Noel a la Mexicaine (en France!)

Typically it's a star-shaped piñata that the children break, but the recent heavy snowfall in Paris inspired my friend Zitlaly to make a snowman, much to the delight of all of our children at her "posada". If you're wondering what a posada is, you'll have to scroll down to the end of this post (and enjoy all the fun pictures while you're at it)!

Here they are proudly posing with their snowman piñata!

Most of the children in this photo are half-Mexican, half-French! 

There is one that is half-English, half-French, and one that is well, just plain French!

 

Poor unsuspecting snowman!

My friend Zitlaly is very talented and loves to make piñatas!

If you live in the Paris area and are interested in a piñata,

leave me a comment so I can send you her contact info.

To see another one of her piñatas, click here Piñata! or scroll to the end of this post.

These get-togethers are the best for encouraging my polyglot tots

to be multilingual and multi-cultural!

To learn more about multilingual playgroups click here Play groups in language learning.

 

Each child patiently waiting for his or her turn!

We start with the youngest and progressively move on to the oldest!

We certainly wouldn't want the piñata to break before everyone got a chance to hit it!

The children all cheer each other on
and watch carefully
for the moment
that the candy-filled piñata
breaks
where they all scramble
to get their fair share of the loot!
(or not so fair share!)

Here's our Alex about to whack that poor little snowman!

The older children get their eyes banded.

Alex whacked that poor piñata harder than any of the other children, I didn't know he had it in him!

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And this, my friends, is the beautiful piñata that Zitlaly so kindly made for a church activity that we were not able to attend due to the stomach flu and so I'm saving it for New Year's Eve!

It's ginormous!

It doesn't look that big in the photo, but when I went to go pick it up from Zitlaly's house, I was worried it wouldn't fit in the back of my mini-van!

****Posadas in Mexico are celebrated during the nine days before Christmas. Posada means lodging in Spanish and typically Mexican families each host a posada in their home, symbolic of inviting in or accomodating the baby Jesus. There are processions and re-enactments of the first Christmas, elaborate nativity scenes, singing and feasting, and of course, the breaking of the traditional star-shaped piñata, which in our case was a snowman!


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I'll be sharing photos from our family Christmas celebration on the 24th and the 25th this coming week!

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Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas to all, sending lots of love and cheer to all my dear family and friends, far and near. Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noël! P.S. This short article is an inspiration! Where is the Christ child?

http://www.thesleepytimegal.com

Please click on this link to read this beautiful post Where is the Christ child?

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My child's not bilingual, is it too late to teach him?

You speak another language fluently (perhaps because it's the language of your country), but somehow you've failed to pass it along to your children? Do not despair, it's never too late! Isabelle, a dear friend of mine from my BYU days wrote to me recently, her heart heavy because she felt she was failing at passing on her native language of Québecois French to her young children. Here are three simple ideas that I sent to her....

 

http://poshposh.com/2009/12/ceramic-french-envelope-boxes-these/

 
Vous parlez une autre langue courrament (peut-être parce que c'est la langue de votre pays), mais vous n'avez pas réussi à l'apprendre à vos enfants? Ne desépérez pas, il n'est jamais trop tard! Isabelle, une très chère copine de mes jours à la fac (BYU) m'a écrit récemment, découragée parce qu'elle avait le sentiment qu'elle avait échoué à transmettre sa langue maternelle (le français québécois) à ses jeunes enfants. Voici trois idées simples que je lui ai envoyées...

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1. A corner in the house where there are books in French. Add fun, colorful posters and stuffed animals, some cushions, perhaps some puppets, why not? Time spent here in your little French corner should be done exclusively in French, but you can start out very slowly. For example, a few minutes each day or just one time per week or before going to bed, etc. Time spent here should be a special time that will give your child the desire to come back. But above all, give plenty of encouragement, kisses and hugs!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_L-deInbQA9c/S5AZzQCXcpI/AAAAAAAAGpo/H_H5rAVjhrw/s1600/kids-reading-nook.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L-deInbQA9c/S5AQrHuSpTI/AAAAAAAAGoQ/4kOCpHPKzfc/s1600-h/kids-reading-nook.jpg

1. Un coin dans la maison où il y a des livres en français. Mets des affiches amusantes et dans des couleurs vives, des peluches, quelques coussins, peut-être quelques marionettes, pourquoi pas? Le temps passé dans ce petit coin français doit se faire uniquement en français, mais ça peut commencer en douceur. Par exemple, quelques minutes par jour ou seulement une fois par semaine ou avant d'aller se coucher, etc. Le temps passé ici doit être un temps privilégié qui donne envie à l'enfant d'y retourner. Mais surtout, donnez plein d'encouragement, des bisous et des câlins!

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2. The webcam with your family. The fact that these are people that love your children and that speak only French will motivate your children to speak French also, even if that begins with just a simple hello. You can do the same thing over the phone, but to see and hear a person live is so much more exciting!

http://www.neodiscount.com/achat_webcam.html

http://www.lisisoft.com/tag/webcam

2. La webcam avec ta famille. Le fait que ce sont des personnes qui aiment tes enfants et qui parlent uniquement en français va motiver tes enfants à parler français aussi, même si cela commence avec un bonjour tout simplement. Tu peux faire la même chose au téléphone, mais de voir et entendre ces personnes en live c'est tellement plus impressionant!

