Transport yourself to a world of beauty and serenity with the Day of the Dead Celebration

As in other countries in the world, there are different ways to worship our ancestors, but what is the relevance of this celebration in our time and in a country like Canada? Why would you child benefit by being exposed to this celebration?

We believe we live in a world that is becoming more diverse, and diversity is something to be valued especially in a country like Canada - that successfully offers more inclusive communities in which our children can identify themselves, and effectively mingle with children different from themselves in several aspects. 

In celebrating the occasion of the Day of the Dead in Mexico primarily, and in some other countries in Latin America, we took on the task of collecting books to learn more about this unique celebration.

The celebration of the Day of the Dead generates curiosity, wonder, fascination and as it is mentioned by the Mexican Publisher Artes de Mexico:

"Unlike those who believe that Mexico’s culture of the death has already been thoroughly explored, we are more inclined to think it comprehends a richer universe than what is widely claimed, and that there is much to be learned about it. For those who have an outsider's view of these celebrations, they are sure to find many surprises. 

More than a celebration of the dead, are the creators of these works not celebrating life?

Might these rituals not be an intense prolongation of life in the midst of death?

Day of the Dead: Ritual Serenity By Artes de Mexico

Come discover it for yourself with your family on Nov 9 and 10 at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto.

Aviva tus raíces, fortalece tu identidad y la de tus hijos!

El Día de Muertos es una celebración mexicana que honra a los ancestros durante el 2 de noviembre, coincidiendo con la celebración católica del Día de los Fieles Difuntos. Aunque se ve primariamente como una festividad mexicana, también se celebra en menor medida en algunas partes de Latinoamérica, en muchas comunidades de Estados Unidos y ahora también en Canada.

Los orígenes de la celebración del Día de Muertos en México, pueden ser trazados hasta la epoca de los indígenas de Mesoamérica, tales como los Aztecas, Mayas, Purepechas, Nahuas y Totonacas. Los rituales que celebran las vidas de los ancestros se realizaron por estas civilizaciones por lo menos durante los últimos 3,000 años.

Las festividades eran presididas por el dios Mictecacihuatl, conocido como la "Dama de la muerte" (actualmente corresponde con "la Catrina"). Las festividades eran dedicadas a la celebración de los niños y las vidas de parientes fallecidos.

Cuando los conquistadores españoles llegaron a América en el siglo XV, ellos estuvieron aterrados por las practicas paganas de los indígenas, y en un intento por convertir a los nativos americanos al catolicismo cambiaron la celebracion  a inicios de noviembre para que coincidieran con las festividades católicas del Día de todos los Santos y Todas las Almas. El Día de Todos los Santos es un día después de Halloween.

Fuente:
http://diadelosmuertos.yaia.com/historia.html

Como celebrar?
1. Prepara un altar con velas decoradas, flores de cempasuchil (marigolds), fotos.
2. Escribe calaveritas divertidas, quiza con un poco de poesia o epitafios
3. Prepara un ofrenda con la comida que mas le gustaba a las personas que desees recordar. Incluir pan de muerto http://www.panchosbakery.ca/ y calaveritas de azucar o chocolate seria una buena idea.

Que la distancia o el tiempo no impidan que tus hijos crezcan sin el importante componente cultural  que fortalecera su identidad.

¿Ahora que vives en Canada, te sorprendes al verte interesado en temas o actividades relacionadas con tu pais de origen?, que tal vez  no te habrias involucrado antes?
- sí
- no
- ¿Por qué crees que es eso?

¿Sientes que tal vez valoramos más las cosas cuando no las tenemos cerca?

Nos interesa tu opinion. 

Las primeras 5 personas en enviarnos sus comentarios podran obtener un DVD GRATIS. Es un documental sobre el dia de muertos.

Gracias y saludos,
Celina Gutierrez, Founder, Tap Peques
Esperamos verte en : http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson/seasonalfestivals/index.cfm?id=5645&festival_id=152

Keeping Kids Off the Summer Slide

Something is waiting for many children each summer and their parents don’t even know it’s out there. It's called the "summer slide," and it describes what happens when young minds sit idle for three months.

