O favorites

Going on fourteen months, the lion cub is growing into distinct tastes for certain foods, loving his new friends in the church, and almost standing on his own.  Just this Sunday, he learned to raise his hand in worship as he watched the lead of others singing.  He has lots to say (in his own language), and can read to himself now while tied down in his car seat--what else, but an open-the flaps Farm Book?  His favorite pages: the animals and fruit!

He's also learning Spanish with his English vocabulary without speaking clearly in either one. I tried a couple different language DVDs: The Bilingual Baby (by Small Fry) and Usborne's First Fun with Spanish.  The latter is a nicely made little story of a day in the life of a Spanish family with the narrator as a little girl who also speaks English, and thus translates everything the others say.  Unfortunately, the words that stick in one's mind are the ones in your mother tongue, so it doesn't do much for learning the new language.  Bilingual Baby, on the other hand, is very effective by speaking only in Spanish.  Pictures and an English word in the far corner of the screen illustrate the meaning of the words, which the narrator uses to build a sentence after giving a few vocabulary words repeated to various tracks of classical music.

And did I mention that, along with his little friend Jacob, he's mastered the art of watching TV?