This school year not only have the kids learned a lot, I have too.  I was hesitant to homeschool, but felted we had no other option.  No option felt "good".  In person, we risked infection; online academy, we risked our children not being seen, heard, or falling behind from boredom and feeling detached; homeschooling we risked an unhappy family situation and our kids having to entering the next grade behind due to my lack of educational abilities and follow through.  Since option number three left fate in our own hands that's the route we went with.  And I think we are happy with this decision.  It has given us family growth, a better understanding of how our kids learn and stability.

I have several friends (most of my friends, dare I say all my friends) that are smarter than me (book smart).  I was an A/B student, but basically in school I crammed, took the test and let the information go.  I never saw the validity of learning.  Why do I need to know the 16th president was Abraham Lincoln??  Why do I need to know the chemical elements of the periodic table??  By the way I suck at trivial pursuit.  

With in the first couple weeks of home schooling I had stumbled upon an article from the Johnson County Museum about Hispanics immigrating to the United States.  Now this hit home and of course caught my interest.  I, like most Americans, come from immigrant lineage.  While I don't know the information on my immigrating relatives on my mom's side; I do know that my paternal grandfather came to America from Mexico as a baby and my maternal great grandfather came to America and worked on the railroads.  Both worked very hard to provide for their families and are a huge reason I live the life I do today.  So I felt it important to pass this heritage on to my children.  Even though we feel a bit distant from our Mexican-American culture as we don't speak Spanish, I didn't have a quinceanera and half of our family (if not more) is not Mexican-American we still try to remind our kids of where we came from.  Simple things like having a piñata at nearly every single birthday party we throw for them.  And not just buying the piñata from Walmart (we did that once, it was not nearly as good of a product), but we go to the west side (the neighborhood where my dad grew up) and buy from a store where they mainly speak Spanish (El Padrino's).  It's a trek for us, but totally worth it.  

After we read the article about Hispanics immigrating from Mexico to the United States, it dawned on me that we should call my dad and see if he can add any information to what we learned.  I totally lucked out and he answered and talked us through more details about his dad and grandfather.  We also asked my uncle (my dad's brother in law) if we could call him and interview him as well.  He was born in Mexico and came over as a young man and became an American citizen about 11 or so years ago.

Other ways we embraced the stories of Mexican-American culture were making churros, listening to Mexican Polka, dancing, and watching La Bamba.  As I rewatched La Bamba (I'd seen it many times as a kid) I was was reminded of why I liked the movie so much.  First off, the main song in the movie, "La Bamba" is catchy, but also I really relate to Richie Valens.  I wasn't a musician and I never had to pick produce from farm fields, but Richie Valens was Mexcian-American, like me.  His mom was from Mexico and his dad was Caucasian.  He looked Hispanic but he didn't speak Spanish (I remember a couple times where people expected him to speak spanish and was like, sorry I don't speak Spanish.  I've had that happen several times too where someone speaks to me at a restaurant or in Mexico (on vacation) in Spanish and quickly realize I only speak english).  He had big family gatherings; as did I as a child.  I remember Christmases where there were so many family members and friends and gifts we couldn't even walk in the Livingroom.

A few other things we did to enrich ourselves on this topic; we studied the artist Frida Kahlo, went to eat at a local Mexican restaurant on a night they were having a Mariachi Band and Dancing horses, we also studied The Day of the Dead and went to a Day of the Dead festival in my dad's old neighborhood.  (Did you know that some (not all) Mexican's think it is respectful to dig up their deceased loved ones every year on November 1st to clean their bones.  Then they set them up in a box with their skull set on top nicely so they can pay their respect and visit with them.  They put out marigolds and their loved ones favorite foods and drinks to entice them to come back.  Then tell stories of their loved ones to remember them.  Not all that practice the Day of the Dead actually dig them up, but some do.  I had no idea until my uncle mention it.)