As parents approach the summer break, many are thinking about the family vacation, trips to the pool, how to keep children engaged in activities at home, the abrupt changes to everyone's schedule—and how to juggle it all. What they might not be focusing on is how much educational ground their children could lose during the three-month break from school, particularly when it comes to reading.

Experts agree that children who read during the summer gain reading skills, while those who do not often slide backward. According to the authors of a report from the National Summer Learning Association: "A conservative estimate of lost instructional time is approximately two months or roughly 22 percent of the school year.... It's common for teachers to spend at least a month re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. That month of re-teaching eliminates a month that could have been spent on teaching new information and skills."

Summer slide affects millions of children each year but it doesn't have to. Please join us on our new Facebook group dedicated to provide and exchange reading tips and learn from everyone's experience.

Copy/paste following link in the internet browser:

in Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/TapPeques?fref=ts 

Keep learning fun throughout the summer break and the rest of the year.

Source: Reading is fundamental 

Canada….. a nice fusion of different flavors

Happy Canada Day everyone! Let's take this day to celebrate the history, diversity and multiculturalism of this beautiful nation.

We live in a world that is becoming more diverse, and Canada recognizes that our diversity is something to be valued. Canada is a nation of many different historical, cultural and racial origins, of diverse political and religious views, and of various socioeconomic classes and behavioral norms.

Through the application of multicultural policies, Canada successfully offers more inclusive communities in which our children can identify themselves, and effectively mingle with different children than themselves in several aspects.

Canada has experienced different  waves of immigration since the nineteenth century, and by the 1980s almost 40 percent of the population were of neither British nor French origins (the two largest groups, and among the oldest)

Did you know that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has granted Canadian citizenship to nearly 200,000 new citizens each year?

The most successful pluralist society on the face of our globe, without any doubt .... That is something unique to Canada. It is an amazing global human asset.

Why diversity should be valued?

The term diversity is defined as the property of being different and it should be valued because the various differences are meant to complement each other and come up with better results in the long run.

Also, diversity is reflected in the increasingly global connections among peoples throughout the world.

Multiculturalism in Canada

Multiculturalism helps in bringing together immigrants and minorities in the country and pushes them towards being part of the Canadian society as a whole. Cultural appreciation of ethnic and religious diversity promotes a greater willingness to tolerate differences.

What is Culture?

Idealized definition: The way our ancestors speak through us

Culture-Working Definition Learned traditions, loyalties, beliefs, customs that guide behavior of a group of people

We are all multicultural!

Members of many groups that have cultural aspects, gender, social class, regional, ethnicity, religious, race, values and beliefs, customs and traditions, cultural elements, language/communication patterns, diet and food preparation, dress and/or body decoration, religious practices, family structure, view of time may vary, recreation-athletic games.

"In order for children to identify with the world around them, to appreciate and value the differences and similarities of other people to themselves, it is important for them to first discover their own identities”.

Zena Sutherland and May Hill Arbuthnot

Do not miss the opportunity to expose your children to the Spanish language and your cultural background, they will thank you for that later.

www.TapPeques.com

Tips to Learning in a Multi-language home

The great part of our society is the coming together of different cultures.  More and more we are seeing interracial couples with different heritages, allowing our future generations to be even more inclusive and tolerant of differences.  The way to strengthen this is to allow children of different cultural heritages to learn both languages and cultures.   However managing this can be a difficult and sometimes daunting task, so we have put together some tips.  

First, let’s deal with the misconception that people always ask.  Can children really learn a second language at a very early age without disturbing their language development? The answer is YES. With very young children, a second language is learnt the same way children learn a first language, which is to say, not really teaching them a language but exposing them to the language. Their minds are like sponges, so exposure at a young age will enable them to grasp the languages.  Now that we have addressed that question, here are the tips we suggest:

1)   Read to them in the various languages – we have heard from many experts that we should be reading to our children daily at a young age.  Not only does it create the love of reading, but reading to them in different languages will help them understand and grasp the language.

