wind of imagination is here

A Peter Rabbit encounter

2012-11-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

It is that time in childhood when you dream to have the characters of a children's classic tale to come alive and real. My children love the Beatrix Potter' classic Peter Rabbit, and we read this book almost four times a week, the book has been read so many times that the cover shows a little wear now.

Yesterday, we had the cutest encounter of all in our backyard; after we heard something chirping in a corner, what we thought to be a little bird turned out to be a baby wild bunny, exactly as Peter Rabbit. The children and I were so delighted to see this, that not knowing how to proper care of a bunny we rushed to get a basket and filled it with some leaves while I find out what to do.

Living in Central Texas we are among wild life, and this seems to be common. Rabbits look for a safe place for their babies and often create the nest in family's backyards. Luckily we don't have a dog or a cat, so the babies were safe; We brought the little fellow to our living room while I investigated how to handle him. The children took care of him and even read him the Peter Rabbit book!

The truth is we should not have brought the little bunny inside the home because it wouldn't survive. So the best thing was to put it back on his nest, and not feed him with anything since they only feed from the mother, who I learned only shows up at night to take care of the babies. Mother rabbit is very wise, she stays far from the nest during the day, that way predators do not spot the baby bunnies. Mother Rabbit only comes twice a day at night, and early morning to feed them for 5 minutes, and that is plenty for a growing bunny before it adventures on its own. We put then the little baby back on his nest, and for our surprise he had a little brother in there as well. We helped him going back and covering the nest the way their mom left it, with fur, hay and grass. And as I read I left a tic tac toe pattern with some twigs, this trick would tell us if Mother Rabbit came in the night.

The children were so fond of the baby, that even we wanted to keep him, they understood he needed to be in his nest so his mommy will find him. They learned a great lesson of paternity and motherhood at the same time.

Saying a nice farewell for our friend, we covered the nest. This morning we checked, and Mother Rabbit did come!!! The twigs were moved, and she left a little uncovered so we fixed the nest a little without disturbing it. Later the little Peter Rabbit came out, he seems very active, and we had to put it back on the nest so he doesn't get lost for tonight's feeding. This has been quite an experience for the children, and they now cherish more that wonderful story of Peter Rabbit that came alive in their own backyard.

Now, we need just to let them be, and wait until they grow and make their way back into the forest.

Mommy, who are the Spaniards?

2012-10-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning my 4 yo son came to me with a question and a confussing expression in its face:

- Mommy, who are the Spaniards? (Mami, quienes son los espanoles?)

- Why? I asked, and immediately answered: people from a country called Spain.

But he told me: no! they say that the Spaniards made something very bad!

Then, I understood. A commercial on TV that was teaching history in Discovery Familia was talking about Christopher Columbus, and how the Spaniards came to America, and indeed did some damage back in 1492 to the native americans.

At this moment I knew my son needed a history lesson, and his curiosity by the horrible news about the Spaniards needed an explanation. I decided to make my first history lesson, talking about the continents, how Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon) wanted to prove there was something else across the ocean, and how he embarked in a mission after being approved by Isabel de Castilla and Fernando de Aragon, Queen and King of Spain.

The discovery and late conquer of America, the three boats La Pinta, La Nina and la SantaMaria, sounded like an interesting story to him, and even though as adults we know those were not very happy times, is history and we need to tell it as it happened.

I assured my son how this was long time ago, and now people understand that is not the right way to conquer territories (some people understand) and native american or any world tribe should be respected in their culture and own way of living, and the Spaniards- the people from Spain are very nice and don't do such things anymore...page turned. Indeed, our Spanish we talk at home come from them, and many other wonderful things as well.

Don't be surprised to find a history question here and there, and be prepared to answer; children are inquisitive and want real answers! I'm glad Discovery Familia had this commercial, because it fostered my child's curiosity for history.

Preschool after a month for a bilingual child

2012-09-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

I wrote a month ago about the first experience for a child that enters preschool without attended a daycare setting before, and how different can this be specially if the child is bilingual or in the process of acquire a second language.

My 4 yr-old son speaks a fluent Spanish (we chose to speak Spanish to him before he can lose the ability of learning it later at least with easiness), and he is now in his first month of Preschool in an English exclusive environment. How is he managing this environment? quite well and recomforting for us.

The first weeks the anxiety of being alone in a world in which people speak different scared him, but his resilience made him understand the basic instructions. It is important for those parents in the same situation to help the child with basic instructions at home about what the child will encounter in the classroom. And always praise its efforts to help its self esteem.

