Burst

I haven’t written in a while simply because I haven’t given myself any time to do so. No other excuse necessary, just stating a fact. It has come to my attention that I haven’t given myself time to do much of what I should be doing.  For instance, today I realized that, although a safe and amazing place to raise a child, my little bubble may be too restricting for my kids’ developing minds. I don’t mean academically…I mean culturally.  As much as I try to speak to my kids in Spanish and teach them about the world around us through books, I honestly don’t think it’s enough and I need to find time to change that. Granted, I have no teaching experience, do not (at times) have the required patience and have no idea what I am doing most of the time, I still thought we were on the right track…until today. One of my kids told me not to speak in Spanish because it is “not our language”.  I was shocked (to say the least).  I asked him to explain to me what he meant and he pretty much said that we speak English in the U.S. I KNOW that this is something he heard in school. As much as I hate to admit it, this is not the first inappropriate remark I have heard in the school from other kids (more on that later).

I tried to explained to him (in my shaky voice as I tried to sound calm and collected) that:

1. Spanish IS our language because it is my family’s language, my first language, and it has been a part of his life ALL of his life.
2. It is wrong to shut the door on learning new things because those in your bubble don’t want to learn about it as well. Never stop learning about the world and those in it. The world is big and beautiful place.
3. You NEVER act like you are better than anyone else. No matter  what language someone speaks, how they look, what they wear, where they are from or what they believe, we are all one. We are all equal and we are all beautiful. Yes, there are bad people in all parts of the world, but we always look for the kindness and share our world with kindness. Stick with the good people and the world will be a better place.

Not sure how much of what I tried to explain sank in or if he even knew why his comment made me sad.  He is little, the world is still very unknown. He was apologetic and very sweet as always.  I know he has a good heart and he cares and loves unconditionally. He is my old soul and I love him so.  This is why I need to find new ways to teach him about the world. I need to burst our bubble and let the learning flow freely.

I found this article by a fellow Multicultural blogger that I need to incorporate into our world some how. It is called Interfaith Activities for Children. It is more about learning from and accepting other faiths, but the same idea could be applied to experiencing other languages and fun activities (I think).  I am looking for ideas that we can realistically do in the time we have.  Do you have any? I’d love to hear how you teach your littles to love and be eager to learn about the world. TIA

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Easy and Cute Teacher Gift!

Hi!

The kids and I got crafty for Teacher’s Appreciation Day and we wanted to share it with you.  I saw this on Pinterest (of course) and had to try.  The post I saw used shadow boxes, but that is way to pricey for my budget so we used canvas instead.  Here is what you need:

• Canvas (I used 8 1/2 X 12 at $7.99 for a 5 pack)
• Crayons (2 boxes of 64 count total $3 a box)
• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks (I already had these)
• Rope of ribbon of your choosing (I used rope I had)
• Paint (optional) we used Dot Paint for a pretty finish

Because 3 of the things used are standards in my craft room, we spent a little over $1.50 per gift. Not bad for a days work!

First print or draw the letter you want to use as a guide for your product on a sheet of paper. Copy that same letter onto your canvas.  I cut the printed letter and used it as a stencil so they matched.

Second start arranging your crayons to fit the letter and cut them to size.  I just used a sharp knife, but you can use a small electric saw if you have one and are comfortable using one.  I am not, so I stuck to what I felt comfortable with.

Once you know how you want them, start transferring them over from your sheet to your canvas and gluing them with your glue gun. I recommend doing one at a time. I tried to make a line and quickly setting more than one to go faster, but the glue dried before I could get them over.  Oops!  One at a time works better for me. Because I had to to them this way, I didn’t let the boys use the glue gun this time around.  Way to easy to burn your fingers when you are holding the crayon.  Not much room for error, ask my fingers.