2)    Be patient – many people react to the fact that maybe a child learning two languages will take longer to develop communication skills with everyone. It is not that the child’s development is delayed; it takes a little longer for them to process and grasp the languages.  It will not delay your child’s development in the long term.  It is simply that your child is recognizing and producing sounds in more than one language system and that process takes time and practice

3)    Communicate to them in the language – Each parent should communicate to the children in the language.  This will not be confusing, as the child will learn to differentiate the two languages and know to communicate to one parent vs. the other in the specific language.

4)    Don’t switch during emotional situations – It is not beneficial to change from one language to another during an emotional situation.  This will negatively impact the child’s view on the language, as they will associate negative feelings with the language.  Be consistent!

5)    Be patient - Raising multilingual children requires patience, and there are going to be times when doubt sneaks in. As with most aspects of parenting, it's a long term commitment and there will be ups and downs.

The challenge with raising a multi-lingual home will be making sure not to alienate the other parent.  If one does not understand the other language, make it a fun experience.  As the children get older, have them explain the words to the other parent, improving their knowledge and grasp of the language.  The key is that it will also bring a family unit a little closer together. 

Making a Healthy Spanish Meal In 20 Minutes

The romantic language, rich heritage, and beautiful architecture that the Spanish Culture has provided us are also accompanied by delicious, healthy foods.  We are all very busy and trying to prepare a healthy meal is often challenging.  Our kids keep us very busy – sports, homework, our careers, and many other factors make meal preparation time very challenging.  Here is a recipe for Spanish Chicken that you and your family can enjoy - Spanish chicken and chorizo. 

First, let’s start with the ingredients required:

·         plain flour, for dusting

·         1 chicken, jointed

·         4 tbsp olive oil

·         2 chorizo sausages, cut into 2cm long pieces

·         2 medium onions, chopped

·         8 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped

·         2 red peppers, finely diced

·         2 green peppers, finely diced

·         2 yellow peppers, finely diced

·         2 sprigs thyme

·         2 bay leaves

·         1 heaped tsp smoked paprika

·         1 X 440g can chopped tomatoes

Now for the preparation:

1.       Season a little plain flour with salt and pepper and dust the chicken in seasoned flour.

2.       Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan and fry the chorizo until brown.

3.       Remove the chorizo from the pan and fry the chicken for about 10 minutes.

4.       Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

5.       Add onions, garlic and peppers to the pan and cook gently until soft.

6.       Stir in bay leaves, thyme and paprika and fry for about 1 minute.

7.       Add the chopped tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through.

8.       Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Many families struggle with putting together a healthy meal with limited time.  To help make it work, prepare your menu on the weekend allowing you the time to reflect and plan accordingly.  Looking at your schedule you can determine how much time you have on the various evenings, allowing you to plan appropriately.  Join us for our recipe competition on Facebook to find other great recipes for you and your family.  Learn more about Spanish for kids at Tap Peques.

CONECTATE CON TUS HIJOS

“Si quieres aprender una de las mejores, mas rapidas y efectivas lecciones de humildad y subordinacion, coviertete en papa o mama”

Asi es como Gaby Vargas inicia el capitulo sobre “Conectate con tus hijos” en su libro Conectate.

En Diciembre del ano pasado me encontre con el libro de Gaby Vargas, CONECTATE, y realmente fue un encuentro porque yo en realidad estaba buscando un bloqueador ya que estaba de vacaciones en una de las hermosas playas de mi querido Mexico. Asi es, tal vez el hermoso detalle de una pequena gota de agua en una hoja verde en su portada, su titulo CONECTATE, y por supuesto el sello de garantia de Gaby Vargas, me hizo determe y comparlo de inmediato.

Que mejor escenario que las playas de Mexico para leer un libro como este. Realmente me cambio mi vacaciones no podia parar de leer, pero claro que puse varias pausas porque que una de las razones mas importantes de estar ahi era … conectarme… con mi familia, especialmente con mis padres a quienes no habia visto en varios meses. Lo mejor fue, que a mi regreso a la Ciudad de Mexico me dio una fuerte gripa, si, digo que bueno porque esa fue la unica forma de terminar de leer mi libro.

