Time and Left-Right Games for Children by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Time and Left-Right Games for Children by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

1 - Left-Right Game

-Draw a line down the center of a paper plate

-Write “left” on the left side and “right” on the right side of a paper plate.  Tape a piece of paper each word and lift the paper up and read the words to the preschool child

-Show a preschooler the plate and say, “This is the ‘left’ side, and this is the ‘right’ side” as you lift up the pieces of paper that cover these words

-Then, ask the child, “Which side is the left side?”

-This teaching activity appears to be easy for adults, but it takes children awhile to learn this skill.  (The Swiss psychologist Piaget writes about how long it takes to develop a child’s short-term memory in several of his books.)

-After this, sing the song “Hokey Pokey,” which features putting your “left arm and your left arm out and shaking it all about” verses

(The Hokey Pokey reinforces left and right skills and teaches children body parts.)

2 – Clock Game – Hours

-Make a clock with the paper plate

-Number the plate with the numerals 1 – 12

-Make two hands for the clock dials and attach them to the paper plate with a brad

-Put the long hand on 12 and the short hand on 1.  Tell the child that 1 o’clock looks like this and why.

-Move the short hand to 2 and ask the child, “What time is it?”

-The child might respond, “It is 2 o’clock.”  Ask the child, how she or he knows that.

-If the child answers incorrectly, say something such as, “That’s not quite right, but I would like to know how you thought that was right.”  Let the child give you their reasoning and then show them how to find the right answer.

-Go through all the numbers on the clock several times.  Learning to tell time is a very hard skill to learn. 

3 – Clock Game – “Quarter Past” Time

-Use the procedure above to teach children to know how to say things such as, “It is a quarter past two.”  Make sure to move the clock hands, so you can play this game accurately.

4 – Clock Game – “Half Past” Time

Use the procedure in Step 2 to teach children to know how to say things such as, “It is half past two.”

Make sure to move the clock hands to the correct position.

5 – Clock Game – “Quarter to” Time

Use the same procedure as in Step 2 to teach children to know how to say things such as, “It is quarter to 5.”

Make sure to move the clock hands to the appropriate position.

6 – Clock Game – Minutes – (17 Minutes Example)

Use the procedure in Step 2 to teach children how to say, “It is One seventeen” in response to a questions such as, “What time is it?”

7 – Clock Game – Military Time – (1 – 12)

These numbers are read the same as 1 – 12 am.

NASA uses military time.

8 – Clock Game – Military Time – (12 – 24)

You have to add “10” to each number after noon to come up with military time.

Military time after noon is made in the following manner:

10 + 1 = 11

10 + 2 = 12

10 + 3 = 13

10 + 4 = 14

10 + 5 = 15

10 + 6 = 16

10 + 7 = 17

10 + 8 = 18

10 + 9 = 19

10 + 10 = 20

10 + 11 = 21

10 + 12 = 22

You can quiz your child on this daily and play Black Jack or “21” as it is called to give your child the ability to add quickly and accurately.

9 – Clock Game – Military Time – Pronunciation

0100 = O One Hundred

0200 = O Two Hundred

0300 = O Three Hundred

0400 = O Four Hundred

0500 = O Five Hundred

0600 = O Six Hundred

0700 = O Seven Hundred

0800 = O Eight Hundred

0900 = O Nine Hundred

1000 = 10 Hundred

1100 = 11 Hundred

1200 = 12 Hundred

1300 = 13 Hundred

1400 = 14 Hundred

1500 = 15 Hundred

1600 = 16 Hundred

1700 = 17 Hundred

1800 = 18 Hundred

1900 = 19 Hundred

2000 = 20 Hundred

2100 = 21 Hundred

2200 = 22 Hundred

2300 = 23 Hundred

2400 = 24 Hundred

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Using Google Translate to Learn Languages by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Using Google Translate to Learn Languages by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I do have some tips for learning how to listen and respond and ask questions in German that I used when I lived there.  This is not all there is to learning another language obviously, but many students memorize rote dialogs that fail them when they are in real life situations.

