Quinceanera -- Exploring Hispanic Heritage

Congratulations to Sara S. for winning the WordWorld Kooky Spooky Halloween DVD!

Since Hazel loves birthday parties, I thought reading some books about a quinceañera would be right up her alley. A quinceañera is a fiesta for a Latina girl who turns fifteen. The fifteenth year is traditionally when girls turn into women in Latin American cultures. The traditional celebration differs from country to country. Most include a special dress for the quinceañera and a dance with her father (often a waltz) followed by a meal, dancing and a cake. Often there is a mass before the fiesta to honor the girl. In some countries the quinceañera has a court of friends ranging from 7-14 of each gender. (Source)

Wampanoag's Cranberry Day -- Native American Heritage Series & Giveaway

I have a confession to make. Until recently, I did not understand why the Native American mascots were so offensive. I went to a high school where our mascot was a warrior and being a child of the 80's the song, The Warrior, was very popular at our school. Our cross town rival's mascot was a chieftan. I saw these as a way to honor Native Americans and not to insult or hurt them. This fall I have read several articles on-line (Huffington Post and The Guardian) that made me understand why they are hurtful. For some people these are the only images they have of Native Americans. This had not occurred to me since I have always had a fascination with Native American lifestyles, stories and such. I also understand why many Native Americans consider Thanksgiving the National Day of Mourning (see Huffington Post for more on this). Although Native Americans have always held days to honor and be thankful for the harvest, it is hard to watch the country celebrate and reenact a day that lead to so many of their own people's death and the loss of their land. I have written about the Wampanoag, a bit on Squanto and this year we explored Metacomet (King Philip) and I wrote even more about Squanto over at All Done Monkey. To honor the Wampanoag and to learn more about them as part of our Thanksgiving I thought we would explore one of their harvest holidays. I should also refer you to our post on cranberries since the holiday is Cranberry Day.  Our first discovery of this holiday was the book Cranberry Day by Jannette Vanderhoop. 

Sharing Saturday 15-40

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! The ideas shared last week were amazing!! I had trouble limiting the number of features.  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features are Glowing Features, Pumpkins & Hispanic Heritage, Fall, and a few of my favorites.

Sharing Saturday 14-39

Thank you to everyone who shared their amazing ideas last week (and they really were amazing--thus the large number of features this week) and to everyone who took the time to check out what others shared! (You know we all love to have others check out our posts!) This week was a busy one here. Between meetings at church and a fun apple picking field trip with Hazel's class, I did not get much posting done. Stay tuned this coming week for a new giveaway!! And also make sure you enter the Hispanic Heritage Month Giveaway with three amazing prize packs!! There was no most clicked this week, so we have for feature categories Hispanic Heritage Month, Apples and some Fun Favorites.

Hispanic Heritage Month

1) From Discovering The World Through My Son's Eyes: Hispanic Heritage Month Fiesta for Kids

2) From All Done Monkey: Costa Rica Craft: Carretas

3) From Multicultural Kid Blogs (written by Becky at Kid World Citizen): Day of the Dead Crafts and Activities for Kids

Apples 

(I had a hard time choosing from all the great apple ideas!)

1) From Lou Lou Girls: Apple Cake

2) From Pink Polka Dots & PreK: Edible Apple Sensory Play and Taste Test

3) From From ABCs to ACTs: Textured Apple Craft for Preschoolers

4) From The Classroom Creative: Apple Symmetry Craft for Preschool, Kindergarten and First Grade

5) From Mama to 5 Blessings: Fall Apple Crafts for Toddlers/Preschoolers

6) From Tiny Tots Adventures: Playful Preschool DIY Farm

Some Fun Favorites

1) From An idea on Tuesday: Bark Painting

2) From Life with Moore Babies: Cave Painting

3) From Child Led Life: Child's Book List: Birds

4) From April's Homemaking: Easy Air Plant Terrariums

5) From Saving with Shellie: Candy Corn Popcorn Balls

6) From Happy Brown House: Christopher Colombus Activities

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess: This week we shared our Grilled Lemon Grass Beef for Around the World in 12 Dishes (we are still doing Vietnam), Hispanic music with Celia Cruz and DIY instruments, a book review of Everyone Prays!

