Regresa para mas estudios de la literatura latinoamericana.
Eve
Sonatina – Poema de Ruben Dario – Spanish Literature
Category Archives: for girls
Athena paper doll and Greek historical fashion
Dear reader,
I didn’t want to share my Athena paper doll because the fashion illustration was historically inaccurate. It was silly, so here it is in its imperfect glory.
Minerva was Athena in Rome
Atenea is Spanish
Atena in Italian
Since Athena’s name is extremely ancient, the sound of the letter Eta (uppercase ฮ, lowercase ฮท) has changed in the thousands of years of Athena’s reach. This is why she has been Athena, Athene. I have to look more into this because I also saw her name spelled with an Alpha at the end, which corresponds to our modern Athena.
Now that I have shown you my defective work, I will have to finish it. I have a second page where I stopped. It has a shield and another dress that also made me feel I had done a poor job.
Ancient Greek fashion
The ancient Greeks didn’t have sewing machines. They used fabrics and tied them into dresses.
Even in Rome, dresses called Stolas in Latin (the equivalent of togas for males) were very large tied fabrics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing_in_ancient_Greece
The reason why my design is wrong is that it doesn’t look tied, which should give a very pleated look that fell very close to the body.
I tried, but I created a modern look, which is alright, but I will try my hand at this again.
I will perfect this design, and we will talk more about ancient Greek clothing. The next paper doll will be better, I promise.
Of course, you can print this one and use it in your homeschooling practice.
With Love,
Eve
Exploring Poetry as a Tool for Language Learning
Dear reader,
I am currently reading poetry in Latin for my humble Latin learning practice. Let’s discuss why poetry is a fun and effective way to acquire a new language.
This applies to students who already have some knowledge of the new language. If you are starting to read in your target language, this tip applies to you.
Poetry, with its intricate use of language, offers a unique avenue for learners to delve deeper into a new language. Far from the straightforward prose typically encountered in language textbooks, poetry presents learners with a challenge that extends beyond mere grammar and vocabulary. It demands an understanding of cultural nuances, literary devices, and a keen ear for rhythm and cadence.
Yet poetry, with its whimsical beauty, can be the catalyst for a deeper understanding of a new language. I read the same poem for over a week hundreds of times in Latin, and I then translated it. Yes, it took a week, but that’s nothing compared to never understanding that gorgeous piece of literature.
Complexity of Poetry
At its core, poetry is a linguistic art form that pushes the boundaries of language. Its condensed and often metaphorical nature forces readers to interpret meaning beyond literal words. This complexity serves as both a hurdle and an opportunity for language learners. By grappling with poetic verses, learners are exposed to varied sentence structures, idiomatic expressions, and figurative language that are essential for fluency.
Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone
Engaging with poetry requires readers to step out of their linguistic comfort zones even if the poetry we’re reading is in our first language. Unlike everyday language, poetry uses heightened language, symbolism, and imagery, challenging learners to think critically and creatively. This exposure not only enriches vocabulary but also enhances comprehension skills by encouraging deeper analysis of context and subtext.
Linguistic and Literary Growth
Studying poetry aids language learning by fostering a deeper appreciation for the nuances of grammar and syntax. Poetic forms such as sonnets, haikus, and ballads adhere to specific structures, exposing learners to formal conventions while encouraging experimentation with language. Moreover, the rhythmic patterns inherent in poetry improve pronunciation and cadence, aiding in the development of natural speech patterns in the target language.
And dare I say that the repetition in poetry could assist I memory because like that ancient Roman smart guy said
Repetition is the mother of learning.
Another cool thing about poetry is that you can read a poem 5000 times if you love it.
Cultural Insight and Empathy
Poetry serves as a window into the cultural and historical contexts of a language. By exploring poems from different periods and regions, learners gain insight into societal norms, values, and perspectives. This cultural immersion not only enhances language proficiency but also cultivates empathy and cross-cultural understanding.
Practice Makes Proficient
Practicing poetry reading or, better yet, writing in a new language further solidifies linguistic skills. Crafting poems forces learners to apply grammar rules, expand vocabulary, and experiment with stylistic devices. This active engagement promotes language retention and fluency by reinforcing learned concepts in a creative and memorable manner.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while poetry may initially seem daunting to language learners, its inherent challenges and rewards make it a powerful tool for linguistic and literary growth. By embracing the complexity of poetic expression, learners not only enhance their language proficiency but also deepen their understanding of cultural contexts and human experience. Thus, integrating poetry into language learning curriculum enriches the educational experience, fostering a lifelong appreciation for language and literature.
