Recommended Places for Preschoolers Trips (for kids ages 4-8)

1. City Library – Books, books, books! Need I say more? Ah, perhaps a very interesting presentation about the parts of the library and how fun it is for everyone. (Free, may need LoR for a large group.)
2. Palawan Museum – Pique the interest of the kids on local history. A little warning though, do not overdose and leave them having a boring concept of a museum. (Minimal fee for kids @ P2 up to 15 for adults, may need LoR for a large group.)
3. City Fire Department – Most kids are interested in fire trucks. This is also related to the community/language topics covered in preschool subjects. (Free, may need LoR for a large group.)
4. Wescom Hangar – See some aircraft up close and even go on board for some pictures. There are very friendly soldiers who will show the way around and even escort your vehicle around the camp. Isn’t that cool? (Free, needs a Letter of Request 14 days in advance.)
5. Butterfly Garden – Insects that would straightaway bring metamorphosis lessons in action. They provide a little outdate video clip before getting in the enclosure. (They charge an exorbitant fee for a very small space and limited time. Some might be discouraged with the ratio of cost and space.)
6. Demo Bee Farm – Another option of insect lesson sans the fee, plus a possible tasting of honey for free. A bit out of the way but still around the area of Croc Farm (CFI). (Free, may need LoR for a large group.)
7. Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center/CFI – Taking care of animals, conservation of wildlife and its habitat is a sure way of bringing classroom science lessons to life.
8. Baker’s Hill – The only good place to let kids play in a playground, along with animal lessons and food to boot.
9. Mitra’s Ranch – They finally have horses in this ranch and it’s quite getting better for picnics that can accommodate a growing number of people. Another good place for kids to roam around.
10. Aloha House – This is actually an orphanage and organic vegetable grower that supplies some produce sold at the store downtown. If lucky, kids can probably see how the veggies are grown and picked. They can even buy some at reasonable prices. (Vegetables may be bought, may need LoR for a large group.)

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY.

It is recommended not go to these places all in one day. This would leave more impact on the children. Allot enough time for these places without the pressure of hurrying on to the next stop. At least two days, or even three, would give the children enough time to enjoy and appreciate the trips to insure it to still be educational. It’s an educational trip after all.

Learning is not only by sight. Let the children experience and explore each place. Present a semi-structured activity in case some gets bored right away.

Some more tips:

1. Teachers should also know about their places of interest and be able to draw out the connection of these places to the things covered in the classroom.
2. The teachers and parents should be aware of what to expect to do in each of the places. These would help satisfy the curious kids’ questions that the teacher may not be able to answer during the trip.
3. There should be a point-person to lead the kids and share the information about the place with everybody. This could be the teacher or someone from the point-of-interest.
4. Parents are there to keep the kids safe and discipline during the trip in order not to cause unnecessary disturbance when the teacher/resource speaker is talking.
5. Secure all the necessary permits and accurate details as to activity, and fees before the trip.
6. Teacher should provide activities that can possibly keep the little tots occupied during down time.

There are other suggested places and activities that can be explored which can be more apt for older students (mid-elementary to high school).

1. The City Landfill at Bgy. Sta. Lourdes – See and smell where our everyday trash go and realize how we can minimize.
2. Lawiswis at Bgy, Irawan – Organic living, with soap-making. Chemistry in nature.
3. Puerto Princesa Port/ Airport – Transportation and communication in town up close. (Although it may be a bit dangerous for little ones. It needs more double checking.)
4. A Vegetable Farm at Bgy. Sicsican or at the Dept. of Agriculture in Irawan – Go organic! Dig that fresh produce for good health!
5. Fishpond or Right on a fishing ground around – Go fishing!

K2 Field Trip 2011

27^th, Thursday – Preparation day for P’s “school field trip.” I got busy in the kitchen with the Chicken ala King that I had drummed up to try making this week.

28^th Friday – Another school field trip today! This would probably 2^nd or 3^rd school activity that P and I had attended that required us to get up early and a day together somewhere. Since it is a new school, I wasn’t sure how it will turn out. After today, I was able to compare how the previous school activities fared against this latest one.

Here are some key points:

1. Itinerary – the choices of places were somewhat predictable but useful. Most were suitable for preschoolers save for one. I’m not really sure what the underlying theme was it was like a typical “pinoy” educational trip where everybody was whisked from one place to another without much explanation or information. For this trip, here is the list and how it turn out:
1. Capitol (Palawan Heritage and V-Governor’s Office) – I really have no clear idea why this place was included since nothing much happen here. It was a land-and-run mostly. The Heritage room (?) is not that big enough to accommodate the 50 plus kids and adults in the trip. It should have arranged to divide the group a bit.

The Provincial Gym was next and everybody managed to get in. We were allowed to roam and try most of the equipment freely. It was fun for most. (Although it made me think if they do clean the rubberized floor after everyone has trampled on it. I guess the gym’s not generally one the cleanest places to be.)

