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!

El Imán

The other day, I created this fun little Science Imán (magnent) box for Sofía and she loved it! I had puchased the imanes from Discount School Supplies and then used a small compartment craft box for the magnetic and non-magnetic gadgets. (If I were creating this specifically for imanes, I would puchase a very shallow box) The big hit with Sofía was the multicolored cut-up pipe cleaners. We did lots of fun things with the imanes both inside the box (with lid open as well as closed) and outside the box. This actividad will no doubt make an appearance at our breakfast table often!

Notice the I for imán! That alphabet keeps popping up everywhere!

Rainbow Hodgepodge-of-Material Craft

We are still following the arcoíris thread in our casa! 

This actividad takes un poco of planning ahead, but is not taxing.  Inspired by a post on BilingualBabes, Sofía and I created a arcoíris, using colored pencils, on piece of sturdy construction paper.  (I had to first measure out the spaces, use pencil to connect the dots, then outline with marker and erase the pencil….uugghh!) We dug through all our craft materials and sorted them into 6 colores.  I also threw in the corresponding letters to the colores to reinforce the abecedario too!

 

The next día, Sofía glued the hodgepodge of craft materials onto her arcoíris according to colores.  She asked for more materials because she wanted to line them up very tightly to form a bold line.   I see the manzana has not fallen far from the tree!!  As you can see….the arcoíris is espectacular!  But then I’m biased! 

París in Northern VA

We went to an outdoor concert at a local pabellón today and I told Sofía that I felt like we were in París! After playing with our new and old amigos for mucho tiempo, we ate lunch.  We sat outside at a Pizzería where Sofía made her own pizza!  We really enjoyed listening to the passers-by speak a plethora of different languages. 

Then we walked over and picked up café for moi and then helado from Ben and Jerry’s for Sofía.  We lounged in the plaza in front of the fountain basking in the sol and eating our treats.  The only thing person we missed to make it a día perfecto was Sofía’s amie Victoria!

¡Definativamente París in Northern VA!

Rainbow Actividades

The Rainbow torta inspired me to create some other rainbow actividades (other than eating).  Here is the first in what may be a series of Rainbow Actividades.

Copycat Arcoíris.

I gave Sofía a paper with a completed arcoíris on it and one with an outline.  She had to use her markers to color her arcoíris identical to the completed one.  It is a simple actividad, but one that helps strengthen many skills in the many areas, some of them being:  prewriting, prereading and science!

First Carrusel Ride of the Temporada

¡And it was emocionante!

Té Tradicional

Somewhere between 5 – 7 PM in Lima, Perú, people will have their Té Tradicional. I’m pretty sure that people use the term Lonche interchangeably with Té, but our Resident Expert on Peruvian Culture seemed to have misplaced that archive in his brain and can’t remember. During the Té Tradicional, light snacks or sanduchesare served (For me, it really is an entire meal because there is nothing light about all the deli, iristiblegoodies!) and then dinner is eaten later. Incidentally, before our rehearsal dinner, we brought our wedding party and out-of-town-guests to Té at El Hotel Country in Lima. (We had no idea it was going to be so extravagant! From there we then went to eat again!)

Surely motivated by some Peruvian gene, lately Sofía has wanted to have Té after her siesta.  So we drag real water with us and her Green Téset that is BPA free and real-food safe, and have our Té Tradicional on the front porch!  Sofía drinks more water during our Té Tradicional than she does all day, so it brings an extra plus in my book! 

25 Summer Must-Do Experiences

Yahoo and Babble posted this great article about the 25 Things Every Kid Should Experience This Summer. This was quite timly for us, because I was just thinking about how nice it would be to get back to basics of playing (not that we have vered muy far from it, but a reminder is nice.)  The funny thing about the 25 things is that I see them as so very USA cultural.  I wonder what they would be if the article were written in Colombia, México, or Francia?

Anyway….I like almost all of the ideas except for the roller blades and skateboard!

Some of the other fab ideas are chalk paintings, sprinklers, smores, camping, frisbee, star-gazing, and building a sand castle.  Check out the entire post here.

Mi Rosaliciosa!

Sofía’s amiga Siena gave her this libro for her cumpleaños and of course—it’s in Español!  It couldn’t be more fitting for my Pinkaliciosa!

We read the book over and over and over all the time! It also makes for a yummy follow-up activity. First we read the book and then we made our own pastelitos.  The recipe we used is an egg and dairy free one (we were in desperate need of a trip to the Supermercado!) Sofía loves to bake with me. 

The Sous Chef mixed the ingredientes together.

She added in the secret ingrediente.  Oops...maybe I shouldn't reveal that!

Sofía snuck in a taste!

Waiting is very difícil for Pinkaliciosa!

Taste-testing the final product. 

The victory dance!

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. 

Actividad: Frozen Globo Sensory Sorpresas

Check out our post, Frozen Globo Sensory Actividad, on Spanglishbaby™! It is a fun outdoor actividad for everyone and great way to teach perseverance!

Juego de Colores Con Papi

Sofía and her Papi created a new juego to play outside with chalk.  If you missed our Number Juego in Chalk, you can check it out HERE on SpanglishBaby  All you need is some space, a ball, and chalk.

Papi drew two lines of identical colored sqaures (large enough to stand in).  The person with the ball calls out a color and both people run to that color square in within his or her respective line of squares.  The person with the ball throws the ball to the other person from that color and the other person must receive the ball in that color.  It is a lot of running around and coordination.  You can jazz the juego up anyway you like to make it more or less challenging.  Sofía seems to like to change the rules a lot according to mi espsoso.  And she LOVES the to play it with her Papi!

Hot Icy Fun on SpanglishBaby

Read our article, Hot Icy Fun, about jazzing up your summer pool time fun!

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!

A Tiza Game

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

іFeliz Día del Maestro!

Read our article, Special and Thrifty Gifts for TeacherAppreciation Day, on SpanglishBaby™!

Estaciones

A perfect día de la Primavera for Estaciones outside!

Bubble estacion, water table, chalk and paint estacion.

Craft table: Colored Sand Arte

Sofia spent a lot of time with the chalk estacion.

We ended with a fiesta de Te with a few amigos!

Dos Manos Fun and the Huffington Post

On December 9, 2011, my brand new tienda, Dos Manos Fun, was featured in The Huffington Post!  One of my products, a Rice Sensory Tub, was chosen by Etsy as a top toddler toy of the season!

I Opened an Etsy Store! Dos Manos Fun!

One reason I’ve been soo neglectful of my precious BLOG is because I opened an Etsy Store! (Bueno, it opened  in November 1!)  I was coersed  and I LOVE it! :) But I was working like a crazy person to get it up and running and do a little publicity for the Holiday Season.  (The store was also ignored for a while during our busy family Holiday Fest, but now that my BLOG is actualizada….it is time to do the same for DosManos Fun!)

The store is called Dos Manos Fun and we sell fun, creative, and simple hands-on activities for Toddlers and their Parents.  All of course are spiced with a little Español. ;)

Have a look around and tell me what you think!

www.DosManosFun.etsy.com