Top English-Spanish Bilingual Toys

Whether as part of cultural heritage or preparing children for the changing world, more and more parents are looking to bring up their children bilingual. Certainly as the population changes and the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. grows, those children who have facility in English and Spanish can find they communicate more effectively.

It’s always struck me as strange that the U.S. is really the only developed country in the world where children are not routinely brought up speaking another language. Perhaps it’s my early adventures in French and German, but I’ve always felt that knowing another language opened one up to the diversity of the world. My parents always encouraged my interest and always felt it would be helpful to me. (I wish they’d thought to have me learn Mandarin.)

Language learning happens most effectively when there is listening and repetition. (Any adult who has tried a Rosetta Stone program knows that this is the main way you learn in this system.) For children, that can mean bilingual toys.

But not all bilingual toys are created equal. Over the past several months, we reviewed quite a number of toys. For this section we eliminated those toys that were in only one language, such as only in Spanish. The true measure of being bilingual is the ability to move easily between languages.

Many of the toys we found paid only lip service (pardon the pun) to being bilingual, but we also found several that can really help support parents and kids as they begin their bilingual process.

We are so excited to have teamed up with Divina Rodriguez of Dancing Hotdogs (www.dancinghotdogs.com) to prepare this section. Divina is the mother of two boys whom she is raising bilingual, and she selected and reviewed the products here.

We hope that these may get you thinking about the wonderful advantages of raising worldly, bilingual kids, and that these might be helpful to you. We look forward to hearing from you about how these work for you, any suggestions you might have and your thoughts about raising bilingual kids.

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7 toys in this category

Baby Alive Baby All Gone

from Hasbro for ages 3 and up

What it is: Kids can pretend to feed their baby doll at snack time with the Baby Alive Baby All Gone doll. Put the pretend yogurt in the spoon and…
- Fun
- Repeat Play
- Assembly & Instructions
Ingenio Slide & Discover

from Smart Play for ages 3 and up

What it is: The Slide & Discover, part of Smart Play's Ingenio line of bilingual toys, introduces kids to 160 words in English and Spanish. It…
- Fun
- Repeat Play
- Assembly & Instructions
Spanish - English Zingo!

from ThinkFun for ages 4 and up

What it is: Spanish-English Zingo! is a bilingual Bingo game. The game comes with six double-sided game boards. One side of the game board has…
- Fun
- Repeat Play
- Assembly & Instructions
Bilingual Talking Key

from Chicco for ages 6 months and up

What it is: Bilingual Talking Key is an interactive travel toy with three shaped buttons: car, house, and a boat. Push them to activate 24 words,…
- Fun
- Repeat Play
- Assembly & Instructions
Spanish - English Numbers Floor Puzzle

from Melissa & Doug for ages 3 and up

What it is: The Spanish-English Numbers Floor Puzzle features colorful graphics on 24 extra-thick cardboard puzzle pieces. The large pieces make…
- Fun
- Repeat Play
- Assembly & Instructions
Laugh & Learn Fun with Friends Musical Table

from Fisher-Price for ages 6 months and up

What it is: The Laugh & Learn Fun with Friends Musical Table has four corners of fun. Each corner of the tabletop has an interactive learning…
- Fun
- Repeat Play
- Assembly & Instructions
Bilingual Talking Book

from Chicco for ages 6 months and up

What it is: The Bilingual Talking Book is an interactive book with more than 50 songs and 36 activities. Each page of the book has words in…
- Fun
- Repeat Play
- Assembly & Instructions