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This is Gizmo,you may not recognize her because she’s recently gone incognito. 
Although her past few days have been very full pretending to be Tangled(Rapunzel) she has also mentioned an interest in doing school things like her big sister.
In between social engagements obviously.
I thought that we should start with the ABC’s first. She does know some of them but not quite all of them yet.
I know flashcards were Cat’s first intro into the world of the alphabet, numbers and shapes, and she really seemed to like them. But Gizmo is not at all interested in them.
So I’m trying to find ways to combine learning and playtime.
This was our first try at that:
I made a letter in our backyard with a hoe,easy now as the Summer’s intense heat and lack of rain have done away with most of the grass back there, and we filled in the lines with rocks that we gathered. She liked it so we’ve done a letter every day since this first one. We are up to letter G now (don’t worry I won’t have a post for every letter!) and Gizmo wondered if we couldn’t paint some of the rocks that we use tomorrow. I actually think that is a very good way to extend this activity. I want to make a batch of chalk paint and have her go over the rocks on the letters we have already made. I’m hoping that doing this will reinforce the shape and lines that make up each letter.
I have other ideas to explore the letters further and hope to share those soon.
Does your child like flashcards or more out of the box ways of learning? I’d love to hear about it or see any links to this subject.
I was recently invited to try out Lifeables, a site dedicated to helping parents save and share their children’s memories.Number one, I love the site.
Two, it’s convenient.I love to share photos and milestones of the girls via Facebook but not all of my family members are on Facebook or any other social site for that matter.
Do you know how something cute happens and you feel the need to talk about it in that moment? That’s why facebook statuses and twitter tweets are so popular. That’s stuff that’s happening right at that moment and that you might not remember later as much as you’d like you.
screen shot
Now because of Lifeable’s very cool collecting memories feature you have those moments or quick pics to share with the family members with no hassle.
As a family who’s relatives live overseas this is great for us!
Would you like to give Lifables a try? The basic service is free and it is very easy to get started.
Lifeables has made the whole process very easy for you.
- First connect to the social accounts where you most frequently talk about or post pictures of your kids. Lifeables can even search those of your friends and family if you are connected to them on Facebook.
- Next put in the info about your kids.
- That’s it – just sit back and the memories come to you.
- Then, you just pick which memories you’d like to save and instantly view the story of your child’s life.
- Keep it just for you or share it with family and friends.
If you are an expectant parent Lifeables has something for you too, you can create a blog for your baby who will start to make their own memories very soon. http://www.babyblog.lifeables.com
Learn More about Lifeables:
Lifeables Product Tour from Lifeables on Vimeo.
This sponsored post was written as part of a blogging program through Latina Bloggers Connect. Any statements made in this post are the author’s honest opinions. I only recommend products or services I use personally and I believe will be of use to my readers.
“The Grito de Dolores (“Cry of Dolores”) also known as El Grito de la Independencia (“Cry of Independence”), was uttered from the small town of Dolores, near Guanajuato on September 16, 1810. It is the event that marks the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence. The “grito” was the pronouncement of the Mexican War of Independence by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Roman Catholic priest. Since October 1825, the anniversary of the event is celebrated as Mexican Independence Day.” (source )
This Saturday our family was lucky to attend a very special day of activities in celebration of Mexican Independence Day. (The day actually fell on Sunday.) As I’ve said before it is extremely important for me to educate the girls about both parts of their heritage. That is why opportunities like this are seized upon as often as they can be.
I am happy to be part of a community that celebrates the Arts and Hispanic heritage and the day we spent at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts was the best combination of those two things.
We got to check out a very cool exhibit called Sacred Visions: Masterpieces of Spanish Colonial and Mexican Religious art (from the collection of the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. I love this kind of art and there were many great pieces of art to view and enjoy. The girls especially enjoyed a huge fountain which had been sent of in the middle of the exhibit space along with lots of potted plants and colorful rugs. It really gave the space a Mexican veranda feel.
What we really felt privileged to view was the El Grito Ceremony which took place in the museums meeting room. The girls had made some noise makers as part of the crafts offered and they rang them as the cozy procession took place.
Angelo State University professor John Klingemann waving Mexican flag while reciting the “grito de Dolores”
After both the National Anthem and the Himno National Mexicano were sung final thoughts were given and we enjoyed some fantastic Mariachi music.
Mariachi Alma Mexicana
(I’m including a video from the group at the end of the post in case you are interested.)
The museum also offered those who didn’t know how make tortillas a chance to learn how. Refreshments included Aquas Frescas, the fresh tortillas with honey and Mexican shortbread cookies.
It was a great outing for our family and a chance to discuss our family and what makes us proud about our heritage with our children.
