Ave Maria, family day!

It has been a very busy week here, between doctor appointments, homeschooling, and other engagements, but we were able to celebrate last Tuesday the feast of the Assumption as a family on a little day trip to the beautiful town of Ave Maria, Fl.  The feast of the Assumption is very special for us, we love Our Blessed Mother, and this Feast brings us closer in the faith, so what better place to celebrate than this little town that honors Her name? 

Ave Maria is located near the cities of Immokalee and Naples, it is famous for its Catholic college campus. With a beautiful community of homes and shops, is a great place to spend the afternoon strolling through the plaza and going to Mass at the Oratory. Ave Maria has an Italian feel throughout that makes you feel so welcomed, pleasant and serene. 

It was the first time we celebrated Mass there, and we loved every minute of it! The pastor was great! It was a very traditional ceremony, with an amazing choir, a vibrant community of numerous families and young students. At the Oratory, one can get lost in its architectural design; it brings a mixture of iron high ceiling beams and wooden pews and confessionals, it is a real contrast of modern vs traditional that clicks just right. Not to mention the intentional design, facilitates immensely the acoustic and lighting across the entire church, making the entire experience hard to forget. 

After Mass, we had lunch nearby, there is plenty of Italian restaurants and coffee shops to choose from. We visited the local shops, where you can find a large section of catholic items, books and college memorabilia. We tried to visit the Mother Teresa project, but it was closed. The Mother Teresa project displays her life in pictures, replicas of the places she lived and a very complete collection of her writings and works. Hope to come back in a near future and explore it. Such a great model of spirituality and service for my kids to look up to.

Overall we had a great day as a family, something different and relaxed, a space to reflect and enjoy in the tranquility of a beautiful day. Kids admired the charm of this little town, enjoyed the Mass celebration, and dreamed of studying here one day. It is surprising the impression the youth can leave in the eyes of children. My kids admired that! so many college kids devout and happy, is almost contagious!

Lastly a short take of the "Ave Maria" melody after the Mass.

Background noise courtesy of my toddler going about the missals 😔

ABC's for Boys!

We are proud to announce that the newest addition to our family will be a BOY!

Yes! our family ratio is balancing out pretty even with this little one's arrival 😏. We are trilled for my son, he has prayed so hard to have a brother! he certainly was getting outnumbered, poor thing! but now there will be a little partner to share all those cars,  trucks and trains.

Recently I received from a catholic mom -from one of the groups I follow in Facebook- a copy of her lovely picture book titled ABC's for boys and I cannot be happier! so I would love to share it with you! As a matter of fact, I think this is the perfect opportunity to make my first entry in my book review page to celebrate the news of our little one and to thank this thoughtful mom the gesture of sharing their family project with us!

Reading, is probably the best way I have found to bond with my kids in the early stages, it is fascinating to me how they engage with the pictures and with your voice as you read along. Even thought this is a humble beginning, picture books expose your kids to vocabulary and recognition of images to words.

I found ABC's for boys to be a thoughtful and careful crafted picture book. My first impression of it, pointed to its simplicity and as a visual person that I am ... well... yes! the drawings captivated me! they are darling ❤! The author is certainly a great artist, -every picture was hand drawn in color pencil- from the details, to the colors, every image is so well elaborated.

Another great thing I found important to highlight was the choice of words, they found, a good selection of objects and interests every boy likes: like vehicles, animals, and fun toys. Boys can connect easily the words to the beginning  sounds of the alphabet.

Here Agent 007 found his personal favorite ones!

Even lollipop, found her favorite one!

Lastly, I couldn't help but to read the dedication note at the beginning of the book: "Hand drawn for my kids in heaven". Truly touching, especially if you have been through miscarriage... we have and we can sense the loads of love poured in every page!

Again to this beautiful family thanks for sharing your talent with us, I really hope your project is widely appreciate it as it should.

I will leave you with pictures of my kids enjoying the book. Just remember to keep it in mind for the little boys of your life! is a darling addition for your baby library.

You can find it ready to order in Amazon: visit HERE

Our Homeschool Room Evolution

Today I wanted to go over the evolution of our homeschool room. As I previously wrote about why we decided to homeschool here and the choice of our curriculum here, I now feel that the next step in this whole process of home education is the setting of the place and space in the home to achieve this big job ahead.

