I made it to 30! I have to say that both NaBloPoMo and PiBoIdMo kicked my behind. The challenges were just that…challenging. I’m glad I participated and now I can focus on just my blog and my ideas…after a day or two. I need to give my brain a rest.
Thank you for all of the inspiration. I found great blogs to follow, made some new friends and refueled my creativity. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! Sending everyone a virtual hug!
Today we went to Chuy’s Children Giving to Children Christmas Parade. The kids love this parade with all of the sounds and colors that come with it. Plus, they get to learn a little more about charity. The parade is a great way to give back to the community we love while enjoying what Austin has to offer.
Guests are asked to bring an unwrapped toy for Operation Blue Santa. At a point during the parade, everyone marching stops, the rope used to keep the crowds back is raised and spectators are asked to approach the floats and give their gifts to the people in the parade. M thought the swarm of little ones with all of the gifts was very exciting and couldn’t believe how many toys there were! Way to go, Austin!
This parade has taken place for 26 years! Operation Blue Santa was started by the Austin Police Department in1972 with support from the Austin Fire Department, Austin Energy, Austin Water Utilities and Texas National Guard.They provide gifts for kids under 14 along with a warm meal on the holidays. That’s over 3,800 families!
This is a great charity to support. They make the holidays a little brighter for some very special kids. They also made it a little brighter for mine with such a fun parade!
If you missed the parade, but would still like to donate, Blue Santa takes donations year round! And if you do not live in Austin, check with your local police or fire department to see how you can help for the holidays and year round, too. Thank you, Blue Santa!
To make DONATIONS online click here for more information.
*Checks are accepted: Mail donations to: Austin Operation Blue Santa, P.O. Box 689001, Austin, Tx 78768-9001
*You can also stop by the Austin Police Operation Blue Santa Warehouse to drop off your donation, YEAR ROUND, at our location at 4101 South Industrial Drive, Suite 260, Austin, Texas 78744.
Drop off locations:
*Career Point College
*Any Chuy’s Restaurant or Shady Grove
*Any Austin fire station
*There are hundreds of drop off locations. Click here to find one near you.
Here’s what they really need:
*Gifts for infants (2-years-old & younger) and teens (12 – 14-years-old)
*Sporting equipment and board games are perfect because they are good for most age groups
*Books
*Baby toys (like stacking rings, etc)
*Monetary donations–Chuy’s will often get great, exclusive discounts and are able to collect more toys this way
Thanks to KGSR for all of the details.
(If you would like to share my blog, I would be so grateful. You can find it under www.bilingualeyes.wordpress.com. You can also find it in Spanish at www.bilinguazo.worpress.com and on Facebook under www.facebook.com/bilinguazo. And don’t forget to hit me up on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bilinguazo. Thanks a bunch!)
On the day after Thanksgiving and so soon before Christmas, I wanted to share a little something else I was inspired to write for my loves. These are a few things I wish for now and always…
May my babies never fear
Climbing higher and higher still
May my babies want to go up
Higher and higher to get to the top
May my babies always show
Love and respect as they grow
May my babies always know
I will love them wherever they go
Watching my babies become braver everyday and wanting to learn more more about everything fills my heart. I am thankful everyday. I’m a lucky lady.
Take a moment daily to appreciate all you have today and to tell those you love how you feel. Enjoy every second.
Thanks for reading.
Since I embarked on this bilingual journey of mine in May, I have found so many resources with amazing ideas to help me teach my kids spanish as well as teaching them around the world!