I did not have a German class when I was in Germany and all of my neighbors in Stuttgart were Italian or Croatian.  So, I devised a method for learning how to speak German using Google Translate and its microphone function.

Basically, I would write out a question I needed to have an answer to and brainstormed several responses.  I would type the questions and responses into Google Translate one by one and write out the German sentence.  Then, I would get the pronunciation from the Google Translate microphone and practice saying the questions and responses.

I used this method to develop questions and responses for the following 31 real-life situations:

1 – making reservations at a restaurant by telephone

2 – listening to see if a plane, train, bus, or boat is late or has changed gates and asking to verify if you have correctly understood

3 – making and canceling appointments by phone at the doctor, dentist, manicurist, and hair stylist

4 – ordering in a fast food restaurant (very high pressure situation)

5 –ordering at a restaurant

6 – buying train and bus tickets

7 – ordering items in a grocery store such as fish, cheese, and deli items (getting a store advertising newsletter helps with food and drink vocabulary)

8 – getting gas at a gas station

9 – asking for directions

10 – listening to weather broadcasts and asking about the weather

11- asking to set up a post office box in Germany

12 – asking to open up a bank account

13 – calling emergency services to report a problem

14 – describing medical conditions

15 – asking for a floor on an elevator

16 – taking a phone message

17 – asking for items at a pharmacy

18 – describing what you want at a clothing store

19 – getting a cab and giving your home address and preferred route home

20 – buying movie tickets

21 – changing airline reservations

22 – making airline reservations and cancellations

23 – asking where items are in a grocery store

24 – ordering items at a bakery

25 – asking for a restaurant bill

26 – asking for a wi – fi code and/or password

27 – asking where the bathroom is

28 – ordering a drink in a restaurant or bar

29 – asking for items at an outdoor market

30 – making arrangements for service people to come to your home by phone such as plumbers, electricians, and painters

31 – ordering items at a butcher

I used this method to learn to speak Spanish, when I was a youth services librarian in California as well, so I knew it would work with German as well when I lived there for five years.

If you have a language-learning partner, you can role-play these situations and think of how to generate vocabulary for more extensive conversations.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Madonna Pilgrimage from Monterey County by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Madonna Pilgrimage from Monterey County by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

“We’re going to go on a pilgrimage now, or a trip to a religious site through the countryside.  Most people go on pilgrimages by foot, but we’ll go by car to the park in Watsonville where a laid off cannery plant worker saw a vision of Guadalupe in a tree,” I said to my daughter Florence.

As we went to the car, I put Hildegard von Bingen’s music on and drove to Betabel and Y Roads on Highway 101 and cut over to Watsonville.

“What I am going to tell you is Catholic, specifically French Catholic,” I said.

When we arrived at the park in Watsonville, I took a bag of apples out of the trunk and two jars of peanut butter and began walking towards the tree where the Guadalupe had been seen.

We put our offerings of peanut butter and apples on a table that held oranges, tortillas, and oatmeal.

“Latinos, which include Hispanics of Mexican descent, are usually Catholic or celebrate Catholic holidays.  The French are Catholic, too, if you count observing Catholic holidays,” I began.

“There are many Madonnas in French churches that people pray at to alert the church that they have financial or other difficulties.  Churchwomen usually are the ones who speak to other women to help them.  It is difficult for the poor to approach priests, who appear like Gods in their gold embroidered robes, no matter what color their clothing is for the church year,” I said.

“France is famous for its many Black Madonnas around the Mediterranean, because the soil is like a desert without irrigation.  People can easily starve there, if there is not enough food.  Starvation drives many people to seek help from Black Madonnas, which are signals to the Church and community to take care of the poor,” I said to Florence.

“Where we are sitting in this park also holds some secrets of Madonna sightings no matter what country you are in,” I continued.

