Our first day of homeschool 2014

We had an excellent first day of school!!! It was fun and it went smoothly! Here are some pictures so you can take a look.

We did circle time. My Little Princess didn't want to be in the picture.

After circle time they chose an activity. Umi chose styrofoam sheets with tooth picks and beads

Marble spooning for Little Princes

After putting last activity back she worked with spooning beans.

Some math work.

Umi kept working on his last practical life activity.

When she was done she rolled the mat and put it back in the basket  right behind her.

Now is was time for one of my favorite activities...ART!

Umi and I were painting with water colors and Q-tips and Little Princess

was working on what she likes most...play dough!

Then she joined us with some painting fun!

When we were done they worked as a team to fold the table cloth!

Then we did our goodbye song and played with the scarves.

We had  LOTS of fun!!!

Homeschool/Playroom Tour 2013

This is our homeschool room and playroom. I've been working hard to organize it and finally today I can say it is nice and ready! Although I know it won't last long I want it to share it with you before my kids "attack" it tomorrow!

It is a small room and it is not easy to store all the materials we have and display

all the materials I'd like but I am happy I have this space to dedicate to my children's learning journey.

My husband made the red shelving unit and we use it to hold the following subjects: math, language, zoology, sensorial and geography. Umi uses it the most.

To the left is Umi's desk I got from a thrift store for only 15 bucks!

This is to the right of the door. This shelf is mainly for my Little Princess. My husband made the blue picket fence shelf that is above the brown shelf and it holds all the paints and some of the art related things. The other art supplies, paper and more things I store them in the red art cabinet you can see to the left.

This is an Ikea trofast unit and I use it to store the circle time activities, flannel stories, puppets,  building toys and other toys.

Here is where I store the music instruments.

This is a close up of the art shelf

This is what we currently have in Little Princess shelves.

This is the magnetic black board my husband made for us!! 

Right above the black board is going to be a dry erase whiteboard my husband is currently making.

The North America box is ready!!! Is the Ikea box with the polka-dots. To the right is the sensory bin I made. 

 Video tour of our homeschool room.

Thank you for stopping by!!! See you soon!

The Forbidden Education/ La Educacion Prohibida

It's been a while since I last wrote. You know how it goes ;-) Anyway, I came a cross a post that Montessori Para Todos wrote in their blog. If you live in  Spain, and even if you don't, stop by and visit their store and their blog! The post is about La Educacion Prohibida/ The Forbidden Education.
I am not going to do a re make of their post since it is well written and it is worth to read it, I just want to share with you their post and the documentary about the educational system.

This documentary talks about why the educational system is not working, and much more. It is a 2 hours and 25 minute documentary that it is in Spanish with English subtitles. I highly recommend both the post by Montessori Para Todos and the documentary. This is an eye opening documentary that ALL parents should watch before sending the children to school.

If you can't for some reason open the link to La Educacion Prohibida post by Montessori Para Todos
you go directly to the La Educacion Prohibida documentary.


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Ha pasado un tiempo desde la ultima vez que escribi...Ustedes saben como es ;-) Bueno, me encontre con un articulo de Montessori para Todos al cual queria compartir con todos ustedes. Si vivis en Espana , y si no tambien, pasa a visitar su tienda y su blog!! Este articulo se trata de un documental llamado La Educacion Prohibida ( haga click aqui). No voy a rehacer su articulo el cual esta muy bien escrito y vale la pena leerlo, yo solo quiero compartir con ustedes su articulo y el documentario acerca del sistema educativo.

Este documentario habla a cerca del sistema educativo, porque no funciona y mas. Dura 2 horas y 25 minutos y esta en Espanol con subtitulos en Ingles. Le recomiendo a ustedes que lo vean, tanto el documentario como el articulo de Montessori para Todos. Este es un documentario que les abrira sus ojos y TODOS los padres lo deberian ver antes de mandar sus hijos a la escuela.

Si por alguna casualidad no pueden abrir el link del articulo de La Educacion Prohibida de Montessori para Todos puedes ir directamente a ver el documental haciendo click aqui!

Why did I choose to homeschool my children?

When I first saw my son when I knew I would not share him with anyone or give him "away" to the school system. A school system that in my opinion it lacks of education, money and time. I read about school closing, cutting down subjects that to my knowledge are very important like music and art. Children go to school for 7 hrs or more just to come back home to do homework probably wondering when is this all going to end so I can enjoy my childhood. That is not enough, on top of that they have to be tested every so often so the school system can test their own work. What I mean is that the tests are not really to see how well your child understands what is being taught. If that was the case they would never get a score! If you just want to know how much they understand why would you need to grade it? If someone didn't score well it means that they need more HELP not an F, not a punishment for not understanding! On the contrary, a school child goes through the stress of being tested to see if the school system is doing a good or bad job teaching them. If there is a good teacher and the teacher/student ratio is right there would be no need for tests. I view tests not as a tool of measurement but as a punishment for either having a good/bad teacher or a way to control the crowd. I view them as the killer of the love of learning. I know it sounds a bit tragic but imagine yourself being forced to "learn" something and after you tried hard to understand a concept that wasn't taught in a way you can understand it, and you tried hard to memorize (which is not really learning) the lesson just to get a F  as and fail to learn or maybe I should say the teacher got an F as an fail to teach. This is a punishment and punishment doesn't nurture the love of learning... It kills it. This is not the kind of environment and upbringing I want for my children.

I want my children to enjoy life that is so short. I want my children to LOVE being alive. They come to this world with the curiosity and the love of learning. Is the adult that forgot what it feels like to be present and the importance of the little things that life brings you. Every day is a new day for them and we need to guide them, to provide the right environment for them to grow free and happy. We need to provide a environment that allows a child to be a child. So why do I want to homeschool my children? I want to homeschool my children because:

- I think I can do a heck of a better job that the school.
- I know them more than anybody in the world.
- As a mother I feel that it is my job to educate them.
- I want them to love learning until the end.
- I want to give them the space to grow and bloom as they were meant to and not to fit in a box.
- Nobody cares for them as much as me and my husband care. So we have even more pressure to do a good job raising and educating them.
- The school system sucks here.
-  I want them to build their lives with good and positive experiences.
- I can do it.
- They are the reason of my existence.
- The list can go on and on....