Are you learning a language?
Are you already reading poetry in your target language?
If you’re learning Spanish, I have a multitude of poems for your reading pleasure and language peactice.
Please let me know if you’re searching for Spanish reading texts.
With love,
Eve
Baby DIYs, new arts and crafts projects
As I’ve said before, I finish more craft projects that I post on this blog, let me update you on all the new projects I’ve finished since my last post. And hey, I’ve been working on art projects too! Well I started this post pregnant, since I’ve given birth and the little girl is over 1 week old now! But I’m not forgetting to share!
DIY Baby Projects
I’m happy to have finished my “take baby home outfit”. My baby will actually be born at home so it’s actually a cute outfit matching my magical yellow dress to take pictures once I give birth and we travel from my bathtub to my bed (my bathroom is in my bedroom so we’re not traveling far)
New Sewing Projects
Paintings
As I’ve been organizing like crazy, I got out all my canvases out and decided to use all of them. My children painted some and I the rest. I decided to make a sun inspired small gallery to go with the small sun I painted previously. I watched some painting videos on YouTube University and this time my paintings were much more beautiful and I finished them within a day. I painted a sunflower, my favorite flower and a rose (new baby’s middle name), the rose is yellow and orange to go with my sun gallery. On an adjacent wall I hung a larger painting of a tree with a sun around it and a small painting of a peacock, my favorite bird which I painted when I was pregnant with my first daughter and hung behind her crib, that was my first painting other than watercolor.
My mom, the gift that keeps on giving
Mom is the best crafter (is this a word?) I know and obviously I learned from her. During my pregnancies, she has made all kinds of adorable items for my babies, here are new cute ones for this little new addition to the family. Mom is learning new skills and getting so much better (like me)
Dear friend, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m pregnant. I’m now 9 months and in labor! I have been getting ready for baby, getting the house and children ready, doing last minute shopping, and finishing lots of DIYs and crafts. I have been getting myself really tired and have had to kick count because I rock the baby to sleep with so much movement, and when I got lucky, I slept for an entire day. This is why I’ve not been blogging lately. I hope to blog when I have the baby and spend 5 days in bed. Lol post baby update: I broke the 5 day bed quarantine and when I emerged from my bedroom spring had started!
I’ve more to share! Talk soon!
And now a picture of the newborn!
For more crochet, follow my Crochet I love Pinterest board:
What crafts or arts are keeping you busy?
Thanks for visiting,
Eve
Things to do before the baby arrives
My baby arrives in less than a month and as you can guess I have been nesting for a while. I am now in the process of creating a list of things that I need to do prior to the arrival of the baby as well as things that I’ve already done. Since I could find no better way to do this, I am blogging about it, hopefully somebody else will benefit from this but if not then know that I am doing this as a reminder to myself.
Things to do before the baby arrives:
- Buy wipes
- Set up the crib and bassinet in my bedroom
- Install the car seat
- Pay midwife fee in full
- Get breast milk pump and storage bags
- Finish packing hospital bag with my stuff (for when I spend 5 days in bed/ giving birth at home, not going to hospital, it’s really my healing bag): work in progress
- Pick out baby’s first day outfit
- Decide on newborn photo ideas and pick out outfits: work in progress with my daughters
- Have ready to eat frozen foods for first 5 days
- Fill pantry with essentials for first 2 weeks
- Waiting for delivery of few more essential oils: arrive in 2 days
- Get rose ๐น essential oil (because I’ll love it and have never had it before and the baby’s middle name is Rose, it’s meant to be) I have a doTERRA membership and get free points I can turn into free oils, have 50 points, getting another 50, track when 100 points are available and get oil (might happen after baby arrives but during newborn stage)
- Get my older children ready: chores for baby’s arrival and mommy healing time, getting ahead on school work, cleanup and organization of their room before grandma visits, who is taking what pictures and videos? They want to be involved in the home birth so I’ll give each jobs such as taking care of and helping their toddler brother: work in progress
- I obviously need a massive burrito from Chipotle after giving birth (doing this for years), arrange for delivery or pick up probably food for the entire family
- Clean and sanitize bathroom where baby is to be born, do changes need to be made to decor? How does the vibe feel?: Work in progress
- Create a sacred baby birth space (tied to item above but slightly different)
- Go through midwife giving birth items needed list and source all
- Prepay bills so I don’t have to deal with them during the first two weeks of birth
- Place vitamins, supplements, essential oils and other self-care items of mine in my healing bag (hospital bag)
- Plan ahead for 5 days in bed
- Prepare diaper changing station
- Get ready for breastfeeding: breastfeeding tea, breastfeeding pillow
- Ideally finish additional baby DIYs but not needed and I’ll be on it during 5 days of healing in bed, yet work in progress
- Stock up on single-use items such as paper plates, plastic forks and spoons, paper cups so we don’t have to do the dishes during first two weeks
- Set up a budget
- Write a birth plan: I have a lot of things in my head but it’ll help to actually write it down and go through it with my midwife and family
- Clean my carpets
- Take maternity pictures
- Choose birth day outfit: in know I’m going to wear my magical yellow dress in this date but no blood please. I usually birth totally nude ๐ lol but this time there’ll be birthing pictures and videos and since I’ll be showing my butt (and who knows what else) I won’t show my boobs too. I’ll probably get some coconuts and fashion a bikini top!
