PLAYConmigo Invierno - Spanish Play Activities + Winter Rhythms

We're back with a new PLAYConmigo Spanish play guides: INVIERNO EDITION! This super comprehensive winter activity guide is a surefire way to get your family using as much Spanish as possible during these long, cold weeks of winter. Magazine-like presentation of the activities, tons of vocabulary and guided phrases written in child-directed Spanish, visual vocabulary lists, song lyrics and book lists, and more. Ready to purchase? It's ready for YOU with instant download sent to your email upon purchase. Want to read more? See more info below!

Note: The thumbnails of the pages in the product images are just a preview, guide is far more than shown.

What kinds of activities are included in this guide?

This guide has tons of resources, rhythms, and play ideas including:

• Resources pages: book recommendations with links, song lists with lyrics and links, Spanish playtime trackers and additional resources sprinkled throughout the guide.
• Traditions: Six different wintertime traditions to introduce to your family and repeat often for the ultimate cozy vibes
• The MAIN COURSE of our guides are the play activities / invitations to play. These are, for the most part, simple play set ups using materials you already have at home (or can pick up on your next trip to the supermarket). They range from family ritual / traditions, to quick games and activities, to fun bath time ideas, to play invitation set-ups, to nature play ideas, and everything in between. What's extra special about the activities is that they work on building essential skills that your child will need for preschool, Kindergarten, and beyond, but all through PLAY so it doesn't feel like boring schoolwork. No worksheets here! This winter guide has:
  • Six quick, no-prep play ideas
  • Two fun wintry-theme bathtime ideas
  • Eleven in-depth invitations to play and five nature play activities, which each include:
    • Beautiful inspiration photos of the activity in-action
    • Detailed description, materials list, and set-up instructions of the activity
    • Bonus: Many of the activities have ideas of how to extend the activity even further
    • Vocabulary! Key words in English/Spanish for each activity
    • Child-directed Spanish phrase lists to use during the activity
• We also have included a bonus “Snow Day” activity for those with snow days!
• Another bonus, sprinkled throughout our guides are five quick-reference visual vocabulary lists with words related to the guide’s activities and cute illustrations to keep it engaging (yes even for you as the parent)! This guide’s visual vocabulary lists are:
  • Winter Animals
  • Anatomy of a Snowman
  • American Conifers
  • Animal Footprints
  • Winter Clothes
• One more bonus: a preview of one of our Spring guide’s activities! PLAYConmigo Primavera will launch late March / early April and will include birdwatching, stargazing, gardening, flowers, and so many more springtime activities.

(Interested but still have questons? Keep scrolling to read more!)

[Read our "About This Guide" section in PDF format here]

What are the PLAYConmigo guides? 

We created these PLAYConmigo guides to help make playing and exploring in Spanish with your child an easy YES. We thought about how kids like to play/learn, how parents like to facilitate playing/learning, and the kinds of resources bilingual families need in order to make this type of play happen in Spanish (hint: YOU are the key, we're just here to help guide you). All of the activities included in the guide present an opportunity for language input and child-caregiver bonding/interaction. That's why it's called PLAYConmigo (play with me). However, at the same time, many of the activities are set up in a way that the child may continue to play on their own while the caregiver moves on to another task (after providing the initial setup and language input). This is of course a win-win; we know you guys are busy grown-ups that need to do other things beyond providing language input 24/7!

Who wrote the PLAYConmigo guides?

Sociolinguist and early childhood language educator Kaila Diaz created these guides as an extension of what she does at home with her own 3 year old and what she does in the virtual Spanish classes that she leads for students ages 0 - 6. 

In 2016, Kaila founded and directed an in-person Spanish immersion preschool for four years before the pandemic led her to start Bilingüitos online programs. A lot of the ideas in the guides come from her Spanish immersion preschool classrooms, from the curriculum that she wrote for the school. 

Kaila has more than a decade of experience in early childhood language classrooms, both in the U.S. and abroad, but since having her own daughter she has become increasingly passionate about the learning that goes within one’s own home. So with the current PLAYConmigo activity guides (and more volumes to come), Kaila is excited to encourage and equip parents to facilitate hands-on language learning at home with their children. She believes that passing down a language happens first and foremost at home, and is most successfully done when the language is linked to play, meaningful experiences, and family bonding.

The Spanish in the guide is written teamwork-style between Kaila and her husband Fredy (originally from Mexico), and it is checked over for neutrality by the Bilingüitos administrator and bilingual mamá, Betsabe (originally from the Dominican Republic).

What inspired these play guides?

Beyond the aforementioned experience in language immersion classrooms, it really was born out of a personal passion. As Kaila and Fredy go about totschooling / homeschooling their daughter, it is their goal to share the resources that they use and create so that other families can make playing/exploring/learning in Spanish an easy YES! as well. (No matter what kind of schooling option you choose! Public, private, traditional, Spanish immersion, homeschool, etc.)