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3. Letters and post-cards. Motivate your children to stay in touch with just one person in particular: grandma, an uncle or a favorite cousin. When your child is still to young to know how to write, ask him what she would like to say to the person and translate it out loud as you write it down. Help your child write his or her name at the end of the letter. If your child is older, you can help her copy the letter that you have written down for her, but it should always be using your child's own words, even if you have to translate everything. It doesn't need to be long, sometimes one or two phrases is enough. Your child will be overjoyed when he receives his first return letter and all in French! Here also, you may need to help him translate it into English if he has a hard time understanding, but only after you've read it aloud entirely in French. Your child will learn a few simple words and will above all have the desire to speak French so that he can communicate with this person who is dear to his heart!

 

http://www.curiosphere.tv/ressource/23297-les-enfants-dans-la-shoah/page_url=/html/en-savoir-plus-04-lettres-Marie.cfm

3. Des lettres et des cartes postales. Incite tes enfants à rester en contact avec juste une personne en particulier: la grand-mère, un oncle ou une cousine préférée. Lorsque ton enfant ne sait pas encore écrire, demande-lui ce qu'il voudra dire à cette personne et traduit-le à haute voix pendant que tu l'écris. Aide ton enfant à écrire son prénom à la fin de la lettre. Si ton enfant est plus âgé, tu peux l'aider à recopier la lettre que tu écris à l'avance, mais que ce soit toujours ces paroles à lui, même si tu dois tout traduire. Il ne faut pas que ce soit long, parfois une ou deux phrases est suffisant. Ton enfant sera rempli d'émotion quand il recevra sa première lettre de retour et tout en français! Là aussi tu peux le lui traduire en anglais s'il a du mal à comprendre, mais seulement après l'avoir lu tout en français. Ton enfant apprendra quelques petits mots et surtout aura envie de parler français pour qu'il puisse communiquer avec cette personne chérie!

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*To complete the final two ideas, there is nothing better than a trip home to spend time with your family!

http://blogs.smarter.com/gadgets/tag/delta/

*Pour compléter les deux dernières idées, rien de mieux qu'un voyage au pays pour passer du temps avec la famille!

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P.S. I also have another idea that is called vocabulary or phrase sandwiches, but that will have to be for another post!

P.S. J'ai une autre idée qui s'appelle des sandwichs de vocabulaire ou des phrases, mais ce sera pour un autre jour!

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Christmas gift bags

Are you looking for some fun, cute, original ways to wrap your gifts? We were snowed in this weekend in Paris (after more unusually heavy snowfall), so I had free time on my hands and I came up with these... If you've got scrapbook paper and twine, you're set to go! Here's a few I made yesterday plus a tutorial with step by step photos of one I made today.

This little one I made for my daughter Gabriela while we watched King Kong.

Then of course, Elena had to have a matching one!

Don't they look adorable in the Christmas tree?

You can make them in all shapes, colors & sizes to cover a variety of gifts.

Of course, they have to be rather small gifts like books, jewelry, etc.

Here's how:

Gather your scrapbook paper, scissors, tape and twine.

Decorative hole punches or just a regular one will do.

Have the gift you're needing to wrap on hand to make sure it will fit inside your bag!

Choose your scrapbook paper. 

For this slightly larger gift, I ended up needing two sheets...

I turned them on the wrong side and put the bar code sides close to each other at the seam so that they would not be visible.

Then I simply taped the seam together overlapping pieces of tape.

Next, measure around your box the way you will place it in the bag to know where to make your creases.

 Fold your paper and make nice creases so that your bag will hold its shape.

 Once you've made your creases, start to form the base of your bag by cutting about an inch into your crease (4 cuts total).

This will form tabs that you will want to fold in to make a crease.

Fold all six tabs in to make creases.

Now your bag should start to take shape. Fold up the sides.

Oops! The tabs should meet each other but since I don't like to measure, 

I just kind of do things as I go, however I'm feeling things.

So, I made a mistake! But that's okay. There's a simple solution.

I didn't have another sheet of the same scrapbook paper, so I just chose this tan color. I cut long strips.

I turned my bag on its side.

Placed the long strip on the inside and taped it in place.

Once you've got both strips taped snugly in place to cover up those gaps,
turn your bag right side up and fold over the excess of the strip.
It adds a little extra something to your bag.

Now we're ready to punch holes.

Just choose the shape you want and where you want to make holes.

For my other bags, I used a line of tiny hearts at top center that I thought was charming.

For this bag, I opted for a simple flower cut but thought I would also add some holes on the sides as an added detail since it's a larger bag.

I also added some flower cuts spaced out near the center of the bag to balance it out.

The gift is actually too big for my bag, but that's okay because I knew that.

...and it's no problem because I just covered it with some tissue paper that just adds to the charm!

Then I started threading my twine through the flower cuts.

I ended up threading the twine in and out twice through the flower cuts.

Then I simply tied a simple bow.

What do you think?

Kind of shabby chic?

Simple?

Original?

The receiver of the gift could even keep the gift bag to safe-keep treasures like love letters or souvenirs...

What would you keep in this bag?

Do you have any original ways you like to wrap gifts?

Merry holiday preparations and thanks for visiting!

I'm sharing this idea over here....

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