So to all of you amazing bloggers I follow and to all of those I will soon learn from, thank you! Thank you to my readers and followers here, on Twitter and Facebook. You make this fun to do! And thank you to my family for the inspiration. Los Adoro!
http://multiculturalkidblogs.com/
http://bilingualfamilies.groupsite.com/main/summary
http://www.bilingualparentsconnect.com/
http://onraisingbilingualchildren.com/
http://www.chicagonow.com/raising-world-citizens/
http://www.latinabloggersconnect.com/
http://makingmulticulturalmusic.wordpress.com/
https://blogviviendoenelextranjero.wordpress.com/
http://multilingualmunchkin.wordpress.com/
http://tacodelenguas.wordpress.com/
https://cafechica.wordpress.com/
http://thesleepsong.wordpress.com/
http://acraftyarab.blogspot.com/
I was lucky enough to become a part of a blog carnival about Bilingual Myths that unfortunately still exist. Please read this great article in The Piri-Piri Lexicon Blog with contributions by 16 other knowledgeable bilingual writers dealing with the issue. Thanks for including me. Have a great day!
Myths busted: raising multilingual children blogging carnival
(If you would like to share my blog, I would be so grateful. You can find it under www.bilingualeyes.wordpress.com. You can also find it in Spanish at www.bilinguazo.worpress.com and on Facebook under www.facebook.com/bilinguazo. And don’t forget to hit me up on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bilinguazo. Thanks a bunch!)
I know X-Mas decorations have been out since Halloween at stores, I just pretended that they weren’t there. That was way too soon for me to think about it. But now that we are a month away, I have come to the realization that I should’ve started sooner. I should have started my crafts long ago because that is how I was going to save money. I should have started planning for the boys a bit earlier because now I’m not sure what will be under the tree here and what we can take to Mexico to give them. I do have the comfort of knowing that they are not solely relying on me to make Xmas happen, but I am really starting to feel the rush. Taking on the challenges that I did (NaBloPo & PiBoIdMo) along with this blog and the blogs I contribute to have really slowed down my other goals. (Yet they have helped my creative juices flow a bit more, so there is that.) I did it to myself, I know, and I still have time to get things in order. Right?
To combat the craziness, I have come up with a plan to help me along. Any suggestions are welcome and any beautiful craft ideas greatly appreciated.
I need to throw out my elaborate plan to make the most amazing X-Mas gifts EVER! Not gonna happen this time. Sorry family, you may just get a painted card with the kids’ hands on them. I can bust those out in no time!
I have crafts that I have to get done by this weekend if I want time to do the rest. And I have crafts I have promised so I can’t put off any longer. Of course, I am only talking about Holiday Crafts now. Picture collages and scrapbooking; I probably will get to you when my kids are in college, sorry about that.
My kids keep asking for this one. We have managed to convince them that this can’t happen until after Thanksgiving. They have great memories, though, and I’m pretty sure they will be asking for this to happen on ride home from Opa and Oma Thursday afternoon. I better figure out where everything is.
This one is hard because we don’t have that many things close by. That and they would need to happen when my kids are actually awake. (I’m a stickler for routines and schedules.) I want them to experience what I talk about and not just think mama is making things up again. Where can toddlers learn about super cool traditions in Mexico (like posadas)? I need to be better at finding them with enough time to plan for them. There have to be other families with toddlers that want to celebrate together nearby, no?
I naïvely signed up for posts that have to do with holidays. I thought I would have more time! Now I am wondering what I was thinking! Not to worry, though, I will keep my word as a professional blogger (no, seriously, that’s a thing…somewhere) I hope I can do the blogs justice. I need more focus. In order to do that, I need to be able to concentrate on more than one thing a day. How you ask? Maybe with number 5?
I have a million lists everywhere: Things I want to do, places I want to go, things I want to write, things I want to learn, things I want to teach my kids, and things I want to learn to be able to teach my kids and write about doing somewhere fabulous that I want to go to. Whew, that’s a lot to say. I’m not talking about those lists. I am talking about the lists that I can do daily. A list of what I can get done in a day. But then I would need a calendar blaring my deadlines at me so I can make sure those things are on my daily list DAILY and I don’t slack. Thinking about it, I may have too many lists already.
OK, so instead of sitting here making a list of the things I need to do (oh no, I DO have a listing problem), I need to get to work. So I leave you with a question: How do you prepare for the holidays? Are you a planner or do you wait until you really can’t anymore?