We did some classroom practices at home, how to seat correctly with the instructions he listens from the teacher, how to ask for permission, to go to the bathroom and basic manner sentences. This seemed to work because he is already used to the routine the teachers have for activities, lunch time and even he went into two practice fieldtrips.

He is not yet talking English fluently but he is learning to understand it and works around the instructions, and does his classroom practice sheets with the accuracy of someone that understands instructions. I think this is great for any child that is learning a second language. I also had the opportunity to know in depth a dual language immersion school recently that works with the International Baccaularate (IB) model, which works very well for children that English is first language, and Spanish is second, or for parents that want children to continue in Spanish instruction. So the process there is inverse, teachers speak 80% Spanish and 20% English, and as they grow the English increases; the immersion works great. I saw first graders speaking a fluent Spanish like my children do.

I write this post to assure myself and other parents in the importance of having children exposed to different languages, hopefully before they are seven years old, in which the brain is acquiring the language skills naturally. At home it is important to keep speaking the native language of your choice (some parents choose the foreign language even if they speak English as well), and continue the effort until the child masters the new language.

It is very interesting to watch this linguistic process, and even his little friends are acquiring some Spanish words by interacting together. Those are the wonders of diversity!

Waffles for breakfast

2012-09-18T14:30:00.003-07:00

My 3 yr old son is in love with playdough, and everything that he can grab along to mix it with it. His latest creation was to make breakfast for me, while he discovered that some of his toys can make shapes as squares, and triangles, until he used an innovative tool not used before at home: a Badminton racquet.

The tiny squares made him marvel about the new shape

As he maneuvered the racquet with the playdough he saw the tiny squares, and then offered me what he identified as a "waffle", and it really was.

He continued playing with the racquet and made new shapes as a corn, and more waffles in which he played a pretend breakfast. Breakfast was good, we probably have to try a new version of Belgium waffles next time.

Yummy corn!

This game was totally invented by him, and it always amaze me how children find tools from nowhere to make new stuff you did not even think about. In this case there was just playdough, until he found new things to add up as the racquet. No need to buy expensive playdough tools or machines, if the machine is already in the child's brain, right?

At the end, a sensory experience took his attention away, to feel the playdough through the tiny holes of the racquet, good to try as well.

how does it feel?

A Paper Office

2012-09-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Children often mimic what adults do and say. How people work is something very interesting to children. They can play to be doctors, teachers, scientists, chefs and all that adds to their imagination. But to play these roles you don't need to buy expensive sets if you can make some of your own, that they participate and have double fun.

This week we played Office at home, replicating what my children see in his dad: working in the computer, while attending phone calls.

Paper made laptop and cell phone with alphabet and numbers

Making these elements with paper add a new symbolism to the game, as children can help folding the paper, decorating or writing the letters themselves.

Adding a question mark to the game allowed them to incorporate a new way to ask a question and wait for turns by holding the question mark, or if an imaginary customer has a question they don't know they used the question mark to find out.

They replicated exactly how his father works from home sometimes, and they felt this was a very important task to be completed, and not being interrupted.

This activity teaches them also how communication works, how people use these channels to work and learn in a game setting, in which you are not worried they are breaking the actual phone or laptop. We even practiced some greetings to answer the phone so they had fun playing as an actual office.

This can be a good activity combined with other variants; it is good to see how engaged in the game they were and it is also an opportunity to practice the alphabet and numbers.

The bilingual child: adapting to school for the first time

2012-08-29T09:01:00.002-07:00

It is a hard beginning for a child that grows bilingual to enter the school system. For a child used to speak just English, his native language, entering school can be hard because of adapting to new routines and the separation anxiety from the parents if he is not used to be in a daycare setting, but language is not a barrier.

But for a bilingual child, that speaks a foreign language and it is starting to learn English this adds a third ingredient to be nervous about. My oldest son just started Pre-K and he is a fluent Spanish speaker, but his English is limited to listening and some basic survival sentences because we taught him Spanish first. Even though we know the advantages of this in the future, as he grows up bilingual, it is hard to watch his little mind adapt to a whole new environment.

