It was quite a while ago that we had a day when we pretended to travel to Spain, in preparation for our real trip to Spain at Easter. My friend recently contacted me to ask for some ideas for her own Spanish day and the summer has been so drab and grey at home in the UK so far that I was inspired to write it up in the hope of magicking up some sunshine! You can read more about our further Mediterranean adventures here.
We wore
My uncle lives in Spain and on our last visit there we bought Penny a traditional Spanish dress (and shoes) so she was ready to go! Next time I’m getting Freddie a bull fighters costume! I might get some Bull horns for the cat and the dog too.
Learning the Language
Penny had been learning some Spanish at school and so I popped onto www.amazon.co.uk and bought some Spanish work books. She really really enjoyed them and she also took them with her when we then actually flew to Spain. She learned colours and numbers and to order an apple juice – it was genuinely really fun!
Freddie isn’t quite (!) at that stage yet so, I also printed off some pictures for them to colour. He enjoyed colouring in the Mexican masks and some Picasso pictures too. Penny joined in the with colouring and they had a lovely time!
Lunch
I made a Paella for lunch – both kids like rice, but I bought chose a chicken one as they can be a bit funny about seafood. We also bough a nice Spanish custardy dessert too which went down very well. Lidl and Aldi are excellent for food from different places and both kids had enjoyed the trip to buy the food a couple of days before.
We watched
I asked my friend, a Spanish teacher, the best movie to watch and she suggested Coco (although, again, it is strictly Mexican). Penny absolutely loved the movie and so did I! We were both in tears at the end and it had such a fantastic message. Penny vowed solemnly to remember us all forever and it was just a lovely moment.
After the movie we found the sound track in Spanish and listened to that which was awesome. In fact we have been listening to the sound track in the car ever since. Its getting a bit annoying now!
We played!
We bought a pinata (again – Mexican!) and filled it with glitter and sweets. Freddie loved this game and it was really something he could understand and join in with. Looking at the photos now, I can’t believe how little he looks – he even has a dummy in and that is long done since a trip to the dentist scared me.
We then went to a local park, near where we were going for dinner, and played some football – because that is definitely something we associate with Spain and for sure they have some of the worlds best football teams. We like to get outside as much as we can as a family – I had looked into horse riding as another possibility as I do associate this with Spain too – although I’m not very sure why…
Tapas Tapas
There is a fab restaurant called Tapas Tapas in Waterloo which is about 15 minutes drive from my house. We met up with granddad and had a great time there and the kids loved all the little dishes to try. Penny and Freddie both really liked the meatballs and the patatas bravas and so it was great for getting them to explore food. Penny was also still obsessed with her Spanish lessons and and her colouring and so was very occupied. Freddie wanted to help to cook the Tapas I think!
Bedtime
I had bought some Spanish bedtime stories and we chose the Cat in the Hat because we already really like it in English. It was fun to listen to and because we know the story – Penny was able to recognise some of the words.
