What are the best gifts to give a friend after giving birth?

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I remember when it was my turn and appreciated everything that was done for me and dreamt about the things I wish were too! You usually see a list of what a husband should give a wife after delivering children, but what about friends? As we grow older our group of friends is narrower, but our relationships are stronger. Remember the time when you needed a nice meal, or that one last minute item you needed. I really appreciated those friends that were already moms and knew exactly what I would need. I would spend hours on google and babybuy.com searching for items I could possibly need. I would spend my entire paycheck purchasing items that I thought were essentials or would make me the best mom possible. When the baby came, I did not use half of the things I had purchased. My parents had already warned me about this, but I insisted that I might need them.

Epson salts is a little narrow, but a mother needs a nice warm bath. Provide your friend with items that can make her bath more enjoyable.

Nipple cream- something I remember needed tons, was this guy!

Hot meal- we all want a meal, but when you are tired and with a newborn a nice hot meal is probably the nicest thing you can give someone.

Healthy snacks- I remember the extreme hungriness I received after breastfeeding my kiddo. Having a snack handy was always important, just wish they were all a little healthier.

Offering to babysit- this one is key for mother’s of more than one child. Needs no further explanation we want our kids to have all of our attention and can often feel a little left out during this time.

A walk with her- Some of us go through Postpartum depression and some of us just need a friend to talk about motherly things.

Clean her house- not a lot of people offer to do this, but a true friend knows this is the key to anyone’s heart. This is a time your friend most needs this.

Just be there and talk about other things- What do I mean? Sometimes we need to remember there is a world out there, when we have been indoors with our newborn. Talking about other things can help distract or encourage a mother.

Benefits of Black and White toys at early stages of a kid’s life

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When you observe your newborn child, you might think that they are merely lying passively, doing very little; however, there is a considerable amount of learning that is going on at that particular time. New synapses are continuously forming in this vital duration of rapid brain development. This incredible process requires your support; to aid your baby’s brain’s growth, the baby needs sufficient simulation. The newborn’s color view is restricted to black and white due to the partial development of their eyesight during birth. Therefore, babies love to stare at black and white patterns, which are conspicuous in their vague universes, gaining their attention and assisting them to focus. When you are aware of this fact, you can provide your baby with the appropriate type of visual stimulation, which reinforces the enhancement of sight and improves cognitive abilities and attention.

Cognitive development- regardless of their immature eyesight, infants can interpret mundane images and interact with them. Interaction with patterns and images improves babies’ learning and increases an improved comprehension of their environment.

Visual development- bold black and white toys can stimulate the growth of the optic nerves. Focusing on these visual stimuli exercises the baby’s vision, training the eye muscles and the brain to coordinate and work better. Besides, in the initial three months, infants can focus on eight to eleven inches far. This is more or less than distance from their mothers’ faces when feeding or nursing them; vision swiftly increases after that. This is how black and white toys are essential to motivate your baby’s vision.

Subscription Reviews

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French- One Third Stories

I have been a subscriber for more than a year now. I have a stack of wonderful flashcards that I have stored in a bag to protect, I also now have a collection of books in English/French or as we would say if we were mixing English and Spanish Spanglish. I took three years of French in high school and one semester in College and love to keep up with French. This subscription is geared towards kids, but since I am not fluent it is also perfect for me. I love that I can understand the stories, engage in the activities they offer and can even listen to the stories. I recommend this subscription for adults and children learning and practicing French.

World Citizens Project

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​I adapted this file from my original one in order to facilitate usage at home. I wanted to give parents the opportunity to create a similar project and event to the one I would conduct at school. It was my ultimate favorite event of the years and of course students and staff loved it. All you need is a printer, but take it up a notch by trying to find artifacts in the community or by trying a recipe from that country. I suggest you print out the passport mockup I provided, it just makes the adventure even better. Please share pictures when you are done with this project. Here are mine and the link to purchase the file.

Here is the link to my World Culture Day this activity can de conducted at home or at a school. This item is available for purchase. Once you purchase this download you can print as many copies as you need.

