Looking at all the beautifully illustrated, high-quality English alphabet books in the stores, have you ever wondered

“Oh! I wish there was a similar quality Bangla alphabet book for my child!”

If you did, you are not alone. I also searched quite a bit for a beautiful Bangla alphabet board book suitable for kids but didn’t find many options. That led me to decide, “What if I design one?”; not only for my children but also for all the parents who would love to give a quality Bangla alphabet book to their kids. That kind of started the journey of Dear Prodigy!

Designing this book was a lot of fun! Putting myself in a kid’s shoes, I tried to imagine what words and objects children interact with regularly. Then I contextualized them with Bengali culture and tradition and illustrated them in a simple yet modern, visually interesting way with rich and vibrant colors. I selected laminated whiteboards for the book’s pages so that they can withstand all of your child’s experiments Also, the book is wrapped with a hardcover with rounded corners to avoid any injury. So, the main features of the book are-

• A Bengali alphabet board Book that connects Bengali culture, tradition with modern illustrations creating a unique learning experience.
• The words and images for the letters are selected from children’s familiar objects, often contextualizing with Bengali culture. The pages and objects are illustrated with attractive, rich, and vibrant colors.
• A Bilingual (Bangla-English) Book with Bengali and English word meanings and English pronunciations.
• Easy to clean any stain or water. Thick Laminated Whiteboard inner pages and Laminated Hardboard cover.
• Easy for Little Hands to Grasp. Page size 6 inches x 6 inches. Book weighs less than a pound. Rounded corner to avoid injury to your child.

You can order the book from Amazon. Here is the link https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737016605

Please let me know how your child liked this book. If it helps even a tiny bit in your child’s Bangla language learning, that would be my success. If you have any feedback, just reach me on any of Dear Prodigy’s social accounts or through email. I will keep improving the book in future editions. Thanks for believing in Dear Prodigy!

Check our Bengali Numbers Book with Rhymes and The Bengali Word Spelling Puzzle

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• Bilingual Myth Busting
• Thinking about Bangladeshi Gift for Foreigners, Friends, or Family?

Oftentimes, on various occasions, we the Bangladeshis want to give gifts to our non-Bangladeshi friends, families, colleagues; a gift that reflects our culture, tradition, and heritage. To their rescue, Dear Prodigy has made a unique gift set of three items, each of which is designed and inspired by the Bangladeshi colors, culture, history, and tradition. The gift set includes-

• A beautiful bookmark that reflects the color of Bangladesh. The tassel is made of jute, the golden fiber of Bangladesh.
• A set of seven Bangladesh theme stickers.
• A cute sticky note that will remind you of the joy of riding rickshaws on Bangladesh Independence or Victory day.

The items will be wrapped in a beautiful envelope. This gift set is-

• A perfect Bengali gift/souvenir for friends, colleagues, students, teachers, etc.
• Suitable for all ages.
• Ideal gift for kids to learn about Bangladesh.

You can also gift the individual items. Here are the links to the items separately.

• Bangladeshi Bookmark with Handmade Jute Tussle | Bengali Art, Decor | Bangladeshi Gift/Souvenir
• Bengali Sticky Notes with Rickshaw | Bangladesh Flag Art
• Beautiful Bangladesh theme Stickers | Map, Rickshaw, Boat, Lily, Ektara and more | Bengali Art

Gifts for Bangladeshi or Bengali Kids, Toddlers

If you are wondering, what can I gift to a Bengali or Bangladeshi kid? Dear Prodigy has special gift item for kids and their parents. For kids, we have premium quality Bengali Alphabet (bornomala), Numbers and Rhymes books made with laminated Swiss boards also known as board books. We also have Bengali Word Spelling or Alphabet puzzles. The quality is excellent to say the least. You can check our reviews on Etsy, Amazon, or our Facebook page.

