Weekly Favorites 1/18

Here are some of my favorite reads this week:

Education

My son loved this worksheet! It's a great starting point to learn how to read a clock: Telling time preschool worksheets

When considering what skills my son (and the kids of his generation) would need to get a great career, one cannot ignore the fact that AI and robots will be taking over a lot of jobs by the time they grow up (probably even sooner). Even the skills currently in need or popular to study may not be so in the future. I love the conclusion, though, that we need real physical experiences to stay ahead of AI and robots in the article

The skills your kids should cultivate to be competitive in the age of automation 

Mind

I'm a very typical introvert. I do like my introverted nature most of the time but many other times I wish things were a little different. So it's nice to be reminded of positive aspects of being an introvert in The 12 Gifts Of Introversion 

Learning Spanish

My Spanish skills are not so great yet but hopefully soon I can learn more natural conversation from one of these shows: Top 5  Spanish TV shows that will let you learn  Spaish on your couch

Books

One of my goals last year was to squeeze in some reading time for enjoyment, even for a few minutes, everyday, because I felt like I hadn't done anything just for fun in a long while. Happily I was actually able to finish a few novels last year (which you can see in my read list on Goodreads or in the sidebar on my blog). The Perfume Collector is the most recent one I've finished reading and I loved it! It involves a woman who receied inheritance from a woman she didn't know. She went out to Paris to find out about her inheritance and this woman. Her story is beautifully intertwined with the story of this woman. It was actually not that difficult to guess who this woman was but you'd still want to know how and why. And the reference to perfume and scents was just fascinating for someone like me who used to own a collection of perfume.

If you liked these stories don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flipboard to get notified as soon as I share them. Have a wonderful day :)

The Moon Is La Luna

Ever since I showed him Dora the Explore, Little Guy became obssessed with the show (and the Go Diego Go series) and interested in learning Spanish. I don't know what fascinated him so much but these two shows are his current favorites. Perhaps he can identify himself with the kids who speak (and mix) different languages? I know these shows won't make kids actual Spanish speakers right away but he's learned quite a few Spanish words from the show and always asks "what do you say (so and so) in Spanish?" (and we ask the same question to trusted google to get the answer). They definitely helped him interested in learning Spanish.

Now after learning various Spanish words I feel we're ready to read children's books that are written in Spanish and English together to advance our knowledge of the Spanish language. One of those books I found is called The Moon Is La Luna written by Jay M. Harris.

The book contains several silly rhymes that use a mix of English and Spanish, many of which with the words that sound similar in both languages but mean quite different things. For example, una flor in Spanish sounds like the floor in English. Frankly some of the rhymes didn't quite make sense to me but I found many others entertaining and quite funny. My son's favorites that always induce giggles are: Pies in Spanish are feet! (with a funny picture of a foot and a pie) or the one that writes papá means "dad" but papa means "potato" and it goes "so watch how you say it, unless you would like a potato to tuck you in bed".

Again this won't make you a fluent Spanish speaker right away but it's really a fun book for those who are interested in learning Spanish. It certainly made my son more interested in learning the language even further.