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ABOUT THE CURRICULUM
A full year of immersive learning through literature, music, movement, poetry, play, and exploration of the Spanish-speaking world.
For ages 0-8+
1. Children acquire language through meaningful play and interaction with loved ones and teachers
2. Raising children in a multilingual home shouldn't feel like a hardship, but rather a joy
3. Language is inseparable from culture
4. Raising bilingual children is within all of our reach, regardless of background or experience
Through playing with our children in Spanish and using this language in our daily lives, and enriching our understanding of the language by exploring Spanish-speaking countries and cultures, we will be providing the best possible version of an immersive learning experience right at home.
Each week, this curriculum will help immerse your family in Spanish in a variety of ways:
-Through reading authentic children's picture books
-Listening to music and learning to sing songs in Spanish
-Learning to act out finger plays and rhymes
-Reading poetry
-Acting our daily life activities and playing games
-Exploring the culture and history of Spanish-speaking countries
through cooking and arts & crafts
No! But if you are, that's wonderful too! This curriculum was designed so that anyone can start teaching their child Spanish, regardless of language knowledge or ability.
Each of us on this journey will be coming from a different background, with a different level of knowledge of the Spanish language, and with different reasons for taking on the challenge of raising bilingual children.
Volume One was written as a place to start, a helping hand, and a roadmap to follow for monolingual English parents and bilingual parents alike.
At the heart of Beautiful Mundo is the belief that we don't need to be bilingual to raise bilingual children. One of the most wonderful ways to learn is by teaching. We can learn together, alongside our children, and share in this special and wonderful experience as a family.
This curriculum was specifically designed for a large range of ages because we believe it is never too early, or too late, to introduce a new language into your home. Throughout the curriculum, you have the freedom to pick and choose or modify the activities and material you cover each week depending on the needs of your child.
The Beautiful Mundo curriculum volumes are not meant to be scheduled in the sense that you sit down for an hour each day and do a formal Spanish lesson. Inside the curriculum guide you will find a collection of content to weave throughout your daily life. It is intentionally structured to be flexible and taught in short lessons whenever you can fit them into your routine. Our goal will be to seize every opportunity we can to include the Spanish language in our everyday lives.
At the heart of this curriculum is the hope that it will inspire happiness in our homes and create opportunities to share special moments with our children. That incorporating another language into our daily lives will be a fun and shared adventure, rather than a struggle or source of frustration.
Meet the Author
¡Hola! Soy Emma Butterfield Corbet.
Beautiful Mundo was born because I believe so deeply in the value of language learning. I believe no matter how unfavorable the circumstances we may be in for raising bilingual children, it can be done. Through teaching our children, we can teach ourselves. What an exciting and beautiful journey to begin!
This curriculum can be used with, or without, the Spanish phonics workbook. It can be incorporated whenever you feel your child is ready. Every child moves from the emergent stage of literacy development (think of this as the pretend phase: pretending to read books, pretending to write with scribbles, etc.) to the beginning stage (using the alphabet and learning to “sound-out” words) at different times and ages. In many ways, the Spanish language is easier to learn than English. Many letters in Spanish only make one sound, and the phonetic patterns are generally more consistent than in the English language. If your child already knows how to read in English, it is recommended that you incorporate Spanish phonics right away (a path through the included workbook is built into the Volume One curriculum guide).
Rather than learning the alphabet in a traditional order from A to Z, this workbook was carefully and specifically designed to teach phonics in a way that makes sense for the Spanish language. We will introduce vowels before consonants, and then move through consonants in a way that staggers and mixes the types of articulation required to produce the sounds. Generally, we will move through simpler sounds first and then progress to more complex sounds later on in the year.
The Spanish language is syllabic, meaning that syllables fall within and between words. As we learn the sound /m/, for example, we will also introduce the open syllables: ma, me, mi, mo, and mu. By teaching these syllables (consonant sounds in combination with each vowel) we will be providing our children with the tools they need to begin decoding Spanish text.
Bring phonics to life by learning about animals native to Latin America! For each letter and sound there is an illustration that corresponds featuring many animals native to Central and South America. We encourage you to explore! Dive a little deeper and do some research with your child each week to learn more about these fascinating animals. Fun fact: all of the graphics in this workbook are based off hand-drawn illustrations the author's husband sketched for her.
The phonics program built into Volume One can also be purchased separately.
Learn More About Letras y sonidas
The phonics program included in Volume One
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