https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/mrydepbj

Homeschooling isn't always cupcakes and rainbows. It isn't all smiles and good times. There are days when it is a little bit more extra challenging. Not just for the parent, but for the kid as well. Today is one of those days when the drive is there but the distractions and difficulties are trying the little learner's patience.

Our Fridays have always been a feee day for us. This is the day for relaxation and fun. But Friday is also catch up day. A day we spend for catching up on keepings we weren't able to make, rehearsals we weren't able to do, etc. Today, my little learner decided she will make her Keeping of The Battle of Marathon then she would practice on her keyboards. She just finished reading and understanding the music sheet for Atin Cu Pung Singsing so she wanted to try out if she read it correctly. Just a brief background on the song, it is one of the many Philippine Folksongs we are studying.

Except for a few sharps add flats, she did great with the note reading. She needs a little bit of work with the tempo when she tried out the notez on her keyboard, but other than that, she did well. But then the neighbor started calling me downstairs for a little chat about this and that on some pipe here and there. I had to go up and down the stairs a few times, I think I burned all the calories I cheated on that morning.

Anyways, whenever I step away, the little learner would usually stop her practice and wait for me to come back. But this time, I could hear her play the keyboard from afar. I can hear her frustrated stokes when she does a key wrong but I would hear her continue to play. I'm giving her plus points for patience amd perseverance.

Then when I finally came back, I just observed from a distance and I can see she's really in the zone. So I let her be. I let her figure out what she needed to figure out. Then came the next struggle. Sungit, the cat in our house that loves to cuddle ONLY with my daughter, went to her.

Sungit did not approach her in a subtle way. She up and stepped on the keyboard, throwing Aya off the zone. Might I say, there were tears of frustration and anger. I thought my daughter would stop practicing already.

Ut she pushed through. She told me later on that she wanted to be able to play wothout looking at the keys or at the sheet that's why she wanted to practice some more. Needless to say, out little Sungit trained my daughter today in the discipline of patience, perseverance, and determination.

She still needs a lot of practice with her keyboard skills but this is actually more than I could really wish for. I'm not in that much of a hurry for her to memorize the keys or the song. I'm there for her journey. That is where all the lessons take place.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/eoefodmt

April has been a busy month for me but I can foresee now that May won't be that much different. We squeezed in all of the exams and finished it all on the last week of April. I did not want to have anything hanging in my head during the HivePH meeetup so I made sure exams will be done so that all I have to worry about was the grading and submission of grades.

Our exams consists mainly of oral examinations. We have impromptu narrations of stories that we read during the quarter. Review before exams isn't really a thing for us at the moment. I find itnis so much better if the narration that the little kiddo does is as organic as it possibly can. My instruction is for her to read the exam papers and video herself answering the questions. I used to be the videographer during our exams but since we are training her towards independent learning, we give her more and more responsibilities in our homeschooling journey.

This quarter was the first time that I left her by herself and have her complete all the exams with very minimal help from me or her father. I went about my day, cooked lunch, cleaned the house, etc while she did her exams. As you can see by the background noise in her video, everything around her was so chaotic. Which is why I am so happy to see that she kept her focus and attention. There were so many distractions but she did not let those sidetrack her from her task. She narrated through the noise, the winds, the many people talking (it was just me and her father, and some noisy neighbors.)

I think I will be doing this more often. Giving her the freedom to start her exams whenever she feels comfortable. It is also a training for hahit of honesty and inregrity.

As I was watching this part of her video, (she took an 11 minute video of her narrating all the other stories that were listed in her exam paper) I couldn't help but notice how lively and less tensed she was. She was more relaxed in telling the story, because she holds the control of the recording and whatnot. We started reading Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice last February and finished it some twoo weeks after April. We only read this once a week. We would read it aloud, discuss it, talk about our thoughts about the events that happened in the story all in a 15-minute once a week session.

