Legend of the Sand Dollar for Easter

Since we are entering Holy Week, I thought I would share a book we

discovered as we were investigating underwater creatures. The book is The Legend of the Sand Dollar: An Inspirational Story of Hope for Easter by Chris Auer. This book is about a young girl, Kerry, who takes a bus with her older sister to a relative's house. Kerry cannot understand why they cannot be with their parents for a few days, but loves going to the relative's house and playing with her cousin, Jack. On the first morning there Jack takes Kerry for a ride in his new boat to an island in the sea. They see sand dollars. Kerry asks what they are and Jack tells her about them and their legend. Now their legend is not a secret. It is all over the internet, but I had not heard it before. Anyway the legend gives Kerry the hope she needs to wait to see her parents again and she shares the story with her sister.

Sharing Saturday 14-15

Have you entered my current giveaway?

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! As always there were so many inspiring ideas! I had a very hard time picking out features this week. I decided featuring 17 of them was a bit too many and cut it down. I love getting to look at them all, and I hope you have had a chance to check them all out. For features I decided to go with the holiday ones: Easter and Passover since both are happening soon. We had a Most Clicked this week from Crafty Journal: Rockin' Peeps.

Some of My Holiday Favorites

 
1) From Teaching Every Day: Egg Carton Masks
2) From Planet Smarty Pants: Preparing for Passover
3) From Zing Zing Tree: Needle Felt Easter Bunny
4) From Capri + 3: Torn Tissue Paper Decorated Plastic Eggs
5) From Crystal's Tiny Treasures: Washi Paper Easter Egg
6) From Sparkling Buds: Avocado Pit Egg Carvings
7) From From Wesens-Art: Eggs - Owls
8) From From The Mommy Talks: A Variety of Easter Activities (Paper Cup Ascension Craft Pictured)

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 a new version of Beauty and the Beast with West African inspired pictures, Easter in Ukraine and Russia, Easter in France, Portugal and Spain, and a review and giveaway of Dearfoams Summer Fur Slides with information on how purchases can support autism awareness!

Coming next week will be more Easter celebrations around the world and some Easter books and posts plus our post for Virtual Book Club for Kids!

Please enter the giveaway for Dearfoams!

Now for This Week's Party  
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Easter Around the World--France, Spain and Portugal

Today we are going to continue exploring Easter Around the World. Today's stops will be Spain, Portugal and France. Now my first knowledge of Easter in Spain came when my grandparents toured Spain and Morocco at Easter time. They brought back for me a doll which was filled with candy. The doll I had in our doll collection, however it always made me feel uncomfortable, because if you do not know about the Easter celebrations in Spain, it looked like a member of the Ku Klux Klan. It did not help that the doll was wearing a red robe with a white headdress (so red where the picture above is white and white where it is blue or similar to the ones below without the black capes).

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Source: By Alessio Damato (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Now these marchers are called penitents. They represent feeling sorry for any bad acts. They often carry the cross or Jesus on the cross and find it a heavy burden to carry for their sins. In Spain, Holy Week is called Semana Santa. People drape black clothes from balconies and statues of Mary are dressed in black lace. As they are mourning the death of Jesus. There are parades like the one above and people dress up in clothes that were worn in Jesus' time. On Good Friday men take part in Los Tamborados. It is a ceremony where they beat drums to mourn the death of Jesus. Even when the drummer gets tired he does not stop. No candles are lit in the church on Good Friday or Holy Saturday. On Easter a special candle is lit in the churches to symbolize Christ's victory over death. Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are not a big thing in Spain. For children too young to receive the First Communion, the dessert on Good Friday is mona. Mona is a large bun decorated with colorful eggs. Once a child receives their First Communion, they have more serious things to think of and no longer get the special mona.

Source: By Fun25 (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Source: By Joseolgon (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

Portugal has a very similar celebration as Spain. On Good Friday crowds gather in town wearing the white hoods as a sign to God they are sorry for their sins. They pray and carry torches. In some parades children carry floats that tell a story from the Bible. In the evening there are Easter fireworks to show light comes out of darkness. The new hope and new life are born. In Braga, there have a funeral procession for the Lord.

Source: By Joseolgon (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

France Source

In parts of France there are similar Good Friday parades. In Sartène, a man in red robes and hood covering his face, called the Red Penitent, carries a cross through the streets (see picture above). He is followed by men in black robes chanting a hymn. This goes on until midnight. In Corsica the penitent repeats the suffering of Christ by carrying a heavy cross. Otherwise Easter or Pâques in French is very similar to Easter in the United States. Children who go to their first confession on Holy Saturday may bring eggs as a gift to the priest. La Semaine Sainte or Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday where people bring branches to church. The decorated branches can be from palm trees or many other types. Palm Sunday is also called Pâques Fleuries or Easter in bloom. In France the children are told that on the evening of Holy Thursday the church bells fly away to Rome. No bells are rung until Easter morning when the bells fly back. The bells drop chocolate bunnies, bells, and eggs for the children to find when they fly back. The chocolate is from the Pope who the bells visited. In some parts of France children look for little chariots of goodies. The Easter Bunny also makes an appearance by hiding little nests that the children make and leave out Saturday night. The children have a great time looking for all the treasures. A game children play in France is to throw raw eggs in the air. The first person to drop one loses the game. 

