My Journey:

From This … To That

Since the age of 3, I have been suffering from allergies, red nose, sniffing, sinus infections, coughing, you name it! When you are not feeling well inside or outside, it is hard to feel beautiful! Especially because, in my case, I have to live with allergies as a part of my daily life!

When I moved to the US, I acquired different types of nasal allergies and also found some amazing tools to handle my allergies and keep my face and body feeling great, while having allergies! It made a huge difference and I wanted to share some of it with you!

My allergies are now mostly seasonal. With spring in full swing for most of the country, the warm weather has begun to trigger seasonal allergies, which can affect not only the way I feel, but also how I look.

Well, I recently found out that the makers of ZYRTEC® have partnered with beauty and fashion expert, Carmen Ordoñez, to help women, like me combat “ALLERGY FACE™” – the beauty challenges like a puffy face, watery eyes and a red nose that are associated with typical allergy symptoms. Also according to a recent survey by the makers of ZYRTEC®, 96 percent of women suffering from allergies experience ALLERGY FACE™. Are you saying: “YES! That is me!!”? I was, when I read that!

Then here comes the best part, Chicas! In an effort to help women look their best despite their allergies, the makers of ZYRTEC® have released video one of a three-part, bilingual video series on YouTube.com/Zyrtec, in which Carmen shares her personal beauty tips to take on ALLERGY FACE™ beauty challenges.

See part one, “Tackling ALLERGY FACE™, One Tip at a Time”, With Carmen Ordoñez, below:

Carmen introduces tips I never used to help disguise a red nose, a puffy face and watery eyes.  Her tips include:

• How to Disguise a Red Nose
• How to Contour a Puffy Face
  
• How to Distract from Watery Eyes

Some of the very helpful things that I have been doing for years and new things I have learned from her are:

• Nose: To help offset redness around your nose, apply a corrector or primer with a green tint, followed by your foundation.
• Face: Add a pearly nude eye shadow to the top of your cheekbones to help them stand out. This will help distract from your ALLERGY FACE™ and illuminate your face.
• Eyes: Draw attention away from puffy eyes by defining your upper lids with a navy liquid liner. Go for a stylish cat eye, which is a favorite among celebrities and has been all over the fashion runways. Start at the inner corner of your eye and create a wing effect once you get to the outer corner of your eye.

Now, I would love to know what YOUR favorite beauty tips are to help combat ALLERGY FACE™ beauty challenges?

Stay tuned for the release of part two and part three of Carmen’s video series, which will be distributed in the summer and fall, respectively. In the meantime, be sure to follow Carmen on Twitter at @VivaFashion and check her blog www.VivaFashionBlog.com for her latest ALLERGY FACE™ tips and tricks.

For product savings and rewards to help you feel better, visit Zyrtec.com and ZYRTEC® on Facebook.

This post is part of a sponsored campaign on behalf of Latina Bloggers Connect and the makers of ZYRTEC®

Cinco de Mayo

We usually have a private fiesta at my home during Cinco de Mayo or going to a Hispanic restaurant!  This year, I decided to make our Cinco de Mayo more meaningful, since my son has been every day, resisting to speak Spanish and Portuguese.

I told him we will be celebrating in a different way:

I am a member of my church’s Hispanic Ministry and I offered my time to volunteer for their Cinco de Mayo party which will be this Friday and offered my son’s time on the day of, to attend and help with anything needed!

We are also now speeding our search to support a child in a country who needs comfort and love! He will be writing, sending small items and learning about that child’s struggles, life and culture, which I think, will give him a different perspective on gratitude and compassion!

We will also cook a Hispanic meal together on Sunday and make homemade pinatas!

