Mezclando Colores y Agua

Does your Tot like to mix things?  I mean just about ANYTHING?  Well mine certainly does! 

 

I gave Sofía some empty take out containers, mixing bowls, squeeze bottles and plastic spoons.  All this to be paired with some water color and water.

 

Literally for about 50 segundos we talked about watching the drops of water mix around in plain water.  And then basically she wanted me out of her way.  She wanted to do all the mixing and swishing and coloring that she wanted to do at her own pace.  I of course had to participate and LIKE whatever she conjured up!

 

What was nice about this is that we kept recycling water and paint.  When Sofía mixed up all her clear water and used all her paint, we just refilled the squeeze bottles with her new concoctions.  This lasted for 3 days of play and dreary gooky beautiful colores!

It can be messy a little bit of a pain to clean and organize…..but educational benefits of free messy play certainly outweigh my minor annoyance about cleaning!  And the PURE JOY that Sofía gets out of this activity is topped by few others!

Búsqueda de Bichos

Sofía LOVES bugs.  Although I’m not particularly a huge fan of them, I’m really glad that she has taken to things that help her receive a well-balanced education.  (Math and Sciences are screaming for more female representation in la USA.)  In earlier posts, I have written about the fantástico party favors that Sofía’s amiga Victoria gives out at her fiesta de cumpleaños.  Well, one that I didn’t document was Victoria’s first cumpleaños.  Among the bag of goodies that we received was a bug carrier with tweezers. 

We have collected bichos before, but evidently our simple bucket didn’t make it nearly as exciting as the fancy bug carrier---and the tweezers of course.  (These are super important to Sofía... and well, to me too because I didn’t really want to touch any of them!)

We found some really cool things both bichos and non-bicho.  Of course we had to categorize them on a tabla also.  This is a really great actividad to involve everyone in the familia (and barrio because Sofía took the bichos to our neighbor’s house to show them too!) and get outside paying more attention to Nature. 

Seven Oaks Lavender Finca

Last week, Sofía and her amiga Victoria visited a lavender finca.  (Sorry Siena, we missed out on going with you too!) It was a lovely experience!  Not only did I feel like we travelled to the REAL campo, I felt like we travelled back in time to experience the good fun of yesteryears!  (Not quite Little House on the Prairie, but definitely The Waltons!)

Seven Oaks Lavender Farm is a family business.  We were attended to by the very young (12 años ?) generation of the family who were more professional than many adults I have encountered!  Before the trip, I didn’t like the aroma of lavanda, but stepping out of the car, a sweet delicioso fragrance took over my olfato and I became a convert.  One of the young men in charge explained that there are many types of lavanda and one is much sweeter than the rest.

The first thing to greet us was a cozy gated area for you to meet some new conejos! 

The girls meandered through the patch and cut their own lavanda.

When we were finished frolicking in the lavanda fields, we played with some good ole toys and play house.

Under the shade of a beautiful mature tree, we picnicked on a blanket while taking in the beautiful scenery!  Really their website needs to include these extra benefits which make the trip to the lavanda finca much more kid-friendly that we expected!  If you are in the Northern Virginia area, this is a MUST-DO!  But ¡dáte prisa!  The Seven Oaks Lavender Farm is only open through Julio 3!

You know your Grandmother is an Abuela When….

These are the kinds of chalk drawings she makes for you on the driveway!  Who else would draw a palmera except for a Latina?

A Tiza Game

Check out our post on SpanglishBaby™ about a fun outdoor game to play with your bebés!