Ice Cream learning fun!

Today I am over at Gummy Lump sharing some fun early learning we are doing this summer using Ice cream cones! We are working on our lower case and upper case letter recognition and matching, plus colors and numbers. These are easy to make and fun to try so I hope you head over to Gummy Lump and make some learning fun Ice cream cones with your kiddos. 

The ABC's of Me

I saw this on Simply Clarke and it was so cute I wanted to try it. So here it goes! The ABC's Of me!

A. Age?
28 yrs old

B. Book?
Currently reading World War Z and waiting for the movie

C. Cake or Pie?
Chocolate cake!

D. Drink of choice?
Cherry coke, extra cherries from sonic (love the ice)

E. Essential Items?
Pen and paper

F. Favorite Color?
Blue! 

G. Game to play or watch?
Basketball My San Antonio Spurs

H. Hometown?
San Antonio! Home of The Alamo

I. Indulgence?
chocolate!

J. Job?
Full time Mommy/Blogger

K. Kids?
One Munchkin love of my life

L. Life is incomplete without?
Love and family by your side

M. Music group or singer?
Eeeek! Favorites? Fiona Apple, Queen and The Beatles

N. Number of siblings?
2, one of each both a lot younger

O. Oranges or apples
Hard choice but apples, pretty much almost a tie

P. Phobias/fears?
I really didn't have much fears before my munchkin but now I have so many since I have become a mother. Life is not so scary when you only have to worry about your well being, but once your life isn't just yours then that brings alot of fears besides roaches.

Q. Favorite Quote?
"All you need is Love"

R. Reason to smile?
Life, Health, family

S. Season?
My favorite season is Spring

T.  Tattoos?
None but I want one. A turtle on my ankle

U. Unknown fact about me?
I have not driven a car in years

V. Vegetable you love?
Broccoli, carrots

W. Worst Habit?
Nail biter but I'm doing good not biting recently

X. X-Rays you've had?
So many X-rays on my knee! I keep breaking the same one

Y. Your favorite food?
Chicken soup

Z. Zodiac?

Hope you learned a little bit more about me and if you're doing one too please share it with me! Id love to learn more about you!  

My 2012 Journey

So I was sitting here thinking how A new year is about to begin and how to me its a clean slate. I get to start all over again and make the new year the best year possible. But before the New Year starts I was reflecting on my 2012. What happened, what I did, how its gone for me. So here is My 2012:

January: Start of 2012, My sisters 21st birthday (new Years baby), 2 special little girls birthday, my first hair cut in over 3 years! Yep! Wow! But I really felt like I had no time for it

February: Tax season craze! The people in costumes were always stalking us on the bus. We went to Seaworld opening day. We fed the dolphins! We turned all our family members into Bacon. Leap year (always great to get an extra day) and celebrated Valentines day!

March: Spring Break! See munchkin leaping off the floor playing with water, St.Patricks Day! (lots of green)

April: We had a great Easter! Check out my Easter basket cupcakes I made. I also made my own cascarones and rice krispies eggs! Sadly most of the month I had a horrible Bad ear ache that closed my ear and made it sound like a muffled hum mixed with ringing and pain and endless Dr appts! I spent so much time with my ear against a pillow.

May: Aquatica at Seaworld had its grand opening and of course we had to be there to check it out! Mothers day,  SOL (Seeds Of Learning) classes ended and we had a party at the San Antonio Childrens Museum to celebrate a good year (Thankyou to the museum for this amazing free kids program)

June: First official day of summer (Although in Texas it feels like Summer most of the time) so we had a lot of fun in the Sun!

July: We saw the fireworks at Seaworld 4th of July. Sadly I stepped on a nail when I was walking outside in my neighborhood and had to get a shot and antibiotics. It made me stay in alot the rest of the month so I could heal.  

August: Went to The San Antonio children's museum Free day with Sid the science kid (KLRN kids sponsor), My dads bday, We went to the Witte Museum to see the Darwin Exhibit which was amazing! (Thankyou Maker Mama for the Giveaway) and I officially started blogging (whoo-hoo)!

