Home and Maps Activity Book Reviews for Multicultural Monday

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me copies of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

For Multicultural Monday I am sharing two fun books that you may not realize right away they are multicultural. The first is an activity book to accompany the book called Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski. The book we are reviewing is Maps Activity Book also by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski.

Teaching Spanish at Home

Have you entered my current giveaway?

Now if you have been following along for the past couple of weeks, you know I am involved in helping with the Little Pim Giveaway being run by Squishable Baby.  Part of my involvement is to also include a little about how I am going about teaching Spanish to Hazel.

Last spring we made the decision to switch schools for Hazel since we were having some issues with the discipline at her school. We moved her to a private Christian school that has a traditional curriculum. As part of a traditional curriculum she will be learning Latin. Now I do think knowing Latin can be helpful. I took a year of it in high school myself, but I also want her to have some experience with other languages (besides saying ciao to her Italian grandmother). I took Spanish from fifth grade until my junior year in high school and was in honors classes most of the time. However I have not spoken much Spanish since, so I need to relearn some. 

I know based on all the research out there, that now is the time to begin to teach her, so I am starting. I found some resources and have won some that we have been enjoying.

The first resource is a CD with book. It has songs that sings sayings in English and in Spanish. We often listen to this in the car. Hazel really enjoys it and is repeating some of the words. The next is a board book of Spanish numbers. It goes from 1 to 12 and then has 20, 50 and 100. Then it has adding and subtracting sentences in Spanish and English. We read this often at bedtime. She has started counting in Spanish, so it is working. The last two we have not spent much time with yet, but will be expanding our words with the dictionary and eventually she will not freak out that she does not understand the Spanish when I put on the DVD. Our only time watching it, she asked me to turn it off since she did not understand anything.

I also found some good resources at our local library. We are still exploring them and some are a bit ahead of Hazel's level, but we are working to it.

It is amazing what resources are out there. There are also some great ideas on many of the blogs I like to check out. 

• Spanish Playground
• Toddling in the Fastlane
• All Done Monkey

Needless to say I know I would find the Little Pim DVD series a huge aid in our lesson!! I hope you will come and enter the giveaway!!

Pattern Blocks

Several years ago, I found some pattern blocks at a discount store for around $1. Being a math teacher (at least back then), I was amazed since I knew how expensive they could be. I bought a set for my nephew and one for myself. I recently have been seeing some various sets for toddlers, so I decided to pull mine out and find some of the templates on line. I did a google search and discovered many. I think my favorite place was PreKinders. They have many animals and flower designs. Then I showed them to Steve and left them for him to do with Hazel while I was at work.

I took a few pictures of what was left out when I got home. Hazel also told me before she went to sleep that she wanted to do the "shapes" with me tomorrow. So I'm guessing she liked them.

Pattern blocks are usually wooden or plastic blocks of various shapes: squares, equilateral triangles, regular hexagons, two different types of rhombus, and an isosceles trapezoid. The side lengths are all equal to one another except for the longer base of the trapezoid. You can use them to teach about shapes, colors, patterns or for making shapes and creatively. I have also used them in algebra classes to introduce variables and in geometry classes to discuss the angles of shapes.

There are many lessons using pattern blocks on line. Since we have decided to go with a Waldorf education, we are not pushing the academic learning but more discovery and creativity at this age so my idea is for her. However there are so many sites you can check out including this one that you can play on-line with pattern blocks. Or Math Playground that also lets you play with them on line without the grid. You can also print your own from sites like this one (by page) or at Utah Education Network you can get them on one sheet (they also have some great activities for all age children).

Confessions of a Homeschooler also has some great pattern activities. Making Learning Fun has pattern templates of letters and numbers as well as Valentines. There are so many things you can do with these. Plus they can just be used to make designs and be very open ended.