I love helping my kids think outside of the box particular one of my kids who has a really hard time doing that.  Encourage creative play by giving them flowers and other natural elements to serve as their paintbrush.

“Me gusta pintar. Me gusta pintar, mami,”  my little man says this with a big smile on his face.  I respond, “Yes, I know you love to paint.”  My 2 year old is so very happy when he gets to make a mess with paint. Remember to buy paint that is washable if you have little excited painters.

I remember when one of my boys’ teachers came to me with a concern, “Your son keeps painting the trees blue, orange… and I can’t put his picture up on the bulletin board because he’s not following directions.”  She showed me his picture. I looked at it, and this artistic mama couldn’t have been prouder.  It was absolutely lovely.  ¡Lindísimo!

I looked at her and I said, “I am sorry, it’s really hard for me to be upset at him for not following directions when the picture in your  hand is absolutely amazing for a little 5-year-old. I will talk to him about learning to follow directions, but there is nothing wrong with his picture.  A tree doesn’t have to be brown and green it can be blue, orange, yellow… and his sun can be purple.”  Unfortunately for my son, he had two teachers back to back when he was younger discourage his creativity — his artistic side. He is now nine and his trees are verde and café. It makes me sad.

I still haven’t given up though and I continue to give my boys opportunities to be creative with their hands. Sometimes they would rather run around pretending they are policemen and super cowboys shooting at each other, but I must say any kind of imaginative play makes me happy.

So before trashing your wilted flowers, give them another use!

Painting with Flowers

What you will need:

• paint in different colors
• flowers (I used my flowers that were wilting)
• paper

1. Place paint on a surface that is big enough to cover the flowers in paint.

2. Start painting away. Let them make flower prints or paint houses, cars, abstract art… whatever their little minds take them.

Note: When painting with kids it’s good to have something under the painting project to protect the surface; also wipes for quick clean up.

Vanessa is such a curious child and she’s definitely much more interested in all topics related to science than I was at her age — or ever, really. I’m not sure where the fascination comes from, but I’m making sure to nature it (although I know very little about the subject) because I would never want to influence her with my own likes and dislikes.

Luckily, her father LOVES science too, so they get to spend a lot of time talking about insects, weather, animals and all things nature. But her absolute favorite is astronomy. Anything related to the space, the stars and the planets will make her drop whatever she’s doing and pay attention. Needless to say, she was thrilled when we got this month’s Scholastic Parent Circle book: Mi primera enciclopedia del mundo from Club Leo because the first few pages are specifically about space, the moon, satellites, space shuttles and such.

She was so excited to see all that information that she asked if she could read it in the car after I picked the book up from our box. Since she learned how to read this year in kindergarten, she tries to read anything and everything she sees. Even though I was driving and I couldn’t really see what she was reading, I gathered it was super interesting because of the tone of her voice, which pretty much could be described as astonishment at all she was learning! When I finally got around to seeing what she was reading, I was surprised at her excitement. This children’s first encyclopedia is full of colorful images, tons of interesting descriptions and easy-to-understand information.

As a parent raising bilingual children, my favorite part of Mi primera enciclopedia del mundo is that it allows me to expose my children to vocabulary they wouldn’t normally be exposed to. I mean, while we speak Spanish at home all the time, it’s not like we necessarily talk about science, geography and history all the time. One of the biggest worries that parents of bilingual children have is that our children’s vocabulary in Spanish won’t be as extensive as it’ll be in English since they get schooled in the latter, but books like Mi primera enciclopedia del mundo can definitely help in this arena.

The Giveaway

We’re giving away one copy of Mi primera enciclopedia del mundo to one lucky winner.

To enter, all you have to do is leave us a comment telling us how you teach your children about science and nature.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

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This giveaway ends Thursday, June 14 at 11:59 p.m. EST and is open to everyone with a U.S. mailing address over 18 years of age. Check out the Giveaway Rules.