A quick tutorial for fiesta inspired hair ties:
These were sewed quick specifically for our day out at the museum.
1.I cut out flowers in descending sizes from felt and scrap material.
2. I sewed these to a plain elastic ponytail holders with a couple of stitches,securing them with a know in back.
Not really a tutorial, I know, but I did think they looked pretty cute in the girl’s hair and they only took a few minutes to put together.
And now the music video I promised.
Sep. 10.
Phineas and Ferb is one of those shows that I like my kids to watch and that I like to watch as well. (There’s not a huge number of shows like that.)
We were lucky to have won two tickets to see the Phineas and Ferb: the best Live tour ever! show yesterday.(Thank you San Angelo Family Magazine!) I took my littles and we really enjoyed it.
There were old favorites that the girls (okay,and I) had fun singing along to. Squirels in my pants and Beach party were among those.
There were also a few songs that were new to us,including a fun Bollywood inspired song where Baljeet took center stage. (I won’t spoil if for those who haven’t seen the show- but giant marshmallows were involved,which is always,you know,a good thing.)
I think my favorite parts of the show were those involving Perry and Dr Doofenshmirtzf. The Doctor happens to be my favorite character from Phineas and Ferb and he was great in this live show. I mean he may be a baddie but has a wicked dance number.
All in all we give the show a big thumbs up.
Aug. 30.
Kid’s art…I love it. I really do.
I loved it even before I had children of my own to knock it out for me.
That being said my mini artists make Alot of art. I mean a lot. My husband prints and sells tattoo sheets of his designs through ebay. When they don’t print out corectly the girls have a load of scrap paper at their disposal.
This is awesome and they love it but they go through it really fast. My daughters knock out stacks and stacks of pictures at a setting.
I was getting a little nervous about what to do with it all. I love the scan it into a computer option but I have limited space on our family computer.
I also love the artwork as wrapping paper idea but that comes more in handy during Christmas than it does now.
Obviously,I will have to get rid of some of the pictures but all of the work I’ve been doing on my art journals recently gave me an idea with what to do with the ones that I keep.
My girls aren’t quite interested in working in their own art journals, they perfer working on sheets of loose paper. Because of this I decided to prepare a book for them and glue in their pictures.
There are loads of books you could use for this.
You might chose to alter an old book,an old textbook,a composition notebook, an old board book your kids have outgrown and over-loved or you could use a travel guide the way I did. You could even make your own book with recycled elements as seen here.
No matter what you choose it’s a good way to keep some of your child’s artwork together for yourself.
It also makes a good keepsake to give to aunts.uncles or grandparents.
Here is a video of the two art books I made to send to my daughter’s grandmother.
I’m currently working on a couple to keep and one to give to my mother.
How do you store or didplay your child’s artwork? I’d love to know or see if you want to share a link.
Aug. 30.
I’m contining to make youtube videos and following prompts when I find them interesting. Poetspice had a very nice crafts prompt for the month of August that I took part of.
The first week was…I’m not sure because I joined late.:/
Second week was scribble art (and that’s what I ‘ll be talking about)
Third week was a head and neck challenge and you can find what what I made for that here: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=QEQ0wKzXAJE
The scribble art was interesting to me because I hadn’t heard of it before. It’s actually been around for ages but new to me is still new..well to me anyway.
What you do:
Start with a piece of paper and scribble scramble something random. Literally just a scribble but it helps if you fill the page somewhat.
Next you sit back and try to see any shapes inside of your scribbles. You color them in and add details to make them really pop.
It’s really interesting to see what you can come up with and how many little images you can find.
This was my scribble scrabble page when I was finished with it.
This was my oldest daughter’s page(who would like to start being called Cat on the blog by the way.)
My youngest daughter didn’t feel like doing this challenge so she drew pictures.
This was fun and it will be a good thing to try again. I could see pulling it out of my hat on a rainy day or something.
Since trying scribble art I’ve learned more about it and saw it over at I blog recently. She is actually starti.g a very cool Illustration Friday prompt for littles on her blog. Scribble Art is the first prompt and the linky for it will be open tommorow. If you want to try your little’s hand at this this would be a fun opportunity to do so.
The prompt is actually to create a scribble art and then cut out the images and add them to a painted background. I think this would result in very cool looking kid art. I might see if Cat wants to try this with her scribble art.
Either way I think a weekly art prompt for littles is a fantastic idea. If you’ve never visited blog before please check it out. There is lots of inspiration over there to be found.
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Paper Mache recipe and people
July 5th, 2012
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Happy Fourth of July,America!
July 4th, 2012
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Updates and Happenings
July 3rd, 2012