Imagine yourself entering a classroom where everyone speaks a language you do not understand [blahshiwnijinsidhu] it is certainly scary; how do you help your child to cope with that? here are some of the things we did as parents, and in this road we will implement maybe new ones as we see his progress:

1. First, we toured the school several times before beginning classes, so he recognized the classroom, playground, where the bathroom was, and we met some of the teachers.
2. Days before the Great Day I explained to him the routine he was going to have: I read to him the classes, and told him about the snacks and lunch he will be given there.
3. We told him to use the bathroom exactly as he did at home; luckily the bathroom is inside the classroom, and another one in a hallway. We told him to go freely to the bathroom when he needed it, and this worked pretty well as he did that the first day. Basic instructions are always needed.
4. Also, we told him if he was in the playground or other site in the school tell one of the teachers he needs to go to to the bathroom. This is specially important, because a child in a new environment may feel nervous and reverse his potty training, which will add even more anxiety. He learned to say this in English.
5. To add some security we gave him a special card made at home with our family pictures. The card he could fold it and keep it in his pocket like a little lucky charm, but we call it the Power Charm.
6. Another way I explained to him how good was about going to school, is how he will be like a detective with the mission of learning English: each day he will listen and learn something new, and since he loves to play detective this was a way to reduce his anxiety.
7. This morning he cried a little, his second day away from us and his little brother; so the detective mission worked and he was back on track. The drama did not escalate.
8. We promised him a surprise after we pick him up: the surprise is a craft made by his brother, or a special dessert, something he can be excited about.

We hope this transition goes fast and successful; a child needs a lot of support in these first experiences as he enters the real world. I hope if more parents are going through the same situation this can help a little; I also would love to read more similar experiences.

Detectives at home

2012-08-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

Playing detective is a fun game for a child, and stimulates many areas at the same time: curiosity, creativity, solving skills, and you can mix the game with anything you like: finding letters throughout the house, numbers, hidden objects, etc. Children create their own mysteries too.

We started by drawing a spying glass in black construction paper

After cutting them into the glass shape, we added some stickers with stars, because my children wanted the spying glass to be a flashlight as well, so I told them the stars will make the trick ;)

They had fun starting to solve some mysteries at home like this

1) Who destroyed the little toy playground?

2) What is this stain on the floor?

3) Find the hidden sticker in the car

4) Where is Fred from Scooby Doo?

5) We found out Superman had a twin brother

Answers to the mysteries:

1) Little brother stepped earlier in the toy playground. He already fixed it.
2) The stain was a small piece of playdough from the morning
3) They found the Mickey sticker hidden
4) Superman had a twin in this house that came in a goodie bag, mom took it out today to play.

We needed to close the Detectives Agency because of a cookie urge emergency. By the way, they named themselves Tintin and Minu, from the Adventures of Tintin movie.

Children bonding and creativity

2012-08-23T13:09:00.001-07:00

You wonder about ways to make siblings bond, or make your oldest child accept the new baby and share time together? This is an idea that may work for you and at the same time help your siblings share an activity that will suit both ages. One of my friends created a great idea to make her 4 yo daughter play with her little 8 month old sister.

First, Mom and daughter painted little paper puppets handmade and glued them to straws. The animal puppets were decided by her daughter, let's remember children should be allowed to take decisions in creative processes.

The little baby girl was amazed with the puppets, and slowly her sister caught her whole attention. This is truly bonding time between sisters.

In her own words and ways her sister put up a puppet show, that served for both to stimulate creativity, preschooler and baby.

These amazing opportunities are very simple to do at home, it provides hours of entertainment, and it creates a great friendship bond between siblings. Yesterday, I also caught another moment of bonding between my two boys, my oldest teaching the youngest how to play in the PBSkids website, so cute.

Opportunities for different age children to bond and play together are plenty. You just have to look for changes in games, and adapt them for both ages so they can play together and make it a habit they will always remember.

iPad or crayons?

2012-08-21T13:53:00.003-07:00

There is no doubt the iPad and tablets are attracting adults because of the great features and light weight in a device to surf the web, and be in touch with social media, store photos and play games. Children are now a marketing target for this kind of devices, an iPad or tablet brings a quite array of apps that are child friendly, but up to what extent would you give your child a tablet with no supervision?

I am not against the iPad or any tablet, I know children can benefit from using computers, or tablets with educational applications, but I am against the excessive use in children. Pediatricians always recommend not to let children watch TV in excess, even educational programs, because the attention spam can be compromised, the inactivity goes in detriment of motor skills, and the addiction to the screen can definitely kill creativity. The same happens with the iPad. Many parents that read this may not agree, but there are countries like China that are known for the advance in technology and they are worried because the detrimental effect in children using iPads continuously. Parents give tablets to the child and let the device be the babysitter for hours, the effects on the long run can be:

- Progressive Inattention
- Danger of accessing inappropriate age sites online
- Diminishing creativity and imagination skills
- Lost of interest in real world

This is very worrying. You may think because a child is mastering letters or games, watching a video in an iPad is learning, but at the same time the passivity is killing the ability to solve problems creatively "Chen Mo a member of the Basic Education Professional Committee of the Shanghai Psychological Society said that most iPad games demand passive attention, so they will negatively affect young children’s imagination, creativity, reasoning ability and their curiosity to explore their real world” (Wang, 2012. p. 27).

