A Bit of Philippine History

Found some interesting video of Manila back in 1930's.

Great Illustrated Classics

Last month, (Sept. 15th, 2009) we happen to go to the third floor of the one and only "mall/department store" in the city. Even though it wasn't really planned to buy books, we ended up buying some. A Marc Brown book on patience and a Great Illustrated Classics book, "Wizard of Oz".

I was hesitant to get the classics book at first thinking that P's level is not that yet and will be reading a couple more years later. I would have to keep it for a while before giving it to him to read. Was I surprised to see him later at home looking for the book and trying to read the Oz. At first, he looked at the pictures on the pages (each page has one full text and the opposite is an illustration). Keeping an eye on him as I was preparing dinner, I noticed that he has started to flip the pages at a certain tempo and was actually reading the text and not just the pictures. In more or less two hours, he had finished it. He figuratively devoured it.

I was very surprised but happy. At the same time, worried that he just swallowed it too soon. I mean, he can read it fine but that should be my cue to get him started or train him to read in a slightly higher reading skills not merely devour the book. And since he still has the appetite to reread the books that he has, I think it won't be a bad idea to slowly introduce this skills in these classics.

The next day, I went back to the store and got the three remaining books. He might or might not read it right away is fine with me. In time, he will read be glad to have these books in our bookshelf to read when he gets around to it.

Library Time

Being a not-so-busy-Mom gives me lots of free time to bring my kid to the library. Since little boy's Daycare class is til 4 in the the afternoon, we still have a chance to head to the library specially when the weather is good.

Sometimes, when we turn up at the center and find out that it's closed (we have no idea beforehand), we head on to the grocery (there's a playground there) or library. Like last Monday. It was actually raining but instead of going back home, I thought, why not the library?

We got in a around a quarter before 2 and left only when the librarians have to go home (meaning, 5 pm) I was pretty surprised to have stayed there that long with the LB 'coz his usual length of stay inside is more or less an hour or two. If I was alone, I could stay there from 1 to 5 but with LB, I'm doubtful. But we did stay longer than what I've expected. He sure likes to read. I just have to be more active in guiding him when he reads. At least get a chance to talk about one of the books that he reads or be able to retell the book.

Grimm's Fairy Tale -as told by P(Sept. 22/2009)

Once upon a time, there was a donkey and he had a master.
Now, he was too old and his master didn't like him anymore,
and then he can only sit sit by the fire.
Now, he wanted to be magician so he walked.
And soon he met a cat sitting on a roof.
It was meowing and then the donkey said,
"Little Cat, don't cry. Why don't you come with me to be a magician?"
So they walked. They hadn't been long before they met a dog.
And he was looking around. And the donkey said,
"Why don't you come with me and be a magician?"
So the dog agreed to go with them. So they walked.
And soon they met a rooster sitting on a roof.
"Cockarookoo!"
"Well," said the donkey, "that is a good one."
So the donkey talked to the rooster. He said,
"Why don't you come with me and be a magician."
The rooster said "Okay." So they walked.
And soon they went to a house. And the rooster said to the donkey,
"What do you see?"
"What do I see?" "It is a group of robbers."
So, the donkey crept his four feet in the window.
The cat stood on his head.
And the dog went on cat's back.
And the rooster went on the dog's head.
And they all made a noise which the robbers scared and ran out of the house and ran into the forest.
So the magicians got in and they ate as they would be very hungry.
And they all made their sleeping place.
The donkey crept under the bed.
And the cat went under the table.
And the dog went under the shelf.
And soon they all fell asleep.
Meanwhile, the robbers outside were near the house. And they went back to their house.
And they opened the door, and got the match.
And they lighted the candle up but the cat heard it.
So she made a noise, and scratched the robbers legs.
So he went behind the door but the donkey gave a big bounce.
And the robbers got to the backyard but the rooster put his feet on the robbers head.
And he ran out to the captain and said,
"There's a dreadful monster in the house! And he spat and scratch me.
Behind the door, there was a man with a knife. And he hurt me.
And then in the yard, there was a monster and he hurt me with its sword."
So we shall never ever go back again. And they never did.
But the four magicians were really happy.
And then the house was turned into their house.