When we first received our curriculum in the mail, we began to prepare with the basics: some notebooks, pencils, crayons etc, we also assigned the dining room table as our work place.  Our beginnings were simple, but it was all we needed at the moment. This was back when I only had the two girls and my oldest was my only grade to teach, so it worked perfectly for the kindergartner years!. As she moved into First grade, we began to accumulate many projects and written material,  so, I got us a little 3 drawer tower to hold and classify all our papers. We added some file folders, a hole puncher, a stapler, copy paper, printer... you get the idea! we began to stock up on office supplies. 

Later on, as we added kids and grades we began to buy more reference books, a shelf here a cabinet for supplies there... we began to grow in number and in resources. Now, with more than one kid, the dining table did not work for us, as it used to. The kids began to get distracted and it seemed to me that there was a considerable amount of clutter and not much of a storage or filing solutions to keep us focused. At that time, we moved from our apartment into a large house, and there the possibilities of expanding our school room were granted! We found a very good deal on desks and we went right for it, also we acquired a couple of big bookshelves. I started to concentrate on getting filing and storage solutions, more supplies and educational resources that could enrich our experience even further.

 We continue to improve our organization and storage as we go, but I feel that now we are in a good place where everything flows as it should! 

I think that for anybody that begins to  homeschool the first step is to be aware that there are going to be adjustments in the home as it progresses. Most of the families begin in the dining table and have maybe a bookcase or containers to store books and supplies, it is all good! own it! be excited about this part of the process, to me, it is the most fun of all. I love to decorate! so start with what you have and be creative, later as needs arise adjust little by little, you don't have to get everything at once, it takes time, I know it gets hard when you search for ideas and all you see are this gorgeous spaces that many of us, well... just cannot afford!  Remember never compare your journey in life or homeschool with any one else's, receive the ideas and give your own twist! All we want at the end is to make homeschooling a great experience and environment for our kids to learn and at the same time for you to teach and guide!  

Now, let me share the results of the evolution that has taken place during all these years, from one kid learning at the kitchen table to three now with more of an individual workspace. We flow our activities between different environments in our home, I've learned to be flexible and allow more than one place to do their work: we use the desks to do most of our homework, the sofa to do reading, and our computer desk to work on papers or projects ready to print; also the kitchen is our lab now, and the patio we use for messy projects when weather permits. So as you can understand kids can get weary at home in only one spot, therefore adjusting is always a good thing to keep in mind! If you are like me and love to be neat, my suggestion to keep things tidy is very simple; try to make a habit of enforcing the rule: before they move from one activity to another, kids should pick up whatever clutter or mess they left behind before engaging into a new one. This way everything keeps a place and it doesn't get overwhelming overall in the household environment.

Take a look at our homeschool room and storage:

*Kids computer desk*

Here our workstation and our reference bookshelf

The two bookcases that hold our curriculum, reading books, resources, games, projects, and files.

Let's take a closer look now and see what we store here:

*Here our encyclopedia and our curriculum for Elementary*

*Here middle school books and teacher manuals*

*Here another encyclopedia and our projects and games shelves*

*Our continent boxes*

*Here we store our Project's files"

*At the top, we keep all our games, cd's, globe, maps, and projects we love the most*

*These boxes hold our music, art and math resources*

*Here our globe and cd's*

*Here our science materials and games*

*Jesus the Teacher*

The Three drawer tower continues to store all our paper supplies

For now this boxes hold all our supplies

You may have an idea now on how and what has helped our homeschool run smoothly, I like to be tidy, but also love to have color and mix a variety of boxes and baskets that help me store different things. Not long ago I began to label everything, ever since my last pregnancy when my hubby helped me with school. It just made it easy for him to locate everything and now it became my little obsession 😏! To finish this post I want to point out, some of those items I love to use to keep materials labeled and preserved for my other children, maybe you find them useful too. 

*Without these: whole puncher, label maker, and laminator. I don't know how could I ever lived before! they are my must have items!

I hope you have enjoyed reading our homeschool room evolution, it was fun to go through memory lane and shared it with you!