Gaby Vargas dice : “Los papas somos los que contribuimos en mayor grado a definir el tipo de mirada que se forma en nuestros hijos”.

Vaya tarea!!  Como lograrlo?

Gaby, maneja el tema con una gran delicadeza, certeza y a traves de algunas anecdotas nos deja ver lo sencilla y enriquecedora que seria la vida si vivieramos mas tranquilos, presentes y sin el constante bombardeo de informacion.

En lo personal creo que el hecho de que a traves de la tecnologia tengamos acceso a tanta y variada informacion, que nos da flexibilidad en tiempo y espacio es una maravilla que tenemos el honor de estar viviendo. Recuerdo un comentario de un “bookseller” en la reunion anual de la “Canadian booksellers Association” dijo, la tranformacion tecnologica en la industria del libro que estamos viviendo podria asimilarse a la transformacion del pergamino al libro. Todo cambio implica aprendizaje y adaptacion. Quiza los papas aun estamos inmersos y no dejamos de sorprendernos de esta maravilla tecnologica que no hemos aprendido a adaptarnos y poner en orden nuestras prioridades?

LA IMPORTANCIA DE UN ESCARABAJO

Un nino muy feliz entra a la casa para ensenarle a su mama unos escarabajos que encontro, “mira, mira, mami, ya viste sus colores?, No estan padrisimos?, pero lo unico que ve la mama es la posibilidad de que su casa se llene de bichos…..” y el nino dice… ni siquiera viste los tonos que tienen sus alas… y la mama le dice con enfado, lo bichos viven afuera.

PAPAS: DONDE ESTAMOS?

En otro de sus libros Quiubole con…. Gaby Vargas llega a la conclusion de que los jovenes no se sienten vistos. No se sienten escuchados. Se sienten abandonados emocionalmente.

Papas, despertemos!!. Cuando estamos presentes, no estamos en realidad, Siempre hay un cellular, un correo electronico que contestar, o bien, una novela que atender.  Somos una especie de agentes de trafico? Si … nuestra “comunicacion” se basa en preguntas, A donde vas? Hiciste tu tarea?, etc Claro sin contar que muchas veces lo hacemos por medio del celular.  

A eso le podemos llamar comunicacion? Sin por supuesto contar el hecho de que muchos de los hispanos que vivimos en Canada manejamos espanol, ingles y a veces hasta un tercer o cuarto idioma en casa.

Tal vez es momento de tomar un respiro, hacer una pausa, y reorganizar nuestras prioridades?

Cuanto tiempo te comunicas con tus hijos al dia?

En que idioma te sientes mas comodo para comunicarte con tus hijos?

Nos encantaria conocer tu opinion

Celina Gutierrez

Tap Peques

10 Facts about the Spanish Language

The worldwide map is full of interesting, diverse cultures with many rich and deep heritages.  Languages are one of the differentiators of various areas, but many people wonder if the Spanish Language is continuing to grow or where it ranks in the world of languages.  We have put together some facts from research we have completed.  Here are 10 facts that may interest you:

1.Spanish ranks as the world's No. 2 language in terms of how many people speak it as their first language.

2.Approximately 100 million people speak Spanish as a second language.

3.Second most important business language in the world after English.

4.Spanish Economy is the eight largest in the world.

5.Spanish is the fastest growing language. 

6.Spanish is second only to Mandarin by number of native speakers.

7.In the U.S. it is estimated that over 45 Million use Spanish as their first language.

8.After Latin, the language that has had the biggest influence on Spanish is Arabic.

9.Spanish is expected to be the first language of 50% of the population of the United States within 50 years.

10.Spanish is the most popular foreign language to learn in America and Europe.

The Spanish Language is growing in importance and some projections have stated that in the U.S. it will represent 50% of the population within the next 50 years.  This aggressive growth can be attributed to the growth in the global economy and the continued immigration to the United States.  It is important for our children to have the opportunity to have successful careers in the future, so it may be advantageous to have them learn the Spanish Language.  In Canada, Spanish still trails far behind English and French, but many people are looking to grow their knowledge of Spanish to expand their knowledge.  When looking for your Spanish Language books for kids, look no further then http://www.tappeques.com/