Once again, these studies advice about the prolonged use of

the iPad or tablets, which will mean more than 2 hours a

day; I've seen many children in restaurants, public places or

at home totally engaged with it and ignoring people around,

or traditional play. Another factor found in these studies are

that the vision of a child between 3 and 4 years old is not still

mature, so a high exposition to the iPad screen can be

detrimental " a 4 year old who often used an iPad was diagnosed with 200 degrees of Myopia, and a third grade primary school dropped from 20/20 to 20/40 after using the iPad intensively after 1 month winter vacation” (Wang, 2012)"

I believe technology has its pros, and a child can benefit from it and not be behind, even schools are adopting it, but the excess of use is negative for a child's development, and the excess occurs at home. Also, parents need to watch for the child not accessing the App store and making downloads that will hurt the pocket, or accessing sites online not for their age. The key in the use of an iPad or any other tablet in the hands of a child is balance, same as TV. If you love the iPad for your child, make the best of it, but balancing it with real child play, everything is how the user handles it, in this case the Parent. One thing I liked about writing this blog, is to find so many wonderful bloggers, and parents that believe in real play, real creativity, and that children can be happy with simple games and activities made by themselves in which they are challenged to think and solve situations. That is why I still prefer crayons and watercolors.

This Pharaon was painted with watercolors in a game about Egypt.

References:

http://edudemic.com/2011/10/children-ipads/

Wang, H. (2012). Digital Childhood. Beijing Review. (55)25. pp. 26-27

The Shapes meet the clouds...Storytime with felt

2012-08-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

One day the shapes looked high and saw the clouds...how nice would be to meet the clouds?

Diamond went up first, and asked: "Clouds how can I be always in the sky?"

Clouds said: "You can have a colorful tail and be a kite and fly in the sky"

Rectangle came out and asked the clouds: "How can I always look at you?"

Clouds said: "You can bring your friend Triangle and he will help you form a house to live close to us"

Triangle jumped on top of Rectangle: "Happy to help and be a home"

But Circle was rolling over, and he happened to see his friends playing with the clouds.

Circle said: "I want to play too. How can I stay with you and live with the clouds?"

Clouds thought for a moment...."you can be a tree top! A big rounded tree top!"

Circle was happy to be a tree top!

But then someone was sad...a little square was in a corner, it seems nobody noticed he was there, but clouds did!

"Little square, do you want to play?" clouds said. Little square looked around and did not see a place for him..."where can I be pretty clouds?"

"You can be close to us, by being a window in the house. Everytime people look through you they will see the sky, and us the Clouds" they said.

Diamond, Rectangle, Triangle, Circle and Square were all in the picture now. They met the clouds and they stayed to play. Where can you see shapes again?

THE END

Author notes:

This tale helps with basic shapes recognition. Children can also learn the story and play themselves as they learn the names of each shape.

The basic felt shapes can be used in countless tales and games. The materials used were:

Cardboard
Glue
Black felt (fieltro)
Color felt pieces to cut shapes

Who is this guy?

2012-08-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Funny moment in the kitchen when my 4 yo son asked me: Mommy, who is this guy?

Quaker Mill image patented in 1877

"Mr. Quaker!"
"Who?" "Who is Mr. Quaker?"

How can you explain advertising to a child? At least Mr.Quaker announces a healthy food. So I told my child he was the person that knew how good oatmeal was for the body, and for children. He ate oatmeal everyday with milk, and he grew a very strong and healthy man. The true story behind the ad involves how they hired a an actor to represent a person with high moral character and business integrity, and that image has been their flagship since 1877.

Advertising and Imagination

As a child becomes more aware of their surroundings, you can expect these kind of questions. They notice now the products, the brands, the signs in the street, and that can be also an opportunity to practice letter recognition. It is important to help them understand the concepts, because advertising can be as powerful as parental education, so it is better to control the impact of advertising in your child's mind.

The important thing is how to explain the message in advertising, and try to make a positive impact. Thankfully Mr. Quaker was easy to explain, and fun recipes to make. After that we found a link to make oatmeal cookies, which I share here for everyone:
http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/content/kids-in-the-kitchen/baking-cookies-try-these-mom-tested-tips.aspx

The Great Magician

2012-08-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

We recently found a magic wand in a toy consignment store. This inexpensive toy has brought a lot of fun and creativity for my little ones. Today, we played "The Great Magician", a game that entertained with imagination, and I also introduced a pre-math game with some magic tricks.

Teaching how to make magic with the traditional Abracadabra was fun when we started months ago, and they already used the words when we go out to help the traffic lights to change from RED to GREEN and they believe they make the magic; so today we try to use the words with the new magic wand to appear not a rabbit, but a cow.

