Vamos a México

I'm feeling very international today. :-)

Leah has fallen in love with a CD we got from a friend, Magic Spanish for Kids. Natalie is learning Spanish as her foreign language in Kindergarten so I thought it would be fun to listen to in the car. There is no counting in this one but it does contain the alphabet song in Spanish. Overall we all enjoy the magical adventure in Mexico and I especially like how it contains a little history and geography of the Mayan people. The Magician's Pyramid in Uxmal receives a lot of attention in the CD story and they talk about how it supposedly took 400 years to build but some people say that a teeny tiny little man built in one night. I went looking for a copy of this legend to share with the children and found it in The Book of Little Folk: Faery Stories and Poems from Around the World by Lauren Mills. The chapter is called "The Dwarf of Uxmal." I really love the variety of legends in this book and the illustrations are wonderful. Leah is fascinated by Mexico... maybe a road trip is in our future! Right now she is in her room singing, "Let's learn Spanish today." :-)

Les Fleurs

Natalie and I have been working on the Rainbow Flower Felting Kit. To introduce this craft, I went searching for a nice flower poem. Happily, I found an entire flower and tree section in a large book of poetry: Favorite Poems Old and New selected by Helen Ferris. This book is a GREAT value and contains over 700 poems! Finding a flower poem was a snap (I picked Window Boxes by Eleanor Farjean). Categories of poems in this book are

• Myself and I


• My Family and I


• My Almanac


• It's Fun to Play


• Little Things that Creep and Crawl and Swim and Sometimes Fly


• Animal Pets and Otherwise


• On the Way to Anywhere


• From the Good Earth Growing


• Roundabout the Country, Roundabout Town


• My Brother the Sun, My Sister the Moon, the Stars, and Mother Earth


• Bird-Watcher


• People to Know, Friends to Make


• Almost Any Time Is Laughing Time


• My Fancy and I


• Sign of My Nation, Great and Strong


• From All the World to Me


• Story Time is Special Time


• From the Family Scrapbook

It is indexed by Title, by First Line, and by Author as well.

The Star

Today's Sunday School lesson focused on the Star of Bethlehem. We began with four stories from Irene Johanson's book, Stories for the Festivals of the Year:

The Three Kings and the Star
King Balthazar Sees the Star
King Melchior Sees the Star
What the Star Tells King Caspar


I really like this set of stories because it goes through the reason each king brings his gift (especially useful since kids don't know what frankincense and myrrh are). After the storytelling each student made a tissue paper star using the directions in Rose Windows and How to Make Them: Coloured Tissue Paper Crafts. I made the star in figure 21 to show them; they each cut their wedges to their own design. There were only three children in class today which was great because it is a finicky craft.

Materials List:

• one manila file folder for each child


• pencil


• sharp craft scissors


• two templates for tracing the inside and outside of the circle frames (I used the lids from my sugar and coffee kitchen canisters)


• squares of art-quality tissue paper -- mine were 6¼" square, from Nova Natural


• Elmer's glue


• thread for hanging

I recommend cutting out the inner circle before the outer circle, to keep things from shifting around. If you keep the file folder closed when tracing and cutting you get two frames very easily. The stories and each child making one tissue paper craft took the full 45 minutes of class time.

When Someone Far Away Loves You

Natalie is missing her Papa so we read If You Listen by Charlotte Zolotow. The little girl is missing her father and she asks her mother, how do you know when someone far away loves you? And it goes through how to listen with your heart. It is a beautiful story and I think it was just what Natalie needed to hear.

Top It All Off With a Bath

We spent the day at home enjoying new gifts. Reading new books... playing new games (Jenga, The Orchard Game)... cuddling with new friends (they each got a stuffed animal)... and more.

The children ended their day with an enjoyable bath using their new loofah scrub buddies, a gift from my mom. She found them at the Calvert Marine Museum gift shop. There was a fish, a turtle, and a ray. So cute!

A Dozen More

The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs

Sugar on Snow by Nan Parson Rossiter

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Seven Little Rabbits by John Becker

The Buffalo Nickel by Taylor Morrison

Children's Everyday Bible by Selina Hastings

Rumpelstiltskin by Paul Galdone

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Carnival of the Animals by Barrie Carson Turner

The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fish Wright

Frog Hunt by Sandra Jordan

Books Galore

We got so many books for Christmas!!! Today Natalie, Leah and I began to work our way through The Usborne Book of Things People Do. They are having fun learning about all the different professions, which are grouped by places in the town. For example, all the people who work together to build a house. I just opened up a set of 4 Dover stencils which were in my stocking: farm animals, zoo animals, sea life, and desert animals. I can't wait to stencil our downstairs steps! More book notes to come...