Family, children, parenting... fun stuff!

This is a super fun activity and totally worth your time preparing it for independent play at home.


We had a lot of fun making this rainbow rice sensory bin and both of my kids have been wanting to play with every day after we made it. Throw in a bunch of Easter eggs and you have an Easter activity.

### Facts

*   **Preparation time**: 15-20 min (plus 30-60 min to let it dry before playing)

*   **Age range**: 2 and up (younger ones may try to eat it instead of playing with it)

*   **Degree of parent involvement during the activity**: low

*   **Entertainment time**: My kids (2 and 4) will play with this rainbow rice sensory bin between 30 and 90 minutes at a time.

*   **Level of success**: high

### Materials

*   6 cups of [rice](https://geni.us/Ek4Oy6)

*   [Plastic storage bin](https://geni.us/Ypgeoys) (or any box without holes)

*   [Food coloring](https://geni.us/AE5GZ)

*   [White vinegar](https://geni.us/iMfBCtW)

*   An empty container with lid (to make the mix). We used an empty yogurt container

*   [Kitchen paper](https://geni.us/hHp5)

*   [Measuring cups](https://geni.us/axg1Z) (or small cups or spoons to play with)

*   [Easter eggs](https://geni.us/ZJlJnD) (optional)

### Steps

\*\*Step 1. \*\*Add 1 cup of white rice in the container to make the mix

\*\*Step 2. \*\*Add 1 tsp of white vinegar

**Step 3**. Add as much food coloring as you wish
![](/images/rice-sensory-bin1.jpg)

**Step 4**. Close and shake well. Open and be surprised

![](/images/rice-sensory-bin2.jpg)

**Step 5**. Lay the rice flat in a piece of kitchen paper. Let dry for at least 30 minutes or 1 hour

![](/images/rice-sensory-bin3.jpg)

Repeat steps 1-5 for each color of the rainbow or for each color you want to make.

**Step 6**. Mix dry rice in the box, add measuring cups and toys, and play!


Rainbow rice sensory bin 🌈

My husband and I are from Spain, he speaks fluent Spanish and English, and I speak fluent Spanish, Catalan, and English. Our daughters where born in California, and the oldest (almost 3) understands English and Spanish perfectly, although she mostly speaks in English. Grandpa keeps on asking ‘when is she going to start speaking Spanish?’. (Note: this has changed since I first started writing this blog post, a few weeks ago).

Of course we’d like our daughters to grow up bilingual – English and Spanish – but getting them to not only understand and speak but also properly learn the grammar of the language is not as easy as it seams. Like they say children are sponges and the sooner they get started learning a language the better but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to take a while for them to speak fluently the different languages they’re being exposed to.

How to encourage her to use Spanish at home? Is she going to speak Spanish or English with her sister? How much extra work is it going to be for them to learn Spanish grammar? Those are questions that I don’t have answers for yet. But I can share what we did and a few things that worked and didn’t work for us.

### Languages

*   **Spanish**: at home and with family

*   **English**: at school

*   **Catalan**: books, songs, and a few times a year when we visit family in Barcelona

*   **Mandarin**: during her first year at day care

### Chronology

*   **16 months**: she says three words, ‘agua’ in Spanish, ‘ball’ in English, and ‘thank you’ (xie xie) in Mandarin.

*   **17 months**: we spend a month in Spain and she starts gaining more and more vocabulary, mostly in Spanish.

*   **18 months**: back to the US, she starts gaining vocabulary in English.

*   **24 months**: we start pre-school (no more Mandarin, just English). At this point, she starts talking more and more, only English, and eventually she would start making full sentences.

*   **24 months to 32 months**: she still only speaks English but perfectly understands Spanish as well. Starts being able to explain things by using multiple sentences together.

*   **32 months**: we switch to watch TV only in Spanish. She starts repeating a lot of Spanish words.

*   **34 months**: we spend a month with family (Spanish only) and two weeks in Spain (she doesn’t go to pre-school during those two weeks). She starts making full sentences in Spanish. She’s able to switch between English and Spanish when family talks to her in Spanish. She’s able to translate things when you ask her to. She still only has a few words in Catalan.