Children are amazed in how things can appear and disappear, and with some practice they learned how to master the cow trick...his little brother helped hiding the cow under a table, and putting it back.

The cow appeared several times in front of their eyes and they laughed with their own trick.

After they finished with the cow trick, I taught them a trick with fingers: Make appear a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 using their fingers. They loved the idea, and started performing the trick. This was a great help for both my 4 yo and his little brother (3) to sign the number of fingers the magic wand makes appear.

Like any magic show the grand finale included some pop corn and the applause from the public. Try making a magic show at home and see how much fun children have...plus making the numbers trick which helps them identifying numbers especially if they are toddlers.

The City of Everything

2012-08-09T13:44:00.002-07:00

A game that started today with a single idea, finished with a whole variety of things, we decided to call it "La Ciudad Muchas Cosas" = "The City of Everything"!

The children starting by free drawing in a piece of cardboard; my 4 yo loves to draw dinosaurs and robots, and my 3 yo added his own drawings and scribbles.

When the cardboard was ready they started making surrounding limits with blocks which started a city.

Cardboard served to make cartoons to the city floor

The city as they built it had a distinctive design and method. After finishing it they added their own elements

And after that they added the surprising living creatures of the City of Everything:
a whale in a garden, a giraffe, Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo, Olivia sleeping in the floor, a dinosaur, a farm pig, and some trees.

The City seemed so funny to me because of the combination of characters, but they loved it and any story can happen in such a City.

And after a car came to the scene, I remembered Jurassic Park, a fun version that includes Olivia and T-Rex from Toy Story. Isn't it the City of Everything? Have you done with your children a City like this? They love mix and match characters, and the stories created in those scenarios are wonderful, try it at home!

The Reggio Creative approach

2012-08-07T17:58:00.004-07:00

Lately, I've been reading in a lot of articles about the Reggio Emilia method for children education, and it seems very interesting. This method created in the italian village of Reggio Emilia, was designed by Loris Lamaguzzi after World War II. The Reggio Emilia focuses in how children discover their world around in several areas with a self-guided curriculum, they do the discovery and learning by themselves. I am not committed to any method in particular, but I found interesting to understand what is Reggio Emilia about, and how can help children to be more creative. I think I follow this method at home without not even calling it like that, because I allow that self discovery but it is good to see how they do it in this method.

I thought it would be good to share the positives aspects in how this method works, and some of the areas that can be used at home to help children with creativity:

* The Reggio method respects the child. I find that very important, because a child can not be criticized in its self expression, or ignored hindering its own abilities and natural skills.

* The environment is the child's third teacher. Which means the physical surroundings to the child are very important to allow that self expression: how to arrange a house, a play room, a garden, kitchen and any area so they can explore safely, and creatively.

* Each class works as an studio with a central Atelier, this called my attention because in these areas is in which children creativity can really thrive, and they learn negotiation skills for being constantly with their peers.

* The Reggio method talk about "The hundred languages of a child" so in this method a child is encouraged to express through different languages: sculpture, drawing, dramatic play, writing.

* The Reggio method allows students to start a project in a confusion state, which means they do not know how to begin sometines, they have to create their solutions and by purposedly allowing mistakes this contributes to the child have a critical thinking and be more creative in finding the solutions.

This kind of self guided curriculum was new to me, maybe not to many readers, but I think is worth to try this approach at home in a safe environment in which children can find their answers to creative problems. Science projects, or small laboratories, music areas, or dress up areas can work well with kind of approach. I would like to have more information and feedback from teachers familiar with the Reggio method and how is this different from Montessori, which seems to have similarities.

I liked how these italian schools look and how the environment is created for a child to flourish with its own self expression.

For More information about Reggio Emilia go to:
http://www.reggioalliance.org/

Herbs, leaves and little hands, the Herbarium activity

2012-08-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

A nice activity when I was a child was to collect leaves and herbs and make a collection in a book, that we called in Spanish an Herbario (from latin Herbarium). We did this project at school throughout the year until we had a nice book, and some of the leaves that we could identify we put the names on them as learning abour taxonomy. Other leaves we learned to use them for art projects and drawing.

This weekend we did the Herbario activity, first collecting some leaves and herbs from the backyard, and then we glued them to paper. I told them to apply the glue first to the paper and then carefully put the leaf without damaging it. This way they learned how fragile they can be.

We started with a few leaves just to introduce them to this activity and see what they thought about it.

They were extremely careful at putting the leaves, because they saw they could easily break.

