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Veoleo: Bringing kids programming to a screen near you

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Sisters Janike and Alexis Ruginis started their own small book press when they realized there was a lack of Spanish-language books for young children in the U.S. Veoleo published its first book, ¿Dónde está el coquí? in 2018 and it’s currently working on two new books aimed at bilingual little ones.

Alexis & Janike Ruginis

In this episode, we talked to Alexis about their business and their current efforts to bring enjoyable activities to kids and families who are staying home due to COVID-19.

If you’re not familiar with Veoleo, check them out on Instagram @veoleo.co or sign up for their newsletter to learn about their upcoming virtual events and activities.

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Moco y Baba: A grassroots language community

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Having a community of support is such an essential part of raising bilingual children. Depending on the area you live in, finding that community can be hard – but it is possible to create your own. 

Johanna Arteaga, founder of Moco y Baba, and her daughter, Miranda.

Johanna Arteaga is the founder of Moco y Baba, a community of Spanish-speaking families in London. She also recently launched Cuéntamelo Books, an online bookstore that carries a curated selection of books from Latin America. Johanna talked to us about how she started Moco y Baba and gave us some tips and advice about how to start a language community in your area.

We talked to Johanna before COVID-19 completely changed the way we interact with each other and, although the group had to forgo in-person meetings temporarily, the community remains steadfast.

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“Story & Pictures By” – A Chat with Joanna Rudnick

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In this episode, we talk to Joanna Rudnick, an Emmy nominated director and producer who is currently working on a documentary exploring the power and reach of children’s picture books: “Story & Pictures By.”

Joanna Rudnick, Director & Producer of “Story & Pictures By”

The film follows three contemporary children’s book authors/illustrators – Mac Barnett, Christian Robinson and Yuyi Morales – as they craft new books and interact with kids across the country.

It’s no secret that we are big believers in the power of children’s books, not only to help kids develop language, but as vehicles to shape their world, unleash their imagination, and foster literacy. So when we learned about the film, we wanted to learn more.

If you love this idea as much as we do, consider supporting the film’s Kickstarter campaign. There are only three days left (until Nov. 22) for them to reach their goal of $40,000 so they can continue production.

Mentioned in this Episode

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What We Love: Tres Cuentos Podcast

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In this episode of What We Love/Lo Que Más Nos Gusta, we talk to Carolina Quiroga-Stultz about her podcast: Tres Cuentos. In Tres Cuentos, which means three stories, Carolina tells stories, myths and legends from Latin America in Spanish and English.

Carolina Quiroga-Stultz, creator of Tres Cuentos Podcast.

While most of the stories on Tres Cuentos are geared toward older children and adults, Carolina recently launched a summer series with stories geared toward younger children called Niñez Heroica/Children Heroes. Each episode includes a story followed by a few interesting facts about something related to the story.

In this episode …

The audio clip you heard at the beginning of this episode comes from the Tres Cuentos episode “Mitos de Creación: Cuando los ancestros bajaron del cielo“. You can listen to the same story in English here.

Carolina launched her children’s summer series after we spoke. Below are the two episodes she has published so far:

To find out when new episodes are published, follow Tres Cuentos on Facebook.

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What We Love: Conversation Starters

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How do you get your kids to engage with you in the target language? We don’t mean utilitarian exchanges about snacks or watching five more minutes of cartoons but actual conversations about interesting topics, concepts or just life, really.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, with our day-to-day lives we find ourselves not interacting as deeply with our loved ones, which is a problem in general, but poses particular issues for parents raising bilingual children. In this What we love/Lo que más nos gusta episode, we share how we get those conversations going.

Visit our blog post, Conversations & Storytelling: A Resource Guide for Bilingual Kids, to see our recommendations!

Join the Entre Dos Facebook community to share your experiences, questions, and discoveries with us and other parents raising bilingual kids.

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Author Spotlight: Jorge Tetl Argueta and his library of dreams

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We talked to poet and children’s book author, Jorge Tetl Argueta, about why he writes for children and his passion for promoting literacy. Argueta’s poems give us a glimpse of communities that are often misrepresented, erased, and dehumanized in U.S. American literature. His books, which center mostly around his homeland of El Salvador, offer a beautiful counter-narrative meant to build a positive self-image and empathy for our growing immigrant communities.

Jorge Tetl Argueta

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