That is our look at Easter in Spain, Portugal and France. I find the similarity of the hooded outfits so interesting. All of my information for this post came from the books shown above and from Euroclub Schools - Easter in France which has some great information about the holiday from a child's perspective. If you live in one of these countries and want to correct or add something about your celebration, please let me know!

For more Multicultural and Easter Posts check out:

• Easter in Ukraine and Russia
• Multicultural Easter Books
• My Easter Craft Round-Up
• Easter in Guatemala
• My Easter Pinterest Board
• My Multicultural Resource Pinterest Board
• Easter in Ethiopia
• Easter in Sweden 
• Legend of the Sand Dollar (an Easter Story)
   

Dearfoams Slippers for Autism Awareness -- Product Review & Giveaway

Disclosure: I was sent this pair of slippers to review free of charge from Dearfoams. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them. They are also providing a pair of slippers for the giveaway.

You may have read the wonderful post by my good friend, Scarlett. If you did not, please do so. It is so moving and will help anyone be kind and helpful to parents with an autistic child. Well I was contacted by a company representing Dearfoams. Dearfoams has an amazing program going on right now. For every pair of slippers ordered from dearfoam.com this month, they are donating $1 to Autism Speaks. They are willing to donate up to $3,000. Now Autism Speaks is a charity Scarlett holds dear and near her heart. As a result, it is one I hold dear and near my heart as well. So I hope you will go over to Dearfoams and check out their great slippers. They have many fun styles for the summer.

Now they sent me a pair of the Summer Fur Slides in blue for Autism Awareness month. They gave me a few choices, but I liked the blue ones for the month. After all we are lighting it up blue this month. They are so comfortable and soft. They are fun and can be worn outside since they have a rubber sole.

Can you see yourself out by the pool in these? Talk about comfort shoes!! It gets better--they are machine washable!! So if they get some dirt, water or food on them, you can throw them in the washing machine for easy care.  Let's face it, as moms we need everything to be machine washable.

My only complaint, which is more about my feet than the slippers, is that I have slightly wide feet and slightly high arches, so they fit a bit tight. I think the fur straps will stretch over time though so that complaint will go away. (However my issues with all shoes will not as a result of my feet--this is why I tend to be in socks or barefoot at home.)

Now I have been affected by autism as a teacher as well as a friend. I consider Scarlett's children like family. I am on the emergency contact list for her son's school, because I am one of the people she trusts with him in an open space. He is what we call a bolter. Now Hazel LOVES to chase him and they play chase all the time, but it can be difficult in an open space. He knows with me to hold my hand, and he is such a sweet boy. My biggest struggle with all of this is trying to explain his behavior to Hazel. He has a very hard time understanding people's emotions. So when he is running away from Hazel for a game of chase and she is laughing is the same to him as when he is running away and she is crying and/or screaming at him. For awhile I used the excuse that he was younger than her, but I knew that would not work forever and thought it was time to try to explain a bit more.  Hazel now knows he has a disability. She understands disabilities since she has seen people with different ones. I am not sure she completely gets the lack of understanding emotion cues, but we are working on it. She at least knows if he is doing something she does not like, to come get me or Scarlett to help her. How I deal with Chickadee is to do my best to mimic Scarlett. She is so amazing with him and I just try to copy what she says and how she says it.

This past weekend we had my nephew visiting. Steve and I took him and Hazel to the Science Museum in Boston. Hazel was being her typical slow eater self and the boys had finished lunch. I suggested Steve take our nephew to the gift shop since our plan was for him to choose a birthday gift there since his birthday is a month away. Well a mother and a boy came over and asked if they could sit at our table while it was just me and Hazel. The boy noticed my soda bottle and asked where I got it. He had a cup for soda, but had not seen the bottle. I could tell from how he was speaking and acting he had a slight disability and his boldness definitely made his mother uneasy. I answered him and told him the truth was we didn't know there were cups or we would have gotten those. His mother seemed to relax as I acted like it was completely normal conversation. It is moments like this that I understand more about how Scarlett says our behavior is supportive and how easily it can be to not be supportive. Yes, the boy at the museum reminded me of Chickadee (just in a few years). So I try to remember when I'm out not to judge people by their child's behavior. You do not know what they are going through. Just a friendly reminder.

Now onto our giveaway!! If you want to wait and see if you can win a pair of these fun Summer Fur Slides, enter below. Please follow my Giveaway Rules! Or if you cannot wait (and want $1 of your purchase to go to Autism Speaks) head over to Dearfoams and order your pair!

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Easter Around the World: Ukraine & Russia

Today I am going to share some information I found on Easter in Ukraine and Russia. Since the countries share some similar traditions, I thought I would share them together. Last week we shared Easter in Guatemala. The main thing they share is their beautiful technique for egg decorating. In Russian books I have seen it called pysanky and in Ukraine they call it pisanki.