A had to make a "Culture Doll" for school. I figured that it's about time for her to learn about all the cultures that she represents - from panama hat to maple leaf to flamenco dancer to bubble tea to Miss Universe. So instead of making a culture doll, we made a multicultural doll together, measuring A's exact size, her avatar.
"This is my multicultural doll, Alexi Ana. What's yours?
Ninja was in the mood of total makeover. I think that he’s just tired of everyday and everything being the same, wanted to spice things up a little bit. He first did a total makeover on his room by rearranging all the furniture. Then he went on to rearrange A’s room. She was so surprised that she burst into tears when she walked in. (I felt that I was watching a reality TV show, LOL)
Then around 6pm when they were done with all the work, I heard music blasting from Ninja’s room. Someone’s having a “soul” party. Pretty rad I must say. Genuinely impressed with all the light show, music, mini lounge, groovy moves and fun! Desperation is the mother of invention! Just grateful that they are able to create fun out of nothing to make themselves happy and keep themselves entertained. Let’s get party started!
One of the “advantages” of “homeschooling” (distance learning during the pandemic) is that I (as a parent) actually get to know what the kids are learning (curriculum wise) "at school". We seem to receive more communication (emails, google classroom) from the teachers.
So apparently, one of the biggest topics for the 4th grade social study is learning the history of California, which could be summed up by Spaniard’s colonization through religion and force. They need to learn all the original 9 Missions built by Juan Junipero Serra and choose one of the 21 Missions in California as a research project.
It somewhat echos the family catechism we do (during the pandemic) at home. We also made a stop at Mission Santa Inez on our trip to Pismo during the Thanksgiving holidays. It seems that our lives have revolved around Catholicism these days.
Normally, one of their (the 4th graders) biggest projects of the year is to create a diorama for a chosen Mission. Since it’s pandemic, most teachers make it optional. Yet, Ninja decided to do it with Minecraft to see if he can get extra credits for it. I thought it was an awesome idea, not only he gets to be creative but it makes learning fun (and they are already playing video games, might as well.) It took him just 3 hours to complete it (though he claimed for 7 days, assuming 30 minutes a day based on his calculation). I must say I was genuinely impressed of his Minecraft version of Mission Santa Ines and he also made a YouTube video for the visual tour. Pretty rad! Welcome to the eGeneration!
p.s. Ninja had deleted his original video, this is a remake of the original one, the structure of the project is the same just that the recording is updated.