The END.

Baking time with Uncle Duds

One Sunday afternoon when my bro dropped by for lunch, I got them baking some sinful cookies. It didn't turn out so great...but we were able to eat it anyway. Hopefully, they'll try another one next time.

Living Things Lesson Extension Activity

From the Mendoza Park, P took hold of the camera to record anything that catches his attention on our walk going home.

Plants at the Mendoza Park as part of our lesson about plants.

Other things aside from plants as seen by P.

Bedtime reading, finally!

Around after P turned 5, DH finally started his bedtime reading with him. They started with Grimms fairy tales, which turned out grimly as the original stories were really like that. DH tried to venture into other collections and so far, it's going pretty well.

At the same time, he also did the Korean language lesson. Basically starting with the Korean letters. I'm keeping my hands off that case. It's his turf whether I think he can find better ways to teach that. (previously posted)

As for Teacher Mom, we've covered Knights and Plants so far. The student indicated interests in Knights topic and we did a lapbook on it. He sure likes lapbooking even though his scissor and gluing skills still remains to improve endurance.

P at 5, starts his 2nd (or 3rd) Language class

The father finally is taking his son's language lessons seriously. After he turned five, DH has been regularly teaching him language. I'm not really sure if he knows what he's doing but I am just as happy as the kid. Finally. Hopefully, Teacher Dad will not burn out soon. ;)

P turns Five!

Yesterday has been a great day! It was a bit busy for me but it turned out fine.

After three years of planning, I was finally able to bake my son his birthday cake. A first for me, I'm afraid. We've always bought cake from stores before and just come to think of it, he has always had a cake on his birthday. Small maybe but still a cake.

I started around 10 AM after my morning routine. I made two batch coz the portions were not that enough. After two hours, a total of 6 C of flour, 2 C of mayo, 3 C of sugar, 12 T of cocoa and a number of sifting, the mixture did get into the oven and out to start cooling while we had our lunch. Having it cooled a bit, I went back to it to make the fudge and finish up the irregular turn out of the cake. Ha! It sure was time consuming for a first timer like me. I still had to run to the market to get some peppers for the spaghetti. It was about 4 when the grandparents arrived with their gift. ;)

Since not everything is still settled, we all went out for some playtime for the birthday boy and while I run for additional candles and peppers and other stuff needed. SOS from my bro who took care of the finishing touches for the cake which was wanting some colors save for the brown chocolate fudge covering it.

Things to properly note down on DIY cake: NIPS, or MnMs, mallows, sprinklers (which I have to go to a special party store and not just at the only mart in town!), small stick'o, pretzels, hmm...it should look better next time. ;)

Some more notes on the things I learned:

a. I may someday consider using the confectionaire's sugar on the frosting or even fudge. I did buy it and it's rotting in my cupboard. The very conscientous of sugar for the teeth really gets in the way of my baking. Tsk, tsk. I keep on thinking of the very fine confectsugars that is just perfect to melt in our mouth and at the same time melt our teeth! There should be a balance somewhere.

b. Take care of the candles way in advance. This is a second for me coz I do remember one of my friends who had the same problem last time. I almost had the same, except that mine was easier solved. I didn't have to look for a very special candle. A stick was enough except that I needed one more. My reuse-reduce-and-recycle-thing kicked in and what I did was just add one more from the last set that we had last year. Ah! I did buy two this time for next year. Hmm..kidded the clerk about it but I was actually dead serious. LOL..

And now, off to make our thak you cards for our guests yesterday. My son sure had a great birthday thanks to them.