Now for This Week's Party 


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Hawaii Challenge -- A Look at Native Hawaiians -- Native American Heritage Month

Today we are taking a look at the Native Hawaiians. This is our post for the Multicultural Kid Blogs Native American Month. I figured this was a perfect time to truly explore the Native Hawaiians. They have been making news lately because they are fighting the world's largest telescope being installed on one of their sacred lands. Although they are not actually indigenous people many think of them as a group of them. Since we know they came from the Polynesian Islands they are actually aboriginal people. (Source) As I mentioned in my fist Hawaii Challenge post the Hawaiian islands were formed by volcanoes. South Seas peoples of Polynesia and Tahitian descent came to the islands and stayed. This was around the third century. 

Learning about Japan for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Week 1

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow, April was a bit of a strange month with the stay at home order. It is hard to believe it is May. Our weather is finally starting to warm back up. April was the coldest April on record here and until this weekend our warmest day in 2020 was in January! May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Multicultural Kid Blogs has stopped doing its monthly heritage month series but I still wanted to share about it. So this year as I looked at my resources (aka my review shelf) I noticed a definite theme of Japan. So I am going to try to post on Mondays sharing different resources on Japan and Japanese culture. And it makes the most sense to begin with well the beginning. So our first book today is Kojiki: The Birth of Japan by Kazumi Wilds. 

Kid Friendly Look at the Stories of The Arabian Nights

Only 2 more days to enter to win the 2 Doozers Pod Squad DVDS. Take your preschoolers on STEM Adventures with these DVDS.

 For our last exploration this year of the Middle East, we decided to look at some of the stories of The Arabian Nights. While reading about Middle Eastern mathematicians and scientists I found a comment about how the Iraqi scholar Abu 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abdus al-Jashyari translated Persian, Indian, Iranian, Turkish and Chinese stories into Arabic. He changed the names to the exotic Arabic names we know today like Aladdin, Ali Baba, Scheherazade and Sinbad. He also changed the locations of some of the adventures. After al-Jashyari's death other Muslim scholars added to his collection until it contained the full 1001 stories that the title suggests. (Source: Steffens, Bradley, Ibn al-Haytham, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Greensboro, NC 2007, page 17) This fascinated me. 

The October Line Up

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

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!!

Asian Book Reviews -- Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. More details about all of this below including the giveaway!!

Since May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, I contacted my friends at Tuttle Publishing. It was a logical choice since this is their specialty. They publish books on Asian cultures, languages, and history. They have books for children and adults. It is a wonderful publishing company that puts out high quality and beautiful books. They also have provided five of the books for the giveaway below! The first book we will review is one of the prizes.

National Hispanic Heritage Month Begins Saturday

Did you know that National Hispanic Heritage Month begins Saturday? It runs from September 15 to October 15th. President Lyndon Johnson put into place National Hispanic Heritage Week and President Ronald Reagan expanded it to a month. (Source) My friend, Daria, reminded me and asked if I would like to make some of her musical instruments in honor of the month. I, of course, jumped on it. If you have not already checked out Daria's webpage you should, but especially check out her Monthly Song Page so you can enter her great giveaways for a pair of handmade maracas and/or a basket of castanets. Everything we made today came from her tutorials which you can find links to on her Monthly Song Page. Everything was made with recycled ingredients for the most part or at least things we had hanging around the house.

Hazel had a great time making the instruments, decorating them and playing with them! The pictures above are of her making and decorating them. We will start with the most well known instrument we made--maracas! Daria does a great job of explaining maracas including a bit of history. We used a small water bottle (we only had one in our recycling bin), two empty bubble containers (with the wands inside still), toilet paper rolls, beads, and electrical tape (red) and then Hazel decorated them with paint. Hazel loved putting the beads into the different containers. I taped the toilet paper rolls to the containers and then she decorated away. We actually have some maracas from the store so I included a picture of them as well so you could see the similarities and differences!

Next we made the guiro. This is actually easy to make and is somewhat similar to the maracas. We used an empty water bottle with ridges. We put some beads in it as well. Hazel also painted it a bit, but I don't recommend this since the paint flaked off immediately when we played it. Again, Daria does a good job explaining the guiro and a bit of it history. I think this is my favorite one we made!

