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Thanks to you all people! We hope you'll go on visiting us as usual!  Our warmest regards!

Flute Players

  Playing a musical instrument is one of the most wonderful activities any kids can do. It can bring about advantages such as helping to develop motor skills, creativity and  patience. Experts believe, that although there's no age for playing musical instruments, children are better at learning than adults. So, I think that a good option is encourage kids to make their own musical instruments. Why? you may wonder... Because they can shape it in the way they decide and make really but... REALLY unique.

The flute is a wind instrument. Its sound is produced when the player blows air across an opening in the mouthpiece.  The flute is  easy to carry and light, so every child can have one in his/her backpack.

1st step

Get a plastic tube, not to wider nor too narrow.

2nd step

Use a hammer and nails to make the different holes.

3rd step

Make a hole in the upper part of the tube, separated from the rest row of holes.

4th step

Be sure the end of the tube is not sharp, so that kids would not hurts their moutsh while blowing.

Important! If the edges are sharp, just put scotch tape around and protect the area.

Phrase of the Day

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

 - Hermann Hesse -

Cleaning plastic toys

  Plastic toy get dirty easily, and it's our duty to clean them from prevent germs from spreading. Then, cleaning the toys is something important we shouldn't forget. We must remember that once a child uses a toy, it may or not get germs and those are spread to other children who might use the toys afterwards. For this, I'll give you easy steps to follow.

1) Buy an antibacterial solution. Pur the solution inside a spray bottle, so it will be easy to distribute the product all over the toy. Then, clean the toy with a piece of cloth.

2) You may use a solution made of bleach and water. Use a rug to wipe the toys. 

3) Fill in a bucket with water and dish soap. Put the toys inside, and leave them rest in the solution for a couple of hours. Then, wipe then with a piece of cloth, or put them in the sunlight to dry.

4) For removing long lasting stains, you may decide to use a brush. You can use the previous explained solutions and brush the toy affected areas until they disappear. 

I hope these tips will help you, and your children's toys get as shiny as glass!! See you my dear friends!

Piñatas

Kids' birthday parties are not parties without piñatas. You may know what they are, or may not, so here's an account of them. In Argentina, parents usually prepare (or buy already made) piñatas for their children's parties.

Piñatas are usually made of cardboard or paper and they take the shape or an animal, or an object. They usually match the theme on which the party is based. Parents fill in piñatas with candies, little toys and poupurri. The piñata works as follows...

Parents call kids to make a circle on the floor. Someone who is really tall holds the piñata in the air, while another person either tears a parts of it and it opens, or if it is made of a baloon, someone uses a nail to open it. All the candies and toys fall on the floor and the kids have to collect as much as they can. After this, they can share toys or even candies.

Here are some pictures of typical piñatas, but in susequent posts we'll teach how to make one of these!

 

        

         

Writing journals

  An interesting way to keep record of what we do, or have done during the day, is writing journals. I strongly recommend this to everyone, especially kids.

The idea of keeping their own journal, has to do specifically with putting the pen down to paper and start writing what comes to their mind. And what about grammar and spelling? You may wonder, well... that is important too. But in 1rst place children should be encouraged to write everything that they can think of or just remember. This activity will help them to enhance the following:

1) to develop the ability of remembering what they've done, and in case a funny anecode is worth telling , they will have it there, written down, to re-read it in the future.

2) it helps to develop fluency. Sometimes, kids know how to write accurately but they run out of words easily. Writing journals gives them the freedom of putting their own ideas onto paper, wihout stopping. Moreover, the flow of thoughts will come out rapidly in the form of natural sentences.

3) to encourage them to have their own diary, but in a book format. The purpose is not writing  short sentences, but whole stories, with their own words, and full of their own feelings. That means, to write events as they see, or feel them.

Once they've finished their journals, they can re-read them after some hours or even the following day. It's precisely then when they should correct their grammar mistakes, spelling and punctuation. But the story is already there, composed and ready to be read!

Where to write?

It can be a cheap notebook, or a couple of pages you may then join all together. The idea is that the kids have their own record of stories and anecdotes.

An important tip!

Children may write whenever they want, but finding a certian moment, such as before going to bed, or after lunch, This, can give them the opportunity of finding their own time for doing things. And of course, they can add drawings if they desire!

I'm back

  Hey ppl! How is it going? If you read us daily, you may have noticed, we haven't been able to publish any post these last days, due to technical problems with the pc.

Fortunately, we are back again, to go on posting and sharing ideas!

We hope to see you around as usual!

Warm regards =)