• Amazon Reviews: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737016605/#customerReviews
• Etsy Reviews: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DearProdigy#reviews
• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dearprodigy/reviews

• The Bengali alphabet and number board Books connect Bengali culture, tradition with modern illustrations creating a unique learning experience.
• The words and images for the letters are selected from children’s familiar objects. The pages and objects are illustrated with attractive, rich, and vibrant colors.
• Bilingual (Bangla-English) Books with Bengali and English word meanings and English pronunciations.
• Easy to clean any stain or water. Thick Laminated Whiteboard inner pages and Laminated Hardboard cover.
• Easy for little hands to grasp. Page size 6 inches by 6 inches. Book weighs less than a pound. Rounded corner to avoid injury to your child.

• PLAY and LEARN BANGLA: These 20 SELF-CORRECTING word puzzles are excellent for playing and at the same time learning Bengali alphabets and words. There are words without vowel marks (কার), such as বল/কলম; these are the easiest. Then we provided some words with vowel marks, such as মাছ/খেলনা.
• PROBLEM SOLVING: These puzzles are a great way for your child to develop their cognitive skills, problem solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and essential motor skills.
• OBJECT RECOGNITION: The illustrations in the puzzles are selected from objects that are familiar to a kid or toddler such as ball (বল), car (গাড়ি), bird (পাখি), etc. Some illustrations such as rickshaw (রিকশা) are added to familiarize your child with the Bengali tradition.
• LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: These puzzles help your child to improve their bilingual (Bengali-English) skills. Each puzzle piece contains one Bengali letter and its English pronunciation . Your child will learn how to connect the pieces and form the Bengali word.
• PERFECT SIZE and PREMIUM QUALITY: Each puzzle set is 4.25 inches long and 4.25 inches wide which makes it easy for your child to grasp and play. The puzzle pieces are made with premium quality, laminated, thick cardboards.

Besides, you can check our t-shirts and posters for Bengali families that are inspired from Bangla language. The posters are available with and without frames.

Gifts for Bengali Father, Mother, in-laws, Parents

Dear Prodigy has an excellent pair of mugs that are beautifully designed to show the love and respect to your mother, father, in-laws, parents.

+ মা-বাবার উপহার মাতৃভাষায়
+ Perfect Gift for Parents of any Age
+ Product: Set of two Mugs. Each 11 oz. | 3.25″ Diameter x 3.75″ Height
+ Colourful Modern Design Inspired by Bangladeshi Culture
+ BPA Free, Microwaveable & Hand Wash Recommended

STORY

“Morning shows the day” but these colorful mugs can fill your morning with all the love, affection, happiness of the best relations in the world.

The color and patterns in the mug are inspired by Bangladeshi culture. Red, yellow colors are considered warm colors. These colors can evoke feelings of happiness, optimism, and energy. We tried to have a simple, minimalistic design by focusing on the best words of the world- “মা/Ma/Mother” and “বাবা/Baba/Father”

MATERIAL
The mug is made of ceramic. It is a two-tone mug; white outside and black inside. The imprint has been done in the USA. The mug is BPA-free and microwavable. We recommend hand-wash.

USE
A perfect set of two mugs to enlighten your morning drink, reminding the connection that extends generations. The design is suitable for parents of any age. Perfect gift for any occasion like Anniversary, Baby Shower, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Having a Child, Birthday, Eid, Pujo, or any Festivals.

PACKAGING
The mugs will be wrapped carefully with bubble wraps and then they will be packaged in a box. We will give our best effort to ensure that the mugs don’t get damaged during shipping.

Please let us know in the comment how your loved ones liked our products. If it helps even a tiny bit in your child’s Bangla language learning, or in your parents’ morning sunshine, or in your friends’ joy that would be our success. If you have any feedback, just reach me on any of Dear Prodigy’s social accounts or through email.

Thanks for believing in Dear Prodigy!

A common myth around bilingualism is that bilingual children will face academic problems when they start school. ​It is not fully correct. It depends on the age of the child and also the school setting. For example, for an older child who has been speaking their mother language since childhood and just got admitted to a school in a foreign country, it might be difficult to understand and process all the information in the class. This is not due to bilingualism. That child only knew one language, for example, Bengali, and now facing a completely different language, say English. It could be better served to get instruction in the language they know while they’re learning English.

