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Posted on October 9, 2015August 9, 2016 by Le Toboggan

How to prompt a conversation with your children?

I found the article “30 questions to ask your kid instead of how was your day?” quite pertinent.

It is a great way to prompt and encourage a conversation with little and older children but it is also a great tool to use when one wants to keep practising the minority language.

When I read the article I realised that I was already using same style questions and you probably are too, such “What did you eat at daycare today?”, “Who did you play the most with?”. This is how i found out that my 3 year old often ‘ate’ whale.

I use open questions to encourage longer replies and I try to encourage descriptions to expand and develop his vocabulary. I also relate some events to stories that he has read. Associations are great tools too.

The key is to promote communication, an exchange between 2 people. Therefore limit the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions.

To read the full article click on the below link.

http://parent.co/30-questions-to-ask-your-kid-instead-of-how-was-your-day/

Posted on October 8, 2015June 9, 2016 by Le Toboggan

Why Reading matters?

Reading matters for a variety of reasons, such as increasing literacy, general culture and IQs. Children tend to be more focused and generally do better in school and professionally.

However one significant benefit is missing. It is the value of spending that quality time with your children. Several studies demonstrated that children liked to be read to even when they can read themselves. We all live busy lives and with the increasing use of technology at home, it gets more difficult to find time to spend with your children.

Reading books together is always a great way to maintain or reinforce bonds between parents and children. You can take advantage of some stories children can relate to to speak about difficult moments in life, such as the loss of a loved one or the arrival of a sibling. Let the story prompt some questions, for example “how do you feel about a little sister arriving soon?” or “What would you do if you were in the character’s place?”.

Use books to get kids smarter but also to develop social and emotional skills, such as tolerance, empathy, etc…

And as usual happy reading!

This infographic was created for Harper Collins Childrens with Brandpoint.

Posted on October 7, 2015August 9, 2016 by Le Toboggan

Children’s book sales are booming

Great news! Children a reading more. The 5-8 are the most avid readers. The data come from an analysis from the US market and it interestingly highlights that there is more demand for diversity.

Children are interested in multicultural books. Just like Le Toboggan!

Click on the below link to read the full article.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/68083-nielsen-summit-shows-the-data-behind-the-children-s-book-boom.html

Posted on October 7, 2015October 9, 2015 by Le Toboggan

Caras Divertidas na selva

Who wants to have fun with pop up masks of the jungle animals?

Caras divertidas na selva is fun, colourful and is about little children manipulating books.

Let’s encourage their imagination! Who wants to be a beautiful parrot? A funny frog? A lazy lion? Or a friendly elephant?

You will also like Caras divertidas na quinta for pop up masks with farm animals.

Caras divertidas is listed in the Portuguese Government reading program for school children ‘LER Plano Nacional de Leitura’.

www.letoboggan.com.au/product/caras-divertidas-na-selva

Posted on October 2, 2015October 2, 2015 by Le Toboggan

Le Toboggan celebrates the World Space Week 4-10 October

World Space Week is an annual holiday observed from 4-10 October in various countries including Australia. It is defined by the United Nations as “an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition.”

The choice of the dates was based on the recognition of the launch of the first human-made Earth satellite Sputnik on 4th October 1957 and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty on 10th October 1967.

This is a great opportunity for the inquisitive little minds to learn about stars, planets, satellites and much more…

Le Toboggan suggests the following resources:

*French

“Encyclopedie Junior, l’Espace“. Do you know that stars can be of different colours?

This encyclopaedia will provide all the information on space from where and when it all started to what are the planets made of. It comes with a quiz.

“Système Solaire“. Do you know the Earth is not the only planet which has active volcanoes? Do you want to find out about cosmic scars?

This book and the DVD will tell you all about our solar system. It comes with a quiz.

*Italian

“Galileo Galilei e la torre di Pisa“, this easy to read bilingual book introduces the famous Italian astronomer, his life, his works and his discoveries.

Also comes with additional facts that can be used by a curious mind or in a school activity.

“Lo spazio da toccare“. Introduce the notions of our solar system with this tactile book. The children will love learning new things while touching different textures.