If celebrating Cinco de Mayo is not a part of your culture or the place where you live, embrace something new this year and follow some of my suggestions to have fun with the children:

• Click here for the how to do a mini piñata
• Read stories and explain how it is celebrated by families in other countries and know that NO, it is not the independence of Mexico, let’s get the facts!
• Make a fun make your own taco meal, where they will fill their taco with fun items, set up on a buffet setting!
• Music is a great way to have children learn culture, grab La Bamba and other famous hits and dance around the house! Dance away! My son and I love that!
• There are many cartoons with Cinco de Mayo theme, youtube is a great place for that!

Would love to hear your suggestions! Let us know if you try some of our suggestions!

Continuing our series of post about apps to help teach children a foreign language or at least bring foreign language fun bilingual way! I looked for some apps to bring German Classic stories and some others just play time in German apps. I hope you enjoy my selection. I learned German when I was a teen and still have a deep love for the language! When I share that I speak German, everybody asks, why? It has been a language that has always fascinated me! Ausgezeichnet! 

Flashcards Demo by Vimeo

This product has a great version for different languages and it can be downloaded here:

Flashcards by INKids. Flashcards for iPad contains hundreds of children’s flashcards in a number of learning categories and has 2nd language support in 4 languages (German, French, Italian and Spanish). Each interactive flashcard is beautifually illustrated and professionally recorded making this a must have educational apps for toddlers and preschoolers.

Kinder App

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This fun vocabulary-building game manages to pack a lot of useful household words into five simple screens. The quirky, cartoony illustrations are lively and appealing. There are two levels of gameplay: in Level One, you touch objects in a room and their names pop up on screen, voiced aloud by a native German speaker. In Level 2, it’s your turn: the narrator names an object and you have to find it. To download, click here.

Learn German Baby Flash Cards

Image source: Baby Flash Cards screenshot. Note: this is a free app.

Click here to download.

Despite the “Baby” in the name, this has proven an excellent choice for my 9 year old. (And right on down the line through younger kids as well.) The concept is simple: four pictures are shown on the screen, and a native German speaker names one of them for you to click. This is a basic flashcard vocabulary drill, executed with finesse and visual appeal.

I like the range of vocab in this app. Categories include: colors and shapes; numbers; alphabet (the format here is “A is forÄpfel” so you learn extra words along with the letter names); animals; and transportation.

Longlegs and the Pirate With No-Nose

Screenshot pic from itunes

Click here to download:

Longlegs and the Pirate with No-Nose is an interactive book for kids, translated in six different languages (Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese). This application amazing features are definitely in the story, has great illustrations, all product of the imagination of Francesco Tosi. But what will surely grab the little ones attention is the interactivity! The app allows you to touch, move, listen, live alongside the characters, and embark on a great adventure into the wonderful world of Calabi-Yau.

I hope you enjoyed the apps and have fun with your children! It’s all about having fun and exposing them to different languages and German is an amazing language which challenges little ones to produce sounds which are not native to English speakers or Spanish speakers!

Screenshots taken from app pages, images sources are from the apps pages.

In this first post, I will be sharing our favorite posts for learning Spanish:

Some of the parents of my students have asked me for apps recently. I have then looked for apps, not only for the languages that I teach, but others as well.

Based on online reviews and my own experience, these are my favorites!

Spanish Apps

Handy Manny’s Flashcard Fiesta

 
Latin American Spanish with Doki for iPad
 

You’ll traverse the language-rich land of Doki, checking in to different attractions and learning words in logical groupings. Time to visit the restaurant or la agencia de viajes! The Doki app even breaks up the learning into two age-appropriate categories, one for those ages 7 to 14, and another for those of us ages 15 and up.

http://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2012/12/learn-basic-latin-american-spanish-with-doki-for-ipad/

Peekaboo Barn 

Animals appear behind barn doors, children will be amazed by tapping into each door!

http://nightanddaystudios.com/app/peekaboo-barn/

Kidztory 

You can listen to classics in Spanish, English and Cantonese!

http://www.kidztory.com/the-little-red-hen/

Noah Compreende

Great app with games, videos and so much more! Noah is also a cartoon, where everybody speaks Spanish and Noah tries to figure out the word in Spanish. One of my favorites!

http://pbskids.org/noah/

Please share if you liked them and your experienced with using them!

