Author: S. Fiddes

Portuguese resources for little learners

http://www.thepiripirilexicon.com/2017/04/our-favourite-portuguese-resources-for.html

Finding resources for our little (or not so little) multilinguals can be quite a challenge. It is also something a lot of parents are always on the lookout for. I have put together a little list for Portuguese hoping to make your life a little easier.

Printable materials

As a mum, I love printables. You just look something up, download and can start using it straight away. Great for road trips to keep kids entertained too.  

IDEAIS E PALAVRAS sells simple printables to learn to read in (Brazilian) Portuguese. I like the fact that the words are written in cursive as well as printed characters.

Multicultural Kid Blogs also has a bunch of FREE PRINTABLES (often these include Portuguese).

Free Portuguese printables

Teachers pay Teachers also has some PORTUGUESE PRINTABLES. These tend to be for older kids but can be adapted for little ones.  We like those in particular to LEARN THE COLOURS.

And I have more PORTUGUESE PRINTABLES listed.

Online resources

The Instituto Camões has a selection of CHILDREN’S BOOKS available to read online for free. These are mostly about the history of Portugal but the lovely and clear accent of the Portuguese reader is ideal for young learners.

PORTUGUÊS MAIS PERTO is an initiative from the Portuguese government to allow young Portuguese chidlren living abroad to stay in touch with their culture and language. You have to pay to access the lessons but there are all kinds of levels and tons of resources.

Online bookstores 

There are so many places to buy books. I have focused here on a small selection that specialise in Portuguese-language books for children. Those I have selected also offer, for the most part, high quality authentic books and not just translations of English bestsellers.

My favourite online bookstore for Portuguese books for kids is MIÚDA BOOKS. They are based in the UK but ship worldwide and the selection of books is the best. They have many authentic books from small publishers and not just translations of English books. Highly recommended.

If you live in Germany, like us, OLA LIVRO is a great online store too. There are only Portuguese books but they only ship to Germany.

PLANETA TANGERINA is a Portuguese publisher with an online store. The selection of books is also of great quality.

KALANDRAKA is a multilingual project publishing books in Castilian Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Basque, Portuguese, Italian and English. Their Portuguese selection is definitely worth a look.

Small selection from ABC MULTICULTURAL in (Brazilian) Portuguese on AMAZON. Most are picture books for little ones.

Brasil em Mente is an association based in the USA promoting Portuguese as a heritage language. Their store has a decent selection of BOOKS IN PORTUGUESE as well as other very useful resources.

Finally, if you are looking for the usual bestsellers in Portuguese, WOOK is a good place to look as Amazon.pt does not exist.

You can find many other worldwide online bookstores in this past article of mine. Click on the image below.

http://www.thepiripirilexicon.com/2015/06/where-to-buy-bilingual-and-foreign.html

Learning to read

Kit Papagaois for teaching to read in Portuguese. You can also buy the kit on AMAZON.

ROSA ESTEVENS method. Downloadable PDFs (mostly free) for teaching to read and write (European) Portuguese.

Radio for kids

I discovered this by chance last year. A Portuguese radio just for kids! You can listen for free live or listen to recorded podcasts. The site also has lots of free and fun resources. RÁDIO MIÚDOS: A primeira rádio para crianças em português.

Book recommendations

Our favourite books for under 6 year olds include:

Ser Português: a really cute book about what it means to be Portuguese with beautiful illustrations. More info HERE.

We also like the bilingual books by Sheila Margaret Ward. A glimpse of Portuguese culture in English and Portuguese. You can find THE REVIEW HERE.

Here is our current selection:

Finally, AMAZON has a decent selection of bilingual books (which include Portuguese).

Music for Kids

Here are some of our favourite PORTUGUESE ALBUMS FOR KIDS.

Portuguese resources for little language learners
PIN me for later

Bonus resource
And, as always, I have to mention Love Your Lingo, whose LITTLE ALPHABET works so well in Portuguese and is such a unique product for little bilinguals. We love our new cursive poster.

Little Linguist Alphabet

I hope these have given you a few ideas or resources for little Portuguese learners in your life. I would love other suggestions. feel free to leave comments.

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This article was written as part of Bilingual Kidspot’s amazing round-up for 15+ LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC RESOURCE GUIDES FOR LITTLE BILINGUAL LEARNERS.

Language Resources for kids around the world

Recommended books for bilingual families

Books

  • Baker, C. (2014) A Parent and Teacher’s Guide to Bilingualism, Bangor University Beck, A. (2016) Maximize your Child’s Bilingual Ability. Hiroshima: Bilingual Adventures
  • Grosjean, F. (1982) Life with Two Languages:  An Introduction to Bilingualism. Harvard University Press
  • Koshy.V. (2010) Action Research for Improving Educational Practice. A Step-by-Step Guide. London: Sage
  • Medina, J. (2014) Brain Rules for Baby. How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five. Seattle: Pear Press
  • Miller, J. (1983) Many Voices: Bilingualism, Culture and Education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  • Rosenback, R. (2014) Bringing up a Bilingual Child. Surrey: Filament Publishing LTD.

Why it’s okay for bilingual children to mix languages

https://theconversation.com/why-its-okay-for-bilingual-children-to-mix-languages-97448

by 

Lecturer in Japanese and Linguistics, York St John University

Few would consider mastering more than one language a bad idea. In fact, research points to a number of cognitive, economic and academic advantages in being bilingual.

Parents who speak different languages understand the family home is an important setting to learn both, and seek various ways to help their children thrive bilingually. One of the best-known approaches is the “one-parent-one-language” strategy (OPOL). Each parent uses one language when communicating with their child, so their offspring learn both languages simultaneously.

OPOL emphasises consistency – sticking to one language each – as key to its approach. But this creates the myth that mixing languages should always be avoided. My recent study, part of a new wave of multilingualism studies, would suggest this received wisdom is just that: a myth.

My research looked at Japanese-British families living in the UK with pre and early school-age children who were following a more-or-less strict OPOL language policy. I was particularly interested in examining the impact of OPOL in the family home – how does this unique language environment affect the way children use languages?

Most of the Japanese mothers who participated in my research were fluent in Japanese and English, while the fathers possessed an elementary grasp of Japanese. This made English the primary language of communication between the parents and outside the home. For this reason, the mothers were careful to carve out additional space for more sustained Japanese language learning with their children. In other words, this dedicated space for communicating in Japanese (the minority language) was time children would spend exclusively with their mother. This seemed to create a connection between “Japanese language” and “motherhood” in the children’s perception.

The benefits of a bilingual brain – Mia Nacamulli

It’s obvious that knowing more than one language can make certain things easier — like travelling or watching movies without subtitles. But are there other advantages to having a bilingual (or multilingual) brain? Mia Nacamulli details the three types of bilingual brains and shows how knowing more than one language keeps your brain healthy, complex and actively engaged. Lesson by Mia Nacamulli, animation by TED-Ed.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmOLN5zBLY