She did not remember 100% of the details of the story but that's not really actually the goal here. I think we achieved that goal with the way she narrated the story. She was full of enthusiasm in her story-telling and I can tell she did enjoy the story from start to finish. I can see that she admires the wit of Portia in the story. When we were discussing this story during our study time, I remember she said "This is one of the stories where Shakespeare did not do anything so tragic like killing or betraying." I liked that she recalled all the tragedy that Shakespeare wrote.

I still have more exams to check because I procrastinated and went out a lot of times this week. But I am still way ahead of schedule so I'm not yet that worried. I still have to get moving otherwise I'll lose my headstart. So todaloo for now.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/cgspmpgb

As a part of providing a wholistic kind of education to my daughter, we do riches everyday. Riches include hymns, folk songs, music and composer study, art appreciation with artist study, and of course poetry and memory work.

Everyday, we read a new poem, then, like our usual readings, we read the poems just once and then we talk about it. We discuss how she understood the poem, how she felt about it. Then, I would ask her if she'd want to do a sketch interpretation of the poem she just read. Our poetry though has a different step compared to our usual readings and narration. She will have to choose which poem she would want to do a memory work with. She always chooses one that she likes the most. After we've talked about why it's her favorite, we would then start memorizing it and would do so for a week.

When memorizing the poem, we would start with a fill in the blank type of activity. I would read each line but not completely. She would fill in the words that I would omit. Slowly but surely, she would start memorizing the lines even if I only read the first word. Soon enough, she memorizes the entire stanza, then the entire poem.

This activity takes up to 10 minutes max everyday. We do it even during our rest days because well, it's just 10 minutes. If she does find one poem that touched her and wants to include in her keeping, she would make a drawing or a painting of it.

Introducing kids to riches like this has so many benefits. The first and very obvious is that it trains their minds with the memory work. My daughter gets to do memorization but with all the fun because she's the one that chooses what she likes to memorize, not because she has to do it. My father made me memorize the multiplication table when I was a kid and I remember not being to happy about it. But I know that I needed it so I still did so. It's a lot different with my kid's memory work.

There are also instances when we talk about the idiomatic expressions that are used in the poems we read. She learns how to understand those idioms because of poetry. This is where she learned how narration is well, just retelling what she heard, but with poetry, one can express how they feel through words beautifully rhymed.

I also remember how as kids, our teachers would ask us to give examples of rhyming words. It was a really challenging task for me and my classmates to pull out words out of thin air. You know how it is when you do know the things that are being asked of you, but your mind just scrambles because it panics and couldn't find the words.

With the poetry activity we do everyday, the little learner is exposed to tons of rhyming words and gets to hear examples after examples in use every day. I saw her one time writing her own poem. It was just a short poem, but she kinda copied either A.A. Milne or Dr. Seuss' style.

It was morning and I was yawning

She said it was a silly poem and she was giggling the whole time she was writing it. Even when she showed it to her Tatay, she was giggling while she read it aloud to him. I can really say she was enjoying it.

And of course, because we read poetry everyday, she now is able to put in feelings and emotions with how she reads the poems. I was surprised to hear how she read her latest favorite, Bird by William Allingham. I did not catch the first part of her reading because I was just sitting there, listening to her. I was really impressed at how she changed her voice and intonation according to the parts of the poem she was reading.

Education clearly is not just all about grades and medals and places. It should be filled with all the riches that the world and the greatest minds can offer. If you haven't tried poetry with your learners, I encourage you to do so. It is really fun and relaxing. I'm sure your little learners will agree.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/dpncfaxq

Today is another reason to celebrate our homeschooling journey. Pending finalization of our 3rd Portfolio, we are officially done with third quarter. Although we have already begun 4th quarter last month.

Every quarter, we submit a portfolio showcasing the highlights of the quarter that was. Whenever I compile the highlights, I am taken back to the journey that we went through. All the copyworks, all the narrations, all the sketches, and nature studies we did. And when I compare it with the previous quarters, I can clearly see the improvements no matter how small or big.

We don't have recognition programs like which student is the top performer or the best in this subject or that in our homeschooling provider. But with the quarterly portfolio submission, we are able to see all the achievements that we had for the quarter.