Preschool Aged Learners

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It is never too early to start teaching your young one another language. I am so determined about raising a bilingual kid that I have devoted my time to create resources that will help him. He loves animals and kids often do, the first essential words are given to him in both languages, and I started adding animals as a plus. By essential words I mean words like the following: Milk, water, more, cookie, mom, dad, hunger, outside and our names of course. My kid is about to be two and is now a pro at animals sounds and animal names in English and Spanish. I have created a set of flashcards that will help me add on to the list of animals he knows. We started with the farm animals since there are tons of videos that can help you reference these animals, but I want him to extend to that long list. The flashcards I created include animals like owls, hippos, rhinos, butterfly, alligator etc.

I have also created colorful and cheerful flashcards to continue extending his vocabulary as he gets older. The following set is for kids that are a bit older, but I like to be prepared and have printed and laminated these to start demonstrating them to my kid. These are also available for purchase through Etsy, Descendencia latina and TPT. Note if you purchase the TPT cards they will be digitally and not a finished product.

Let’s Talk about Stress- Teacher Stress

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One day I found myself looking for jobs people who suffer anxiety shouldn’t have and not surprisingly Teaching came up as number one. I was shocked that I had gone this road since I’ve struggle with this mental illness since I was a child. I decided to look into the matter and create or encourage a new system for every teacher out there. I recommend reading some of my findings before downloading the Mini-course and Teacher Planner (completely free to download).

As the American Institute of Stress describes stress as a factor that some of us need, it makes us feel driven to succeed, boosts energy, and gives meaning to our life, but how much is too much? What is your experience of your life? Are you taking time to appreciate what you’re working so hard to accomplish or are you just speeding through in order to tackle the next item on your to-do list? (Are you a Stress Addict?, 2016). Are you part of these statistics? 61% of educators say that their work is always or often stressful and over 50% say that they don’t have the same enthusiasm as when they started teaching (Rubin, 2020) A 2017 survey revealed that 58% of educators characterized their mental health as “not good” for at least a week out of the last month, which is up 24% from just 2015 (Rubin, 2020). How have teachers managed this stress? According to Rubin, 200 teachers either quit, reframe their identities or downshift responsibilities. The last statistic I will be sharing with you is one that will definitely sticks “About one third of all new teachers leave education within the first five years of their career, and “the rate at which teachers leave the profession is significantly higher than the departure rate in other professions.” (Rubin, 2020).

As Heyck describes, “There is a lot of other work that needs to be done in the background to ensure that those lessons are the best they can be.” She is right we need to have sufficient energy, sleep, meals, organization, planning, relationships, mental health, emotional stability etc. There are many little and complex things that play an overall part in our well-being and we need to dedicate time for each and every one of these aspects.

This artifact is important and appropriate for teachers because of our constant stress levels, and time management issues.

Let’s take another quick look at possible stress factors for teachers: Low pay high duties, too many responsibilities and let’s not get started with students (lack of interest, low scores, behavior issues etc). Author Rubin makes suggestions of how this can be changed, but the one that really stands out is the section of Individual Changes. While reading the list I saw planning, productivity and preparing. These are all ideas we already have, but now let’s actually implement them. Stay tune for part two.

 Resources

Kelly, M. (2017, December 1). Teachers as organizers. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from www.thoughtco.com/teachers-as-organizers-8339

Rubin, B. (2020, April 13). The Rise of Teacher Stress. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.thegraidenetwork.com/blog-all/2018/8/1/crayons-and-cortisol-the-epidemic-of-teacher-stress

Instructables. (2019, September 4). Trick and Tip for Classroom Organization. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.instructables.com/id/Trick-and-Tip-for-Classroom-Organization/

LOEHR, J. I. M. (2015). Power of Full Engagement. Place of publication not identified: SHUBHI PUBLICATIONS.

