More tidbits I keep forgetting to share...

The month of time from Sept. 15-Oct. 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. So, every morning for our Read Aloud, I've been reading a book from my Latino collection. There are many Spanish words for the babies to learn, and they love it! So far, we've been sticking to one book for the whole week, which was how the babies wanted to do it. So far, we've read Abuela, Manana Iguana, The Cat Who Came for Tacos, and this week's book, Elena's Serenade.

I just realized that I started reading Manana Iguana before Hispanic Heritage month officially started, which is why we're up to four books already. Anyway, one of the points of telling you all this is that the babies are sooo into learning Spanish words. About three days into HH month, I was getting all the babies to the carpet and settled for our story, and I hear J.L. say, "Delicioso!" (I hope that's spelled correctly.) I was cracking up! We've been trying to use the words we know whenever appropriate. We start with "Buenos dias!" when they walk in, "si" and "no" when we remember, as well as "gracias." Then there are some words that are especially fun for them to say. Tortuga (turtle) came from Manana Iguana, and they just love to say it. They also learned rabbit and snake, but both words are escaping me right now, sorry. Of course, they learned pinata and fiesta, which are both a big part of that story. They know that at the end of HH month, we will be having a pinata at our fiesta. Culebra! That's snake. Maybe rabbit will jump into my head, too. Wait for it... Conejo! Ah...I might be a little slower at flipping through my mental roledex, but eventually I find what I need. (God, it sucks getting old!!)

We also practice some Spanish when we do our Calendar Time. I've always done my calendar this way with my babies. We count the days of the month in English, but then we do 1-10 in Spanish, Italian, French, and American Sign Language. We use ASL every morning when we do our ABC Book, too. As we say each letter, we also make the sign. We learn some basic words, too, like Mom, Dad, brother, sister, yes, no, please, thank you, and so on. We really get excited about how it's our "secret language," and the babies love trying to finger spell words. Sometimes, I will test them on their Treasure Words (the sight words from our reading program) by spelling them in ASL. Yes, I know, they're sight words, but the kids love to try and figure out what I'm spelling. My absolute favorite thing to show them is the "I love you" sign. We learned it today, as a matter of fact, and the babies could not stop flashing it at me ALL day. I loved it!!

I always make sure they know to explain it to their Mommies and Daddies as soon as they get home so 1) they can flash it to them! and 2) so their parents don't think they're flashing gang signs of some sort. Trust me, some of them would surely think that. Hell, some of them might actually be proud of that.

I was planning on sharing some more cute stuff about the babies, but I'm suddenly freezing. Naturally, I have all my windows and doors open, to catch every bit of the delightfully fresh air coming in, but I'm suddenly feeling cold. Hmmm, maybe it's the capri pants and the flip-flops I'm still wearing? Oh, wait, I just glanced at the TV, and because the news is on, there is a time and temp stamp in the corner. It says 55. Yay!! This is MY kind of weather!! I'm going to sign off and go turn the oven on. I feel a batch of cookies coming on!!!! Man, I'm in a good mood! I almost forgot what that was like.... I'm going to put on my jeans and a sweatshirt (yay!) and get to baking. Have a great night!