CSN Review

CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from great cookware to beautiful wardrobes to chic lighting pieces!

A couple of months ago I conducted a giveaway for a gift certificate to CSN stores. Now they have generously offered to have me review a product. Stay tuned to see what I chose to review....

Muy chido

I just thought that this was muy chido (very cool). Diego used his shape blocks to make this casa for his spiders.

Firetrucks

October is fire prevention month and a firetruck will be visiting Diego's school next week. To prepare we made our own firetrucks and read a ton of books from the library.

For Mateo's projects I have to prepare the pieces ahead of time and he sticks them together with his much-loved glue bottle. We talk about the shapes, colors, and sizes of the pieces.

Diego's projects are completely independent. I love to see what comes up with. Unlike Mateo, Diego hates glue and will only use tape.

Finding material in Spanish is always a challenge. I am always thrilled when I come across some free bilingual material like this Fire-Rescue Department Coloring Book from the city of Dallas.

Halloween Letters

Last year Diego and I made several fun Halloween projects and I am in the process of planning this year's projects. Here are a couple of our Halloween-themed letter projects from last year.

G de Gato

B de Bruja

My little pajarito

Like I mentioned before, Mateo and I do a letter project while Diego is at preschool. This day we made the letter "C" decorated with "corazones" of different sizes and colors. This isn't a particularly interesting or creative project but I took a picture because Mateo decided that he was a bird and insisted that before we started he needed wings. He tore a piece of paper in two and handed it to me. With just a little bit of tape I had a happy little pajarito. Two year olds are so funny.

StArt- Frida

One of my favorite artist is the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. I was fortunate enough to see some of her original works and visit one of her homes while staying in Guanajuato, Mexico.

I was very excited to find a children's book that discusses the life and art of Frida Kahlo. We own the Spanish version of this book but it is also available in English. It is worth checking out the book just to see the unique and interesting illustrations.

One of the things that we learned about Frida was that she learned to paint by copying the paintings of other artists while she was bedridden with illness. We had not painted for quite a while so on this lovely autumn day we drug out the easel and painted out in the backyard. The boys (well, Diego) tried to copy some of the paintings from the book. Mateo, who LOVES to paint, had fun mixing colors and ended up painting his arms and face and calling himself "Hulk."

Diego did SEVERAL paintings but one of my favorites was this copy of the skeleton seen below. We will definitely do this process of copying works from different artists again. It was good practice paying attention to detail and sparked his interest in artists.

I am linking this to StArt at A Mommy's Adventures.

Hispanic Heritage Month

In the United States Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th. We started our activities on September 16th which happens to be Mexican Independence Day. We talked a little about it the day before but I was surprised at Diego's interest in the day. When he woke up on the 16th, I asked him what day it was, expecting him to say "school day." Instead he sat up and reminded me that it was "el día de la Independencia de México." He, of course, was correct and wanted to immediately start to make a flag of Mexico. So before breakfast he made this flag to take to school to show his teachers. I was particularly impressed that he remembered the eagle with the snake in its beak standing on a cactus. :)

Mateo, of course, had to get in on the action so we tried to make a torn paper flag, thinking that he would love to tear the paper. He was not very interested so the flag was never finished.

We read our favorite book about Mexico, Nos vamos a México several times. There is an English version as well called Let's Go to Mexico. I highly recommend it for preschoolers since the illustrations are beautiful and each page takes you on a journey through different parts of Mexico.

After reading the book, Diego searched the pages for symbols of Mexico to make a "pared de México" (Mexican wall.) One of Diego's favorite things is to make a "wall" of different things we are studying. Our house has become quite colorful.

Finally, we talked a lot about how much Mexico means to our family. We looked at maps and discussed that abuelo and abuela used to live in Mexico. I showed Diego the cities that I have visited in Mexico and we looked at pictures of my travels. Here I am on top of a pyramid outside of Mexico City while on a college trip.

I also pulled out the items in our house that came from family members and my travels around Mexico. Here Diego is posing with an onyx chessboard.
We tried to play "balero." Something that I am convinced I will never be able to do.
I think Diego's favorite part would be the fact that he learned that he has been to Mexico and not his little brother. I was three months pregnant with Diego when I took a group of high school students on a trip to Mexico. He will proudly tell you that he has been to the top of a pyramid but he couldn't see anything. :)

Another great giveaway from Spanglish Baby

I own two puzzles from a great bilingual company called Ingenio. It is very hard to find quality bilingual learning tools for my boys so I would love to win this Mexico Learning Puzzle that is being given away at Spanglish Baby. Check it out and enter to win by October 10th at midnight.

Giveaway- Spanglish Baby

Spanglish Baby is giving away a personalized item of clothing from a fun internet company called Make A Fan. You can choose t-shirts, bibs, or baby items personalized with your child's name to show your support for your favorite Mexican soccer team or national pride celebrating the Mexican Bicentennial. Run over to Spanglish Baby to enter to win.