After they finished putting his two leaves, I gave them a crayon to see if they like to draw something based on the project.

My 4 yo started to draw the shape of a clover or Trebol in Spanish, and I was surprised how well he captured the shape and reproduced it in paper. We talked about the good luck of finding a four leaf clover, and about gnomes and fairies. He also started to draw a sun completing a garden image.

Then we learned how leaves in an herbario can be used to transfer patterns, we put a piece of paper on top of the leaves and start coloring with crayons, also very carefully to not damage the leaves.

They liked the experience of collecting the leaves, and starting a book with them, that we will start to identify later on as we collect more. They learned how fragile nature can be, and to respect it, and how the natural shapes can be beautifully transformed in paper and in nice colors. If you like this type of projects with children you can start it as simple as described in this post, or look for more information about it. A good link in how to make Herbariums I found is at:
http://herbarium.freehostia.com/herbier.php

They show ways to better preserve the leaves and useful tips.

Pompons and spoons

2012-08-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

I am practicing a great idea originally shared by ReadingTeacherMom http://www.readingteachermom.wordpress.com in which the children practice fine motor skills with pompons, spoons and an ice cube tray! Fortunately and what a coincidence, we had bought the same ice cube tray she had in the picture last week, and it works well because the holes are tiny; so I went ahead and practice the idea.

Materials needed:

Pompons
Spoon
Ice cube tray
Recipient for pompons

My children loved the idea because I told them we were doing a fishing game, and they saw on TV those games in which people walk with an egg in a spoon, and thought that it was like fishing for eggs...

Notice that this game practices fine motor skills for toddlers and preschoolers, so why not to try it if they are having fun while mastering important skills for later.

I included a variation in the game as they mastered transporting the pompons, and we played identifying colors, which also worked pretty well.

This game was so engaging for them that they spent almost 30 minutes in it before changing to a different activity; and today they asked me to do the same game. I want to thank ReadingTeacherMom for this wonderful idea, and that is why I replicated in this post so more children can benefit from it.

This game is really good and Inexpensive! you only need to buy pompons, and use your own ice cube trays and spoons....simple fun!

Link and thanks to: http://www.readingteachermom.wordpress.com

Olympics Memory Game

2012-08-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Tinyme (www.tinyme.com.au) I found these free printables about the Olympics. The cards with the flags are very nice, in full color and it makes the perfect memory game to have a fun afternoon with your child.

Just print the pages, and glue the cards in flashcards or cardboard, anyway you prefer, and they look wonderful.

Even at a young age, children have fun identifying flags by colors, and knowing the names of the countries.

After they match some of the cards, they name with you the names of the countries, and you can complete the experience with an online search about any of the countries and show a picture of something representative about the country.

The Olympics give a lot of inspiration to work with children, thanks again to the page Tinyme, from Australia, for having these resources available to everyone!!

Link to Tinyme: www.tinyme.com.au

Toys from the past in the present

2012-07-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the series of Children Museums, I would like to dedicate this post to a special Museum we found in San Antonio, Texas. The Institute of Texan Cultures, a museum associated with the Smithsonian Institution. This is a wonderful place to see history about Texas, a state with a very rich background. But there is a hidden treasure inside this museum, the exhibit TIMELESS TEXAN TOYS, toys from the past in the present.

This exhibit is until december 31, 2012. Children can appreciate how the toys in the past had simple lines, with organic materials "explore the cultural values, ingenuity, art and design expressed in handmade folk toys" (Institute of Texan Cultures, 2012) . The material of the exhibit tell how toys reflect a culture, and the generations of that culture. All toys are genuine restored pieces.

Children can see the exhibit and there are areas in which they can play and interact with the toys. It is a very cute and inspiring place if you like to travel to the past.

My children had a great time there, and they did not want to leave the place. You wonder sometimes why we make toys so complicated now, if all the fun lies in the simple and beautiful toys from the past.

Looking at these pictures children can see how games were in the past, and maybe feel inspired to replicate the kindness and ingenuity of traditional play.

Link to this Museum:
http://www.texancultures.com/toys/

Bringing local Children's Museums home

2012-07-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

We love going to Children Museums, and any interactive playtime we can find provides an excellent opportunity for children to learn. I think all of these fantastic Museums in the U.S. give plenty of ideas to practice and replicate at home and at school with the children. Some of you read how children can play Museum at home in my last post. In this post I will refer to some of my favorite Children's Museums in the U.S. and hopefully get new suggestions to visit some more.