Are you a Stress Addict? (2016, March 23). Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.stress.org/are-you-a-stress-addict

Pavuka, O. (2018, December 21). 10 Daily Habits That Drain Your Energy. Retrieved from https://www.deeph.io/10-daily-habits-that-drain-your-energy/

(n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2020, from https://advancementcourses.learninghouse.com/pluginfile.php/203225/mod_resource/content/1/Module 4 Foundations_Final.pdf

Bilingualism needs to be pushed into the U.S. educational system

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The U.S. holds low expectation when it comes to bilingual proficiency. Too MANY Americans accept the claim that foreign language instruction is a dismal failure, that a large percentage of students will never become fluent (Snow, 2017).  When immigrants enroll their kids to school they believe their kids will become bilingual, but often times they are only becoming proficient in English rather than their native language, because the U.S. holds that mentality of students learning English and often forgetting their first language. If you visit other countries you will often find people speaking English, which is pretty much a commodity for us Americans, but if we reverse the roles they will hardly find anyone in the U.S. that speaks their language. Schools in other countries like Scandinavian countries, and European strongly believing in raising bilingual, and trilingual students; often English being one of the languages.

Snow, C. (2017, August 2). The true failure of foreign language instruction. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://phys.org/news/2017-08-true-failure-foreign-language.html

Determining the difference between Native vs. Heritage Speakers.

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Determining the difference between Native vs. Heritage Speakers.

It is crucial to know how to differentiate between both students, in order to create adequate lessons. I did not know the differences between natives and heritage before taking this course. The school I worked out before titled the class for Heritage Speakers but in reality it was for Native speakers. It is important to understand that Heritage speakers often hear the language and know the culture. Knowing the culture can facilitate learning for students, either heritage or Native. One important statistic I can across throughout my reading was that students lose the language by the 3rd generation (Snow, 2017). In my own words I can say native speakers are those students who have another first language or have spoken the language since childhood. Heritage speakers are those students that are around the culture and the language but do not express themselves in that language or communicate in it.

Heritage Language Learners. (2017, June). Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Foreign-Language/World-Languages-Model-Curriculum/World-Languages-Model-Curriculum-Framework/Instructional-Strategies/Assessment/Heritage-learners_june6_2017.pdf.aspx

Creating a Bilingual Environment

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Before my kid was even born I already knew I wanted him to grow up Bilingual. I grew up speaking English and Spanish my entire life, and I will admit it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have numerous stories of how I have been able to help others on the daily. You never know when being bilingual will come in handy: for jobs, when traveling, when helping parents or students, you have twice the TV shows and jokes!

I started creating a list of the things I wanted to make sure I had before my kid arrived. I will share my very short and to the point list, but amazing results it has given me. Some things are as easy as exposing him to music in Spanish, as well as speaking to him in Spanish, but has he grows I want him to visualize the language throughout the entire house. I am a part-time educator and former High school teacher. I am always thinking of ways to teach and engage students. Nothing would make me happier than my little one growing up trilingual!

I have books in Spanish (entirely in Spanish)

I have books that are Bilingual

I have books that are only in English. ~Read my post best books to read to your kids.

Where have I bought these books? For the English books I was enrolled in a subscription called #Lillypost and for the books in Spanish and Bilingual I have ordered online and researched the ones I want in particular. I have even purchased books in Mexico and whatever I cannot find I will create on my own. I have numerous bilingual short stories I have created for my teachers pay teachers page and I plan on using these with my little ones. I have also incorporated many culturally diverse books into my collection. My kid has his own shelf that helps me demonstrate only a selection of books at a time, but let’s say this kid has a huge library! I will be sharing links to my short stories and my culturally diverse books in case you are interested in purchasing them.

I have purchased toys that are bilingual and have recently subscribed to #HolaAmigos to help me have a shorter time planning lessons to teach my kid.

Labels

Something as easy as placing labels throughout the house can help your kid read and memorize new terms.

These labels can be in the target language of your choice, but I have created Spanish ones and are available for purchase. You have the option to printing and pasting or getting premium quality made labels. These labels can easily be removed and are glossy material.

Where to place your labels.