I used to dread portfolio deadlines. Now, I am excited about it. I am excited to see what many and great things my daughter did during the last 2-3 months and see the lessons she learned and the growth she went through. I'd like to share our 3rd quarter journey through this video.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/vactswfs

When we were kids, we were often asked, "What do you wanna be when you grow up?" Every adult we talk to, it's like their ice breaker. First they ask our name, then how old we are, then according to your answer, they'll ask if you're in this grade or that. Most adults don't feel comfortable talking to a child. Like they're some fragile thing. So they move to whatever next topic they can think of. Most often than not, they ask the question "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

As a kid, I know I might have said I wanted to be a doctor. Or a teacher. I might probavly have said I wanted to be a nurse. I'm sure I did not say I want to be a police officer. My mother used to scare me that the police or the guard will get me whenever I misbehaved in public. So I used to have this fear towards them. I don't anymore. Or maybe I still do but not as major as when I was a kid.

My daughter has been asked this very same question. When she was 3 or 4, she used to say she wanted to be Aquaman. Then she said she wanted to be everything. Then she shifted into becoming a seller. As she growd up, she seem to be thinking about the answer to this question too much. She returned the question to me one time. "How do I know what I want to be when I grow up? I'm just a child." Ad if I'm not yet stumped by her questions, she followed it up with "What if I chose wrong? Won't that be a big waste of time?"

I often doubt if I am parenting my child right, but in times like this, I also questiob my child's childing. She thinks about things a little way too much. But I understand her line of thinking. I, too, was bombarded by those questions when I was a child and it seems not fair to make a child choose what they want to be when they grow up at an age where all they should be thinking of is whether they'll play tag or tea party in the afteenoon.

What they need is exposure to different kinds of fields that they might want to venture into in the future. Before they could set their mind into what they want to be in the future, they need to know all the options that they have. Now, I know I won't be able to let her see firsthand all the different jobs and fields she can choose from, but I sure am exposing her to a lot of career paths. It's a good thing ky circles of friends have a wide range of different careers.

She has experienced dancing on stage, now, she experienced singing. One of her godfathers is a bass guitar player in a band. On a birthday party we attended last year, she experienced performing with a live band with all those instruments and such with her godfather. She had a nice time. During her performance, I could see she was not showing any form of nervousness or shyness. I love how confident she is on stage.

After her song number, she told me that she wasn't feeling the live band vibe. She was taken aback by all the people singing along with her. In fairness to her, she had only danced on stage and this is the first time she sang. I told her that live singing performances with a live band is always like that - the crowd singing along with the singer, just enjoying the song. She is just used to classical ballet performance.

Now that she has experienced it, she says she is crossing band singer off her list of possible careers in the future. She is excited though with her voice lessons. Although she is still open to possibilities of performing again - but she said maybe with a musical instrument or not a live band performance.

Whatever she feels like doing, I am surr I'll be fine with it. For now, I'm just happy she's enjoying her childhood and absorbing every lessons she can get in every experience. I also had fun taking videosnof her perform. Whatever path she chooses. I'll be a proud stage nanay, supporting her all the way.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/fxyqnazm

As part of our homeschooling journey, I also teach folk music to my daughter. We have studied quite a few of the most common ones in our first grade. For this school year, we originally planned on foregoing Filipino folk music and just focus on studying famous composers. We were in the middle of studying Vivaldi's 4 Seasons when my daughter heard an Ilonggo song from one student in the higher grade levels during her recognition day.

Even I fell in love with the sweet melody of this Ilonggo folk song. My daughter said she either feels like she's having a relaxing walk along the seashore or she's being lulled to sleep by the soft mellow music. When we learned this song, this has become the lullaby she wants me to hum to her when she sleeps at night.

Learning Philippine folk songs helps her appreciate the culture of our country and even makes her fall in love with the languages she's learning. So far, we have learned a lot of folk songs from Luzon, now we're moving to Visayas and pretty soon we'll be studying folk songs from Mindanao. I have learned some of the folk songs from my grade school years before but there are quite a few that I am only learning just now - because of our homeschooling journey.