- Do special things with my children until the birth day: work in progress
- Garden and leave the yard looking nice: lots of work yet work in progress
- Enlist family members to take pictures of the newborn baby: children are on it
- Get older children ready: do their laundry, get their favorite snacks, and favorite foods, review school schedules, inform teachers of expected delivery day, register for next school year this week
- Clean up phone memory and my phone and my husband’s for all the cute baby pictures and videos
- Who is cutting the umbilical cord?
- Prepare for toddler boy: enough diapers formula and activities, have his favorite toys
- Prepare for movie night for when the children need to take a break: daddy got this
- Get library books for the big girls who love to read for when they need to take a break, prepare crafts and activities for them
- Set up 2 essential oil diffusers: 1 in my bedroom, 1 in my bathroom and fav essential oil station
- Get visitor room ready for mom to visit: clean, organize: work in progress
- Finish cleaning and disinfecting downstairs “visitor” bathroom: work in progress
- Do all laundry
Things I’m grateful I have completed before the baby arrives, as of now, this list is growing and the first one shrinking:
- Ensured I have enough baby clothes for a newborn and in a basket in the closet 3 months old clothes: collected little outfits that my other babies worn that are still good, received gifts, purchased items. I have enough. I also have older baby clothes in a bag in my closet and a storage of toddler clothes in storage under my bed
- Finished 4 baby DIYs, working on 3rd
- Washed and organized the baby clothes
- Washed baby blankets and crib sheets
- Bought diapers
- Decorated matching boxes for baby nursery storage, separated folded newborn clothes, stored socks, bibs, burp cloths, etc
- Chosen a baby name
- Bought baby bottles and bottle brushes
- Packed baby clothes, blankets, diapers in “hospital” bag which it’s really my healing bag (no hospital for me)
- Bought favorite essential oils
- Have hospital plan just in case and because my midwife said it was time
- Prepared postpartum care items for myself: my Midwife already delivered a Care pack and I have a stock of pads and oils, and lotions I love for this time
- Chosen a pediatrician
- Set up hypno birthing playlist and getting used to the meditations
- Spending all the rest of this time learning about labor and hypno birthing which is helpful and soothing
- Set up a diaper station downstairs. I did this for my last baby and it was a huge hit everybody uses the drawer including the baby who’s now a toddler. The way I did it was clear a drawer lined it and filled it with diapers, diaper cream, baby clothes so that the baby could easily be changed and little socks I did the same for the new baby next to the last baby’s drawer which is still in use
- Reviewed discharge and care information packet from midwife and will discuss with her on today’s appointment
At a glance I can see it he done list is much smaller than the to do list. I’m excited to work on these things which is the great part and now that I have this in writing and publicly, I really love to be here editing this post. I love it when I come read my lists and there are a lot of items that can be moved from the to do list to the gratitude list. I’m feeling great also.
7 Sewing projects but first fixing my sewing machine
It was an amazing weekend! Well, only after I was able to fix my sewing machine. My new sewing machine, which I received as a Christmas present from my dear mother came up with a lovely error code during my second project, it would not sew. I’ve not been able to fix my sewing machines before, I have a broken one in a closet (reason why mom generously bought me a new one) and a kid size one I bought for my girls is also broken, both broken by the children who want to learn but act like they’re toys.