Fine Motor Skills

August 17th

As we were about to go out to buy our groceries today, P had the idea of doing origami. Since I am preoccupied in preparing to go out, I told him that he has to do this by himself this time without calling me for help. He said yes and I was gladly surprised. He chose to do a simple whale with 2 stars for difficulty (with 5 being the most difficult). The folds that he had to do were really simple and he finally had the confidence of doing it all by himself save for the last part of the tail which called for a "hood fold". He still had to ask me about it but for the most part he figured it out on his own. His folding quality was not so bad at all. He was able to fold neatly. My heart was silently rejoicing to see that his fingers are finally catching up in doing small tasks such as origami. I am looking forward to the day when he'll try to do higher difficulty level of origami. (Was he challenged with Fiona's confidence in trying it on her own?Just a thought.)

Another milestone today for his fine motor skills development is the use of chopsticks. Except for his Father who's almost not that familiar in using forks (oops! he must not see this!LOL), we generally use spoon and fork for eating. I do prefer using chopsticks with spaghetti, kimchi and some food sometimes but I do still use fork most of the time. DS also uses fork most of the time but when he sees everyone using chopsticks, he is encourage to use one too. We occasionally have "chopsticks days" wherein for the first part of the meal, he'll try to use it. Before the meal ends, he would switch to fork saying that his "hands" are tired. We do understand that of course.
Today turned out to be another chopstick night. I noticed that he's more confident in holding the sticks and less food are falling. He's more adept at using the chopsticks and he was able to eat the rest of the meal withour switching back to fork. But of course, the food was a good one to pick up like the tofu and anchovies. My next cue to watch out for is when he will be able to eat noodle with it. He already tried before but not quite successfully yet so I may have to see next time again.

Reading Journey: Archie's Comics

DS had stumbled into the comics scene. He found it very interesting but I have yet to reread these books again. He's so into it nowadays and would constantly be "caught" reading this.

OOps! Books read last Friday at the library. Big book about So Duck who cannot Quack (titled "Quack"), A Pal for Pat (Fischer-price phonics book), and the Ant and the Grasshopper (this one has the sad ending where Ant refuses Grasshopper begging for food). I personally like my own version where the ant shares but still teaches the lesson of saving to the grasshopper.

He also looked for the Mack the Cat book today which I almost forgot where I had kept. Ah! There are still much more to reread at home.

:( So this one also goes for me.

Intro to Lapbook this July

Here's a quick post on our activities this later part of July.

We did the science week from sometime around July 24th to 31st. The focus study is the basics of human body. The inspiration was taken from one of the science curriculum I was fiddling with these days and the free lapbook site I fortunately discovered. Some of these lapbooks might be a little daunting at first but as we did part by part, our first foray into lapbooks is quite promising.

Photos of our output are to follow. It must be noted that I tried to let the kid get into the cutting and gluing in the process. During the first ones, he was ok with it. But he still needs more confidence to solely do the things himself. Coloringwise, he is able to. Using the scissors and longer time squeezing out the glue stick might still be tricky. I am considering on getting a new pair of scissors for him, in case that what he's using is not as sharp as it should be anymore. Another one is the glue stick that I chose. I might have to get the "paste" kind of glue--the ca[ and twist thing which is generally just good for papers. Up on my list now.

As for the content of the things that we have covered, I do think that he doesn't only retain the facts and figures (?) but the concepts as well. At least he now knows more about the importance of our bones, muscles, heart and brain. ;)

After the science week series, I'm moving into language and literacy again. A week off and resume next week. Not that we didn't do any learning this week, mind you.

We happened to find a praying mantis in the "kulitis" plant growing in the corner lot. Seeing it's potential science lesson, we took it home. Googled it up and found (basically Asia, South America and only some part of Australia; and it is a carnivore. It only eats other insects even like grasshoppers.

We also took short walks, library visit and playground time for his motor skills.;) Since Lola Mama has been out of the hospital and currently recuperating from her foot surgery, we had our chance of visiting her more often these days. We would sometimes take a walk going to or fro her place to pick some ilang-ilang flowers on the way and do a pretend adventure in our slightly-forested street.

Note to Mom today was to put on some neat shoes and not open toed sandals. Mine is not really very comfy to walk with.

