Homeschooling and Finding a Community for Support

November is a terribly busy month for me. We celebrated my second son's birthday this month and I'm almost ready to pop (39 weeks and counting)! I've been trying to finish as many pending tasks and projects both in our homeschool and at home. But November is also a special month because of these two communities/groups that I am a part of. I'm writing this post to express my gratitude to God for leading me to these communities/groups and for the wonderful people I have 'met' in these groups.

The first homeschool support group I became a part of was ROCKERS. I learned about this group through Teacher Mama Tina. ROCKERS stand for Roman Catholics Keeping Education Real. It's composed of Catholic parents who are currently homeschooling their kids, who previously homeschooled their kids or are still discerning about homeschooling. We recently had our All Saints' Day gathering/party and I am very thankful to God for the blessing that this community is to me and my family.

Our little saints during the ROCKERS All Saints' Day Party.

The second homeschool support group that I'm a part of is the Gifted HomeschoolersForum (GHF). GHF is composed of families/parents who are raising and homeschooling gifted kids, twice exceptional kids and/or are gifted themselves. GHF is celebrating its 10th year anniversary of being of service to families of gifted children worldwide this year. 

Click here to read the blog posts of the other bloggers in this group. 

Both are online communities or groups but I find these groups very helpful. 

What I love about the members of these two communities/groups are their PASSION and DEDICATION.

I am inspired and encouraged by the stories that my fellow parents from ROCKERS share on how they live out their Catholic faith through their homeschool journey with their kids. I am very grateful to God for leading me to this community of believers who choose to make the teaching of their Catholic faith an essential part of their children's education. Like most of them, I believe that our faith should be the bedrock or foundation of my kids' education for the love and fear of the Lord is the source of all wisdom. I want my children to learn even at an early age to always turn to God first and to the Catholic Church for guidance in their decision-making. This is one of my main reasons for homeschooling my kids because I have learned through the years that there are times in our lives when we make decisions that are not considered rational or wise by worldly standards. There are many decisions that we make based on faith and if we are to live radical lives for God, a lot of times, God would give us opportunities to walk by faith and not by sight. That's what I love about being a Catholic homeschooler and being part of ROCKERS. The passion and dedication of the parents in this group to raise little saints for God and to pass on their Catholic faith to their children is contagious. The fire of their devotion to pass on this legacy of faith to their children inspires me and affirms me that I'm on the right path. 

I am also inspired and encouraged by the stories that my fellow parents from GHF share or blog about. I learn a lot from them about giftedness and how to accept, embrace and advocate for the special needs of gifted children. I love the courage that many of these parents show by their words and by the way they choose to live their lives. I once heard someone say that only a pilot would really know/understand what it means to be up in the air. I think this metaphor applies to families with at least one gifted kid in it. Only parents who are caring, raising, homeschooling gifted kids would really understand the unique and special needs, challenges and joys of other parents who have gifted children. I remember when my eldest son was still a little over two years old... it must be my mother's instinct or intuition that moved me to search for answers and expert advice when I started to notice that my son is not typical. It must have been this same intuition that made me consider the possibility that my child is developing way too fast for his biological age. Thank God that I had the courage to act on that intuition! The developmental pediatrician's assessment affirmed my hunch that my child is in the gifted spectrum. When I somehow panicked because my two year old was already learning and mastering preschool and kinder materials, some parents told me to take it easy and slowly. Believe me, that's what I wanted to do! But, what does a parent do when it is the child pushing you to move at a faster pace? That's why I'm grateful my husband and I discovered homeschooling! We can provide our eldest son with materials and lessons that he is ready for and eager to devour at his own pace. We need not limit him based on his biological age. I'm glad I found other parents who understood my concerns and my quest for seeking answers on how to feed my eldest son's curiosity and intensity. I'm delighted to discover that I am not alone in my concerns for my gifted child. That I'm not alone in my challenges of understanding giftedness and how as a family we can make this work.

Choosing to homeschool your children makes you part of the minority. Homeschooling a gifted child makes you part of an even smaller group of people! Thus, I consider it a big blessing to have found these communities and to be getting support from the people who make up this group. 

Are you homeschooling your child, too? Have you found the community or group that supports your decision and lifestyle? I hope so. If not, I invite to join any of these communities/groups that I am a part of. 

Mommy TG's Maid Manual: Maid Orientation Materials (Download it for FREE!)

I'm now 39 weeks pregnant and I can feel the heaviness already. I'm so thankful that finally, I was able to finish one of the projects in my to-do list before I give birth -- our very own maid manual!

