Puerto Rico has been so nice even with the unspected hurricane visit. It happened just hours before my little princess birthday party. Can you believe this? I expended more than two weeks organizing the perfect party with a castle bouncing house and a pool...great! However, we had a cloudy day with a strong rain in the middle of the celebration. Lets say this was spectacular! all the kids having a blast under the rain, too. EVerybody passing tru the road were in atonishment.....we were having a party just before the storm. Thanks God, we had a great time, my baby enjoyed her celebration and everybody made it to their homes safely. I will post some photos later, as soon as I get back home since I am writing this with my Kindle (I am missing my beloved internet and computer access). In the meantime, we still have one more week to rest and enjoy the family. For our friends on Irene path, we wish you a safe time.
Take care my friends

I am so excited but anxious at the same time because I don’t like airport’s check points (besides, part of my 2 femurs are of metal ;() so wish us luck my friends!

This is the first time that I am traveling alone with Pinky and now she can really move around…oops! Therefore, I prepared a compilation of all the amazing Princesses, Ballerinas, and Girly printable around. I know for sure that Pinky will be trilled, not boring at all and learning while we wait boarding.

Here’s what we have:

All girly package inside a Dora’s lunchbox. It is lighter, so Pinky can carry it like a grown up traveling PRINCESS! (and on hand in case of mommy need it :D)

 

Ballerinas puzzles. (I found this at Target almost a year ago. They come with a wood box but I taken them (as all the other activities) inside Ziploc bags.

DIY Princesses Bracelets. Ok, the objective is to make her own beautiful bracelets but what she doesn’t know is that she will practice her fine motor abilities- lacing. (Shhh don’t tell her!)

Magnifying Princesses picture cards. I did this one myself with some Google images. (I know this one will be her fav one! The cards with the small princesses have a medium size princess on back as a self control in case she will need some help.) 

DIY matching pattern cards. I did them with some recycle folders I have (from hubby’s conferences) plus some foam stickers I just bought a few days ago at Target. Easy and an endless activity! She can match them, count them, continue the patterns, practice her colors in English, French, Spanish. All for FREE!!!

Stamping with inkpad. Yes, these are the same foam stickers over foam shapes block bought at Target. Plus I added an small paper pack. Lovely stamped letters for her family to meet soon.

Which one is different with a Montessori twist. This one is from Princess Preschool pack at 1+1+1=1

Counting cards with a Montessori twist (I am just taking the clips and hope they don’t stop me at the check point….oopsss…they already are going to!. I found it at: Princess Preschool pack at 1+1+1=1

Writing. Practicing our letters and numbers. I found it at:ABC Princess Trace Cards from Little piles everywhere.

DIY Princess Coloring book. Some printable are from Carissa’s Princess Preschool pack at 1+1+1=1 and others from Google images.

Color puzzles. Found this at: Little Piles everywhere.

Counting. The cards are from ABC Princess Trace Cards from Little piles everywhere and our counters are gems (from Target, too!)

As you can see, all our activities are short, easy for small spaces, engaging (I hope so!) and they fix well in snack Ziploc bags, plus we take Montessori with us!

In addition, we are taking some Princesses books with us. I don’t post about them but all our units are FULL of books.

For this one we are taking an amazing book we won a few months ago on a giveaway hosted by Home Grown Families. It’s a book written by Victoria Osteen: Gifts from the Heart.

It’s a story about 2 siblings playing Knights and Princesses which go to a kingdom where everybody is busy because it’s the King’s birthday party. They find a little girl sad. She can’t celebrate the King’s birthday because she doesn’t have the money required to buy a great gift for the king. The 2 siblings help the kids to make their own celebration for the King with activities involving their talents God puts inside everyone: face painting, juggling, singing, art. The king heard them singing, goes to their celebration and feels happy because they gave him the best gift ever…caring and giving from your heart. Pinky LOVES this story. At the beginning she couldn’t understand why the sister gave her princess crown to the “sad” girl if it was hers. A good point for teaching her about giving, even that she can’t understand it 100%. Also, the book talks about how amazing God made us, each one unique with talents ready to share with others.

Thanks to Home Grown Families and Victoria Osteen for this amazing book for our bookshelf. It is going with us on vacation!

My own Sleepy Beauty!

Blessings!

Linking to:

A farm theme is so fun!!! Furthermore, there’re plenty of activities to do, but, sadly, we don’t have enough time for them.

We are getting ready for VACATIONS!!! Almost a month at our lovely island: Puerto Rico!!! I am so excited about it because Pinky will have lots of new experiences with nature: beach, lakes, river, mountains, farms, gardens, insects and if we are lucky enough, a RAINBOW!!!

So, here’s what we got to do so far:

Lacing:

This is the second time she’s exposed to a lacing activity and she did the 8 animals at one! As you can see the rabbit was the last one (oh, my little baby!). Also, the small lacing animals were suppose to being use as a matching activity or memory game but she decided to match to the big ones. Great imagination!.

For this unit we are doing lots of hands on activities (literally). Here are our 5 little sheep puppets. Using these for a line time circle time song (5 little sheep)

Felt puzzle: Horse

Phonics: She is really good!!! (beginning sounds!)

Homemade poppets!: We looked for our small farm stuff animals (plus an octopus and Elmo that got on the way), attached them to popsicle stick with pine cleaners and the puppet show can start! She loved it!

Crafts: Handprint-footprint Farm. Plus the grass has eyes looking at you!

An extra for you my friends: Farm animals in Spanish by Pinky and mommy! That’s how we learn around most of the time….of course, when we are not shopping lol

Farm animals (Animales de la granja)

• Sheep: Oveja
• Cow: Vaca
• Pig: Cerdo
• Rabbit: Conejo
• Duck: Pato
• Chick: Pollito
• Horse: Caballo
• Turtle: Tortuga
• Rooster: Gallo

Pinky’s learning her farm animals in Spanish!

Take care…..and maybe one more post before we disappear for VACATIONS!!!  I hope I can have an easy flight all by myself with a 3 yrs old plus all the bags and the flight stops…..

We have been learning about Vincent van Gogh!

I am NOT an art teacher or an expert, I am just trying to introduce my little one into some facts and history about the fascinating art world. Therefore, our learning time consist about:

- Reading a tiny artist biography (Pinky’s just turned 3 years old, so too many details are out of question)

- Admiring and talking about the paintings. For our first artist, I just printed 4 of his most famous paintings:

• Starry night

• Sunflowers

• Bedroom in Arles

• Self portrait

Note: It is amazing how kids can interpret feelings. When we were talking about his work; she took his self-portrait and told me: “Mommy, he is sad!”. In fact, he was mentally sick!!

Then, we just have fun recreating our versions of his art. Here’s a great site with his masterpieces and a short information about them.

Pinky’s Starry night version!

Pinky’s self-portrait! (Isn’t it cute??? She even painted her blue shirt and pink pants- we didn’t have a pink marker so she used red!) 

Pinky’s flowers on a vase version! (We don’t have any sunflowers.)

Pinky’s version of a room at home: The living room. Maybe you can see a sofa with daddy sitting on left and Pinky on right. Next to the sofa (at right) is the fan. There are some toys on the floor.

Our arty corner!!!

Here’s another art project. Finger-painting on canvas and after that pasting bottle caps, wiggly eyes, confetti, and buttons. Great collage and really fun!!

And, at last (for now), my favorite one: Mommy’s and princess’ hands collage! I found the idea at this amazing blog full of beautiful art to do with the kids.

It was a super duper fun one!!!!

Do you have any other ideas I can do with my 3 years old one to teach her about art?

Take care!