We also had a chance to have his friend over for a day. They played and did acitivities together last Friday. Starting with some mini-letter books, (for the friend to catch up phonics), origami, painting, and a few minutes viewing of Hi-5 and Backyardigans at home. Then off to the city library where we managed to read three books and the playground for their ultimate activity of the day. Did I mention the ice cream that they each got after a day's work and play?

Hopefully, we can put this thing on again next week. It's time to plan for another session!

Dee's Tree, reading time

Dee's Tree. A short story about growing and changing.
Vocs - 4/4
Reading Comprehension - 3/4
Who is That? (HOTS) - 3/4
Picture Description - check

Post-reading exercise is an outline of People Vs. Tree as it develop in the story.

Took a bit of explaining first but eventually got it.

May 20, 21...pet, excretory system

May 20, 2009


P had a thing with his excretory system today.
In the morning while I was working on the lappy.
He stirred but he didn't get up and say good morning at all.
SO I checked if he was upset or something only to find out something
wet beside him. Uh-oh..I mentioned the wet thing and he said,
"I made a mistake." And after that, tried to bury his face in his hands.
So we had an early wash coz of that.

Later that night when I got home from school, I found the toilet
unflushed with something. So I asked P if he pooped today and he said yes.
This is a first that he did not bother anybody with it.
The father was surprised coz he had no idea about it. Upon further questions,
it turned out that the son just did it all by himself. Asked if what was the DD doing
at that time, son said he was asleep. SO the little boy simply pulled his undies and
went back to what he was watching. No washing (good thing it's a dry thing so not much
skid marks) and flushing. Gross! But looking at it in a way, I am just glad of his try
of independence. Yet, still got a few part to iron out.

A day with P's excretory system.

May 21, 2009

Last week, sometime around May 14 or 15, our dog got out of the fence and did not come back.
Hubby tried to make some story but I'm not just in the mood to put in writing just now.

Anyway, my folks woke us up today with the news that they found the dog around the neighboring vacant lot.
The big lot is quite like a forest still and fenced with barbed wire.
They saw the dogs head trying to get out of it but since the space was too small,
the poor dog got stuck. They tried to get her out but he rans away from them.
My folks thought about bringing my son to there to coax the dog out.
Good thing is when we got there, she did recognize us. After a few tries and hesitation,
the dog finally got out and went home with us.

Our dog is finally back home, but the thing is we lost her dog dish.;)
I am quite relieved that she's back home and safe. I did feel very bad that she was out in the wild for
almost a week. Ah, I think that was Friday. Almost a week indeed.

I have yet to evaluate my son's reaction and other stories
around this disappearance and homecoming.

Volcanoes for Science

May 12

Teaching moment came when P asked how volcanoes work when I got home last night.
He was just looking at some photo form the Father's pc and wanted to know more about volcanoes.
This isn't the first time that he asked about it so even though I was already tired and sleepy,
I started searching for some resources online. I was actually looking for neat power point but
most I saw did not suit what I needed. Instead, I was able to find some videos that can suffice.
The discovery page that I found was what one cool place. We were able to generate how a volcano
will look like when erupting depending on the amount of gas present or the viscosity of the lava.
The vocabulary words didn't exactly contain the viscosity just yet, as I think it was bit too
technical for a 4 year old. We basically just covered active, sleeping or dormant and extinct or dead.
Extinct was not a new word for him since he encountered it before when he played in one pc game about
endangered and extinct creatures. For this volcano lesson, kinds of volcanoes according to shape;
shield, stratovolcano and cone.

After the volcano lesson, we did a fish origami. No relation at all with it. ;(

But during his free time, he wanted to paint. This time, he painted a volcano eruption. People are waiting,
lava flowed out and some people died because of it.

Hmm..I smell the rice burning now.
Oh no!

Lego blocks for the Fingers and Brain

The Lego set that P got when he turned four has been unused for a while. It sat in the box untouched in his playroom as he was contented with some small toys out. Surprisingly, he found it again tonight and started to make his own designs. Previously, he would always lean on the pictures that went along in the box. But tonight, he tried to do his own without any help. The imagination is better as he announced to make a restaurant set, all by himself. He was absorbed in the process for almost an hour. It sure was an improvement in my opinion.