I first started putting house rules and guidelines for our maids in writing years ago when we had our first baby. It was quite a challenge to find reliable maids/helpers. Maids come and go... very quickly. Some stay only for a few days, weeks or months. We only had a few maids who stayed for around a year. Thus, the need to come up with an orientation checklist for maids arose since I orient newly-hired maids quite often. Having a ready checklist of things to discuss whenever there is a new hire lessened my stress and helped me save time and energy. This could have been influenced by my work background as a human resource professional. ;)

Anyway, so I put together a list of things to discuss to our newly-hired maids. This included house rules, basic duties and guidelines on how to clean rooms in the house, how to wash the eating utensils properly and their daily/weekly schedule. My orientation materials for our maids have evolved over the years as we experienced more maid horror stories and as more kids were added to our family.

Since I'm giving birth to our third child soon, I thought that it would make our lives easier by updating our maid manual/orientation checklist. I want to empower my husband and our maids through this updated manual. I believe that making this manual available to them would help our maids work more independently and help my husband supervise them while I'm on maternity leave. Finishing this project also gives me a sense of peace and fulfillment knowing that these materials would somehow help keep our household in order. I want to have more time taking care of our newborn baby and I don't want to be stressed or bogged down by tasks that I can delegate to my husband or maids through this manual. 

I have included in this manual our employment policies for maids, house rules, dishwashing procedures, cleaning procedures for the different rooms in the house, what to prepare when going out with kids/baby and sample daily/weekly schedule for maids. This maid manual is a perfect complement to my 4-week cycle menu. (You may also download it for FREE if you want. Click here to sign up for it.)

This maid manual/orientation materials had been a big help to me over the years. I'm sharing it here with my blog readers so I can help busy moms like me better manage their households.

I know that as a family gets bigger, the need to be more organized becomes more crucial in successfully managing our almost endless tasks, especially for busy mompreneurs and homeschooling moms like me. And with the addition of a new baby soon, I will be busy with breastfeeding duties as well.

I hope that this manual would bless you and your family as you use it. Feel free to use it as is or to modify it to suit your unique needs/family situation.

Mateo's Construction-Themed Birthday Party

I'm still high from the success of Mateo's construction-themed birthday party last weekend! I continue to savor the experience by looking at the photos.

All my hard work paid off after hearing my son say that he enjoyed his birthday party and that it was his high point that day. I was also happy to witness him enjoy interacting with his guests and playmates.

I wanted so much to make his third birthday extra special and memorable because he will be a big brother soon. I'm now on my 38th week of pregnancy and I could give birth anytime. We scheduled his party during the weekend and a few days earlier than his actual birthday so that his playmates who go to school can attend and so that our close relatives and friends could also join us in the celebration.

Thank God for the internet and the abundance of ideas that inspired me in planning and preparing for this construction-themed birthday party! My husband and I didn't want to spend too much since I would be giving birth soon. But I also want to make my son's birthday celebration a very nice one even with a limited budget; thus, I chose the DIY route for most of the birthday decor.

Why construction-themed?

First, let me share why I chose this theme for my son's third birthday. I chose this theme mainly because Mateo likes construction trucks, particularly bull dozers, backhoes and cement mixers. It could be because he saw these trucks (bulldozer and backhoe) when we moved to our new residence last year. There was still a lot of construction going on in our subdivision when we moved in and these trucks were going around our subdivision often in the past year. His interest prompted me to buy him books about construction trucks and to point out to him other construction equipment. We would also count cement mixers whenever we see them on the road while travelling. 


Invitation

I made our own invitations. I drew inspiration from the many invitations I saw in the internet. I picked up the ideas that I liked and put them together. I used Power Point to do this invitation. Then, I sent the invitations through Facebook or email. I also sent text messages.


I typed our address on the Job Site column and
my mobile number in the Report To column.

I printed hard copies and placed them in envelopes for our neighbors and guests from the parish.

Decors, Games and Activities
 



Mateo sits by the construction area before his
construction crew (also the demolition crew) arrived.

Both of my sons enjoy playing pretend with their construction toys. They would spend hours imagining and building whatever they want to be part of their construction site or play area. Thus, I knew right away that one of the activities that I would include during my younger son's birthday celebration is letting the children play with construction toys. I planned to set up a construction area/site for them. Since my boys love playing with these toys, they have accumulated quite a number of toys that can be used for this purpose. I simply gathered their toys and added additional props and signs to imitate the safety signs in construction areas.

