Poetry Reading

We started going to the Blue Manatee Book Store once a  month for a homeschool poetry reading.  Each month the kids can read their own poems, read one from a book, or recite from memory.  This is great for practicing public speaking as well as a great place to share what they are learning about.  It is always a rush to get down there and its always on a busy day, but once we get there, we are always happy that we went.

As a new homeschooling family, we are trying to find things that fit with our schedule, and make the kids feel like they aren't "schooling" as much as they are just celebrating who they are and what they are interested in.  We were working on a unit study of ocean animals.  I let the kids pick any ocean animal that interested them and then let them explore.  It was amazing to see their brains open with knowledge as they studied these animals.  They were so excited to share each and every fact they were learning.  They wrote paragraphs and poems, made skeletal drawings as well as a habitat drawing.  None of them realized that they were really schooling in the process.  To them, it was just fun and interesting projects.  The kids, all with great pride, stood up in front of their peers and read the beautiful poems that they had written about their sea creatures.   As a parent, it was so wonderful watching them get to share their new-found knowledge and have all their friends clap for them.  I couldn't be more proud.  Slowly, but surely, I am finding my confidence in teaching my children at home.  I feel like I am starting all over myself, suddenly seeing the world through the eyes of my children.  There is so much to learn that I have missed.  It's funny, I hated school as a kid, but suddenly, I love learning.  I guess I have my kids to thank for that. :)

Monica (the mom)

All about Sea Horses

By: Claire

Who's that peeking out of the reef, it's a sea horse what do you think.

Sea horses don't have scales, but they do have prehensile tails.

What I know is super cool, sea horses don't live in schools.

When sea horses are 6 months old, they find a mate or so I'm told.

Sea horses swallow their food whole, so they don't need a spoon and a bowl.

They have 3 fins so to roam; sea horses call the ocean home.

Now that my poems at an end, I hope you will read it again.

Caterpillar, Caterpillar

by Guadalupe, Sebastian, Mommy

Caterpillar, Caterpillar with tickly feet.

Caterpillar, Caterpillar ready to eat.

Caterpillar, Caterpillar make a shell.

Caterpillar, Caterpillar sleep so well.

Caterpillar, Caterpillar say bye-bye.

Butterfly, Butterfly fly so high.

Caterpillar, Caterpillar as performed by Guadalupe

Kateri and Guadalupe with an impromptu Spring poem

Guadalupe Gallery Update

New patriotic artwork at Guadalupe's Gallery depicting the story of when the Star Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key

Holy Week

This week during Holy Week we went to my Gramma's house.  We went to a whole new church to experience Holy Week.  On Palm Sunday, we went to see our Aunt and went to a church in Columbus named St. Matthew.  At St. Matthew's, the church was really big and there was a lot of woodwork, especially on the altar.  When we walked up to the church doors, everyone was standing outside.  We processed into the church holding our palms. 

What was cool was that when we read the gospel, we couldn't see the priest so it sounded truly like God, but that was only because we were in the back row!

On Good Friday, we made a special Good Friday lunch that related to the scriptures.  Zebedee (my dad), read each part of the story while my mom fixed the plates.  My favorite was the olives, because I love them.  The olives represented the Garden scene where Jesus is arrested at the Mount of Olives.  We also had little crown of thorns with ritz crackers, peanut butter, and broken pretzels for the thorns.  Mom said she got the idea from CatholicIcing.com which is one of our favorite spots to check out cool crafts.

Crown of thorns from the Good Friday lunch

This Easter we decided to do something new.  Instead of the Easter bunny giving presents to us, Guadalupe wrote a letter the Easter bunny telling him that since we already know and love Jesus, that he should give our Easter baskets to other kids who don't know about Jesus.  Sebastian didn't like that though, so mom and dad decided to get us some presents instead.  Our favorite present was duct tape.  After the Easter party, I went up into the room I was sleeping in and made duct tape book marks.  I will show you a tutorial later.

Hope you have a blessed Easter Season-Alleluia!

Claire

Kateri excited about the Easter Egg hunt at Gramma's

Mini-Francis inspecting her find

Guadalupe carefully checking the contents of the eggs

Sebastian was thrilled to find these Binoculars with digital camera

Claire showing off Easter Egg contents

National Museum of the United States Air Force for Homeschool Day

Claire - About a week ago we went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force for Homeschool Day. The National Museum of the United States Air Force is free all the time and will have special events year round. We went on a tour and that was fun, our tour guide was really funny.  If you ever go, try to do a tour for me.  Next time I go, I want to do the tour again. We also did classes.  Sadly classes are just on Homeschool Day, but my friend and I got to go to a laser class.  If you know anybody or anywhere that sells inexpensive lasers please post down below.