The last instrument me made today is a cajita. Cajita means little box. It literally is a small box with an attached lid. To play it you hit it with a wooden stick on the inside, outside, wherever. I had picked up a couple of wooden boxes on clearance at the Christmas Tree Shop when we visited my parents last week. (Daria suggests a cigar box.) I pulled out the smallest one and gave it to Hazel. She added some paint so she could add her own touch (or at least that is the reason she told me she wanted to paint it). Then she played it with a pencil as well. Again, Daria does a great job explaining about a cajita, so please check out what she says.

After playing it a couple of times she decided she wanted to use the box for Ducky's diaper cream. She thought it was the perfect size for it. Oh, well. 

Since the cajita is from Peru, I thought I would share a children's book for you about life in Peru, Tonight Is Carnaval by Arthur Dorros. All of the illustrations are pictures of arpilleras sewn by the Club de Madras Virgen del Carmen of Lima, Peru. They are beautiful!!

The story is told by a young boy about his family getting ready for the Carnaval, which is three days away. First the work must be done. He goes into details about the work including farming, taking care of the llamas, sheering the alpacas and turning it into yarn and then taking their potatoes to the market in the village. After the market the Carnaval will begin. If you do not know, Carnaval is a celebration just before Lent. In the Andes it is celebrated for three days and nights with music (from a local band which the story teller gets to play in this year), dancing and feasting. 

Stay tune for more Hispanic Heritage Sharing the next month!! Next week Monday will not be multicultural due to the Virtual Book Club for Kids, but I will share something with you later in the week.

A Look at Wampum and How It Is Made -- Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month. This year I thought I would explore wampum and how it is made. Wampum jewelry is very popular on Cape Cod and this summer I was told how hard (and dangerous) it is to make. This is why it costs so much. 

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month -- Book Round-Up

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. I always feel bad about this month. It happens at such a busy time of the year and is often overlooked. May was chosen to mark the anniversary of the first Japanese immigration and the completion of the transcontinental railroad. (The majority of the workers on the railroad were Chinese immigrants.) It also represents such a large area. Asian-Pacific Island includes all of Asia and the islands in the Pacific including New Zealand and the Polynesian Islands. It covers a huge area. (Source)

Source: World Atlas

Although we have no Asian or Pacific Island heritage that I know of, I like to teach Hazel about all the various cultures. I always describe myself as an American mutt since I have quite a mixture of European ancestors and even have some that can be traced to the Mayflower. There is a story in our family history of someone marrying a Native American as well, but I do not know the details. As such I do not identify with any ethnicity besides American and I find it interesting to look at the different ones around. To begin looking into Asian and Pacific Island Heritage we went to the library for books.

General Asian Stories and Picture Books

• A is for Asia by Cynthia Chin-Lee
• Asian Children's Favorite Stories by David Conger, Marian Davies Toth & Kay Lyons
• Asian Holidays by Faith Winchester
• Come Look With Me: Asian Art by Kimberly Lane
• I Dreamed I was a Panda by Debra A. Johnson
• Floating Clouds, Floating Dreams Favorite Asian Folk Tales edited by I. K. Junne
• Moon Magic: Stories from Asia by Katherine Davison
• The Tiger's Whisker and Other Tales from Asia and the Pacific by Harold Courlander
• Folk Tales from Asia by  Asian Cultural Centre for Unesco
• Tikki Tikki Tembo and More Stories to Celebrate Asian Heritage DVD produced by Weston Wood Studios, Inc.

Asian Crafts and Animals

• Asian Kites by Wayne Hosking
• Haiku: Asian Arts and Crafts for Creative Kids by Patricia Donegan
• Asian-American Crafts Kids Can Do! by Sarah Hartman
• A Kid's Guide to Asian American History by Valerie Petrillo
• Asian Crafts by Judith Hoffman Corwin
• Monkeys of Asia and Africa by Patricia A. Fink Martin
• Really Wild Animals: Adventures in Asia DVD produced by National Geographic Society

Next I took some of the many countries in the area and found some picture books to read with Hazel. I am sure there are more and of course there are more countries, but at least this is a start. I am going to add a link party to the end so people can add their own favorite Asian and/or Pacific Island themed books to help learn about the cultures and celebrate the month. Many of these books are about immigrants' experiences in coming to America or leaving their country. Since there are so many, I am not going to list each one. I will however list the ones I have posted about previously with links in case you want to learn more.