I bought a few additional toys for their pretend play like hard hats and belts that builders or workers use to carry their tools.
 

The birthday boy in the middle with his construction crew!

I printed this out to remind the boys who can already read
and their nannies/parents while they are at play.

The construction site was such a hit to the kids! The kids spent hours playing pretend during the party. There were even a few who almost didn't want to go home! The kids played there as soon as they finished eating.

I prepared a cartolina where our little guests can stamp their handprints and write their names as soon as they arrive in our party zone.

They are given IDs after this so they can enter the construction site. ;)

 

I printed construction-themed coloring pages to keep the kids busy while waiting for the games to start and after eating. I got these free printable from this website.

I printed a maze sheet that kids can answer. I got this from my son's construction activity book. And I brought out these books for the kids to read. 

 

I only planned three games for the party. These were: construction tools relay game, pin the nail to the hammer and trip around the construction site.

Here are the mechanics for the games:

Construction tools relay:
 

1. There should be two teams composed of 2-3 players. The members should line up and take turns doing the tasks.

2. Their task is to first wear the hard hat, then wear the belt with tools around their waist, unscrew the washer from the screw, put the screw and washer back to the aluminum foil, go around the chair, take off the hard hat and belt, put these back in the other chair, go back to their teammate and tap their teammate to do the same series of tasks.

3. The first team to complete the relay wins the game.

Pin the nail to the hammer:
 

1. I printed a hammer clipart and glued it on a colored paper.

2. I also printed nails and cut them out.

3. We blindfolded the kids and gave each one of them a nail that they can stick to the hammer photo.

4. The kid who is able to stick the nail closest to the hammer wins the game.

Trip around the construction site:
 

1. I printed out photos of construction trucks and nails.

2. A photo is taped on the backrest of each chair that will be used for the game.

3. We taped photos of nails on two chairs so that every time the music stops, two kids will be out of the game.

4. There will be the same number of chairs as the kids participating in the game.

5. Music like the birthday song would be played for this game.

5. Kids will dance around the chairs while the music is playing and will stop to sit on chairs when the music stops.

6. The kids who happen to sit on chairs with photos of nails will be out of the game.

7. Two chairs with photos of construction trucks will be removed for the succeeding rounds.

8. When only 3 players are left, there should be two chairs with nail photos and one chair with a construction truck photo. 

9. The kid who ends up sitting on the chair with a photo of the construction truck is the winner.

One of the table centerpieces that I made.
The nail print out for the trip[ around the construction site is in one of the chairs.

We were not able to play this game anymore because we started late. The kids came in later than expected. By the time we were done with the first two games, the kids (and adults) were already hungry. We proceeded with the singing of the birthday song, blowing of candle on the cake and the prayer before meals.

The signs at our gate.

The sign under our Christmas tree.

The sign at the bottom of our stairs to discourage our little guests 
from going up the second floor.

I was able to get permission from the site engineer to make the bulldozer pass by our house on the afternoon of the party. Unfortunately, the bulldozer had a flat tire. Mateo was not able to ride it to go around our subdivision that day. Hopefully, it would be fixed in time for his actual birthday.

Party zone set up at our garage. Kids coloring construction-themed coloring pages
while waiting for their playmates.

                 
I ordered yellow balloons and rented tables and chairs from a party supplier in our village, the same supplier I got from last year's parties. We had a hard time searching for plain black balloons. Thank God that we found some a week before Mateo's party. We just gave them to our balloon supplier days before the party so they can inflate them for us.

Party Food and Drinks

I didn't want to stress myself too much so I relied on my past experience and food suppliers. I did not cook anymore. We simply ordered food to be delivered for the party. The only food we prepared were the fried chicken and egg sandwiches for the kids (cooked by our helper) and the rice. I asked my brother to cook beef caldereta just like last year.

We bought fruit juices for the kids and ice tea sachets, which I asked my helpers to prepare the night before the party. Then, we put them in the refrigerator overnight.

We ordered spaghetti, pancit and pork barbecue from Amber and roasted chicken from Chooks-to-go. 

For dessert, we bought cassava cake, popcorn, M & M chocolates and ice cream in cups. We also made peanut banana wrapped in whole wheat tortilla.



I ordered cake and cupcakes from the same supplier where I ordered our cakes and cupcakes in our past birthday celebrations. I just made and printed my own cupcake toppers similar to the table centerpieces that I made.