“Amalia Mesa Baines from CSUMB says Madonna sightings occur near woods and lakes like this park.  There are ways to obtain food in these areas from what is called foraging for mushrooms, nuts, and berries.  The lakes provide fish and sometimes you can capture birds and eat eggs in a forest,” I said.

Florence and I sat quietly in the Madonna sighting area and were happy that families were out taking walks as some added food to the altar as well.

Later in the car, I told Florence peanut butter and apples together are practically a protein like meat and that eating like a vegetarian several times a week stretches food money.

We listened to more Hildegard von Bingen music on the way home on our religious tour of Watsonville, California and enjoyed the beautiful Central California scenery.

Today the Madonna sighting area has become Mount Madonna Park and offers equestrian paths, archery areas, camping trips for kids, and an theatre for plays or music in the redwoods in addition to hiking.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Chicano Murals in Salinas, California by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Chicano Murals in Salinas, California by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

“Why didn’t the Weekly ask you to write about the murals in Salinas?” asked my friend as we drove through the lettuce fields from the resort town of Monterey to the capital of America’s lettuce industry – Salinas, California.

“I was miffed about not getting that article, but I think they were leery about sending a woman to barrio even if she speaks Spanish,” I answered, smiling about the staff of the Monterey County Weekly.

I liked the article that C. Kevin Smith had written, though, and printed out the mural mile map that went with the article and planned an outing for my daughter Florence and one of my friends who did collaging journals.

“You can get some colorful photos for your journal,” I said to get a navigator in Salinas in pre-GPS days.

So, we drove to downtown Salinas and headed towards East Salinas.

There were thirteen places listed on the mural mile map.  I was able to park the car, so we could get out and take photos at eleven of the mural stops.  One of the murals was under a highway overpass and hard to get to.  We followed the map with the need for a few U-turns and windings through the neighborhood.

Murals were credited to Arturo Bolaños, Jayne Cerna, Phillip Tabera, Yermo Aranda, Jesus Leon, and José Ortiz.

José Ortiz explained how Chicano murals, an urban art form pioneered in Los Angeles and San Francisco, are composed as public art in a video from the Museum of Monterey called The 100 Story Project – José Ortiz: The Muralist Tradition (available on youtube).

Ortiz, for example, meets with the community to discuss commissions for input on subject matter and composition.  Ortiz teases out what is called the invisible history, which often differs from what is in the history books.  The saying that the victors write the history books is often true.

Once the community input has been done, Ortiz draws the mural due to his expertise acquired from years of practice, but his colleagues and community members help with the painting.  Chicano murals made this way beautify bleak urban landscapes and honor and uplift neighborhood residents.

The invisible history of Salinas came through in many images of round Aztec calendars, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe in her blue mantle, the eagle which appears on the Mexican flag, barbed wire, fields of food, pre-Columbian pyramids, and US flags.  Ortiz explained that the barbed wire represents the border in the 100 Stories video. 

All these images connect Hispanics to their Mexican past while rooting them in the United States.  Mexico offered many people few opportunities and like my own ancestors in Virginia, the people coming here knew they had or have to succeed, because there was no going back.

The murals by José Ortiz were Florence’s favorites and mine as well.  The all looked to the future with their child-oriented themes.  The mural entitled Los Niños del Sol (Children of the Sun) at the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) office has images of children with rays of sunshine reflecting back to the sky that get wider as they reach heavenward.

Another mural by Ortiz at the Natividad Elementary School is entitled Los Niños Cosmos (Cosmic Children).  This mural made me think of Aztec priest-astronomers.  I thought it was an encouragement to do well in school.

Chicano muralism is a unique American art form, but does draw upon Mexican muralism and pre-Columbian muralism for inspiration.  Like the art of ancient Greece, the architecture of the Mayan and Aztec Empires was painted.  Pre-Columbian muralism was art made to perpetuate and preserve a ruling elite.

Muralism in Mexico differed from the pre-Columbian use of the art form in that it was not used to perpetuate an existing social order.  Instead, Mexican muralism was used to create a new nation after the Mexican Revolution.

