Bilingual living is awesome if you’re so inclined. I’ve always wanted to be bilingual but without direct immersion it was next to impossible, even with 14 years of French in grade school & university.

Among many other benefits, bilingualism gives children a head start in brain development and can put them at the front of the pack in their future job searches. But sometimes, you want the Hola without the Dora.

The multilingual books & CD’s from our friends at Il Cocco di Mamma make great learning tools and allow you to enjoy the wonder of language without the crazy fake accents displayed by those of us who try and fail. They carry several of the classic Dr. Seuss books and some awesome ‘Elmer the elephant’ stories, beautifully illustrated picture dictionaries & flash cards and CD’s packed with traditional children’s folk songs in various languages.

Il Cocco di Mamma is offering TOP readers FREE SHIPPING in the US and Canada, and always offers free gift wrapping with every purchase. Now that’s the kind of service opinionated parents like to see!

For sparing you the Dora for at least half an hour…you’re very welcome!

We’ve got a multilingual gift package from Il Cocco di Mamma for one lucky TOP reader, including a book (English-Italian), CD (Spanish) and FlashWords (English-French). To be entered in the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with ICDM package in the subject line and tell us one product in the books & CD’s category at Il Cocco di Mamma that’s not mentioned in this review. Contest closes at midnight MST on 4/30/07. Congratulations Rhodie!