I made the food and drink labels and the happy birthday banner to match the construction theme. 

I was lucky to find paper plates and cups that matched our party theme. I also bought black plastic spoons and forks to match them.

 

Loot Bags
 

For the loot bag contents, I relied on my time-tested treats for kids just like in the previous parties I organized. I simply added a yellow face towel for our little construction crew and gold chocolate coins as part of their payment for helping Mateo complete his construction work.

 

I just used brown bags and decorated it with labels and used yellow and black yarn to tie it. Mateo gave these away to his construction crew before they went home.

Outfits

I was lucky enough to find a shirt from Mothercare that had a backhoe printed in front of it. It was perfect for Mateo's party theme. He wore blue denim and grey shoes to match his shirt. My husband, eldest son and I also dressed up as close to the party theme as possible. It was a good thing that I got a hard hat as souvenir in one of the conferences that I attended last year. I wore that while facilitating the games.

 

It was a simple and intimate birthday celebration but it was an event that we all enjoyed! I enjoyed planning and preparing for it and I enjoyed looking at the result of all my hard work.

This was one of the reasons why I postponed finishing and launching my latest book ideas and my online training program. I believe that my work goals can wait. But making memories with those precious to me cannot.

Hope this post would inspire you in case you are also preparing for a construction-themed birthday party for your little boy. 

   

A Birthday Party Inspired by the Book Go, Train, Go! and Thomas and Friends

A few weeks after we celebrated my eldest son's 5th birthday last year, we celebrated my younger son's 2nd birthday. Since the celebrations were close to each other, I planned for something low key. Our goal is to simply celebrate his uniqueness and this milestone.

 

I was at first torn between two themes or two books, both of which are my youngest son's favorites. The first book is Go, Dogs, Go! and the second is Go, Train, Go! I decided to make it mainly a train-themed birthday party with Thomas the Tank Engine as inspiration. But I also included a dog in the cake design since my son loves dogs and there's also a dog in the book Go, Train, Go!

I was supposed to write this blog post last year days after the party but I got busy with so many things. Since my younger son's birthday is just around the corner again, I've decided to finally write/finish this blog post.

Let me share how I made his birthday last year memorable and according to the theme that he loves.

I started mindstorming months before his birthday. I jotted my ideas in my online notebook. Then, close to his birthday, I finalized the details and started working on them or executing them.

I contacted the same cake supplier who supplied my eldest son's cake and cupcakes during his Rockstar party. I like relying on the same suppliers once I find good and trustworthy ones. It lessens my stress due to uncertainties.

I also contacted the same caterers/food delivery service: Amber for spaghetti and pork barbecue and Chooks-to-go for the roasted chicken. We ordered beef caldereta from Goldilocks. For the ice cream in cups, I reserved and bought them from the minimart near our house just like what I did during my eldest son's birthday party. I also bought pichi-pichi from a nearby branch of Don Benito.

The cake and cupcake table set up with the birthday banner minus the toy train
and the ice cream in cups which should be in the no mud cargo truck. ;)

Food delivery services are party life savers!

I bought the other sweet treats and the contents of the loot bag from the grocery just like in the previous parties I organized.

Below are the additional treats we served which were inspired by the story in the book. I arranged them in such a way that they would look like cargoes being pulled by Thomas the Tank Engine. The toy train is my birthday gift to my son. It doubled as décor on the day of the party.

Additional treats: Sticko logs, biscuits covered with milk chocolate (from cows),
and cocktail hot dogs. Not in photo are the chocolate ice cream in cups (no mud!)

Loot bag contents

I sourced other lot bag contents from different malls. Looking for Thomas the Tank Engine items is not as easy as finding Lightning McQueen items. When my eldest son's birthday party theme was Cars, my mom and I did not have a great time looking for giveaways. They were in abundance. There were many choices. But with Thomas the Tank Engine, the stocks were limited and I had to visit several malls to check which ones have these items. Thank God we eventually found some items at Market Market and Festival mall in one of our visits.

 

I was glad that we found Thomas the Tank Engine paper plates and cups, too! Then, I bought blue plastic cups for the adult guests. We served ice tea and minute maid juice to the adults and ready-to-drink juice to the kids.

As for the invitation, I just made one myself and created an event in Facebook where I invited immediate family members, ninongs and ninangs and close family friends. I emailed the e-invite to those who are not on Facebook frequently. I also sent text messages to make sure that guests got my email or saw the Facebook event I made.

Here's the invitation I made on Power Point.

