Fun with Waterbeads

At our town's founders' day (a town festival) there was a waterbead vendor. Instead of doing sand art, we let Hazel get a container of waterbeads. It was set up literally like a sand art area where she could fill the container with whatever colors she wanted. After getting it the container just sat for weeks filled in my house. Then after doing our apple/nature prints, we pulled it out. Well actually we started with our very dry clear ones that I bought at the Dollar Store and left out for months. We added water and watched them grow. Then we pulled out the colored ones. Hazel wanted to sort them. We gathered bowls and cups for the sorting. I also gave her scoops and tongs to see what would be easiest.

After trying the tongs, she decided her hands worked much better. She got them all sorted by color. They have been doing sorting at school, so this was an extension of her class in many ways.

Once they were all sorted she had fun mixing color combinations. Then it was time to go run and play in the yard.

Have you played with waterbeads yet? They remind me of peeled grapes. I remember going to and creating "haunted houses" in elementary school and there was always a bowl of peeled grapes that you put your hand in and were told it was eyeballs. Waterbeads always make me think of this. Though I do have to admit, waterbeads is much easier to get out than peeling grapes. What do they remind you of?

Pottery Barn Inspired Painted Acorns

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So a week or so ago, Hazel and I were walking around the new mall near our house and went into Pottery Barn to look around. My little shopper girl did not want to leave since there were so many beautiful things to look at, however one thing we saw were gold painted acorns. We decided we could make some and Hazel wanted to make them rainbow colors. While we were out making apple and nature prints, we rolled some of our acorns around int he fall colored paints.

After the paint dried I glued the tops back on and we displayed them. First we did a display with the needle felted acorns I made in the past.

Then we pulled out some of our autumn decorations and found leaf bowls to put them in.

Today, I also made some gold colored ones, however what I thought was gold paint ended up being more of a glitter paint. Oh, well. I like them still.

To get the ones like Pottery Barn I am guessing you would need gold spray paint. We don't have any, so these will have to do for now. Happy Autumn!!

The October Line Up

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What an exciting month, October looks to be!! Autumn is in the air in New England. The days are cooler and the leaves are turning their beautiful fall colors. October is also the month many of us go pink for breast cancer awareness. Oh, wait, I'm already pink! However if you want to see some statistics and facts about breast cancer check out my post from a couple of years ago.

This month, I have several fall and Halloween crafts to share. Some are previewed in my collage above. I have several reviews to do with giveaways (like my current giveaway that ends on the 6th). I will be continuing my celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and will be following Multicultural Kid Blogs with their celebration of both Hispanic Heritage Month and their one year birthday celebration. I will also be posting over there this month.

And of course we have our normal special events like Virtual Book Club for Kids. This month's author is Nick Sharratt.

Nick Sharratt is a fun British author and illustrator. Many of his books rhyme and they tend to be quick reads. I know the few we have looked at, we have enjoyed. I hope you will join us on the 14th to see which we are sharing!

We will also be "traveling" to Korea with Around the World in 12 Dishes. If you want to have a headstart, you can get the passports and placemat for Korea already. More about Korea when we use some stories and more to go with the food we try. Our post will be live October 15th.

I hope you will come back to see some of these fun things!! Happy October!!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Maria Cinderella a Chilean Cinderella Tale

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In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we have been sharing fairy tales from Hispanic countries. A couple of weeks ago we shared a Snow White tale from Chile. Today we are sharing Maria Cinderella. This is a Cinderella tale from Chile. I found it translated in English in Folktales of Chile edited by Yolando Pino-Saavedra and translated by Rockwell Gray.

