“Thank you to Hola Amigo Box for sponsoring this post. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.”
As an advocate of language learning, I am always excited to hear of new resources out there that can motivate children as well as help parents in their family’s language journey. I didn’t have many resources available when my children were young and the ones around were mainly Spanish children’s storybooks that my sister and my mom would send me from Puerto Rico. Pretty much, the only activity we could find to practice words and sentences were coloring books and those only worked for a while as there were not many different choices and not easy to keep the children engaged.
Hola Amigo Box is a subscription box that strives to create memories while learning and practicing Spanish. For families with children between the ages of 3-5, the Box includes activities that help your child read, discover, and create, all things that motivate and inspire learning and imagination. It includes a bilingual book, and three different activities including academic activities, crafts, and learning tools. Every instruction is in both English and Spanish and encourages participation, repetition, and most importantly, learning with play! The best part is that families get to curate their own box, and on the 5th of each month, the Box is shipped to their house directly.
The founders of this versatile box are Allison and Conchita. Both educators and moms themselves raising bilingual children. They created Hola Amigo Box as a tool that would make language learning fun and easy. Allison shared, “I always wanted to be a teacher from a very young age. When I had the opportunity to live and teach abroad, my eyes opened to the world of bilingual education and Dual Language Immersion programs. I loved the mission of language programs and what they do for all children and their families.”
In addition to a bilingual children’s book, there are three carefully packaged activities inside the box. For example, inside the Lee (Read) section there are vocabulary words chosen to teach the children about something, in this case, the weather. There is also a puzzle and a reader booklet that encourages reading about the seasons with pictures and a sentence, like a girl with a flower describing la primavera or the Spring, a boy with ice cream popsicles stating it is el verano, or Summer, and so on. It is colorful and inviting, with sweet smiling faces galore.
The Crea (Create) section also includes vocabulary and invites children to color, cut and create their own scene. A fun way to inspire imagination and play. Same with the Descubre (Discover) section. This one even has a thermometer that teaches about the temperature and invites children to create weather scenes with snowflakes and cards and circles.
When asked Conchita what makes this Box unique, she answered, “Hola Amigo Box is unique because we strive to help kids to connect with each other and communicate in Spanish and not be afraid to meet someone and say “¡Hola!” We want to give them the confidence to learn and to speak. We create almost all the materials that go in each box and we include high-quality materials that can be used over and over. We want parents to have new ways to play and learn so they can carry those methods into new learning opportunities.”
Remember how I always say, “make language learning fun?” Well, there are many ways to have fun with Hola Amigo Box! This holiday season, I encourage you to check them out.
Bai, Bai,
Maritere