It was a good thing I found a Thomas the Tank Engine Happy Birthday banner. I just made additional decors in line with the party theme like signs and food labels. These were inspired by the posts I read in the internet.

I ordered balloons and rented tables and chairs from the same supplier I got for my eldest son's birthday party. I'm really glad to have discovered that there's a supplier/provider for these items within our village. No need to pay extra charges for transportation costs and they can easy deliver. No worries about traffic or delays.

It was just a small/intimate party but we enjoyed our time together. My husband was still in Sweden that time so we used Skype to let him "join" in the celebration.

Mateo with his Ninang Raquel.

Mateo with his Ninong Pete and Ninang Ana.

After singing the birthday song to Mateo and letting him blow the candle on his cake, we had our early dinner already.

I did not prepare games anymore. I only prepared coloring pages related to the theme and crayons to keep the kids occupied while the adults mingled and chatted with each other. Then, Mateo and I read the book Go, Train, Go! to our guests.

The Thomas the Tank Engine coloring pages kept the kids busy.

Mateo entertained his guests by reading to them Go, Train! Go!

  

I believe that birthdays should be celebrated even in simple ways because it's one way of showing our gratitude for the gift of life and for celebrating the gift that the person is in our lives. Birthdays happen only once a year. It's a great opportunity to make our loved ones feel extra special, important and loved! (Of course, we should strive to make them feel special, loved and important every day.)

Time flies so fast! In a week, my son Mateo will be turning 3 years old. Watch out for my next post where I will detail my preparation for his 3rd birthday party. It's a construction-themed party this time! 

 

Letter of the Week Activities with the Letter B

It has been a B as in beautiful week with the letter B for me and my sons last week!

 

Let me share with you the activities that we had.

 

1. Finger-painting of letter O by Mateo - We always kick off our Letter of the Week Activity with finger-painting by my 2-year-old son. It's very simple but effective, relaxing and therapeutic.

 

 

2. Painting the Life Cycle of the Butterfly - I already had this idea right after we bought a copy of the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But I had to postpone it for some time when I have decided to do Letter of the Week activities with my sons. Having the letter B as our Letter of the Week was just the perfect time for it.

This was made by Mateo.

 

 

Here's how we did it step-by-step:

     a. I folded a bond paper into 4 parts/quadrants. Each child was given his own bond paper.

 

     b. I painted my son's hand with green paint using a brush.

 

     c. Then, I helped my son press his hand on the first quadrant of the bond paper.

 

     d. Next, I helped/guided my son as he dipped one finger on green paint again and made a series of dots that are joined to each other like a caterpillar.

 

     e. After finishing the body of the caterpillar, I helped/guided my son in dipping another finger in red paint and in making a head for the caterpillar.

 

     f. While waiting for the leaf (hand print) and the caterpillar to dry, I helped/guided my son again in painting a cocoon using his fingers. I helped/guided him in dipping his finger on brown paint and pressing it on the bond paper to form the pattern of a cocoon.

 

     g. We cleaned his hand/fingers first before painting them with his chosen color for the wings of the butterfly. I used a paint brush to paint my sons' palms.

 

      h. Then, I helped each child press his palm gently on the last quadrant. You can use both hands/palms to stamp hand prints for the wings or you can just use the same hand to do that. If you use the same hand though, you need to coat the same palm with paint again before pressing it the second time. 

 

       i. I waited for the paint to dry to add details to the caterpillar, an egg on the leaf hand print and additional colors and the body and details on the butterfly.

 

       j. Once dry, I helped/guided my son as he dipped his finger on white paint and pressed it on the green leaf.

 

       k. I assisted my son in drawing the eyes, smile and antennae on the caterpillar.

 

       l. I helped/assisted my son in finger-painting the body of the caterpillar and eventually finger painting and drawing the additional details.

 

This was made by Yanthy.

Note: My eldest son worked independently on this art activity. He would simply watch what I was doing with his younger brother whose hand I am holding/guiding most of the time. I asked him to imitate what I was doing and I would just intervene if necessary. ;)

 

I explained our art activity briefly, relating it to the story in our book. We capped our painting activity by singing the butterfly song that we learned from one of our helpers. It's actually spelling out the word BUTTERFLY. :)

 

3. Making a Bulldozer Toy Out of Paper Cut-out - I recently found and bought a book from the Book Sale that's about Diggers. It's an activity book about construction toys and areas. I was delighted when I saw it because I know that my sons would like it. In one of its pages, there's a bulldozer toy that can be cut-out and formed. I proceeded to cut the parts of the toy after we finished our painting activity on the life cycle of a butterfly. The boys were very happy to play with the paper bulldozer as soon as I finished it. 