I decided to share some of our Spanish worksheets used at our classes at EasyLearn Languages!

The worksheets offer Easter Coloring pages, Flashcards and dominoes. If you teach another language you can easily remove the word and substitute for your language!

I hope you enjoy!

Click on the link to download your free:

Happy-Easter-coloring

Easter-Flash-Cards

Easter-Dominoes

Saludos!

I went to teach Portuguese last week and I the 4 year old greeted me yelling, Mom, the Porcacheese teacher is here! LOL
I asked little john, after all our classes, let’s say the name of the language we are learning, he stopped me and answered: Portugues!
I said great, now tell me in English: he said Porcacheese! I told him Portuguese! He said, no gramma, said Porcacheese, when she was here…..and he would not let me say anything else.
What puzzles me, is that he is great with the language classes, but he insists with the term Porcacheese!
That brings me to thinking what is more important, the core of the language itself or details?? I have no doubt that John knows what Portuguese means, even though, he calls it Porcacheese, so I made a choice to ignore the detail and focus on the core of my teaching which is enable this child with all the tools to communicate with his family in Brazil, to help him understand culture, food, comic books, songs his mom heard when she was little and help him love every minute of it!
I made a choice to keep him engaged and having fun, instead of insisting on something which is not really important in the target language learning process, which might cause irreparable damage to our teacher/student relationship and all for what?
I embraced Porcacheese and even came home and taught my son, told my parents, another story among all the amazing stories my students help me collect as precious memories of my teaching best moments! The best lesson was that language is not static, it evolves and children are active subjects while learning a foreign language, while their brain is trying to make sense of the new grammar, the new sounds, the new arrangement and new rules! Thankfully all that is translated into a fun experience in programs like ours! Let your child create, let them make up new words, let them learn!

+                                                                                                         Porc + cheese = Porcacheese! A new word is formed! 

♥This Year we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day differently, because I have to work until late and mostly because I think my son feels left out when my husband and I go out for dinner and leave him with a sitter. He always says I am his Valentine!!!!

♥When he was little, he used to make homemade cards and wrap old toys and have them ready for me! He grew up, he is 9 now, but he still thinks about mom and decided to take Dad to the mall to get me a gift! He also picked a card, I asked him, not a homemade one? He said no, I chose a special one for you, but he promised to write a few words in Spanish for me, using my Valentine’s Cards for my classes! Can’t wait to see it!

♥As he was growing up, I had the privilege to witness his display of affection through notes. I collected some of them.This one is from when he was 6:

♥Through songs, he used to make up songs about me being beautiful, and sing around the house, it’s a shame I did not record them!

♥He woke up the other day and said, mom, you should be a model, I smiled, he said yes, you are so beautiful!!! I looked horrible, but he made my day!

♥So this year, instead of going out just with my husband, I planned a whole celebration with him as well! We will make our homemade pizzas, each one will chose their favorite toppings and I pre-cut pepperoni hearts! We will also have a dessert buffet with cupcakes, pretzels and my son’s favorite: chocolate fondue for his strawberries, peanut butter heart cookies and sparkling cider! 

♥This year We will celebrate together, because, after all, he is also my Valentine!

This post is in collaboration with Latina Bloggers Connect and Heart of Haiti, for amazing heart shaped and other products visit: Heart of Haiti products and initiative.

Carnival reminds me of all my youth, when we would anticipate the week of Carnival and enjoy the “ensaios” rehearsals that in my home State, Bahia, prepare the people for the largest Party on Earth! Carnival in Brazil, where a bands set up very sophisticated equipment to give the people an amazing show! On the streets, no tickets, no money to watch, dance and enjoy it!