Sporadic Math

In my quest to find some help in answering my school homework yesterday, I stumbled on some nice Math sites perfect for my little tutee.

It was a gold mine of activities and ideas for our Math lesson. I almost gave up on this subject but having found this site inspired me one more time to continue on. This one has the basic and leveled activities and really, a gold mine.

After P requested if he can play around with the keyboard but was refused coz F was taking a nap, the math gold mine was in line. The about-to-cry-face looked a bit better and gradually turned into a hopeful one. His face lit up and after a few more minutes, we were into the activities.

We covered the problem solving on arranging stuff with the simple hints given. First one was the cake (it covers the fraction concept of same, half, or equal.) Hmmm..better do it in a bullet point.

Activity

• cake (concept on fraction, equal, same, etc.)
• balloon (concept on colors, counting, a bit of graph, the words most, and few)
• crown jewels (concept of shapes termed as "jewels")
  
• train cars (concept on the words before, after, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th)
• sequencing picture (although he missed the dog burying bone thing again)
• time sequencing (he missed the time kids go to school, he answered kids go to school at 3 and goes home at 8 pm)

Points to work on:

• digital clocks vs. analog clocks
• sequence of things that happened everyday
• review the 1st, 2nd, etc., more exercise on that
• do some homemade drawings and letting him finish it before answering

Some more time and follow up on these things we should try again.

Measurement, anyone?

For the past two weeks that Teacher Mommy had resolve to get back to numbers, measurement lesson is what TM tried. TM prepared some real things for P to measure and put in a table. It took us a couple of days to finally finish the page coz it wasn't really very interesting for him. We finally finished the table yesterday, (it wasn't really a lot) but it took a bit of time. TM still has to take another shot at that next time. We were bounded with just a 6 inch paper ruler this time so perhaps we'll try a longer one next. Something that he can actually feel more enthusiasm in measuring.

TM has to get back to the drawing board for that lesson.
Uhmm..now that it occur to TM, since Mom is planning to make a pizza crust, perhaps we can try another unit of measurement this time. Off to the cupboard now.

Oops! Another one, an extension on the astronomy thing last week. Found some nice sites with ppt presentation and lots of cool photo slides for P. Started it two nights ago, but it's quite long so we're taking our time.

Street Astronomy 2009

Based on the stuff Teacher Mommy has heard from the short program on the opening of the event and read a bit on the online website of the event, 2009 was designated by the UN as Astronomy year. Why? This year marks the 400 years anniversary of Galileo using the first telescope ever and ?th hundred year that the first book on astronomy was ever published. (TM was really not very good in remembering numbers, you see.) Nonetheless, it was an event marked off on the calendar days before it. Right after I saw the poster around our street.

I can write a long entry on the things that happened but as usual, this will be just a quick report. The narrative will be for next time.

There was a short shadow storytelling on local sky mythology before the actual "star show." It isn't just astronomy, it's also local literature.










This was just 2nd night of the show but we still had to wait in line for more than 30 minutes.










The initial photo exhibit of some photos taken by national astronomy enthusiasts.
















This looks like out of an astronomy lab at school. (Not my school, though.) The nice guy explaining how the moon rotates around the earth, showing the phases of the moon. I really like this part but unfortunately, the team after us were a bit noisy that I didn't get to listen very well.
I do hope P will remember even just a fragment of this set up though.
















It was hard to take a picture and at the same time assist P as he take a peek of the moon. ;)
Hmm... the queue that we have to endure might seem worth it as we see P highly involved with the things around him.

We went home at around 11 pm. A bit late for the little one, but definitely worth it.
















Some nice sites here and here about astronomy.

PSU Museum

Palawan History is at the Museum

Music and discipline

For the past three months, P has been going to church every week to join the Little Voices choral practice. He has always maintained high level of interest and consistent enthusiasm every week. A couple of months ago, their teacher announced that the group will be performing on the 28th of March. Since then, he'll be checking the calendar quite so often or ask every morning if it is 28th yet. The excitement in the little kid was so evident. He really liked the idea of rehearsal and singing.