 

 

4. Reading books about Things that Start with the Letter B - Aside from reading the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we read books about bulldozers, buses, bees and stories from the Bible. As usual, we used props (their toys) as we read the books.

 

 

5. Serving and Eating Food that Start with the Letter B - Some of the food that we had starting with the letter B last week were the following: banana with peanut butter wrapped in tortilla, beef balls, eggnog biscuits which my sons imagined to be hosts (Body of Christ during their pretend play of the Holy Mass), and bangus or milkfish sinigang.

 

 

6. Bible Verse Writing Activity - This is part of our Catholic ABC Program. Aside from the art and reading activities that we have each week, I make sure that I introduce a Bible verse to my sons, particularly to my eldest son. I use this activity as an opportunity to practice my eldest son's listening, writing and spelling skills. Last week, our Bible verse was taken from John 6:51.

 

 

7. Playing with Toys that Start with the Letter B and Pretend Play - The boys played again with their construction toys that start with the letter B (bulldozer, backhoe, bike). After tracing his finger on the letter B puzzle mat, I removed the letter B and filled it with my son's building blocks. Both of my sons love playing with building blocks! They can play with these toys for hours, imagining scenarios and creating them using the building blocks. They also played bowling , basketball and my younger son played with his smaller balls.

  

Aside from their favorite pretend play with building blocks (wherein they pretend to have a parking lot/building), they also pretended to celebrate the Holy Mass. My eldest son pretended to be the priest most of the time, doubling as musician/pianist and choir sometimes. My younger son pretended to be a reader (lector/commentator), parishioner or Mass-goer, choir member and sometimes priest also. He enjoyed pretending to receive Holy Communion (he liked the eggnogs!).
 

My eldest son pretending to be a priest giving Holy Communion to our helper.

My toddler pretending to carry the Bible
during the entrance procession at the start of the Mass.

 

8. B as in Bethlehem Craft - This craft activity is in line with our Bible verse for the week as well. I learned while I was researching for the most appropriate verse for our letter of the week that Bethlehem means house of bread. That discovery affirmed my plans to make our DIY Bethlehem/Nativity décor. I recommend that you read this interesting article about Jesus as the Living Bread that came down from heaven and how perfect that He was born in Bethlehem.

 

I did the same DIY Bethlehem décor/craft using popsicle sticks with my toddler which I did with my eldest son last year.

 

Let me share the steps as well for this craft:

 

     a. I simply asked my son to paint 6 popsicle sticks with green paint.

 

     b. Then, I asked him to paint 1 popsicle stick with white paint, guiding him to leave a space for the face of Baby Jesus.

 

     c. We set aside these popsicle sticks to air-dry.

 

    d. I then painted cream colored paint to serve as faces to the yellow and blue popsicle sticks as well as the white popsicle stick. I let these air-dry once more.

 

     e. While letting them dry, I drew and cut out a star from a scrap of bond paper.

 

     f. I asked my toddler to squeeze silver glitter glue all over it. Then, we let it dry once more.

 

    g. When all the popsicle sticks were dry, I glued them to form a stable and inserted the sticks that represent the Holy Family. I broke the sticks that represent Mama Mary and Jesus so that they would be shorter than the stick that represented St. Joseph.

 

    h. When the faces that I painted were already dry, I drew the details using a sign pen. I also glued the star on top of the stable.

 

We hanged this décor in our Christmas tree afterwards.

 

This year, I did a different Bethlehem craft with my eldest son. I asked him to paint a milk carton with brown paint so we can use it as stable for our toilet paper tube characters in our DIY Nativity set. My toddler also helped out in painting the parts of the manger for this set. Then, I took charge of making B as in Baby Jesus out of the other half of the toilet paper tube we used for the manger. I used left over yellow paper to cut out the hay for the manger.

 

 

9. Flag-making Activity - My sons made the flags of Bahrain and Bangladesh.

 

 

It has been another B as in busy week for us but it was fun-filled and blessed especially since our week was capped with the All Saints' Day party of our homeschool group where my sons came as San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila and St. Dominic de Guzman.

 

My two sons as St. Dominic de Guzman and San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila.

 

Today, we kicked off our new letter of the week - the letter C! Watch out for my post where I will summarize and enumerate our activities this week!