Once they were dry, I gave the leftover crayons to the boys and they went to town on the canvas. Here is where our Spanish Lesson came in.  We reviewed our alphabet and then named the letters we needed. We reviewed our colors as they picked their crayons and named the ones that were glued.  They also got to count the amount of crayons used. Learn & Play, I say!  

They loved the idea of drawing with crayons around crayons for their favorite teachers.  Sweet Boys!  For the finishing touch, we used the dot paint to make the pictures pop. 

Once everything was set, I glued a piece of the rope to the top for hanging. Wrapped them up and Ta-Da! Pretty gifts!

You could do everything in a day (though the cutting was the must time consuming task so be prepared for that).

Hope you like it!  Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to all of the Fabulous Teachers out there Past and Present!  

Hugs to you all! 

 

Favorite Times

Hello!

Life gets crazy sometimes and there is really nothing we can do about it but try to keep up.  The saving grace for me is the time I get to spend with my littles.  There is just no other feeling like that love you feel when it is just you and your kids, cuddling, chatting and giggling. 

One of my favorite times is night time or as we call it “nite-nite time”. I get to cuddle with my little ones individually, read stories, sing songs and TICKLE! I love their giggles and just having that special bonding time with each of them. It fills my heart.

I have sang the same Spanish songs to both boys since they were born.  My mother gave me a CD from Grupo Truhui when my first was born and it was like magic.  It truly did help him calm down and fall asleep. Not only that, but it worked with my second, too! Because of that, I learned some of the songs and created a mashup version that I now sing to them every night. 

The other night, my oldest was playing with the camera on my phone while we were getting ready for bed and decided to make a video of our songs. I wanted to share it with you because it means so much to me and I will cherish this video and our memories always. Sorry for the bad lighting (night time) no makeup look, goofy faces and the not-so-perfect singing from me (I do not claim to be a good singer).  But M IS in my opinion, so concentrate on him.  He just makes me smile!  I hope to one day make a singing video with my little one as well.  When I do, maybe I will share it, too!

Thank you for reading and may all your nights be filled with song!

I Love You!

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary!  To some it may be just a drop in the bucket, and I sincerely hope it is.  I mean, how cool would it be to write a 50th anniversary post one day?  I wonder what that will look like. (Hopefully a lot more insightful, ha!)  I could get all sappy and tell you all of the wonderful thing I love about my husband or my favorite moments so far but I won’t (SPOILER ALERT: top three are wedding, baby #1, baby #2).  I’ll just tell my husband I love him in every way I know how with a little help from my Multicultural Kid Blogs friends.

• मैं तुम्हें चाहता हूँ – Hindi (India) from Charu at KetchupMoms 
• Mahal Kita – Filipino  from Abigail at Cuddles & Crumbs
• Jag älskar dig – Swedish from Lisa at Knocked Up Abroad
• Rakastan Sinua – Finnish from Rita at Multilingual Parenting 
• Te Quiero / Te Amo – Spanish from Lisa at  Cooking with Languages (and well me, of course)
• Ti Amo – Italian from Galina Nikitina at Trilingual Children 
• Eu Te Amo – Portuguese from Patricia at Our Whole Village 

Here are three from Varya at Creative World of Varya: 

• Я тебя люблю – Russian (informal) 
• Я вас люблю – Russian (formal and for more than one person)
• 我爱你 ( Wǒ ài nǐ ) – Mandarin (Simplified) Chinese

And three from Jaclyn at Bringing Up The Parks

• Saranghaeyo (사랑해요) in Korean, 
• Mahal Kita in Tagalog 
• Gua Ai Di (我爱你) in Chinese Hokkien 

Also,click HERE for a lovely post from A Crafty Arab on 5 Ways To Say I Love You in Arabic.

Plus a little added bonus, thanks to Julie at El Mundo de Pepita 

• С юбилеем! Поздрваляю с юбилеем – Russian for a general happy anniversary wish.
• С годовщиной! for a more specific anniversary (like your 25th for example)

Thank you MKB for teaching me a little bit of your beautiful languages. Check out all of their websites above. They are very much worth the follow.  And don’t forget to follow ALL of us at Multicultural Kid Blogs on Facebook!   