Last place to be explored was the V-Gov’s office. I am not really sure if the office tenant there would appreciate the way the kids played on the swivel chair and inspected every interesting decor in the luxurious office. The office struck me as uninhabited. It seems like nobody uses that place much except for official functions but not where the real action takes place.

2. City Library – As I know how small the place inside is, I didn’t get in anymore. The kids went in and were out just in a few minutes. I was hoping that some short storytelling took place at all. It made me wonder if the library made any impact on them.

3. Palawan Museum – Another land-and-run place. Most of the people just paid, got in, look a bit downstairs, dashed upstairs and explored the small place as quickly as they can. Again, I am not really sure if there was anything new they picked up save for the strange things they’ve seen. There wasn’t any guide around but a guy who is in charge of cleaning the second floor I think.

4. Plaza Cuartel – Nothing much of explanation for this place except for the memorial marker that has been recently erected there (2009). Without that one, whoever that will ask what the place is about will have to suffice with whatever the little information the teacher can provide. For preschoolers, it’s almost something that they may not grasp very well yet.
   

Memorial Marker at Plaza Cuartel

5. Baker’s Hill – This is a generally good place for kids. There is the playground for kinesthetics and animals (mostly birds) for science. Bonus part is the array of food available. Stayed there for a while, just almost enough time if only we’re starting to get hungry to head down to the next stop.

A lucky shot of a peacock in full display of its grandeur.


Another kind of peacock who happens to be asleep when we took the photo.
Or was it really asleep or dying? I sure hope it's not the latter.

6. Mitra’s Ranch – A regular place for picnic, sight-seeing and space to run around some more for the kiddos. Too bad that there was also a little more than usual people around and I felt that we didn’t stay long enough.

7. Demo Bee Farm – Good place for kids although a little out of the way and awful dusty road to get there. The only place in the list where there were some people who really explained the place to the kids.

2. Logistics – Three buses were provided as everybody has paid quite handsomely for the price. The drivers were pretty good at their job (parking very close to the stops, reasonable speed and mindful of the little hands and head sticking out of the windows).

3. Overall Educational Relevance and Impact – As I had described each place above, some of these choices were quite muddled in terms of relevance to preschoolers without the proper person to really explain or simply share information about each place. Yet, there were really places that stand out from the rest.

Puppies on the Way!

This month has been quite eventful for our little household, along with kiddo's school life.

It was middle of the month when we finally figured out that our two-year-old dog is pregnant. We kind of had an idea about the impregnation time but wasn’t really sure the doggy wasn’t showing yet until a couple of weeks ago. We noticed that Su-ni has swollen breast ready to feed future puppies.

25^th – We noticed today that Su-ni has been moving about in a confused manner. She seemed to be unusually anxious about something. We guessed that she was getting ready to give birth as she looked for a possible place “nest.” Before I left that afternoon, I was expecting that she would have probably given birth by the time I got home. But lo and behold – there wasn’t much change when I got back. We tried to tuck her to a nice made-up shelter for her comfort for the night.

26^th - We were surprised to see the next day that she has moved to a natural ground and had 2 black things moving near her belly. She has finally given birth sometime at night. We still have to think up of some names for the puppies.

First Tooth Out!

The first tooth is finally out! Unfortunately, we lost iT down the drain as he was brushing with his D.

It has been a long time coming. I had already thought about bringing him to the dentist to properly extract the loose tooth but we've put it off. Until tonight as DF was helping brush his teeth, it just fell off. The new tooth can finally make its way out nicely after being stuck behind the old one. I just hope it would still be able to align itself properly.

Welcome 2011!

The previous months has been pretty busy with school activities and mundane chores. We have just settled on the home front schooling a week after the classes were off.

So far this later part of the year, we weren't able to cover a lot. We've been to a "Science on the Move Exhibit" last October, and pretty much did a lot of book reading at home.

Supplies from Teacher Dad (mostly ebooks), as well as Hardy Boys books that I've dug up in our shelves, comprised what P has read for the year 2010.

Chronicles of Narnia Books 1-7
Hardy Boys (11 titles)
The Mushroom Planet Series (7 books)
Tintin Comics (about 30 files according to P)

I've finally given up letting him write long entries in the Solar System lapbook. That was the BIG wall for him to finish the thing. Instead, we created a table of planet facts of which he has to read in order to fill up. Luckily, I found some "hidden" resources from Teacher Dad's netbook and was able to get some interest again in the Solar System. Hopefully, we'll get the first part covered in this topic this month. At least, we can just expand the lapbook later on if there's another interesting part of the system.

Possible subtopics that can be expanded are:
The Individual Planets
The Sun
The Moon
Other Stars and Beyond
Space Exploration

So long --- until P is ready for the next level. :)