National Hispanic Heritage Month is the period of time from September 15 to October 15 for recognizing the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements in the United States. I love celebrating this month with my family, because when I was growing up, I thought "Hispanic" meant "you’re from Mexico." I knew very little about Puerto Rico, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Colombia. Argentina, and a lot of the other modern Hispanic counties and cultures. So the kids and I are learning together, year after year!
In our homeschool last year, we used the recognition month to read new books, make alfajores for the first time, cook arroz con pollo, paint Chilean “statues” like the ones on Easter Island (a fun activity we did at the Bush library), see "Carmela Full of Wishes" at Main Street Theater in Houston, make Mexican pinch pots, and more!
See my first photo at the beginning of this article. The Mexican pinch pots are super easy to make. We bought Crayola air dry clay and this inexpensive set of Crayola acrylic paints, and we found an instructional YouTube video (dozens, actually), and the project was easy peasy! Note: The Crayola paints are a 6-pack of basic colors, and that's all you need. We mixed colors to make every other color we wanted to use, so it ended up being a great lesson in building secondary and tertiary colors.
Earlier this month, I reserved some recommended books from our library, and we picked up most of them today. The covers and illustrations on each of the books are vibrant and compelling. We've already read the one about Selena (the singer), and I can't wait to dig into the rest! We checked out the following picture books:
- Pepe and the Parade
- Celia Cruz Queen of Salsa
- Dancing Hands
- Island Born, Selena
- Carmela Full of Wishes
- Plátanos go with Everything
- Coquí in the City
We also got a couple chapter books / novels: Esperanza Rising and Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring. NOTE: With my library card, I accessed my library account online at CountyLibrary.org, and reserved the books on Friday, and most were ready for pickup today (Monday)! Now that's fast service!
For movie night one weekend, we watched Coco and Encanto (again), and at some point before the month was out we made the trip to Paco Pops in Porter for paletas! (Try saying that 3 times fast!)
One Saturday evening, we'll headed down to Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston for a night of high enegy and family entertainment with Salsa y Salud, featuring live music, choreography, and a cast of over 20 artists. All concerts at Miller Outdoor Theater are free! For 2024, the Salsa y Salud event is September 28, 2024.
Oh, and several of the food trucks in the Gosling Road food truck park (24600 Gosling Rd) sell pupusas and a variety of Latin American foods, so why not give them a try!
Oh, and several of the food trucks in the Gosling Road food truck park (24600 Gosling Rd) sell pupusas and a variety of Latin American foods, so why not give them a try!
Lastly, whenever we piled up in the van and drove somwhere that month, we enjoyed jamming out to Latin American music. Carlos Santana is a longtime fave of mine, and my girls really like the song Soy Yo (I think they learned it from the movie Sing 2).
All in all, it was a fun month as we celebrated Hispanic culture, and I just wanted to share in case you'd like to give any of these ideas a try! This year, we'll be adding Xalisko to our places-to-eat list, because we discovered them earlier this year, and their food was phenomenal! They're a Mexican restaurant that offers contemporary and traditional dishes, creative cocktails, and catering services. They also feature live music some nights.
Finally, Amazon has an extensive collection of fun and colorful t-shirts to wear for celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. In my opinion, these shirtws pair well with blue jeans! Click the image below for more.
*If you use any links on the page to make a purchase, I might be eligible for a small commission at no cost to you.