However, for younger children, being bilingual actually helps in their academic careers. Research shows many academic advantages of bilingualism, including superior problem-solving, multitasking skills, and increased cognitive flexibility. Children who are being exposed to multiple languages from their childhood, are more comfortable in problem-solving, doing works that require multitasking. Kids thrive when they are in a bilingual academic setting — giving them a future advantage over monolingual children. Bilingualism is an asset in post-secondary applications and for career development.

Dear Prodigy has been continuously working to develop materials to help kids learn Bengali in a fun way. So far, we have designed a Bengali Alphabet Board Book that reflects Bengali culture, tradition, and heritage. You can check out the book reviews at Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1737016605] or on our Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/dearprodigy].

We also designed a beautiful Bengali Alphabet Poster for kids and also for adults. It can be put in the nursery room as well as in your living room. We will not shy away from saying it’s a piece of Bengali Art.

References

1. Marian V, Shook A, Schroeder SR. Bilingual Two-Way Immersion Programs Benefit Academic Achievement. Biling Res J. 2013;36(2):10.1080/15235882.2013.818075. doi:10.1080/15235882.2013.818075
2. Bialystok, Ellen. “Reshaping the mind: the benefits of bilingualism.” Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale vol. 65,4 (2011): 229-35. doi:10.1037/a0025406. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4341987/

Unfortunately, many people think that there is only room enough in a child’s brain for one language. However, if we look around at other countries, we can easily see that in many places, children grow up learning two, three, and sometimes more languages without any cost to their educational development. For example, in Switzerland, the home language may be French, Swiss-German, Italian, or Romansh, but most children learn one additional language very early, and by the time they graduate from secondary school, the majority of students are trilingual. Another good example is India.

Contrary to the idea that two languages confuse people, there is evidence that well-developed bilingualism actually enhances one’s “cognitive flexibility” — that is, bilingual people (including children) are better able to see things from two or more perspectives and to understand how other people think. (Hakuta, 1986). Bilinguals also have better auditory language skills (i.e., they can discriminate sounds of a language more finely) than monolinguals, and they mature earlier than monolinguals in terms of linguistic abstraction (i.e., ability to think and talk about language). (Albert and Obler, 1978, cited in Cummins, 1994).

References

1. Myths About Bilingualism in Individuals http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/bilingtl/myths.html

It is a common belief that exposing infants or toddlers to more than one language may cause delays in their speech or language development. The idea that two languages cause language delays in children has been a long-standing myth in the United States. However, research has dispelled this myth. Children are able to learn two languages at the same pace as other children who are learning only one language. [1]

At Dear Prodigy, we believe that our children who have their roots in Bangladesh or Kolkata but are living or growing in other countries should be given the chance of learning the sweetest language in the world, Bengali. Learning two languages from childhood has immense benefits. The kids can communicate with their parents, grandparents using the words, expressions that were passed to them from generation to generation. They can communicate more easily with relatives and extended family members living in Bangladesh/Kolkata. Not only these, learning multiple languages is also beneficial for their cognitive development. 

Dear Prodigy has been continuously working to develop materials to help kids learn Bengali in a fun way. So far, we have designed a Bengali Alphabet Board Book that reflects Bengali culture, tradition, and heritage. You can check out the book reviews at Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1737016605] or on our Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/dearprodigy].

We also designed a beautiful Bengali Alphabet Poster for kids and also for adults. It can be put in the nursery room as well as in your living room. We will not shy away from saying it’s a piece of Bengali Art.

Dear Prodigy has been continuously working to develop materials to help kids learn Bengali in a fun way. So far, we have designed a Bengali Alphabet Board Book that reflects Bengali culture, tradition, and heritage. You can check out the book reviews at Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1737016605] or on our Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/dearprodigy].

We also designed a beautiful Bengali Alphabet Poster for kids and also for adults. It can be put in the nursery room as well as in your living room. We will not shy away from saying it’s a piece of Bengali Art.

References

1. Marian V, Shook A, Schroeder SR. Bilingual Two-Way Immersion Programs Benefit Academic Achievement. Biling Res J. 2013;36(2):10.1080/15235882.2013.818075. doi:10.1080/15235882.2013.818075