Our booklist was inspired by Give Your Child the World:
José, who is one and usually not super interested in our books, loved Caribbean Dream! We have been reading it a few times a day. All three kids also got a huge kick out of Juan Bobo Busca Trabajo. I felt like Tap-Tap and My Little Island gave some great glimpses into culture, with Tap-Tap sharing a picture of Haitian culture and My Little Island sharing a glimpse of island culture on Montserrat in the Lesser Antilles!
Of course, after reading Celia Cruz: Queen of Salsa and Drum Dream Girl, we had to listen to some of Celia Cruz's music and Millo Castro Zaldarriaga's drumming!
Since we have Compassion children in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, we watched a few videos:
And then we spent some time writing to our Compassion kids!
Juanito narrated The Harvest Birds in Spanish and Tap-Tap in English.
Es un cuento de Juan. Juan quiero su propio tierra. Y Juan vi las personas, y las personas dicen, "No." Los pájaros son los amigos de Juan. Y Juan dije al abuelo, "¿Puede dame mi propia tierra, abuelo?" El abuelo da la tierra a Juan. Juan no tiene semillas y fue a la tienda, y barró el piso para semillas. Planta las semillas y da semillas a los pájaros también. Juan tomó las otras plantas, the weeds, y los pájaros dicen, "No ponlas en la basura, ponlas alrededor de la tierra." Y tomó la comida y las personas estaban asombrados porque Juan tiene tanta comida.
-The Harvest Birds
Sasifi had her own basket and they were going to market. And her mother was selling the oranges and Sasifi fell asleep on the mat. And then Mama left she told Sasifi, "Be careful selling the oranges and be careful making change." And Sasifi did a good job and when Mama came back, "Sasifi, have you eaten all my oranges?"
"No, Mama, I have sold them all!"
And Mama pulled a hat out of the bag for Sasifi. And Mama gave her some coins to get a treat. Sasitif decided for a treat to ride on the tap-tap. They got on and some other people came and then they went. A lot and a lot and a lot of people. And then her hat came off and flew behind them. And then she banged the side of the truck and felt the tap-tap sow down. And then she was three boys running to save her hat. And then Sasifi danced in front of Mama on the way to her village.
- Tap-Tap
Rosie narrated Juan Bobo Busca Trabajo in Spanish and Amelia and the Fiesta Dress in English.
Juan Bobo es un niño.
Juan va a Don Pepe. Juan pone cascaras en la carretilla. Juan pone las habichuelas en el suelo. Sus bolsillos estaban broken y las monedas fallen out his bolsillos.
Amarra los pies de la vaca. He pulled him. La vaca no pudo mover. Done Pepe paga Juan con la leche, Juan la puso la leche en su saco. Se cayó la leche.
Juan está barriendo la tienda. Hizo un buen trabajo. Tiene queso para su mamá. Juan puso el queso en su cabeza. He spilled it.
Juan tiene jamón para su mamá. He tied it. Los perros y los gatos lo comieron. Juan Bobo saw the girl y ella estaba feliz.
- Juan Bobo Busca Trabajo
Amelia goes to school. She is getting her dress out because she likes to. She's bringing her dress to school because it's the hora de cuenta. Her dress is white and yellow and red, it's pretty. The niños only bring toys. Amelia is sad because she didn't get any toys. She was singing, "La la la bamba." Amelia was happy at the end.
- Amelia and the Fiesta Dress
Our science co-op theme of sharks fit in well with the Caribbean, and my kids really enjoyed painting sharks at the science co-op hosted by my friend.
This recipe of the Dominican Flag looked fun (I messed up our flags a bit). We ate rice and beans and creole chicken from my favorite cookbook, Extending the Table, and then we made arepa from the Dominican Republic for our co-op snack. And another co-op mom brought picadillo to co-op for the kids to try!
For co-op activities, we played el pañuelo, a Dominican game, and we made Puerto Rican guiro instruments. I also printed out coloring pages of a hibiscus and tanager.
And of course, we had to listen to some real guiro music!
Our next topic is learning about Saint Valentine, and then we will be heading to Russia and the Ukraine!
Here are the previous countries in the series:
About Hannah Hinojosa...Hannah is a long time Compassion sponsor and writes about her sponsorship journey at Because of Shamim. In addition to being a wife and mother, she is a part-time math professor and loves to read.
