Exposing the kids to different cultures.
Bacolod Homeschoolers in their foreign national costumes, from left, Greece, Netherlands, Egypt. Egypt, Nigeria, Italy, and Iran. Not in photo is our little Ms. Singapore.
The Bacolod Homeschoolers Network is growing! We now have 11 homeschooling families and the United Nations Day 2016 is already our third activity as a group. The first one was Nutrition Day in July, which was followed by the Araw ng Wika in August. With every activity, we find a new friend
And while the UN Day is supposed to be in October, we held ours in advance because the month of October is MassKara Festival for Bacolod City and so we don’t want to miss the citywide celebration.
We held our UN Day at the Fogo Grill, a Latin American restaurant here in Bacolod City. Even the choice of venue was intentional. The menu is foreign and their place is so vibrant that it was the perfect venue for our event. We took lovely photos there. Plus they have Mexican ponchos and sombreros that we could borrow for our picture taking after the event. Thank you so much Fogo Grill for accommodating us. They are located at the ground floor, O Residences, Lacson Street, Mandalagan, Bacolod City.
Related story: Choosing to Homeschool our Children in the Philippines
I am so thankful that Bacolod homeschooling parents heeded the call to network and have these once a month outings. These are events that the kids as well as the parents can look forward to. Not only do we get to socialize in this manner, we have something to prepare for, although our is not much stringent. We want to learn but still we want to have fun while doing it. Both parents and kids are excited with these activities. I am also very happy to see more fathers joining in the activity. Each event has indeed become a family affair for us.
Our Bacolod Homeschoolers Network is growing! And we are having more fathers with us, too.
United Nations Day Activity Guide
Our program was very simple. As the organizer, I just gave a short welcome message, telling the kids about the purpose of our celebration. Then we had an opening prayer led by Isabelle and then of course, the singing of the Pambansang Awit. The kids are taught to memorize our national anthem.
We really should correct those hands while singing the national anthem.
Costumes. The children were to come in foreign national costumes. The parents were asked to choose their kid’s costumes and to submit them beforehand so that we would not have duplicate costumes. This will also make sure that their reports or special numbers will different from each other.
Dindin and Shane were Ms. Nigeria and Ms. Greece respectively.
Report. Each child was going to report or present something about their chosen country. Many opted to research about the country they represented, took out important facts, and prepared a presentation on an illustration board. My daughter Dindin, who likes to tell stories, told her schoolmates about the myth of King Midas’ touch, as she was Ms. Greece. Meanwhile, Johann learned a new language as Mr. Italy. He introduced himself in Italian and even sang an Italian song. Hannah, the princess of Egypt who rescued Moses, introduced herself and her reign together with her mom. Even my younger daughter Shane at 3 years old was able to give a short report about Nigeria with only five sentences. All our presentations were based on the kids’ competencies and what they were willing to deliver. There is no right or wrong or better or bad presentation.
My daughter Dindin showing her schoolmates her book about Ancient Greece that we found at the Book Sale.
Hannah the Egyptian princess with her Mommy Che.
Johann sang an Italina song as Mr. Italy.
Group Singing. The kids sang the age-old United Nations theme song, “It’s a Small World.” We had them sing together but we didn’t really have time to rehearse. So instead, we practiced individually and performed as a group. It still worked! Watch the kids’ video below.
The game of the day was UNO Cards.
Our next activity would be Mask Painting Activity for MassKara Festival 2016.