Video of the Week + GIVEAWAY: Habla Blah Blah

This giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to the winners:  Laureen & Middy06.  Thanks to all who entered.

Today’s video of the week is an animated version of the popular song “Un elefante se balanceaba”.  This is one song I can bet we’ve all sang to our chiquitos several times. This version is simply titled  “Los Elefantes” and is part of the Habla blah blah Volume Dos CD.

What is Habla Blah Blah?

Habla blah blah music and classes are a playful introduction to the sounds and words of español, designed to teach Spanish to little ones, ages 0 through elementary school. The inspiration for this program came to Amy Conroy, an educator, anthropologist and mother-of-three, after the birth of her first son. Although she grew up in a monolingual environment, she had a passion for the Spanish language since high school. She immersed herself in it while studying in Spain and later polished it in the cities and jungles of Central America. Amy claims the only music that would soothe her newborn son was in Spanish, maybe because she had been fully immersed in speaking it while pregnant with him. At the time, she searched for fun music and activities that would further expose him to the language, but came up short. So, she decided to do it herself.

Amy teamed up with world-renowned musician and composer, Andy Kubiszewski, to create a set of two original sing-along CDs of bilingual, whimsical and absolutely fun tunes. The lyrics are simple and catchy enough for children to learn in no time and to have you singing them in your head all day. The music is professionally produced with rhythms that will make your kids get up and and dance. Trust me, you too will be jumping and dancing to everything from cumbia to drums to adaptations of traditional Spanish kid’s songs. Your child will easily recognize what is being talked about in the songs since the themes are part of their everyday life, such as: “Amigos,” “Agua,” “Quiero Jugar,” and “Hambre.”

One thing to keep in mind is that these CDs were created primarily as a tool for monolingual families looking for a way to introduce language through music at an early age. Amy was conscious that some parents could shy away from introducing a foreign language to their kids because of their own accent. Thus, she decided to record the tunes with amazing vocalists that do have an accent in Spanish. This way, non-native speakers can feel confident of the way they sound when singing in Spanish and break the barrier of accent perfection. As a native speaker myself, I  honestly found it odd at first to hear the songs in Spanish with an accent. That was totally forgiven and forgotten as soon as the lyrics and rhythms took over both Camila and I. I just love peeking at her in the backseat of the car, bobbing her head and swinging her legs to the beat or going “ROAR, ROAR” like in the song, “La familia de leones.”

The best part of this review is that we have sets of the Habla blah blah: an introduction to the sounds and words of español, Volumes One and Dos to giveaway to TWO SpanglishBaby friends.

I want to win!

1.  Visit the Habla blah blah website, then come back here and leave a comment telling us two places where the CD can be bought.

2. For a second entry, subscribe to our feed either by email or RSS. If you choose RSS, please send us an email to let us know. *You must have left a comment (step #1, above) to receive a second entry*.

3. Want a third chance to win? Blog or Tweet about this giveaway. Just make sure to let us know.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Sunday, March 1st.