This song is basically telling a little girl or little kid to go to sleep while its mom is out buying bread. Now, when we buy our early morning pandesal, we use the term "bakal papay". I know it's just a very tiny little bit of practice in speaking other languages in the Philippines, but I'll take what I can. English is my daughter's first language and I'm right now transitioning her into learning Tagalog, I don't really mind slipping in a few other Philippine languages along the process.

We sang only one stanza of the song:

Ili ili, tulog anay

Little one, Little one, sleep for now

This is the first time that we took a video of us performing a song. Most of the time it's just her when she's performing her Music performance tasks or for her exams. Every morning, before we start our lessons, we sing some songs, I'll play either the guitar or the ukulele for her while she sings the songs. You can tell in this video that this is us early in the morning. It really helps set the mood at the beginning of the day. This is how we homeschool. In our pj's. Haha!

I hope you enjoyed listening to the song as much as we enjoyed performing it. Till next time! Ciao!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/nvprnfbd

For Hive Open Mic Week 166, I chose the song Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles. The melody is so catchy and the vibe it creates matches the meaning that this song is communicating to me. It's telling me that if you are in the season in your life where it all seems dark, cold, and gloomy, remember that it will not last. The sun will soon come to light up your world. So no matter what you're going through right now, never give up. There's hope.

I studied the ukulele cover of Here Comes the Sun through this video and practiced this one during my quiet time since Monday. As part of our homeschooling journey, I make sure to allocate 2 hours during the day for me to just sit back, relax, and rest from all the motherly responsibilities. It helps me take control of my life and just grow as a human being. I am thankful that I found this habit of just spending time for myself because it has helped lessen all the stress and overwhelming feelings that has been boiling up inside of me.

Just like in the song, I used to be in several long, cold, lonely winter seasons in my life. This song helped me realize that those seasons change and loneliness and sadness doesn't last that long. Now, I know that if I'll be going through those seasons again, there is something to look forward to. Everyday, the sun will rise. All I need to do is to never give up.

While I was studying this song, I couldn't get off my mind the interaction I had with @naymhapz a few days ago. I know we haven't met personally, but I feel some sort of connection with you. Our interaction on your last post got stuck in my mind. I know better than to ask the details of your heartaches in the blockchain but please know that you can always message me on my soc meds if you need someone to talk to. I kept thinking about you while I was singing this song and I want to let you know that no matter what you're going through right now, the sun will soon come.

Going back to the song, I challenged myself with the riffs and finger picking in this cover. I know I haven't mastered it yet, I'm still going to continue learning and practicing. During my recording of this video, my daughter was watching me and I love how supportive she is. She was really very honest and objective in giving feedback about where I need to work on. She said words like "Nanay, maybe you need to practice that part a little bit more." or something like "You have to make it a bit slower." And whenever I got the riffs correct, she is quick to say "That was much better, Nanay! I love it!" It just dawned on me that this is how I coach her whenever she's practicing her ballet dance. I'm glad that she is emulating my example.

So that's it for my Hive Open Mic week 166 entry. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I did!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/rzopofyp

Hello. It took me a lot of courage to post this video. I have always loved playing musical instruments. In highschool, I used to play the flute in front of my classmates just for fun. I also played the guitar. I usually play in the church at school in college. Most of the time, I don't use my voice because singing has been one of my greatest insecurities.

Although I do not shy away from karaoke singing, but most of the time it's either I'm drunk or the ones listening to me are too drunk to care whether I hit the right notes or not.

In this video, I'm not drunk. (I may just sound like it a little bit so please pardon me.) This is also the first time I'm joining Hive Open Mic.

My daughter wanted to learn how to play the ukulele and I've been wanting to learn too for the longest time. So I'm studying the ukulele for our lessons while I'm also playing some of my favorite music on my spare time.

I did not realize that recording a video for a song would be so challenging. I had to retake a billion times before I finally got to the point where I just gave up where I am contented with the recorded video. Recording myself while crocheting is a whole lot different. Because I don't show my face while crocheting. It felt weird watching myself sing as I was editing the video. Lol. I still had fun recording though. I've been practicing more songs in ukulele, hopefully I get to muster some more courage to post the others I'll be recording.