Happy Holidays to All! May they be as stress free as possible.
(If you would like to share my blog, I would be so grateful. You can find it under www.bilingualeyes.wordpress.com. You can also find it in Spanish at www.bilinguazo.worpress.com and on Facebook under www.facebook.com/bilinguazo. And don’t forget to hit me up on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bilinguazo. Thanks a bunch!)
Mondays are hard for me to get creative on. I was sitting here looking for a topic and came across this instead…
Oh-oh! Now I’m starting to rethink this whole thing. Hope
tomorrow is more productive. 🙂
We are living in a fast paced world. I always thought I wanted to have a life in the fast lane: always having something to do, knowing everyone wherever you went and rarely being home. It all seemed so exciting. But now I know that’s not for me.
Having kids made me slow down and notice the little things of beauty around me. And although I know that my kids do take the time and enjoy the days, this video pretty much sums up how a day in our lives actually feels. Now this is the type of fast paced life I would ever choose. You can keep your crazy busy life with a calendar full of social events. All of the entertainment I need is right under one roof. Have a great Sunday!
Yet another rainy day at the O home. I always loved the rain except for when I have to drive in it, when it wakes up the kids or when they go stir crazy. Thank goodness we have a ridiculous amount of toys given to them by our generous family. We had put away the track ages ago but was recently rediscovered by curious monkeys far back in a closet. Thank goodness they found something to keep them entertained on this lazy rainy day.
I know I have a couple of rainy day posts on the blog already, so I’ll try not to repeat myself. Instead I shall talk about how great it is to watch their amazement with a car going on circles over and over again. Silly boys. Watching it makes me a little sleepy. Same reason I can’t watch car races…
Look, Papa joined the fun and they have decided to build a Lego city, too. It’s going to be great!
Whatever silliness you have going on in your house, I hope you enjoy it with those you love. Happy Saturday to you!
There are a lot of myths about learning multiple languages that have been inaccurately presented to people as fact. I have seen many of these myths plague people’s education all of my life. Today, I would like to talk about one in particular through my own experience:
“Myth: Parents who speak a language other than English to their children will hurt their children’s chances for academic success in this country”*
When we moved to the states I was placed in an ESL (English as a Second Language) class to help learn English. I remember there were quite a few of us from all over Mexico. Once I was moved to a regular class, some of the same students that were in the program with me were immersed in English at school and at home. I also met other students of Mexican descent who were practicing full immersion in English in their homes, too.
Their parents believed what the school taught them. In order for their kids to be successful in school, they had to do everything in English. So, unknowing that they had been told a myth and not a fact, the parents obliged. They cut off all Spanish from their kids’ lives. I’m sure it’s not something they wanted to do, but they were told this would help their kids so they did it for their kids. I have heard some of those same kids (now grown) say they wished they would have kept Spanish in their lives.
My parents never bought into this myth. They knew that being bilingual would be an advantage. Also, they are proud Mexicans and no one was ever going to take that away. Being able to communicate with family in Mexico meant everything because family IS everything. I again thank them for sticking with their beliefs.
It is now believed that students who learn more than one language are able to process information better, work out problems more effectively and, because they know there is more than one right way to do or say something, are better able to understand different topics. I’m not saying that all bilingual or multilingual children are smarter than monolingual children at all. What I do believe is that children who understand that the world doesn’t center around one language and one culture but is multifaceted become multifaceted individuals themselves. And who wouldn’t want that for their children?
What myths have you been faced with in your lives?
*Common Myths About Bilingualism: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/bilingtl/myths.html
(If you would like to share my blog, I would be so grateful. You can find it under www.bilingualeyes.wordpress.com. You can also find it in Spanish at www.bilinguazo.worpress.com and on Facebook under www.facebook.com/bilinguazo. And don’t forget to hit me up on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bilinguazo. Thanks a bunch!)
Bilinguazo 