### Tips

*   If parents speak different languages, stick to one language each.

*   Always speak in the same language to your child, like that’s the only language that you can speak. I have an American friend living in Barcelona whose son once asked him why his mom didn’t speak English like they did. Fun fact: she not only speaks English but another six languages.

*   Use TV and/or screen time to expose them to the language they get less exposure during the day. We saw a dramatic change!

*   If you speak to them in one language and they answer in a different one, translate what they said first, and then continue the conversation. This way they will hear it in the language they’re using less, and eventually will pick it up.



Tips for bilingual (and trilingual) families

When we first learned we were going to have a baby we had absolutely no idea what we had to buy. Crib, stroller… what else? I started researching online and found lists and checklists for the hospital, for the first month, for the first six months… It was overwhelming. We kind of ended up playing it by ear and it turned out ok.

Three years and two babies later, here’s a list of popular ‘baby essentials’ which, in our experience, are not very useful (or you can save quite a lot of money by getting / using an alternative product):

1.  **Expensive baby furniture.** Furniture for babies is way more expensive than regular furniture, why? Just because ‘aren’t you going to spend whatever is necessary in your baby, specially if it’s your first one?’ But here’s the trick: a dresser is a dresser no matter if it’s going to your room or to the baby’s room. Want to make sure your baby sleeps well? Spend more on the mattress, but probably don’t need a $800 crib. Changing tables? Buy changing path and use that same dresser instead of a piece of furniture you’re never going to use again when the baby is not a baby anymore.

2.  \*\*Baby food makers. \*\*A blender is all you need to make your baby’s purées and soups. Maybe a steamer if you want to save some time (or maybe you have a rice cooker with steamer already?).

3.  **Baby shoes.** Our first daughter didn’t start walking until she was 15 months old. Our first daughter didn’t start wearing shoes until she was 15 months old. Why? Because she didn’t need them.

![](/images/baby-not-so-essentials.jpg)

*Designed by* [*Freepik*](https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/pacifier-child-clothing-background-new\_1090314.htm)

4.  **Baby bathtubs**. They are bulky, expensive, and babies outgrow them pretty fast. There’s lots of alternatives to fancy ergonomic baby bathtubs (your actual bathtub? big bucket? set of extra hands?) and what matters most anyway is your baby being supervised by an adult during bath time.

5.  **Fancy bedding sets for the crib.** Bumpers and such are not recommended (to avoid baby from asphyxiating) but fancy bedding sets are not the best idea either. Do you really want to have to change its multiple pieces (sometimes multiple times a day) when your baby pukes / spits / pees on the bed (instead of only changing one bottom bedsheet)? I certainly don’t.

6.  **Wipe warmers**. It may be just me, but I didn’t even know this was a thing until a friend told me about it when my second girl was born. Babies do get upset when they get a diaper change some times, but does it really justify another old crock?

7.  **Baby monitor with video.** This may seem like a crazy one, but babies don’t move much. Baby monitors with video are usually three times more expensive, the quality of the video is not so good and once you don’t have a baby anymore, what do you do with them? [You could instead spend the money in monitors with sensors for movement or vitals. Or in a camera](https://teenymunchkins.com/2017/07/27/using-a-nest-cam-as-a-baby-monitor/) when they are a bit older and can actually move around.

8.  **Floor seats**. My child can’t hold her head yet, why would she want to seat on the floor (or just seat)? She’ll get there. Meanwhile, I’ll just enjoy the rest of her milestones.

9.  **Yet another baby blankets**. Although baby blankets are very cute and they make a nice baby shower gift, truth is you don’t need that many of them. With both of our girls we only really ended up using two out of the 10+ that we got at our baby shower. Swaddle muslins are kind of the same, you may need a few extra ones the first few weeks but after that, in our experience, one or two should be enough.

10.  \*\* Baby mittens\*\*. By the time they’re born babies are used to using their hands in the womb including sucking their thumb and touching their face. Scratches go away fast, so why would you not let them continue using their hands? Mittens fall off all the time anyway.

Were you ever convinced to buy that indispensable baby item which you did not use at all? Please leave a comment!