My father lives on a street two blocks from the main stage for the carnival procession in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, which is called Campo Grande. We used to come and still listen to the music from our open windows!

Just think about 7 days without traffic, hospitals, supermarkets or schools…..that’s how the people from Salvador live during carnival! Just sun and music! Who could ask for more!

Summer heat, cold drinks, light meals, music and fun!

One year, I decided to spend Carnival in Venice and see what it was all about, a completely different experience, elegant costumes, expensive parties, winter freezing cold and a lot of things I can’t share here on our blog…..

When I try to share my experience with Carnival and show my son a little bit of what happens during Carnival, I share the music, the fun, the carnival parties I attended as a child, being a member of nice swimming clubs, we had access to those private parties! The costumes, the confetti…the fun I remember from early days and the fun I had as a young teen going out with my friends and having lots of fun!

I also love bringing old Carnival songs like mamae eu quero, chiclete com banana, yvete san galo and other songs and artists and sharing them with my son! We do our own party and dance around the house with juice and colorful shirts!

How do you share Carnival with your children, students? Did you grow up enjoying it? Can’t wait to hear from you!!!

Viva Carnaval! 

After New Year’s Day, many Hispanic families still have a very special date to commemorate and enjoy.  On January 6, most of the Hispanic world celebrates El Dia De Reyes, the Epiphany, remembering the day when the Three Wise Men following the star to Bethlehem, arrived bearing their treasured gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the Baby Jesus.

A couple of days earlier, the children write their letters to the Wise Men, or to their favorite Rey Mago: Melchor, Gaspar, or Baltasar, asking for the presents they would like to receive.

During the evenings before the great celebration on January 6, families go to the Alameda, in Mexico City, a beautiful park that dates back to the Colonial era. There, every year, hundreds of stands are placed with food, toys and best of all, there are sets, where the children can have their picture taken with the Three Kings of the Orient.

Hundreds of colored balloons, filled with helium, are sold during the season, so the little ones can attach their letters to them, and have them fly, up to the sky, carrying all their wishes with them.

If they forgot their letters at home,  there are also stores that offer writing paper and envelopes specially designed for the occasion and addressed to the Reyes Magos. This lovely tradition of going to the Alameda park is passed on from one generation to another.

On the night, of January 5, the figurines of the Three Wise Men are added to the nativity scene. Before going to bed the children place their old shoes under their bed or in the living room, where the Wise Men will leave them their presents.  Some also place outside the house, some hay and a bucket with water for the animals, and even some cookies and milk for Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar.

This is the picture of our nativity scene! We will add the Reyes tomorrow!

I wanted to share some books I used in my classes this week:

Los Reyes a Caballo

Los Reyes Magos

We watched some videos:

This one was shown to older children:

This one to younger ones:

I also wanted to share some crafts we used in classes and at our home:

My students and I made some simple crowns and used verbs learned to act out bringing presents to Baby Jesus!

We used this template from First Pallete, cut from construction paper and used more paper to decorate it!

http://www.firstpalette.com/tool_box/printables/crown1.pdf

We used Crayola’s Craft:

http://www.crayola.com/crafts/el-dia-de-los-reyes-craft/

Family Fun has a more complicated, but very pretty craft!

http://spoonful.com/crafts/wee-three-kings                                                                          

This is the letter template we used! Which is a free template found on :

http://www.elbalcondemateo.es/2012/12/escribimos-la-carta-a-los-reyes-magos/

We had not really celebrated Dia de Reyes before since it is not celebrated in Brazil, but it was great because my son had a chance to write a second letter to the reyes, that was great, he really enjoyed it and also enjoyed learning about the story behind it! He attends a Christian School, he said he will take the letter and show to his teacher and share the story in class!

   As the year come to an end I feel compelled to look for more ways to bring more bilingual joy into our life and to strengthen my commitment to raise a bilingual child and keep my culture’s flame burning to open my son’s mind to a world of endless possibilities, since I also continue to bring Hispanic heritage into the mix!