Kaila also admits to being a child at heart, and so games, play activities, and fun outings are all part of her love language. And in fact, a lot of the ideas in these guides come from the activities she remembers loving when she herself was a preschooler! (For context she grew up bilingual in the U.S., her dual language journey starting when she was just 10 months old.)

Who are these guides for? 

These PLAYConmigo guides are for Spanish-English bilingual families (with kids between ages 2.5 and 6) that are looking for extra ways to bring Spanish to life on a daily basis. They're for families who want to make playing and exploring in Spanish an easy YES. For families who want all of the guesswork taken out of it, and just want to jump right in. Play ideas AND child-directed Spanish vocabulary/phrase lists to go with each activity? Count me in! Let's get even more specific on who these guides are for:

• As a native Spanish speaker, you will benefit from these guides because they will provide all sorts of Spanish language play activities and extra resources, ultimately serving as a way to connect with your child in Spanish and link the language to fun. Plus it will include specialized vocabulary and some academic language that may not be top-of-mind even for native speakers!
• As a fluent (but non-native) speaker, you will benefit for the reasons mentioned above AND also from the guided phrase list written in a natural, child-directed Spanish (often different from what a non-native speaker will have learned in an academic setting).
• Finally, as parents who are not fluent but actively learning Spanish, you will benefit from the reasons above AND from the key words sections and quick-reference visual vocabulary guides sprinkled throughout. Plus, it’s a perfect way for not only your child to learn through hands-on play activities, but you too!

Who are these guides NOT for?

• PLAYConmigo guides are NOT designed for families with zero base in Spanish. These guides don’t teach Spanish for beginners. They don't come with QR codes for pronunciation or video lessons (we have that elsewhere). The PLAYConmigo guides are written for families with some sort of established base in Spanish who will be comfortable without the video/audio component. Also because of this, our vocabulary lists focus on less-obvious words. Like for example, a kitchen theme section might have words like ladle, spatula, pour, scoop, etc. instead of just plate, fork, and knife.
• PLAYConmigo guides are NOT designed for families that don’t want to set up play activities using items from around the house. There is parent involvement needed for each activity, and though it is often minimal, the idea is that you’ll lead your child for the first several minutes and use it as an opportunity for language input and bonding in Spanish.
• PLAYConmigo guides are NOT designed for families looking for a Spanish workbook for their child to do on their own. These are NOT workbooks. There are no worksheets. There are no printables for the kids (other than vocabulary lists that could be printed). All of the activities are hands-on, open-ended, and use materials that families will have at home.

Should I print it out?

That’s up to you; it depends on how you (the parent) learn best. If you think it would be helpful for you to have the materials list / set up guide and vocabulary phrases printed out while doing the activities, then you can print it out! Many families do. Most of our guides include a printer-friendly version (which has the text pages but doesn’t have the inspiration photos). Or you could print the full version if you want something magazine-like with inspiration photos. BUT you could also just read through everything on your phone / tablet / computer. Many families just do this too. Nothing in this guide needs to be printed out for your child. There are no worksheets; all of the activities are done with hands-on materials that you have around the house. The only sheets that are designed specifically to be printed are the playtime trackers, but even those can be filled out on your phone. 

If you do want to go the printing route but don't have a printer at home, you could use Staples (our preference for quality) or a UPS store near you, BUT for the best value, we recommend The Homeschool Printing Company. Humble Heart Press looks promising too.

Can I see a list of materials needed ahead of time? 

Sure thing! Most of the materials are things you will already have at home or can be picked up on your next grocery store run. Here's a list of what is needed for this guide:

• Books
• Blankets
• Hot coca mix or tea
• Fuzzy socks
• Kid scissors
• Flashlight
• Baskets, boxes, containers of various sizes
• Refrigerator magnets
• Paper plates
• Mini marshmallows
• Toothpicks
• Play-doh
• Small toys like animals, figurines, etc.
• Paper
• Tissue paper
• Liquid glue
• Watercolors
• Paintbrush
• White crayon
• Painter’s Tape
• Winter clothes
• White rice
• Nature treasures
• Shaving cream
• Water
• Food coloring
• Oats
• Apples
• Water bottle

We loved this guide and want more! Will you be making more?

The answer is YES. Let’s say you complete a PLAYConmigo guide and want to keep up the momentum. You know you can repeat the activities, but are ready for fresh new ideas because the first ones were just so good and you want even MORE! We hear you and we’re here for you! We will be releasing new PLAYConmigo curriculums steadily from here on out (guides with totschool/preschool unit studies, play activities, and seasonal rhythms). We’ll also be releasing a guide for practical life / daily routines in Spanish, plus a version of PLAYConmigo for babies and young toddlers as well!