in english and spanish. Keep in mind that not all the words will be correct when you are dealing with toys and dora/diego/handy manny and so on because they are proper spanish from spain rather then spoken spanish from mexico. My husbands family are fluent spanish speakers and though i am trying to teach my son (my husband doesnt speak spanish) a lot of what the flash cards and toys teach is not understood by fluent speakers. when i try and tell things to my MIL she has never even heard of some of the words. My mother in law got my son a book that was as close to correct as she could find it is called Mis primeras palabras by usborne

We have the leapfrog letter factory and farm magnets on the fridge that both switch from spanish to english, my daughter knows the songs in both languages.
I have a little flip flashcard that has both the english and spanish words for numbers, colors, and animals that we use regularly in restaurants made by munchkin. I also have about 10 dora and diego books that have counting and spanish words in them. Another thing we do is I just sing the numbers and alphabet and she repeats them as a fun game while we are driving, this is also where I taught her the sign language alphabet and numbers. The car is a great place for the little sponges as they are stuck in their seats ready to learn.
If you can make it fun they would rather learn from you than a toy, have fun!!!