Celebrating Hispanic Heritage With My Kids

The following is a guest post by Latina mom, Monica Divane. It's part of our Hispanic Heritage Month 2020 series.

As an Indigenous Latina, passing on my culture to my kids has always been something I’ve felt was important. I always look forward to Hispanic Heritage month as a way to celebrate who we are and where our family comes from. 

Every year, I plan activities and find new books so that my kids can continuously learn about the incredible contributions Latinos have made in the US. I always share these resources too so that other Latinos can learn their history and take pride and for non-Latinos to learn about us. 

First, we start with who we want to learn about. I make a great list and then I try to find books about them at my local library. 

I also print out country booklets from Teachers Pay Teachers for my kids to color in as we learn. They include facts about the country. Sadly, not every country is represented, but we make do with what we have and cover the rest with supplemental resources like books & YouTube. 

When talking about Frida Kahlo, we create art inspired by her. We discussed Sonia Sotomayor’s life and how it resembles our own struggles. With the Autumnal Equinox, we discuss the harvest importance of Cesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta with the rights of migrant farm workers. 

Then comes the extra fun part! We do a drumming lesson when talking about Tito Puente, & we dance to the music of Celia Cruz, Selena, Gloria Estefan, Shakira, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, and even J Balvin & Bad Bunny. We learn about musical styles from different countries and their form of dance. We rap along with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s music as we talk about his amazing contributions to Broadway and music in movies. 

Another fun activity for HHM is playing fútbol and discuss it’s origins (the Maya refer to it as pok-a-tok) and play baseball as we discuss sports icons like Roberto Clemente, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa. 

We talk about Ellen Ochoa shooting for the stars and pair it with a space craft like a space mobile or galaxy snowglobe. For Sylvia Mendez, we talk about the importance her case played in desegregating schools which happened before Brown vs Board. There are many famous actors/actresses and activists, and let’s not forget the powerhouse Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

We can’t talk about Hispanic Heritage Month without acknowledging our indigenous roots. During this time, I make sure we read more Spanish books, but also folktales from our culture (Mayan), as well as from other cultures. We weave, make chocolatl, build temples out of LEGOS, cook traditional foods, and so much more. 

With traditional public schooling, I was barely given a slice of my heritage to celebrate. As homeschoolers, we can dive further into Hispanic heritage & history which gives us all a sense of pride of our diversities and similarities. We know that if those famous Latinxs could reach for the stars, despite starting off with so little, so could we. Representation is everything. 

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Monica is a queer Indigenous Latinx bruja and a homeschooling mom of 2. She has been married for 16 years and is currently living in Central Florida. You will usually find her crafting something new, raising monarchs, gardening, reading, dancing, hiking, hanging out in the beach or springs, and at Disney. Monica works for Veggie Mijas which is a WOC/NBPOC Collective that focuses on veganism, decolonization, and environmental justice and also as an Auror & part of the Cheer Squad in Potterhead Running Club. She’s a geek and an activist and is teaching her boys to do so much good in this world.

Bilingual Toolkit on COVID-19 for Families

Are you looking for a bilingual resource for families impacted by COVID-19? The wonderful educators over at ReadyRosie have you covered.

They have dedicated a section on their site to help families cope with all the changes that the pandemic has brought. There are three main areas: Learning at Home, Prevention & Care, and Emotional Well-Being.

This is a valuable tool for bilingual educators who are trying to provide additional support to the families of their students.

If this sounds like something you need, click here to visit their website.

Review: Kids Learn About Their Bodies with Dr. Bonyfide

Some homeschoolers are always on the search for comprehensive materials on specific subjects. If you are one of those, then today's post is for you!

Dr. Bonyfide (aff) is a comprehensive series of workbooks that introduces young children to anatomy - specifically, the skeletal system - through engaging characters, rhymes, and illustrations. This is truly a high-quality series from Know Yourself Academy, a company dedicated to building self literacy in children.

Self Literacy

This was a new term for me. I have, of course, heard the terms preliteracy, adult literacy, and even digital literacy. But self literacy? What is that? I wondered. Then was delighted to discover that it means having a working knowledge of your body and your mind. According to Know Yourself Academy’s website, “If you are self literate, you are happier, more confident, and better equipped to handle decisions for yourself and your health.”

What an empowering skill for every person to have! Naturally, I was eager to begin developing my children’s own sense of self literacy.

