homeschooling moon children

It’s a Celebration! Growing up I heard of the day but it wasn’t until my Papa Nando passed away and a Disney movie for me to truly dive into my culture.
My girls loved this movie and we didn’t know much but that it was about Dia De Los Muertos. Skye was very inspired by the movie and couldn’t wait to grow up and be “Mexican” and “move to Mexico”. This inspired Jeff and I to dive into our family lineage and be able to show them their family tree and connections to Mexico and beyond.
But that wasn’t enough she wanted to have an “ofrenda” and wanted to honor family members who have passed on.
We started with a photo of my Papa Nando which if he were alive would be overcome with emotion knowing my girls loved his country, just like he did. Every year since the movie’s release we have set aside a little ofrenda for him and included little things. I try to make it different every year but let the girls take control.
Last year we added my grandma who passed away and my heart just broke. It felt like the movie one of the ending scenes when you were just broken and sad. I was very sad to see my grandma on our ofrenda, but happy to know they (my grandparents) are together again. I miss my grandma everyday, and I know my girls do to. Sharing their weekly handwork on facetime and watching not only their grandma but great grandma beam with pride. But my girls feel so proud to place her on our ofrenda with my papa, and that’s an important lesson I’m learning from my girls. That this holiday is a celebration of life and we are honoring her and keeping her memory alive. This year we decided to add my grandparents son, who not even my own mommy met. But the girls felt it was important as my grandma would head to Mexico every year to visit him and place flowers on this Holiday. It’s something they remember my mommy telling them so the girls wanted to make sure he had a place there too.

This year I wanted to take a slightly different approach and really incorporate some “food” but not real because of critters.
So the girls and I made some “pan de muerto” out of felt with our handwork skills. I really wanted the girls to feel in control of this and make their own design, because in real life no real two breads are alike. We also added a cup of water, a lemonade container because my grandma always made “Limeade” from fresh limes from the trees in the backyard. I will always remember the taste of my grandmas fresh limeade after running around the backyard to the front yard with my siblings and cousins. So placing this wooden container brought back happy memories. This is what this ofrenda is about, celebrating the memories of our family. The girls also added some of the felted food I made them because they decided what they would like or recall stories from my mommy of her parents. We added some candles, a moon because my grandparents last name is “Luna”, also another reason for our blog name. I’m truly in love with the work the girls put into this beautiful “ofrenda” for my grandparents, my uncle, and my family dog chase.
My girls are so pure and feel so much connection the their Mexican Heritage and I hope to inspire them to dig deeper. I’m learning along side them on this journey to not only discover who we are, and where our family has come from but remembering to keep these traditions alive.
I will keep learning and keep teaching them because I know my grandparents would love this!

xx,
me