I picked this song for Hive Open mic week 165 because it makes me think of all the beautiful mountain peaks I've seen in photographs and the ones I've been. And there's no other view that will make you love mother nature more than up there where the wind blows, the leaves dance, and the clouds just float by, painting a whole new beautiful world away from all the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.

I had fun playing and singing this sone. I hope you have fun listening too. Y'all have a great day!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/yqfqymmt

The first quarter of the schoolyear is almost over, it's exams week plus one final presentation. I think I may have put too much pressure on me and my daughter because I was too worried that we may be a little behind on the lessons when we started, we ended up finishing the lessons for the first quarter 3 weeks early. We have moved on to the next lessons for the second quarter while waiting for our exams to be sent by the school. We're still also waiting on the lesson plans but I understand it's still a bit early to expect that.

While waiting on things, my daughter and I kept ourselves busy with learning new things. I let her have a break from school stuff but since we've already established the habit of studying, she still grabs a book from our mini library when it's study time. It helps that we have a lot of kiddie activity workbooks, coloring books, and lots of art stuff.

It's a good thing the little human became busy for a bit, I was able to work on her costume for her UN Celebration presentation. We were informed last October 11 that the online presentation will be on October 23. This meant that I have less than 2 weeks to produce a costume for the country we'll be choosing. To be honest, we originally chose the Philippines as our country to force her into speaking Tagalog. I can see she's been trying to learn how to converse in Tagalog she's been actively asking what the Tagalog term of a lot of English words. She then would try to repeat every word she learns. We ended up having an English script for her presentation. Well, she's five, she tried, we'll get there. Baby steps.

We had the option to present live on the day itself or to send a video presentation prior. Because of the costume and the materials we selected for the costume, presenting live is not an option. Especially seeing how she was on the last online presentation the school had, I'm sure her costume will be ruined by the time she gets her turn to present. We were given a 2 minute limit for our video presentation. With all the beauty in the Philippines, we only selected those that she will be able to happily present.

The requirement was for the costume to be DIY and made of recycled materials. I could easily just have made an entire costume made of recycled papers - which we have a surplus of - but I chose to make a crochet filipiniana bolero. It's been a long time since I wanted to make something different for my daughter. I've always wondered how a Filipiniana sleeve is done so I watched a video on youtube. Now, all I have to do is to translate the fabric into crochet.

I worked on the sleeves first because I'm really very much excited about them. It took an all-nighter to finish both sleeves. Originally, I wanted to make the sleeves detachable so that they could be used for other outfits. After seeing them though, I decided on making them permanently attached to the entire top.

To complete the crochet Filipiniana bolero, I created a granny rectangle. A new kind of stitch I learned from one of the books I bought from the Big Bad Wolf sale a couple of months ago. This is one of the projects where I know the end product I want but I did not give that much thought as to the specifics. Finishing this project quickly is of the essence, I did take it one step at a time though, basically since I'm not sure exactly what to do next.

As soon as I finished the back part, the front flaps were pretty much straightforward. Just triangle flaps made of double crochets crisscrossing in front. I knew I wanted to make the crochet filipiniana bolero to look elegant so I added a little detail on the edging. I found this pattern on the internet. I thought it was complicated and I thought it would take more time than I need. Then again, I put more pressure to myself than I really should. Lately it feels like I am stressing myself out more than I really should. But I figure I accomplish more by doing this so I guess, at a safe limit, I can keep doing this to myself since I complete more task effectively.

The skirt is made up of recycled papers. My daughter loves drawing and doodling a lot, we piled up a lot of papers over time. There's a tier by tier system of storing her doodles and arts. Some make it to the wall, some to the clearbook, then some to the pile of papers that she does not want me to throw away because of sentimental reasons. The only way she'd let me throw away all her discarded trial and error art is if I could trick her into making it into another art project. And we did so for her UN Celebration presentation.