September: We started going to Play and Learn this fall, We went to the Witte again! We celebrated Grandparents day, started our alphabet journey. We went to Seaworlds Howl-0-Scream

October: We went to National Night out and Munchkin even got to take a picture with Mayor Castro! We went to Howl-O-Scream again, We went to Chalk it up for the first time and loved it. We got lucky to go free to the Botanical gardens and we saw the dinosaurs! We had fun at Treat street and Coffins on parade on the Riverwalk. Had a spooky Halloween! Most important of all we celebrated my munchkins 4th bday!

November: We went to Dia de los Muertos events and the Diwali festival of Lights. We went to Seaworlds Christmas Celebration, celebrated my birthday and my brothers. Had fun at The San Antonio Childrens museum. Got in the holiday spirit when we went to see Santa on the Riverwalk.

December: We went to the Zoo to see Santa deliver presents to the animals, We went to the San Antonio Museum of Art for a special book launch, Survived the end of the world again, and had a Beautiful Christmas! Now getting ready for a New Year!

I want to say Thankyou to my family for always being there for me. Thankyou to Colleen Pence for your kindness and for introducing me to such a beautiful group of Bloggers that have only made me grow. Thankyou to the readers who visit the blog. Thankyou To Play and Learn for all the fun and learning.Thankyou Seaworld for the amazing year with the Fun cards I won during the Flat Jack contest. They let us go to Seaworld all this year and it was awesome!

How was your year? Think back on this year and all the Happiness and tears you shared with loved ones and How this 2013 is sure to be an amazing new adventure too! Thank you 2012 for all the memories but I cant wait to make my mark in 2013! Hope you are all here to follow along in our journey and share it with us. Happy New Year guys!

Love Always

-Alvina

Having fun with a Colortime Craft

This week we got a great opportunity to try Out a Colortime craft by making a unique pillowcase and we had a good time making one. Munchkin gets excited anytime he sees something big in the mail. So when he saw me opening the package and taking out some big chunky markers he was all gimme me! I told him what we were making and he already wanted the pillowcase plain as it was.

When I told him he could draw and color on it he looked at me like Huh? I think its because you get your kids use to the rules of markers go on paper and then now your telling them to run wild on this pillowcase so they hesitate a bit. Well it was only a little bit but then that changed and we colored on it and even drew on it(I didn't want it white). It only came with 3 permanent markers but we made it work by mixing them and we ended up with 5 different colors. Then after munchkin was done I worked on the back alone. We have been working on his alphabet so I wrote out the alphabet and some number and shapes on the back as a final touch. I love it! He can be showing me his letters on his comfy pillow.

As soon as it was done he wanted to play with it. First he said it was big enough to be a blanket so off he went to put it on. Then I put it on a pillow so he changed his mind and put it on the bed to get comfy on. The colors dry quickly so you don't have to worry that they will get on everything.

I think this would be a great project for kids to do for a sleepover! I'm already imagining munchkins first sleepover with friends. They can decorate there pillows and have there friends sign them so that it becomes a keepsake of such a fun night. But there are alot of other fun projects you can do with themes for boys/girls. Check them out and plan your next sleepover!

Disclosure: I was given a ColorTime craft to try out. All opinions are my own and may vary from yours.

Our Week with the Letter H

This week has been one of the best weeks for us with his alphabet journey. He has been really understanding the letter H. He can write the letter so clearly and he can sound it out in a word so well. I am really happy with his progress. I feel so proud of him with how far along he has come. Not so long ago he was the little boy in speech therapy who wouldn't speak. Who had zero vocabulary words and who therapists recommended for special education. Now my son just turned 4 and has such an extensive vocabulary that he can talk your ears off. (Never doubt a mothers determination) 

Here's what we did this week:

Monday: We worked on Letter recognition. For every letter of the week I redo his dry erase board with the Letter were working on and an item that represents that letter such as H is for Home or House! I also add to it with a flash card or a letter magnet or foam Letter. Anything with that letter that helps with the connection is welcome.