Dr. Bonyfide Workbooks

The focus of this series is the skeletal system. Your child will learn the names and functions of all 206 bones in their body. There are four workbooks in all:

Dr. Bonyfide Presents: Bones of the Hand, Arm, and Shoulder (Book 1)
Dr. Bonyfide Presents: Bones of the Foot, Leg, and Pelvis (Book 2)
Dr. Bonyfide Presents: Bones of the Rib Cage and Spine (Book 3)
Dr. Bonyfide Presents: Bones of the Head, Face, and Neck (Book 4)

Although I suppose you could begin with any of these books, I would strongly recommend starting with the first one because I think it is the easiest. These workbooks cover a TON of information, carefully teaching in manageable chunks so that children don’t become overwhelmed. And more importantly, each book builds on what your child has learned in the previous book.

The series is named for Dr. Bonyfide, your osseous guide on this journey through the body. He (she?) makes jokes, wears costumes, and even speaks Latin. The Doc’s sidekick is Pinky Le Darpals, a young girl who teaches the reader things like the Bonyfide Hand Jive and how to pronounce those longer, complicated words.

The workbooks are full of rhymes, puzzles, comics, games, fun facts, and even a pair of “x-ray vision” glasses at the back that you can use to discover secret images and words on specific pages. Your child will write, draw, and laugh their way through the activities. An answer key for the written activities is included in the back of the book, as is a glossary. There’s also a certificate of completion that you can fill out and present to your student.

These books definitely don’t read like traditional textbooks with gobs of writing on each page. Instead, the information is broken down and the illustrations dominate each page making this a perfect educational resource for visual learners.

Kinesthetic learners will also appreciate how the text regularly asks the reader to stand up for physical activities that demonstrate various concepts in the book. Your child will stretch, jump, balance and clap their way to understanding.

Osteology, triquetral, and scaphoid are just a few of the impressive terms your child (and maybe you!) will learn as you move through these books. DON’T worry! Your child doesn’t have to memorize all of them! The point of these books - in my opinion - is introducing your child to the bones and making him familiar with his own body.

The books say they are “for ages 6 to 206!” I agree. We are using these workbooks as part of our homeschool anatomy studies and my kids, who are 10 and 12 years old, are really enjoying the time they spend drawing, writing, coloring, and more. In fact, after learning about the bones in their hands (the 14 phalanges, which are made up of distal, intermediate, and proximal bones), my kids and I then spent time using our phalanges to fingerspell our names in sign language using the photo alphabet provided in the book.

I read the text aloud so that we can all benefit from the information being presented. Plus some of the words may be a little tricky for my 5th grader to pronounce. I find this to be an excellent resource for our homeschool lessons. However, this series could also be used in a homeschool co-op setting or in a traditional classroom.

Totally Worth It!

I strongly recommend that homeschool families, science educators, and school librarians invest in this comprehensive, (ironically) meaty series. The teaching approach of these books is remarkably engaging and effective.

My inner digital designer loves the layout of these books, while the artist in me appreciates the creativity in the illustrations. I also love that each book begins with a quote by a famous historical figure, each one on the theme of knowing thyself. And lastly, I am grateful to see that the characters depicted are inclusive, reflecting the diversity of our country. Our children deserve to see themselves reflected in the books they read, including textbooks.

You can order your set here (aff).

Peekapak Review and GIVEAWAY!

Have you heard of Peekapak? I have and was pleased when they reached out to Mommy Maestra for a collaboration!

Peekapak is a wonderful children's curriculum designed to extend classroom learning into the home. They offer lesson plans for Kindergarten to 3rd grade. They create stories that are Common Core and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) aligned and include in-class activities that support key themes and learning objectives. The lesson plans are adaptable and parents can support teachers by using the home extensions or do it all at home.

With my big guy in 2nd grade and two little ones in preschool, we decided to gather around my computer and read a story from the 2nd grade curriculum so that they could all participate. We read "The Peekapak Pals and The Tree of Happiness" and we could totally relate to this story! After this major snow craze that kept my boys home for two days this week, we quickly identified with the characters' feelings: No one was enjoying the weather anymore.

Not only were the illustrations vibrant and contemporary, but the boys always love the "comic book" pictures with conversation bubbles over the character's heads. Diego read those to us while I read the narrator's part at the bottom of the pages. We stopped to discuss, made predictions and dove into a printable activity right after we finished reading.

Because the story was so relatable and we were discussing and learning new vocabulary for this specific "grateful" theme, I also took advantage of the construction heart shapes we had previously cut out for a Valentine's Day project, and used them as "tags" like in the story. We wrote things that make us happy and grateful in the hearts and taped them on to our home windows.

Whether you are homeschooling at home or not, these lessons plans are great for any parent who wants to support their children's learning experience at home. It was a perfect lesson plan for our long snowy day!

THE GIVEAWAY

Our friends at Peekapak are giving 10 Mommy Maestra readers a free 6-month access to their curriculum!  Just follow the directions in the Rafflecopter below and Peekapak's social media pages for the newest curriculum information.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Betty Galvan, is writing "for smart and stylish moms" over

at MyFriendBettySays.com.