Happy Anniversary, to my love, my best friend and the man who made me believe IN love!

¡TE AMO!

 

How do you say I love you?

Walking Tall

When I think of raising world citizens, I think of raising children that are open to all that they see and respect anyone they meet. I think of children as being an extension of their parents and caregivers. Parents that do not appreciate the beauty of the world, the amazing traditions and cultures of others and the wonderful people all around may not teach their children about them either. If they are not exposed to the world (be it at home or in a classroom), how can they learn to live in harmony with it?

With that in mind I truly believe that some of the bullies of the world have just never had the opportunity to learn from the differences around them. Children who are not exposed to other cultures and traditions may see others as different from them. They may not understand the world that anyone else lives in.

So far, in my kids’ young lives, they had yet to encounter the infamous bully.  The other day at the park, however, we came across our first bully in the making. We went to play as we usually do when the weather is nice. The park we like has a playground for big kids and another for toddlers.  We always go to the toddler side so they don’t have to worry about the big kids. Also, that park is usually empty which is even better for me.

Enjoying a typical day at the park

My boys were minding their own business, singing and dancing and just being silly.  There is a large raised walkway at the park that kids sometimes use to draw with chalk or parents sit on.  This is both boys’ favorite spot because it looks like a raised stage. They love to march back and forth on it and sing songs from “The Music Man”.  This time only T was marching when a boy that was definitely older than both of them decided to stand in his way, legs and arms stretched out to make sure T couldn’t get through. Here is how I saw it happen…

“Maybe he just wants to play,” I thought granting him the benefit of the doubt as he stood there with a very determined look.

“Excuse me,” said T (proud mama that he was so polite)

“No!” replied the kid.

M sees what is going on, runs over to them and says, “Please move, we are trying to perform.” (Yep, that’s how we roll.)

He still wouldn’t move. M tried everything from asking nicely to asking him if he wanted to play a game.  He told the kid that he could be the gate and they would push a button on the boys belly to see if that would open the door.  I found this hysterical myself since we play that at home sometimes. I guess I have to think about how our silly games translate into the real world.

The boy still didn’t move so M sighed and said, “Come on T, let’s just go this way.” They happily went around the boy, but the boy followed!

The boy went back up to Mario and said, “Wanna fight?” At this point I gasped and was ready to pounce. I told myself to wait to see what happened and stay calm (easier said than done).

Mario’s response was classic, “Fight? No way! Only mean people fight and mean people are yucky!” Proud mama moment again, even if calling people yucky is not so good either.  I knew he was just stating the obvious, though.  Loved it!

The kid then tried to take M’s toy horse away and that is when the (who I assume to be the baby sitter due to her age and lack of attentiveness throughout all of this) finally ran over and took the boy away. She’s lucky she did, or else that kid may have gotten an earful from this mama.

Way too cute to pick on, I say!

Point of the story is that if that boy had been exposed to more people and more situations, he may have had a little more respect for my boys and maybe even played with them instead of trying to cause a fight with someone so much smaller. He saw easy targets (smaller children) that were different from him (not just physically but because they were singing show tunes) and decided he would teach them a lesson. Something I’m sure he didn’t learn on his own.  This is a child imitating something that he has seen before.  I only hope that his parents or caregivers become more open and respectful so that this child and any other kid can do the same.

I am proud that my kids weren’t intimidated and stood their ground. I’m also proud that their first response wasn’t that the kid was threatening but maybe wanted to play. I am proud that they acted with respect, didn’t let them affect them and went on playing as if nothing had happened when it was over. Yes, I am a proud mama. I hope I can teach them to keep the respect and the patience they showed that day for always.

Be proud, my love, you and your brother will reach great heights.