Right on top of the area that his dry erase board is I hang a recycled poster board type sheet with clippings of the Letter of the week that are recycled from magazines or newspaper or mail. It helps because your child gets to see the Letter there working on in different colors, fonts, sizes and that shows them that this Letter is still the same letter (the back side of the sheet is lowercase).

Tuesday: We worked with letter Magnets and books

Remember that with books there is more to be done than just reading them. You can ask them to help you sound out the pictures they see, find the various letters of the alphabet in the words your reading and ask them to read you the book by telling you what they see is happening in the pictures and go along from there.

Wednesday: We went to the first Play and Learn of November and checked out new alphabet books from the library to work on.

Thursday: We worked with paint to Make Heart prints: A Letter H craft with potatoes. It was a beautiful way to connect paint with letters and shapes. We then worked on some more Letter writing and recognition.

Friday: We went outside to created some fun Alphabet Chalk Art Then we worked on some more letter writing and recognition.

Saturday: We mainly hanged out and relaxed at home. But we did play with popsicle sticks and make the Letter H out of them.
Sunday: We had a family day and are still just relaxing. Happy Sunday ya'll!

I am really happy with all the progress we have done and hope your alphabet journey is going well. Don't let a bad week get you down and just keep going forward! If your child doesn't seem to be understanding that letter then find other activities that might fit your child's learning needs. Don't stress out because every child learns at there own pace. I know its easier to say than to do because trust me It was hard on me too, but don't give up! We are going to be working on the letter I this new week and hope you will be joining us as well.

Here are our weeks with Letter A-G:

A: Our week with the Letter A
B: Our week with the Letter B
C: Our week with the Letter C
D: Our week with the Letter D
E: Our week with the letter E
F: Our week with the letter F
G: Our week with the letter G
What letter activities have worked with your child? Any tips or advice are always much appreciated. Thanks!

Learning your Alphabet with chalk Art

This week we have been working on the Letter H and yesterday was such a beautiful day that we couldn't spend it indoors. So out we went outside and brought out the chalk and started having fun!

I asked my munchkin to help me decorate the driveway with letters! It was a good chance to practice his letter writing skills with a fun object like chalk so off he went making various letters and they looked awesome!

In the meantime I was also making letters everywhere and asking him to identify them for me or helping him out with his letter writing. It ended up becoming a collage of our letters mixed together.

I then started making shapes and he did too and we were identifying them all on the floor by letters, colors and shapes now.

And yes as you can tell that led to making holiday designs. I made a snowman and my sister made a turkey and then her own snowman. Munchkin had so much fun coloring and drawing and making letters while being outside under the sun with a nice breeze.

Isnt having fun the best way to learn? How long has it been since you went outside and went chalk crazy?

If you and your kids are into chalk art then you need to check out this free event they have every year in San Antonio which is Chalk It Up! This years event already passed but its never too early to get excited for next years event. Check out the fun we had at this years event: Chalk It Up 2012 

Making Heart prints with Potatoes

This week we have been working on the letter H while we are on our alphabet journey. I wanted to see what activities we could do to help with the Letter H connection and my munchkin loves playing with paint so the idea was born to make Hearts. It also goes along with working on our shapes so it was a two for one for me.

I started with a potato (yes a plain whole potato)

I sliced it in half and made one half into a heart and the other half into a heart outline cutout

I threw in paints to the mix and then gave my munchkin paper and it was just like stamps all over the paper in different colors. Each one unique in its edges and shades.

Here are some of the art works created during our paint fest

We always love playing with paints and when you can learn sounds and letters while making art then that's even better. Plus I love the idea of using something like a potato and making it into art.

What are some of your favorite at home kids art projects? You ever try making art with potatoes? Its lots of fun!