A Filipiniana costume will not be complete without the native fan that women back in the day always have on hand. I bought a pack of drinking straw before, I couldn't really remember why. I used the straws and formed them into a fan. Then added some leftover ribbons from my stash. And that completes my daughter's presentation for their UN celebration.

Image sources:

Boracay

Music:

Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0

Music promoted by Audio Library

@romeskie is a full-time stay-at-home mom to a homeschooling toddler. Loves crocheting as a hobby. Maintains a mini food forest, aiming to grow more to achieve that farm-to-table homesteading. Learned how to cook after leaving the corporate world to take care of her family and is now starting to acquire basic baking skills. Learn more about her adventures and misadventures in the world of motherhood.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=romeskie/qzefvjle

If you are looking for a quick and easy project, I made one that you can do with your eyes closed. (Just kidding) But this one is really easy and uncomplicated, I made one to take a break from another DIY I was making.

As of this moment, I am on a quest to use up all of my yarn stash. My husband asked me why, I just told him that I am making room for more yarns I want to buy. My yarn stash consists of polyester, polycotton, acrylic, mercerized, and a few yarns that were gifted to me on my birthday last year. I recently worked on milk cotton yarns and I am in love with the texture. There is a big chance that there will be more milk cotton yarns in my stash. In the near future. So while I am fighting the urge to buy new yarns, I am keeping myself busy by making projects out of the yarns I have available.

Now, more about this easy peasy project. We cannot say with certainty that this pandemic will be over soon. And so, as a reaction, fashion trends are now adapting to the current situation. First, there was the crochet mask, though not really that effective in being a mask, it is effective as a fashion statement.

As we eased in to the new normal, a lot of new things have been added to our OOTD. One of those is the face mask lanyard. Nowadays, more and more establishments in like malls and restaurants are opening to the public. I do not support removing masks while out in the public but when I went out one time, I figured there is indeed a need for facemask lanyards.

One of my errands took longer than I anticipated and I had to remove my mask while I dined in one of the restaurants at the mall. Momma's gotta eat, ya know. Naturally, I needed to remove my mask so I can eat at the farthest end of the restaurant, away from all the other diners. I thought it would have been easier if I could just take off my mask and leave it hanging near my face just in case.

Of course, crocheters can adapt right away. I found several ideas on how to make a crochet lanyard. I decided to make one. It just took me sometime to finish because, for the love of me, I don't know what that tiny little metal thing at the end is called. After looking through a lot of videos, I finally found out it was called lobster clasp. I ordered one online right away. Luckily, the seller is just near my place, shipping did not take too long.

The crochet mask lanyard ilI made is composed of shell stitch variation. I started with a magic ring. Chain 4, then dc3tog into the ring. 1 chain, then dc4tog into the ring again. That's the first shell stitch.

To make the next shell stitch, turn then slip stitch into the ch1 space. Make 3 chains, then dc3tog into the chain space. Chain 1. Dc4tog into the same chain space.

Repeat from the slip stitch until you reach the desired length. Once you get the length you want for your crochet mask lanyard, you may go ahead and attach the lobster clasps on both ends. I am fairly new at using this material but it's pretty easy to attach. You may use a tiny metal jump ring to attach the clasp to the lanyard. I didn't use one, I just secured the clasp with knots from the loose ends of the crochet mask lanyard.

Once you get the lobster clasps attached, you're good to go. I made one for my mom's birthday too. By the way, she's now back into crocheting. I bought her balls of yarn and a crochet hook set two years ago but she did not really have that much time for a hobby back then. I know she's feeling lonely and bored now that my Pa is no longer around so crocheting is helping her cope. She showed her creations when I had a video call with her, I can see she's feeling a lot better and is already coping very well with our loss.

@romeskie is a full-time stay-at-home mom to a homeschooling toddler. Loves crocheting as a hobby. Maintains a mini food forest, aiming to grow more to achieve that farm-to-table homesteading. Learned how to cook after leaving the corporate world to take care of her family and is now starting to acquire basic baking skills. Learn more about her adventures and misadventures in the world of motherhood.