No bones about it, full immersion is the best way to learn a second language. Full immersion is also a luxury. If you don’t live in a country where your native tongue isn’t the primary language or can’t afford a school where that’s the modus operandi of teaching, it’s also not an option. This is where you’re thankful for those relatives who still speak a second language fluently or need to seek out books that start at a very young age. My First Seek & Learn: At Home, Mi Premer Busca & Apprende: En Casa is the same either way you say it. It combines the curious element that toddlers have hardwired into their brains and adds a bi-lingual element that will pay dividends for years to come.
My First Seek & Learn: At Home has illustrations of hundreds of everyday objects that people encounter at home. The book has the word in English, and then directly under it, in Spanish. The words are printed in the same size font in slightly different colors. You’ve seen books like these that could be called “My First 200 Words in Spanish” or something like that. I do love early audience reference books, and that’s essentially what books like those are. The only issue with book like those is that they require an inert desire to learn.
A softback book like Mi Primer Busca y Apprende: En Casa invites learning because it treats it like a game. It’s not as challenging as a “Where’s Waldo” type of book. Toddlers and young audiences will know where the objects are by spending a moment looking at the illustration. The ‘seek & learn’ aspect will need to be guided at first. When kids are looking for the mochila they’ll see that it’s under the table with a mouse beside it.
The objects in question are shown on the far left and far right of the pages. This leaves the middle portion of every two pages to more fully show the rooms in question. Each room is introduced with a simple sentence in English on the left page, and then in Spanish on the right page. The living room scene has two kids playing, with one on the floor and the other on the sofa with their headphones, or auriculares. There are ten words that kids can seek & learn on every two pages.
If you speak both languages, or want to do a deeper dive, there are multiple dozens of possible vocabulary words they can learn in the illustrations of the room. These are words that aren’t in the book, but with minimal research you can discover that the tocadiscos is the record player in the corner of the living room on the mesa marron. From individual words you can then create simple sentences like, “El tocadiscos esta en la mesa marron”.
The book is very conversational when you want it to be. At its most basic level, My First Seek and Learn is a vocabulary book, but that’s not where it wants to live. The sentences want to be read aloud to young audiences. Those vocabulary words want to be posed as a question and asked where they are. Their alternate language version then wants to be asked the same question. As you get more familiar with the book, that second language word will want to be asked where they are.
It’s a fun, interactive book that kids will enjoy. Adults will need to introduce the book to young readers by reading it aloud. After the first time kids might be able to make out some of the sight words. The illustrations are soft, busy and crammed with things that kids see every day. The bi-lingual aspect of the book is educational, but kids could see that angle of the book as a seek and find activity. Sure you know what, and where the seeds are, but what about the semias? Now put “here are the seeds” in Spanish, we’re having fun, and you’re learning a priceless gift.
My First Seek and Learn: At Home, Mi Primer Busca y Apprende: En Casa is available on Workman Kids, an imprint of Workman Publishing.
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