Taruca--National Animal of Chile
Source: Chris Fryer [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Puma
Source: By Ltshears - Trisha M Shears (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Two weeks ago we gave you an overview of Chile.  Today we will share briefly a bit about the wildlife in Chile. A reminder that Chile's climate ranges from desert to alpine tundra. The north is known as the driest area in the world. Chile's geographical isolation (Andes Mountains to the west, desert to the north, ocean to the east and south) there are only a few of South American animals that have migrated there. (Source) There are pumas or cougars, llama-like guanaco, fox-like chilla, minks and a small deer called pudu. There are also rheas, opossums and of course, flamingos. The national bird of Chile is the Andean Condor. There are many species of birds in Chile as well. They also have many marine life like elephant seals, sea lions, Magellanic penguins, sea otters, blue, sperm and humpback whales and dolphins. (Source)

Andean Condor--National Bird of Chile
Source: By Keven Law from Los Angeles, USA (A real Condor moment...)
 [CC-BY-SA-2.0 or CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Magellanic Penguins in Chile
Source: By Liam Quinn from Canada [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 
This story begins like many of the Cinderella stories. There is a widower who lives with his only daughter. Her name is Maria. Like some of the other Cinderella tales, the fire goes out and the father sends Maria to the neighbor's house for some coals. While at the neighbor's house (who happens to be a widow) the neighbor insists on Maria resting and serving her honey soup. After such treatment, Maria begins to wake early and put the fire out, so she can go back to the neighbor's for some fire and honey soup. One day the neighbor suggests to Maria she should tell her father to marry the neighbor so she wouldn't bother her all the time for fire. The father is skeptical, but Maria talks him into it, but he does warn her she will regret it.

The stepmother then has a baby with Maria's father. He names the new baby girl, Maria, in honor of  his first daughter. As the stepsister grows up she becomes meaner. She tells her father to send the first Maria to the field as a shepherdess. He does this. One of the cows died while giving birth to a calf under Maria's care. Maria begins to mother the calf and raise it as her pet. The stepsister gets annoyed and tells her mother that they should make Maria do more work like spinning. The stepmother takes the wool to Maria and tells her to spin it or she will pay with her head.

Maria begins to cry, but the calf tells her not to and offers to spin the wool. They arrange the spindle over the calf's horns and the calf is able to spin the wool for Maria. The stepmother continues to give Maria wool to spin and the calf continues to spin it for her. The stepsister begins to get suspicious and goes to spy on Maria and the calf. She gets angry to see the calf doing all the work and tells her mother they must kill the calf.

The stepsister pretends to be sick and won't get better without eating the meat of Maria's calf. The father kills the calf. The stepmother takes the intestines and cuts them into even slices. She tells Maria to take them to the stream to wash them and not to lose one bit of them. She has measured and counted them. A eagle takes off with a piece of it and now Maria is sure she is done for and cries even harder than she was with grief over the loss of her calf. She tries to follow the eagle and comes to a cottage where a woman is coming out. The woman asks Maria why she is crying. Maria tells her about the eagle who is now in the treetop near the house. The woman tells Maria to care for her children and to do some cleaning while she goes to mass and she will help her when she returns. Maria does as asked and more. The woman is very happy when she returns and gives Maria some intestine that she has plus a magic wand that will grant her anything she wants, but she is to show it to no one. Then she gives her instructions for the way home to look up and down at certain animal sounds. When Maria arrives home there is a gold star on her forehead. Maria does not know it and her stepmother tells her she is a dirty disgrace and covers her head in dirty rags.

The stepsister is jealous of the beautiful gold star and schemes to get one of her own. So she and her mother put together a plan to have the stepsister do the same things. The stepmother pretends to be sick and will not get better without eating the stepsister's calf. The father kills it. The stepmother takes the intestines and has her daughter go wash them with the same instructions. An eagle takes a piece again and she follows the eagle to the cottage. The woman is walking out and they have a similar conversation though the instructions are very different to do while she is at mass. She tells the stepsister to beat her children and to gather all the junk around the house to be burned in the oven. The woman comes home and asks if it is all done. Then she gives the stepsister a piece of intestine and the opposite instructions about going home. The stepsister ends up with a big hunk of burro dung on her head. The mother is upset when she gets home with it and wraps her daughter's head in beautiful silks.