The grandparents were also very supportive in this. They see how interested the kid is and they sure go all out for that.

28th came and P woke up in the wrong side of the bed. He didn't cooperate in preparing for the morning schedule so he ended up missing half of it. Good thing is that the main performance was in the afternoon and by that time, he all set and ready to do his part.

Upon the invitation of the little kid himself, the father has no other choice but to come despite the temperature that was raging outside. It was a really hot and sunny day. P had lunch at the Grandma's so hubby and I went to the church by ourselves, almost the same time that the Grandma and P arrived. After waiting for people to get there, the program finally started at past three pm. A lot of people turned up, mostly parents of the performers. ;)

The group is still in its maiden stage (barely 3 months old) and they opened the program with their prayer songs. Afterwhich was the Hospital Kids Choir who was more "mature" in their rendition of their pieces. Sure there were some "naughty" ones but, the performance level was just a notch higher than the local group. It was followed by another set of guest performers from a local school. This time, grade school students violinist. It was also refreshing to hear famous religious songs played with the violin live. By the time the local group went up the stage for their next part, the kids are already pumped up and the nerves were less that they were able to turn up their volume some more.

"it was very very good" - typewritten by Pilip

As for P's performance review, I believe he did well. The nerve got to him during his solo part causing his volume to decrease, but his actions were just right. He didn't fumbled on the lyrics nor the actions except for the volume. There was a bit of mic glitch but even when it was fixed, we still barely heard him. There was also this part that all the kids were to wait for their turn to sing while a soloist was singing the part. The thing is P somehow sang along and did the action with the soloist. And when he noticed that all the kids weren't doing the same thing, it quite cute watching his face.That didn't dampen his mood and so he had a good time all through out the day.

Mommy's note:
During the part that P and his group were waiting for their turn, they had to stay seated the benches. Most of the kids would be going here and there (to their parents, etc.) and sometimes even chat with their mates. Almost everyone did except for P. (and maybe two more smaller kiddos, ok.) Even up performing, he was just the "model" student. Hah! I wonder how long will he stay like that.

After the performance, the kids were given some snacks. P wasn't really big on spaghetti these days but he sure ate well that day. He looked tired but happy. And since the day was still good (even with the very sunny weather), we decided to go to Baywalk before heading home.

Every kid's performance in public is really important. Personally, I am not a big fan of these kind of stuff but the self-confidence that is being develop in these little ones are really something that we should always keep in mind. Sure, it may entail time, money and other resources on our part but the lesson of sharing, discipline and self confidence for them is enough.

TO be continued..

The Frog Story

Due to the current power supplier problem in the City recently, there has been a more frequent and long power outage. Even though I would generally curse this occurences, tonight was a little different. We were seated around the dining table when I offered to tell the moth story to my little one. The father, who was also trying to keep himself cool amidst the non-functioning electric fan (summer is really humid, even at night), beat me to it. No, he didn't tell the Filipino moth story. Instead, he told us a story about the Korean frog.

I'm not up to retelling the frog story now but what I appreciated was that after the father said "the end", my son said that it is not yet finished. He then continued the story, making it up as he go. Letting the baby frog grow up, get married and have another generation of frog. I mean, there might be some strange goings on but I saw that he was thinking it out as he try to continue the story.

My moth story was rescheduled but I am just glad that my little one shows his mind working critically. I am not building castles in the air that he will be a writer coz it might be too early to say. Nonetheless, there's something in him.

Inspiration Homeschool

Just so that I am not going to forget this place, I'll post it here for future viewing.

November 2008 entry

Backtrack here.

Drumroll..

Here's my son's own place.

Inspired by another blogsite, I am going to try to try to keep a journal for my son too. I may not be able to do this all the time, but it will be nice to have something to come back to for updates.

On with the journey, starting with a REPOST from my own place which is actually about Pilip anyway.