Top 10 least useful ‘baby essentials

Kids say the most funny things some times, like when our second daughter was born and our almost 3 year old introduced her to her baby doll:

> *Hi Layla, this is my baby doll, you guys are going to be friends*

I thought it was brilliant and couldn’t stop laughing about it. As parents, we do also find ourselves quite often in odd situations where we say surreal things to our children.

![](/images/surreal-things-we-say-to-our-kids.jpg)

*Designed by *[*Freepik*](https://www.freepik.com/)

I’m part of a Facebook group called ‘[Moms in tech](https://www.facebook.com/groups/momsintechgroup)‘, and a few weeks ago there was a hilarious thread about unbelievable things that we’ve said to our kids.

Here’s my top 10:

> We don’t ride the baby (to a toddler when baby brother started crawling).

> No yoga during baseball.

> Cover your mouth when you sneeze, no not with your sister’s head.

> Yes, I know Nana doesn’t, but *you* have to wear underwear to bed.

> Don’t worry, dreams don’t come true (after waking up in the middle of a nightmare).

> It’s not a Volvo (we have a Volvo), it’s a vulva, and please take your hands off of it when you’re in a place with other people.

> I am okay with you jiggling my belly fat if I can sleep 5 more minutes.

> Ok sure, we live on Saturn not Earth, now please go to sleep.

> Stop using the force on me, and eat your lunch!

And finally, my favorite one because we use it quite a lot:

> You can’t have dessert until you finish your pizza.

What are some surreal things that you’ve said to your kids?


Surreal things we say to our kids

When I was a kid I loved making planets. I used styrofoam balls and covered them with some sort of textured paint (I can’t remember what it was) and then acrylic paint. It was the best. My oldest daughter name is ‘Mar’ which means ‘sea’ in Spanish but also she thinks she has her own planet: Mars. So when I suggested this idea, she got really excited about it. Since I didn’t have styrofoam balls or a newspaper to make a papier mache one, I decided to improvise with what I had. It turned out pretty good.

### Facts

*   **Preparation time**: n/a

*   **Age range**: 4 and older

*   **Degree of parent involvement during activity**: high

*   **Entertainment time**: 1-2 hours split in 2 different days

*   **Level of success**: high

### Materials

*   A balloon

*   [Paper](https://geni.us/rUG5Ue) – This is the one we used, but I’d say the thinner the better

*   [Kids scissors](https://geni.us/rlBNl)

*   [Mod Podge](https://geni.us/Zgzig) – We used the one with matte finish

*   [Acrylic paint](https://geni.us/goeD)

*   Brushes for the paint and also to apply the Mod Podge

### Steps

**Step 1**. Cut the paper into squares like this

![](/images/mars-planet1.jpeg)

**Step 2**. Inflate the balloon

**Step 3**. Stick the pieces of paper with Mod Podge completely covering the balloon (except the top, so you can still hold it). The paper we used was pretty thick, so we only applied two layers. With thinner paper (e.g. newspaper), you’d probably want to apply three or four layers, but it will also look better (less rough). When we finished applying the layers, we let it dry until the next day. It look like this:

![](/images/mars-planet2.jpeg)

**Step 4**. Once the paper is completely dry it’s time to pop the balloon.

**Step 5**. Paint it with acrylic paint. Get creative, go crazy.

![](/images/mars-planet3.jpeg)

We had a goal in mind, Mars. So we used a picture to get some inspiration.

![](/images/mars-planet4.jpeg)

**Step 6**. Let dry and it’s ready to hang in your room (or wherever you want :)).

![](/images/mars-planet5-fb18f694.jpeg)

We paired this craft with watching a video about [Mars Facts for Kids](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrMo1ohW3Iw). My four and a half year old absolutely loved this activity and we learned lots of new things about her favorite planet.



Activities & adventures

Rainbow rice sensory bin 🌈

Tips for bilingual (and trilingual) families

Top 10 least useful ‘baby essentials

Surreal things we say to our kids

Making a Planet with Mod Podge

Home

Activities & adventures

Rainbow rice sensory bin 🌈

Tips for bilingual (and trilingual) families

Top 10 least useful ‘baby essentials

Surreal things we say to our kids

Making a Planet with Mod Podge