Happy reading!

Posted on September 28, 2015October 4, 2015 by Le Toboggan

Cache-cache dans la savane

Who would not like to play hide and seek with wild animals?

Try to guess who is hiding?

The child will be given clues, such as “I am the biggest land animal! My trunk and large ears make it hard to hide!”

The short descriptions give a couple of well known facts about the animals. The child can make a guess then check by lifting the flaps or pulling the straps.

Discover beautifully illustrated animals page after page that will make the child happy with anticipation.

You like farm animals check out Cache-cache dans la basse-cour.

www.letoboggan.com.au/product/cache-cache-dans-la-savane

Posted on September 26, 2015October 4, 2015 by Le Toboggan

Pequeno Buba busca a su elefante

Buba, the little frog, is at daycare and has lost ‘Tapi’ his elephant plush toy. He is very sad! Pull the flaps and help Buba find Tapi.

This colourful board book that is specially made for little hands.

While Buba is looking for his elephant, your child’s vocabulary will expand. Each page represents an activity run at the daycare and behind each flap hides an animal.

Well done! you have helped Buba find his elephant toy. Now would you like to play hide and seek with Tina the kitten in Tina juega al escondite?

www.letoboggan.com.au/product/pequeno-buba-busca-su-elefante

Posted on September 13, 2015June 9, 2016 by Le Toboggan

Bilingual books are great resources.

Did you know that according to the 2011 Census data 18% of people in Australia spoke a language other than English at home.

Can you guess the top 10?

In decreasing order we have Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Spanish, Hindi and German as the most spoken languages other than English. Are you surprised?

There is a variety of reasons why non-English languages are spoken at home and not only because of limited proficiency in English, for example one person of the couple may want to practise the non-native language, or both persons have migrated and speaking their home language is just more natural.

We have a couple of friends, he is French and she is Peruvian, they used to live in Perth and spoke Spanish at home. She was also fluent in French but he wanted to practise his Spanish.

Our own family is very “international”. I was raised bilingual Portuguese-French, then I came over to Perth to study a postgraduate degree at the university where I met my husband. He is from Peru. I am also fluent in Spanish, therefore it naturally became our home language.

When we had our children we decided that no matter what, they will learn their parents’ languages. This is why I speak Spanish to my husband and French to my children. My husband speaks Spanish to the children. None of us feels excluded because my husband understands and speaks French too. But why choose one language when we can teach more to our children and the beauty is that they are not at all confused. They know when and whom they can speak French, Spanish or English to.

We are both proficient in English but it just did not seem natural to speak English at home when we could speak each other’s native tongues.

At Le Toboggan we like bilingual books because they are great resources for parents who are raising kids in more than one language. But not only that, these books are also great for people learning a new language.

We can share the same book to tell the same story in 2 different languages. Our children get to develop and expand their vocabulary in both languages without translating. They already know the story in one language, they will learn the new words without any difficulty.

I get new books from the local library every couple of weeks and some days it is ‘hard work’ to adapt the English text to French or whichever language you speak at home. It is just relaxing to have the book already in your native tongue. You just have to read and not make up the story.

Reading bilingual books develops and reinforces languages skills and vocabulary acquisition.

Bilingual books are also great to keep children interested in the foreign language. It is a great way to introduce the culture and not just the language.

Bilingual books are a formidable tool for people wanting to learn a new language. Children’s books are ideal as they offer original and fun stories and the degree of difficulty increases with the reading age and proficiency.

This is why we would like to share our latest additions to our collections:

Follow the adventures of Curious George or Jorge el curioso in ‘Curious George at the baseball game’, ‘Curious George visits the library’, ‘Curious George cleans up’, Curious George plants a seed’, ‘Curious George dance party’ or the little dog Martha in the Martha speaks collection.

Check our home page out for more bilingual books in English-French, -German, -Japanese, -Vietnamese, -Russian, -Italian and more…

Happy reading!

Posted on August 21, 2015August 14, 2018 by Le Toboggan

Children’s book week August 22-28, 2015

This year The Children’s Book Council of Australia celebrates its 70th anniversary.