The stepmother always went to church with her daughter on Sunday. Maria wondered why she could never go. She used her magic wand to have a fine coach, horse and coachman as well as a new dress to wear to mass. Maria knelt down near her stepmother and sister and the stepsister thought she recognized her, but her mother told her she was being silly. Maria left right at the end of mass and waved the wand to have everything back to normal before the stepmother and stepsister returned home. The next Sunday was the same except that Maria caught the eye of prince as she was leaving the church.

The following week the prince ordered his servants to stand guard and to stop Maria before she left. One of guards caught her foot, but all he got was her golden slipper and Maria rode off home. The guards combed the town looking for a noblewoman that the slipper fit, but could not find anyone. The prince set out to the country to find her. The stepmother dressed her daughter in her finery and told Maria to hide in the corner since she was in no condition to receive a prince. She told her to get inside the oven while the visitors were there.

The stepsister happened to have the same size foot as Maria, so the slipper went on easily. The prince was ready to marry her when a dog began to bark a rhyme about the burro dung on her head and the gold star was the one he wanted. One of the servants caught what the dog said and mentioned it to the prince. The stepmother tried to chase the dog away and explain it was just a nuisance, but the prince insisted on searching the house and finally found Maria in the oven. Maria told the prince the slipper was hers and that her stepsister and she have identical feet, but asked if her stepsister could produce the companion slipper. Maria went to wash up and used her wand again to be dressed the same as last Sunday and brought the companion slipper to the prince. He now knew she was his wife. The servants pulled the other Maria from the prince's saddle and beat her a bit.

The prince asked Maria to climb into his saddle and she refused since burro dung had sat there. The prince took Maria and her father on other horses for a beautiful wedding. 

This story reminds me of the Spanish American Cinderella tale called, Little Gold Star. I am sure they have the same source at some point. One of the things I have noticed about the Hispanic fairy tales is the importance of the church, God and Holy Family. One of the three seem to play an important part in each one.

Pocoyo's Circus DVD Review & Giveaway!

Has your child discovered the adorable little boy in blue named Pocoyo yet? Our first experience with Pocoyo was at the end of the Peep and the Big Wide World episodes on PBS, there is a short Pocoyo cartoon. Apparently it is also on Nick Jr, but we don't watch it there. When NCircle Entertainment offered to send me a copy of Pocoyo's Circus DVD and offer one as a giveaway to one of my lucky winners, I jumped at the chance. Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD for review purposes and the offer to give another one away. All opinions are my own.

Dot-to-Dot available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

Now if you have not seen Pocoyo, it is an adorable show with an adult narrator who interacts with the characters. There is the little boy named Pocoyo and his animal friends. Each episode has a cute story and usually there is a life lesson in it. Pocoyo is orignally a Spanish cartoon.

We were sent the latest Pocoyo DVD which is Pocoyo's Circus. This DVD became available in stores on August 27th for $12.99. It has eight episodes of Pocoyo available in both English or Spanish. In the first episode an alien circus comes for a visit and after some mischievous playing with their tools, the circus has to regroup, but now an angry group of aliens have come expecting to see the circus, so Pocoyo and his friends put it on. In another episode, Pocoyo and his friends are figuring out who left footprints. Once they are able to match each set to the owner, they are fine, but there are some twists and turns in the story.

Match Sheet available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

The other episodes are Pocoyo's Balloon, Who's Calling Me Now, Vamoosh on the Loosh, New to the Planet, Mad Mix Machine, and Remember When. Each has a lesson about listening to others, respecting others, being kind, not taking others things, and such. I also need to add that my mother-in-law absolutely loves Pocoyo. She actually bought one of the other Pocoyo DVDs right after we had gotten ours not knowing we had one. She bought it because she loves watching the show with Hazel.

Printable available at Earth Hour in Pocoyo Activity Book

So now is your chance to win this wonderful Pocoyo's Circus DVD. It is an adorable show that children love and I know once Hazel and I get a bit better at our Spanish we will be watching it in Spanish as well. To enter please follow my Giveaway Rules and do what the Rafflecopter asks. Good luck!!

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