One Museum my children remember a lot, is the Orlando-Fl Nature and Science Center, located close to Downtown; not too many people visit this Museum when they go to Orlando, and to my family this is a great loss for visitors, don't miss it next time you go. They have a Dino exhibit, scientific area to explore, a news station where children can make their own weather news, exotic animals, and a great play area in which we had the opportunity to meet the itinerant Curious George Exhibit, that this year is visiting California. Curious George was excellent and had the cutest slide rocket type. It also had a pretend mailbox and elevator to nurture children curiosity. That experience was great for them and they learned to play pretend delivering the mail and postcards they make at home.

Another nice Museum is the Houston's Children Museum; this Museum has indeed a lot of great exhibits including science, nature, and are huge at pretend play. They have a miniature city sponsored by big corporations, and they did a marvelous job replicating an actual supermarket, pet store, bank, police and fire station. It is really amazing even for adults to watch how wonderful that came out. The toddler's area has great ideas to make a sensory play area at home for babies and toddlers, that I wish I'd have the space to make all of that.

In the picture above, that is a sensory bridge for toddlers with some bumps underneath the carpet so they learn to walk more secure, and improve their motor skills. This can be made at home with some carpet, or blankets and pillows underneath in a safe area while you supervise, and let your toddler explore and learn how to be safer walking. I loved that idea, and at that time my youngest son was learning to walk so it was very good for him to experience that.

Minisupermarket at Houston's Children Museum

We did an online visit :) to a fabulous Museum in Brussels, the ABC Brussels (Art Basics for Children) http://networkedblogs.com/AfgOI. I wish we could some day visit this place, but in the meantime anyone and any child can look at this marvelous displays online. They are minimalistic in the design, and the areas have clean lines and an environment that invites to create. Here is one of the main rooms, I believe this is inviting for any child.

Author: Koen Van Synghel for ABC Brussels

I think these scenarios are designed very well and children have access to multiple areas, without collapsing in all at the same time...that is interactive indeed. The artistic approach of this Museum offers many displays that are beautiful, like L'abecedaire zoometrique by Nejib, (Gallimard Jeunesse Giboulees, 2010):

L'abecedaire zoometrique - Nejib, 2010

They have a lot of displays to see online, and I believe anyone specially children can benefit of these beautiful pieces to get even more inspired. More museum friendly tours in next posts. Do you have any other Children's Museum experiences you would like to share?

Links to Museums in this post:

ABC Brussels: http://networkedblogs.com/AfgOI

Orlando's Nature and Science Museum: http://www.osc.org

Houston's Children Museum: http://www.cmhouston.org/

Play Museum at home

2012-07-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

Have you ever played Museum with your children? This morning we were trying a new game with their building blocks, and everytime they make a creation I always tell them it is a masterpiece. They love playing with blocks, so today we try a new game, creating our own Art Museum.

I told them to start building their master pieces and put a name to each one, we put the pieces in a table, and with cards I wrote the names they gave me.

My 4 yr old son heard about Japanese art in a TV show,
so he named this piece like that.

They were thrilled that the first piece had a card with the name, so they kept doing more. We speak Spanish at home, so that is why you see sentences both in English and Spanish.

My 3 yr old loves Toot & Puddle, so he recalls the Eiffel Tower from one of the shows.

They felt very proud about each creation, and continued doing more. At the end, they let the pieces all together and are taking care of them as it is in a real Museum.

It was very interesting to see how they can appreciate Art in a game like this, and how they learned that every masterpiece in a Museum has a card with a name so people can learn about it.

My oldest son titled this last piece, ARTE FIN, because he already was tired and wanted to do something different. But he warned me to take care of the Museum until their dad comes home! So I am watching it since then.

Here is the last picture of the whole exhibit, hope you enjoyed it! Have you ever played this at home?

DinoAbacus, a new species

2012-07-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

The Abacus, also called a counting frame has its origins in parts of Asia, and was one of the first pieces encountered for arithmetic processes. Everyone has used an abacus as a child, and today is still a basic and great tool in schools, and some homes as well; I think every parent should invest in one. The Abacus as we know it in the schools was first seen in a Danish elementary school in the 19th century, but obviously this great piece dates from a long time before that.

School Abacus from the 19th century

Children learn pre-math lessons with an Abacus, it is helpful to initiate counting from 1 to 10, and later used in addition and subtraction operations. You can help your child to be an excellent Abacist from an early age by let him play with the Abacus incorporating new and unexpected items.

My children chose to bring their dinosaurs to play in the Abacus, as they say is their playground. We discovered this new species known as the DinoAbacus who plays while they count the beads, and I help them remember the ones they slip or skip. We try to make it fun, not just counting for counting, but the DinoAbacus needs to jump one or two beads at a time, then three at so forth, in a dynamic game.