Mexican muralism was begun in the 1920s and lasted till the 1970s.  Three artists in particular were associated with Mexican muralism – Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957), José Clemente Orozco (1883 – 1949), and David Alfaro Siquieros (1896 – 1974).  These artists largely decorated public buildings of the new Mexican government with the intention of teaching a largely illiterate public how to become a democratic nation after centuries of oppression.

What unites the muralist tradition of the Chicano movement, the Mexican muralists, and pre-Columbian muralism is the use of line to define image outlines instead of blending them together as you would do in pastel work.  Exuberant colors link these traditions as well.  Muralism as a form of expression has persisted for centuries among populations of Mexican and Mesoamerican descent.

Drawing is extremely important in the perpetuation of this art form as much of it originated in sculpture on architecture.  José Ortiz began a school shortly after the Weekly wrote about the murals in East Salinas.  The school is devoted to the arts, especially drawing.

When I became youth services librarian of Monterey County, I asked Ortiz to do cartooning workshops around the county in addition to loading the library system with books devoted to drawing cartoons and manga to help perpetuate this tradition as well.

I took Florence to several of his workshops, saying, “You can use drawing to do story boards for film, video games, and animated films for movies, documentaries, or even teaching people how to do things.”

Ortiz is a master teacher, who knows how to pass on artistic traditions at his Hijos del Sol studio for youth in Salinas.  I think he is a Monterey County treasure.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Saint John's Night Bonfire by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Saint John’s Night Bonfire by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

On the last day of school at my daughter Florence’s Waldorf School in Pacific Grove (California) before summer vacation, parents were invited to an optional Saint John’s Night Bonfire at Carmel River State Beach on June 23^rd.

The Carmel River drains into the Pacific Ocean at this spot.  Bonfire nights like the one for Guy Fawkes Night in England (November 5^th) and those for Saint John the Baptist (June 23^rd) are held in areas with Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran populations in Europe and in Monterey County in Carmel, California by streams and rivers.

There is no mysterious reason for this location for bonfires.  Dead wood, leaves, reeds, and branches accumulate at river and stream mouths and can be used as kindling, which clears these areas of debris in the process.

Participants at a Saint John’s bonfire hold hands and dance around the bonfire in a circle.  Brave participants are expected to leap over the bonfire to show their fearlessness.

After working up an appetite dancing and fire jumping, participants eat taffy apples and drink mulled wine as they watch fireworks.

I did not want to jump over a bonfire, but thought I could handle making taffy apples.

I told Florence about Saint John’s Night as we headed to Safeway Supermarket in Del Rey Oaks to buy taffy apple items; This Safeway has everything and more to choose from down its many aisles.

Florence said, “Jumping over a fire is dangerous.”

“Especially in shorts,” I added

Safeway sold square sheets of caramel that you wrapped around apples and microwaved before sticking them with a wooden stick for eating.

At home, we made taffy apples and did a Saint John’s Night craft project.

I took out a paper plate and had Florence color it black for soil.

Then, I drew branches on brown construction paper, and had Florence cut those out.  She pasted these on the paper plate.

Next, I gave Florence a piece of flat crêpe paper to squeeze together and make into a flame, which she pasted to the branches on the paper plate.

Now that we had a bonfire, I told Florence the story of John the Baptist, who fell in love with Salome, the dancing girl, who cut off his head and put it on a serving platter.

Florence wondered why he got to have a holiday.

I agreed and changed the subject.

“Does jumping over a flame remind you any Mother Goose rhymes?” I asked.

Florence thought a moment and said:

Jack be nimble,

Jack be quick,

Jack jumped over

the candlestick.

I wondered if that rhyme had been invented as part of a child’s celebration of Guy Fawkes Night.

I was glad some teaching moment in the past on Mother Goose had stuck in Florence’s mind like I hoped this one on Saint John’s Night would as we ate our taffy apples.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Note:

Teaching moments were a method used by Francis Fenelon, tutor of Louis XIV’s grandson, who also advised on the education of girls of noble birth.

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