Well, I could not let my new sewing machine go to the closet, broken, so I went to YouTube university and couldn’t find any info on my particular machine but watched a great video on how to fix this error on a similar machine. I had another problem, I had to open the sewing machine, something I’ve never done before, I’ve never even oiled my machines! There was no help so I had to teach myself! Needless to say, I felt like a sewing machine superheroine and now, I intend to fix my old machine and perhaps, even my children’s machine. The weekend took a turn for the best after I was sewing again!
7 Easy sewing pojects in 1 weekend
Of course I have told you that I like fast projects and these are all fast projects except the fixing of the sewing machine took me two days, not all day… I was pretty much crying LOL, I had to take breaks but I fixed it on the second day, so most of these projects were finished in one day.
I have more projects that I want to work on, one being another magical item for myself, a purple skirt (OMG I have not talked to you about my magical yellow dress), also 3 matching bags (that match my new fav tote) for my daughters, my youngest girl asked for a shirt, I want to make something yellow for my baby matching my beloved dress, and I have more awesome fabric I want to use before March. My birthday is in March, and as a birthday present I always buy lots of arts and crafts materials and typically, many of them last me the year and many of this awesome fabrics are from last March.
Dear reader, I do craft much more than I post on this blog and I have lots of newly made items I have not shared with you. See the list of things below that I need to picture and share:
- 4 throw pillows
- 1 floor poof
- 1 t-shirt yarn crochet mini rug
- 2 adorable plarn crochet baskets
- More hats and scarves that I’ve made for my children
- I decided to learn macrame and learn easy ways on YouTube University to wrap heart crystals one for me and one for each of my daughters. I learned how to make a sliding knot for jewelry which is the most exciting part!
- 4 decorated storage boxes for my nursery, I love to look at them already full of baby diapers and baby little clothes. This is all I can remember for now, I’m sure there’s more…
How’s your creativity keeping you busy friend?
Thanks for visiting,
Eve
2 crochet scarves. One afternoon crochet projects.
Friend,
I do like to start larger than life projects that take lots of time and materials and typically have one of those going, right now I have two in progress. But undoubtedly, my favorite project is one that can be finished in one afternoon. Today I’ll show you 2 scarves I made in one afternoon. Please I made as gifts for two girls, daughters of my Midwife who invited us to her home for a midwife and moms that are due party.
Here are the lovely scarves. To make a fast scarf project, choose a lacy stitch, a thick yarn, and a larger hook. Also a long skinny scarf is an awesome fast to finish project.
Crochet Hats. Learning to make them.
If you don’t know how to make a crochet hat, watch a YouTube video about it, said my mom when I told her I was not good at it. So I did and I have learned! Yay
Now I’ve finished 4 hats, one for each of my children. I was already really good at making scarves but it’s different, scarves are flat and shaping a perfect hat takes some knowledge but the good thing is once you learn, you know and this knowledge can be applied to other items. For example, now I know how to make a perfect circle which I already used to make coasters (made of plastic bags yarn or plarn) and I plan to use the skills I learned from learning to make hard to make baskets, first a small circular plarn basket and then I’ll experiment with different sizes and materials, this is very exciting for me and again, I started this blog because I’ve made so many things since I closed my last art and crafts blog which I had for years and I missed the sharing!
I’d love to make a video about this, let’s see. Maybe I have to practice and learn more. I want to make a hat for my new baby and one for me. Of course eventually I can make a second hat for everyone and once I’m en expert hat maker, I’ll make a hat for my beloved, he will accept nothing but a perfect hat, he is so picky, he can’t wear something uncomfortable or scratchy, and it would have to look as though I bought it and have tiny stitches which will take longer to make. Once I manage this (I’ll probably do it for his Nov birthday) I can then say I’m an expert hat maker, I’ll buy a nice, soft yarn too and for once, ensure I’m using the right size hook for the yarn size.
The story of these hats is cool because I went to Good will looking for something very specific and found to hey ha DC as nice collection of yarn. This was exciting because I but to lots and it can get expensive. I decided to buy yarn in my children’s favorite colors, green, purple, pink, and blue for to he toddler boy who doesn’t have a favorite color. Some were small balls of yarn, of the purple there were 2 and I made a hat and matching scarves. The pinks was small and I made a fashion scarf so I used another pink yarn I’ve had for a long while to make my oldest girl a hat.
Thanks for reading friends,
If you want to read more from me, you can visit my spiritual blog, though disclaimer, I talk about twin flames, manifestation, and starseed topics, loveandlight888.art.blog
Your crafty mom friend,
Eve
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