Cambodia

China

The Year of the Horse is part of a series of books about the Chinese Zodiac

Julie Black Belt and Julie Black Belt: The Belt of Fire

The Phillipines

Cora Cooks Pancit

The Bamboo Dance

India

Japan

Sora and the Cloud Review

Butterflies for Kiri

Korea

Around the World in 12 Dishes visits Korea

Thailand

Book Reviews at my Around the World in 12 Dishes visits Thailand

Vietnam

Asian-Pacific Cinderella Tales

The Golden Slipper

Kao and the Golden Fish

 

Anklet for a Princess

Kongi and Potgi

The Korean Cinderella

The Gift of the Crocodile

The Golden Sandal

Wishbones and Yeh-Shen

If you know a good book to learn about an Asian or Pacific Island culture or to help celebrate this month, please list its title and author in this link party and share with us all!! You do not need to link a review or post about the book!!

Latinx Books to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a Focus on Immigration

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

Hispanic Heritage Month started September 15th and ends on Friday. I have four Latinx books to share with you this week in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Each book has its own focus and don't necessarily relate to one another besides having Latinx main characters, so I am going to share two of them today and two later in the week. The two today focus a bit on immigration. One is a more modern picture book and the other is a middle grades novel about a middle schooler immigrating from Cuba in the 1960s. We will start with the picture book. It is I Wish You Knew by Jackie Azúa Kramer and illustrated by Magdalena Mora. It is recommended for ages 4 to 7.

The History of Zero--Asian Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway Post

This post is part of the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway on Multicultural Kid Blogs. You can enter the giveaway at the end of the post. There is a link party for all Asian-Pacific American Heritage posts on Multicultural Kid Blogs. We also have a link party for Japan posts in our Global Learning for Kids this month. Next month will be India.

History of Zero:

Can you imagine a world without zero? Or perhaps you wonder why we need to represent nothing at all? For centuries there was no mark or symbol of zero. The history of the number zero begins in Asia. It is believed that the first people to have a symbol for zero were the Babylonians. The Babylonians had inherited the counting system of the Sumerians which was the first to have a symbol instead of hash marks for each number.

Around 1450 B.C. By Свифт/Svift (my work) 
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Japanese Crafts -- Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Disclosure: We were sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are our own.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This year I thought I would focus on Japanese crafts. I have written a few posts about Japan and Japanese culture over the years. If you want a general overview of the country and its culture you should check out my review here. When I looked at my shelf of books to review I saw a bit of a pattern and realized I had a collection of books about crafts in Japan. Part of what I love about these books is most of them also teach a bit about the culture.

Rabbit Shoots the Sun: A Hopi Folktale

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Happy November!! November brings some of my favorite times and things to celebrate! November is our month of gratitude. Something I feel each of us needs to focus more on. It is also Native American Heritage Month! My favorite of the heritage months along with Women's History Month. I have always been fascinated with the various Native American cultures and love learning about them!! Today I am sharing a new picture book that shares a Hopi folktale. The book is Rabbit Shoots the Sun: A Hopi Folktale retold by Terrie Fields and illustrated by Gerald Dawavendewa. The book is recommended for ages 4 to 8, but older readers will enjoy the story especially if studying Hopi culture!

Native American Legends and Picture Books

Today I thought I would share some Native American picture books and legends with you. Hazel and I have been enjoying reading them and I find it such a wonderful way to share the Native American culture with Hazel as well as learn more about it myself. Some of these books we have had a chance to read and others we have not yet. However I wanted to give you a pretty comprehensive list. Also below is the blog hop and giveaway with a newly added bonus prize!! Make sure you enter this week!!

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Prize Review

Have you entered the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Giveaway being hosted over at Multicultural Kid Blogs? It is part of our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series. I will be co-hosting two posts in the next couple of weeks as part of the series and I wrote the first post for the series on Multicultural Kid Blogs. I also played a roll in getting some of the prizes for the giveaway. I thought I would take some time to review the prizes since I wanted to check some out for myself. There are three prize packs that you can win and each has a good number of books. Some of the books we have reviewed previously and others we have not. Today I am going to review four books published by Lee & Low Books that I got out of the library. I will also share information about the other prizes that I have previously reviewed or know something about. I will provide links to where prizes can be purchased for your convenience. I do not get anything from you purchasing them besides the joy of sharing wonderful resources.

 The Prizes