Mama Lisa's Books

Recipe for Brigadeiro – Brazilian Truffles

Brazilian Brigadeiros taste like a hybrid ofchocolate trufflesand fudge. They're served in Brazil at children's birthday parties and other special events, including Christmas. Traditionally they're decorated with chocolate sprinkles, but you can make other variations, including using red and [...]

The Game of Five Stones or Knucklebones around the World

The game ofFive Stones is also known as Knucklebones. It's atime-honored game that was played in ancient Greece, Rome and even earlier. Nowadays, in the US it's played with jacks. In some parts of the world it's played with 5 flat stones or pebbles. In other places, it's played with the ankle or [...]

Birthday Songs From Portugal and The Dominican Republic

Since the “Happy Birthday to You” song has recently gone out of copyright, we've enhanced our collection of Birthday Songs around the World! There are however two birthday songs that we know of that are widely sung and that are still under copyright. One is a Portuguese Birthday Song [...]

Watch Darth Vader say "I am your Father" in 20 Languages

Watch Darth Vader say, "I am your father" to Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movie in 20 different languages (as dubbed in the movies).  You can see a list of the languages with their voice actors below the video. Languages and Voice Actors: English (Original) – James Earl [...]

Animal Sounds Around the World – A Video

Here's a video to hear animal sounds around the world... Bow Wow Meow – Animal Sounds in Different Languages from properniceinnit on Vimeo. The languages are: English, Mandarin, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Hindi, Canadian-French, Romanian, Japanese, Russian, Dutch, Bengali, [...]

Portuguese Christmas Song

This Christmas song was sent to us from the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.  It's sung throughout the Portuguese speaking world. The carol starts with a child leaving his shoe on the windowsill outside. In Portugal, children do this for the Epiphany (the day that celebrates the Three [...]

Brazilian Tale of The Girl and the Fig Tree

The Tale of The Girl and The Fig Tree is an old Brazilian tale called A menina e Figueira, in Portuguese. There's a popular Brazilian kids song that comes from this story called X, passarinho (Shoo Little Bird). Here you can read the tale in English... Tale of The Girl and The Fig Tree Once [...]

Can Anyone Recommend any Portuguese Kids Books?

Amber wrote: Hello, I was wondering if you knew any titles of children's books that are written in Portuguese? I teach a class of two year olds and one of my students has a birthday coming up soon and I want to get her some books. She's from Brazil and speaks Portuguese. Of course I

The [...]

Jeringonza – A Spanish Word Game Like Pig Latin, with Portuguese and Italian Versions

Jeringonza (aka jerigonza) is played in Spain and throughout Latin America. It's also found in Portuguese speaking Brazil and even in Italy. It's a secret language for kids – just like the English word game Pig Latin. (I'm going to make all the changes to the words in bold below to help [...]