Pope Francis Comes to Visit

Okay, well not to our house specifically, but he came to visit the US.  I decided that was something worth celebrating.  Inspiration struck in the middle of the night which resulted in paint and a giant poster.  Even though a road trip to Philadelphia wasn't on our schedule, we were still able to welcome him into our home.  I came up with a few fun ideas for the week so that we could welcome a guest, learn about him and his culture, and have some fun in the process.  This is one of those weeks that homeschooling allowed us to shift gears completely and learn something we hadn't planned.

 The kids woke up to this fun surprise in the morning.

We cleaned the house and made decorations for our visitor.

 We spent time working on learning all about Pope Francis.  We studied his career leading up to the papcy.  Here is Kateri showing off her artwork of his Pectoral Cross that he carries.

  

 Sebastian enjoyed working on his project.  He was learning all about the the outfit the Pope wears.  He was surprised how many pieces of clothes he had to wear!

Getting to research on the internet is always fun. 

                 

I found a great resource on TeacherPayTeachers.com for the kids to learn about the Pope.

 We made the most of our week by celebrating Mass and praying for the Holy Father intentions.  We also made a feast of some favorite foods from Argentina.

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

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.

Meet the Monsters

The Meet the Monsters page, linked at the top has been updated with short descriptions of each of us.  Check it out to learn more about each of us.

Banking

Today is the second month that we have had a bank account.  My mom is trying to teach us about earning money, called interest, by keeping our money in the bank.  We opened a savings account with our savings money from our allowance.  So far I haven't earned any interest on my savings account, but did earn some on my college account that my mom and dad started for me.  

We are going to the bank again today to put more money in our savings and college accounts.  I can't wait to find out if I earned any more interest.  I am kinda feeling weird about going to the bank because I have no idea why.  

My mom makes me split my allowance money because I don't want to put it all in savings and have no money for college and then be 17 and be like, what do I do or how do I get more money.  So she wants me to save up money so I don't do that.  

I earn a $1 for each year of age that I am, every two weeks.  She says that is because she and daddy don't get paid every week, so we don't get paid every week.  I have to do lots of chores to earn my money like doing the dishwasher.  And cleaning the basement.  And putting away books. 

Well, we are off to the bank. 

Sebastian