As any busy parent, I see myself conflicted between spending the little time left during the day with crazy bilingual maneuvers…..but you know, after being a few days home with no work, I realized it is all worth it and I not only contributing for my son’s education, by introducing foreign languages to him, but also filling his spirit with rich traditions in the books we read together, in the food I so carefully prepare and in my attempts to keep my mother language and Spanish alive in our home!

My husband is an American and does not speak a foreign language, although he has been talking about learning Portuguese, which made me very happy, but I must confess, I would have to find an instructor to teach him and I will help bring the language alive at home, that is one of my goals for 2013!

Another goal is to work harder on using a foreign language at home and bringing things like music, which my son loves, closer to us, so we keep the foreign language flame burning!

My son attends a Christian school and latin is taught until 6th grade, so I have no help there to keep his Spanish skills sharp! He attends most of our summer camps, which brings him an amazing amount of knowledge but it slowly goes away as the year passes and I see myself divided between Portuguese and Spanish at home…..you know, always conflicted!

So instead of worrying about being conflicted, another new year’s resolution is to keep doing what I have been doing and bring more in 2013; I would love to see my son speaking Portuguese fluently by the time we travel to Brazil in August! He speaks short sentences but we need to take it to the next level and establish a more consistent conversation!

I do want to share what I already do and has proven to show results, whether you are starting or just wondering how to start! Please share if you try some of our ideas on how to bring bilingual joy into your home, even if you don’t speak the foreign language!

Yes, I set time aside! We have Spanish night,  Tuesday Tacos! When I cook a Hispanic meal and we speak Spanish at the table, I also read some of my books I am using in my classes during our bed time time, he watches me prepare classes at night on my computer, so he watches and listens to videos! I also have a long playlist on my ipad and iphone, so when I’m home cleaning the house, guess what, only Spanish or Portuguese music on!

Failing is not an option! There are no wrong or rights, every effort is worth it!  You must find time, but above all, make it fun, so it is not a chore for you and your children! It’s easier for me because I have all the books and activities at my finger tips but I wanted to share some resources: go to my blog: www.easylearnlanguages.com, search for a themes, each theme has suggestions on things to do, songs and videos to watch. We need to do age appropriate and keep them engaged. Also if you and your husband are native speaker, it’s easier, make a point to bring the language and establish a reward chart if they are reluctant to reply in Spanish, every reply worth a star!

Books are a great option for spending time with your child and bringing bilingual love at bed time! You can find books here in our store and also at Barnes and Noble, my two best sources for buying new bilingual books!

Videos are a must! Today’s children are connected with technology, tv, shows, so youtube becomes your first option for new videos, itunes also offers many apps to bring bilingual practice and games to your little or not so little ones! I will be sharing my favorite apps next year, stay tuned!

We also make a Brazilian dish once a week and I share memories! Memories of my childhood and memories that the food evokes…This week we made brigadeiros, recipe available on: www.kcocina.com and also made a typical Bahian meal with muqueca and farofa de manteiga, not one morsel left!! I shared how my mom used to make this meal and all about dende oil and how it was brought by African slaves to our culinary mix! Use of dende oil is typical of north of Brazil, not found in most Brazilian restaurants in the US, so my meal brings an unique experience to my son!!! I was so proud to see him enjoying every bite! Muito Bom!

The Brigadeiros are a must on every birthday party in Brazil, another great addition to our new year’s munch table! Recipes here: http://kcocina.com/latina-cuisine/brigadeiros-brazilian-truffles/

I hope my suggestions and my experience has helped you continue to do more or start to make 2013 an amazing bilingual year! Please share if you use some of our suggestions???

….And remember, there is no wrong when you put effort and love to bring bilingual love into your home! Feliz Ano Novo!

Claudia K. -

A multilingual Mom, foreign language instructor and owner of EasyLearn Languages