They have fun with the Dinos, and after a while they don't need me because they are counting themselves and the game is theirs. I am not a teacher, but one thing I learned from teachers is not to interrupt children while they are at play....so I vanished saying good-bye first to the DinoAbacus, that helped us today!

Do you try the Abacus at home in another way? I would like to see more ideas.

Imaginative Play

2012-07-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

When children play pretend, imagining situations or characters they are reassuring experiences from the real world, and appropriating those to better understand them. That is why is so important to let children play pretend games. Every parent has seen the child around 3- 4 years old to try new clothes during the day, girls love tutus, boys wear the Halloween costume again and again, during April, May, June, it doesn't matter to them.

courtesy: stock photo

Play pretend with animals, dolls, puppets or imaginary friends is important for the child's development. Imagination at this age help them to acquire social skills, language, pre-math, pre-reading, and express their emotions. Most of the time they are also imitating what they see and learn at home or from other adults.

My 3 yr old plays with a stuffed animal as his baby, and he is the dad, and behaves exactly as his father does. That is when you realize how important is the role of parents, because the child is replicating what he experiences.

The Dinosaur roar is scary, but not so much in a puppet theater

Other important facts of Imaginative Play is that it is a way for them to resolve their own problems or struggles: the fight with monsters, or being scared at night is not so scary during the day, so with a game they can challenge themselves, and learn to manage those emotions.

For Imaginative Play, I love creating small or big puppet theaters with my children with cardboard or any box we have around, I incorporate letters, or anything we are learning that day. They love it and enjoy it for a day, or for the time the box survives, and we make a new one. You can stimulate your children imagination in this easy way, and let them do the rest. They are the Theater's Masters!

Monday in a mountain of playdough

2012-07-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

We had a blast this weekend in the Austin's Nature and Science Center. The children enjoyed the Dino pit, and digged for some fossils. After a busy weekend we are enjoying a quiet and relaxing morning with playdough, or plastilina as we call it in Spanish. This morning they decided to invite some of their little friends to be part of the playdough creation, so Disney characters are helping in the process.

As they manipulate the playdough they are inventing new stories with the little figurines: mountains for Bambi and friends, Prince Philip can make a worm! who knew? and the Dragon from Sleeping Beauty likes to eat playdough :)

They spend a great time playing, fine motor skills are working, and imagination flying high!

More activities can be found at Play-doh.com like this awesome placemat, and many more printables to play at home

http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/en_US/Activity-Mats.cfm

Today, FREE Spanish children e-book Historias para Imaginar

2012-07-21T08:22:00.005-07:00

As a special promo, my Spanish book "Historias para Imaginar" is FREE today in the Amazon's kindle store. This book is the Spanish version of Stories to Imagine, also in Amazon, for those that have purchased it before. The Stories are about dog adventures, baby dreams and bedtime, and how a baby life can be exciting inside mommy's belly.

http://www.amazon.com/HISTORIAS-IMAGINAR-Spanish-Edition-ebook/dp/B008LYED7I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1342882820&sr=1-1&keywords=historias+para+imaginar

There are a lot of Spanish blogs, moms, teachers, and parents that can have this book as a useful tool to raise bilingual kids, for all Spanish speakers, and specially for my family and all my friends back in Colombia that love to read and share stories with their children.

I hope you all enjoy it!

Dinosaur Weekend

2012-07-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Any plans for this weekend? We are going to excavate and find some fossils at the Austin's Nature and Science center. They have an awesome exhibit called the Dino pit, where children can learn about Dinosaurs, look for fossils, and stay connected with the prehistoric ages.

I looked for more Dinosaur stuff to leave something fun for everyone here and share with children:

This is a bronze mammoth rib cage-
Austin's Nature and Science Center

There are many activitities to do about dinosaurs, if you want to make a special Dinosaur theme week:

* Get a Dinosaur book in your local library, I recommend "The Usborne Big Book of Big Dinosaurs and some little ones too..."

* Learn with your child the different Dinosaurs and the ages in which they lived
* If you have an interactive Museum close to you they most likely have a Dino Exhibit, take your child to experience what they learned
* Watch an episode of Harry and his bucket full of Dinosaurs, in youtube, DiscoveryKids, your local DVD library, or buy the DVDs online. The show has an amazing webpage with episodes and games at: http://www.harryandhisbucketfullofdinosaurs.com/USA/index.html

* These are some printables and activities I found in Educationworld.com, they have an amazing collection of printables to make dinosaur puppets, and coloring at home:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson181.shtml

Dino Puppet activity from Educationworld.com

Your children will probably want to have a new nickname after these activities, either Stegosaurus, or any other friendly saurus that will make them travel in time with their imagination.