When should we start reading to our children?

Some say since day one, I would say even earlier. I can still remember how the sound of my voice was soothing for my children inside my womb. Even if I felt silly at times reading out loud books on economics! They were listening to me, my voice, the rhythm of the words.

Education starts at home and we offer a variety of resources that might inspire you, such as DVDs with tales, CDs with rhymes, audiobooks, and of course books.

Children should be shown books every day. It does not matter if they are not interested today, they will be fascinated tomorrow.

Introduce books with different colours, shapes, textures. Make it more interesting. Start by describing what you both see with few words, for example ‘look! it is a cat’. Then later expand, ‘it is a grey cat playing with a white ball’. Not only children will increase their vocabulary but they will be great observers too.

If you speak a language other than English at home, as I do, do not let this hinder the above process. The skills your child will gain in your home language will be easily transferable in English. He will go to school here so no matter what, he will learn English. Focus on your home language, if he is good at describing in Spanish, he will be good at it in English too.

And finally enjoy the quality time with your little one and happy reading!

A few suggestions:

Get the children to manipulate and play with the books. For example, let them draw, erase and draw again and again with ‘Dibujame las caras de la Caperucita‘ and ‘Libro de plastico de los piratas‘. The latter book is made of plastic and can be taken to the beach or in the bath.

Offer a variety of colours and graphics with ‘Cual es este animal de bosque?‘

Tales to watch ‘La ratita presumida cuento DVD‘ or tales and rhymes to listen ‘30 comptines & conte de legende: Le Petit Prince‘.

Rhymes to sing and read ‘Row, row, row your boat‘ (Chinese and Italian editions).

Books that play music ‘Os instrumentos musicais‘.

Let their little fingers follow the shapes and lift up flaps ‘Chemin de doigt, les bebes animaux’.

Children are naturally curious, let’s encourage them with ‘Cherche et trouve a la ferme’, ‘Pequeno Buba busca su elefante‘, ‘Espreita o Mundo dos Dinossauros‘, ‘Montagna con alette da sollevare‘.

Let them play with words ‘Jeux de lettres garçon‘.

Book for the pram ‘Mein erstes buggybuch: Meine liebsten spielsachen‘

Books to learn ‘Wehr macht was auf dem Bauernhof?’

Pop up books ‘Os pinguins e as cores‘ or with different colours and shapes ‘Vermelho como….‘, ‘Clack clack Ape‘, ‘En route pour l’ecole‘.

We have many more in different languages, email us for more information.

Posted on August 13, 2015August 14, 2018 by Le Toboggan

Le Toboggan celebrates The Science Week

At Le Toboggan we like children to be inquisitive and explore. The celebration of Science in Perth on August 15th & 16th will offer many fun and free activities for the kids.

We want to celebrate science all year long and carry a range of scientific books for little curious minds, such as:

** Spanish

‘Dinosaurios’, beautiful pop up book showing 3D dinosaurs. (14/08/18 update – out of print)

‘Nos divertimos con la ciencia‘, you like experimenting, it is more fun when you build it from scratch. The book also comes with flashcards with instructions on how to make your own instruments, experiments and giving you tips.

** German

‘Dinosaurier‘ learn everything you wanted to know on the Dinos.

You like creepy crawlers, you will like ‘Die coolsten und giftigsten krabbeltiere der welt‘ and ‘Insekten‘. Insekten is a book with flaps which hide more facts about insects.

** Portuguese

You would like know more about our planet or dinosaures. Check out these two beautiful flap books ‘Espreita o mundo dos dinossauros‘ and ‘Espreita o Planeta Terra‘.

** Italien

Children will love ‘Incredibili Dinosauri‘, a big board book introducing their favourite dinos. Perfect for little hands.

Find out more about Galileo Galilei and see some of the instruments he used with ‘Galileo Galilei e la Torre de Pisa‘.

We have more arriving in the coming weeks like books in Italian telling us everything about minerals, mammals, birds, textiles….or in French about innovations and discoveries, Space and the Solar System, and more dinosaures…