Sebastian Speaks - The person who spoke to us about boomerangs, Gary Broadbent, holds 5 world records. One was that he holds the biggest collection of boomerangs in the world, over 15 thousand of them.  I think that is a big number.  And he also holds the record for how long a boomerang can stay in that air.  It was 10 seconds but he made it to 15 minutes and 54 seconds.  He doesn't buy his boomerangs.  He is an artist so he makes his boomerangs.  If you want a boomerang to stay up a long way, make one side long and one side short.  You can check out his boomerangs or see some of his videos on YouTube.

Broadbent Boomerangs

National Museum of the United States Air Force

Gary Broadent demonstrating his big boomerang.

Claire, Sebastian, and Guadalupe posing with Gary Broadbent

Zebedee's first post

I chose the name Zebedee for this blog because Zebedee was the father of the apostles James and John.  While the bible says little about him, he is generally believed to be a man of some means.  In Pope Benedict XVI's book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection, he suggests that it is likely that Zebedee provided for Jesus and the apostles as they traveled, and that he was the owner of the Upper Room where Christ instituted the Eucharist.  In the same way I see my role in the family partially as one who provides and is "left in the boat"so that others can grow closer to Christ.

I also have a personal blog at Light Our Legacy on more general topics like politics or current events, but when I post on matters of family or education, I'll post both here at Little Monsters and Light Our Legacy.

Claire's Bike Riding, April 2, 2014

Today I was riding my bike and we raised my seat.  Normally I can only get up the hill two houses.  Since we raised my seat, I was able to get 3 houses up.  I am really happy with my success today, because now I can keep up with Sebastian and my neighbor.  

When I was able to get up to the 3rd house, I had to push with all my might.  And I had to try a couple times to get to the 4th house.  Perseverance is like saying try, try again.  I had to persevere to get to the 4th house. I am really mad that it started to rain because I was having fun on the bike, but I had to come inside.

Claire

Cincinnati Ballet Company Field Trip, April 3, 2014

Cincinnati Ballet Company Field Trip, April 3, 2014

Guadalupe's Review:

I really really really really really liked the performance a lot, a really lot!

And I learned that they can stand still on their tippy-toes with shoes because there is something flat on the top, so they are real good at ballet.  

Sebastian Says:

Today at the Cincinnati Ballet, I learned that boy's shoes are much less expensive than girl's shoes and they last much longer.  Girls shoes last 45 minutes to 3 days at most.  And they cost about $100 each.  Boys shoes only cost $20 and they last for 3-6 months.  

I also learned that there are different levels of ballet.  You have to go up a level at least once a year or you're done.  We saw a 25 minute rehearsal.  I thought that was cool because most people don't get to see their practices.  

Claire's Review:

Today when I went to the Cincinnati Ballet Center, I was really amazed.  When we went to wardrobe the costumes were so beautiful.  And Cincinnati Ballet is one of the only companies that hand make their costumes.  Some of the costumes are rented to other businesses.  Some of the costumes are over 35 years old.  They are custom fitted to each ballerina, which sometimes means they have to alter them between performances. 

When I grow up, I would like to work for the Cincinnati Ballet. They do a lot of classics, like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, so I would know a few.  

Mom's Thoughts:

What a fun field trip to the Cincinnati Ballet Company.  The kids keep calling it Ballet with a hard "T".  It's cracking me up.  The whole organization was wonderful to all of us as we invaded their work day.  The kids even got to meet the Artistic Director who is one of the few women who manage a company over $7 million dollars.  She walked around on her phone with her little dog in tow.  She is a great example of hard work paying off as she gets to make so many of the decisions behind the theater including which shows they will perform.  

We got to watch a rehearsal for a contemporary ballet "Over the Rhine".  It was fun to watch a different type of movement other than what we typically think of ballet.  Mini-Francis made herself known in the performance as she yelled out to the cast members while they were dancing.  She was meet with smiles all around.  I am sure that once in awhile they welcome the distraction.  The dancers practice from 9 am until about 6:15 pm with one hour for lunch and a 5 minute break each hour. 

I sure wish motherhood allowed for a break every hour :)

For more information on the show-here's the link.

https://www.cballet.org/

Here are some pictures from the field trip:

Girls watching the performance

Sebastian had the most questions of all 30 kids on the field trip. We got to ask questions to twin ballerinas who were also homeschooled!

Mini-Francis interrupting the show

Claire as the choreographer and Sebastian as the Master (made sure the dancers did what the choreographers said)

They gave each family a pair of "dead" shoes as a souvenir. Each shoe was signed by the dancer.