Summer 2012 Violin

April 22, 2012

One more week to go before the end of the month comes. Our month has flown by with relatively filled and relaxed days.

The first week started with the holy week so most of the activities were home bound, plus TM had accepted a writing task that pretty much kept her busy the whole week.

We managed to join an Easter egg painting and hunting at a local department store. It wasn’t that easy for us as first timers. I came to realized that art can also be mentally challenging. I saw how P furrowed his brow on concentrating as he figured out how he’ll design his egg. I may also consider the field of arts for him next time. He needs more exposure to that.

On our list this month is the field of musical arts. P has scheduled to join a two- week violin lesson for this summer. We are currently half way through it and so far so good. Starting from sound zero, there has been some improvement after a week plus plenty of follow up learning and practice at home. 

The Hobbit and a Tooth!

P has finished reading "the Hobbit" today --- within one day!(That's 24 hours, more or less) We've decided that he might try it this summer break but he didn't start reading it right away. It took almost two weeks before he did. 

Teacher Dad and Mom had thought about starting his summer reading list right after the final examination week at school. The first books were "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell and "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. He first read the Dolphins. Then a few more books in between before he started the Hobbit. 

Personally, I think that the latter should be read a little later. It seems a bit early for him although I know that it will be a delightful read. Nonetheless, with what he has already read so far, he did enjoy reading it. As much as TM would want to do it chapter by chapter, I thoroughly understand that once you start reading the book, you just can't wait to turn to the next page. 

I wouldn't want to have him start on the LotR anytime soon. As much as it was very interesting for me, it is just a bit too dark for him.

Another interesting thing to start the month today is removing his upper incisor, the one right next to his upper right canine (upper lateral incisor). DH noticed it was already loose yesterday and decided to have it removed A.S.A.P.  After checking it closely, I also found that there is already a little whitish tooth coming out pretty soon. It took a lot of convincing and coaxing before P relented to tie a thread around the tooth to remove it. Fortunately, the ice cream-on-a-bike was around our area and it helped to dangle a reward for the ordeal. :D

We have to keep an eye on the other lateral incisor for the next few days as it may be the next one to be removed. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there will be another sweet-cold treat around by that time. 

Summer Reading Part 1

We have just started our school break this past week and on top of the list is an overdue visit to the city library. P happened to see an interesting chapter book series about animals, Animal Ark. He borrowed two and finished reading it the same night.

On the other hand, I finally started reading “The Hobbit” sometime after the exam week. I had hold off rereading it again until after exam week because I know that it is going to be more fun to read it without a big thing hanging over my head.

I seldom read books twice.

It’s still pretty interesting even though I’ve already read it more than ten years ago.

It turns out to be one of the books that I can actually read more than once.

On the other hand, I finally started reading “The Hobbit” sometime after the exam week. I had hold off rereading it again until after exam week because I know that it is going to be more fun to read it without a big thing hanging over my head.

I seldom read books twice.

It turns out to be one of the books that I can actually read more than once.

It’s still pretty interesting even though I’ve already read it more than ten years ago. 

Details on the books are on the table below. 

Date	Mom	Pilip	Source
March 18-23, 2012	The Hobbit	-Dolphin in the Deep(#31), -Porpoise in the Pool(Animal Ark Holiday Specials, Summer Special), -Ang Mabait na Kalabaw, -The Moon is My Friend -Just Mom & Me (Little Critter) -My Brother Daniel	E Book City Library
March 25-31, 2012	- Perry Mason Mysteries # 25 The Case of the Black-Eyed Blond, - Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer - **Greek and a Toothbrush by Emma Gelder’s Sterne (A bio about Mary McCleod Bethune, an African-American and founder of Bethune-Cookman College)	-Ang Barumbadong Bus - Dino buk from CT Lib	- E book - City Library (RD Condensed Book, and **Colliers Junior, Vol. Roads to Greatness)
April 1, 2012	- PMM # 26 The Case of the Golddigger’s Purse -	-The Hobbit	E book

POEMS - End of Year G1

A poem is assigned to be memorized every grading period, sometimes with costumes or props. Let me have a quick recap.

English.

3rd. Pitter Patter. Costume: Raincoat. It has no remarkable content that I can remember.  I now wonder where it was from.

4th. The Star. Costume: All Black with Star Mask. This is the last piece for the year. It is an interesting choice. The first part was pretty familiar among the kids. It was initially given with enough time to prepare. As it turns out, it was moved to an earlier date so roughly two days only after the regular written exam was left for us to really concentrate on it. It helped that P had been exposed to the first three or four stanzas of the poem long time ago because of our nursery rhymes cds and tapes. In addition to that, the poem, itself, has good rhyming sets. We made it.

Filipino.

1st. Ang Daigdig. Outfit: Sunday dress. Typical poem memorization was done.

3rd. Iwasan ang Kayabangan. Costume: All Black with sungay ng usa or Lion head dress. This is one very remarkable piece in Tagalog which displays more than memorizing the lines and hand gestures. It is a pair work which involves interaction between the two performing characters. Given ample time to prepare the child, we managed to not only memorize but also focus on the proper tones and whole body actions. It is way better than typical poem recitation which uses “pinoy singsong.” It has characters and if delivered well, can be a good performance piece for two.

4th. Ang Huwarang Bata. Outfit: School Uniform.

I couldn’t remember the other poems. It probably means that it has no remarkable content to remember. I think it is such a waste to let the kids memorize such poems. (^^)

Even though I am not a real big fan of poems, there are two poems that has left some fragments in my mind. First is the poem, “Ina, Ilaw ng Tahanan.” I remember my parents letting me learn it before I started school. It has the impact of the importance of my mother who played teacher to me even before I started school.

Second poem is a selection from one of our textbooks in second grade. The book itself was pretty thin and I was able to read it way ahead of our class. It seems that the stories there were not enough. We had to memorize this particular poem. It’s about a girl who wanted to go to a fair with her dad. The poem described the fair, the girl and the one thing that caught her eye in the fair: a doll. However, there is a line in the poem that the father said to the girl before going to the fair: “you can go to the fair, but remember, don’t buy everything you wish.”

Looking back on this poem and why it has stuck to my memory makes me a little sad. I’ve never really thought why this, of all poems, has remained in my memory. Now, I realized why. I was definitely able to relate to the little girl who wanted that doll but could have one. It was just so heartbreaking. 

End of Year of G1

We are on the last week of the official school year of my first-grader. It has been an exhilarating journey and it has come to an end--- almost. The recognition ceremony is still set for next week but the kids are mostly stuck home by now. I meant, my kid, that is. :D

It’s time to gather the notebooks, books and other Grade 1 materials that have to be taken cared of. It’s also time to start on our homeschooling/vacation with planned field trips. The focus for this summer is writing: English, Filipino and handwriting itself. I’ve just realized that they will start learning the cursive writing next year. I remember my 2^nd grade teacher, Mrs. Alfaro, who has the prettiest handwriting that I’ve sadly failed to copy. L

This is another look back to the school year that has passed and molded us as student/child and parent/teacher.

These last two months had been quite busy for kiddo as I’ve expected. February was filled with practice for the school foundation on the first week of March. It was followed by the 4^th and final periodic exam in barely a week after it.

School Foundation Day

A whole month of practice is always set for the yearly mass field demonstration.

The steps are taught to the kids inside the classroom as early as the end of January. They start practicing under the scorching hot sun in February. This would usually bring physical stress to everyone especially when they start to practice at a larger area. This would usually be at least twice within a few days before the performance day.

The day finally came and we all trotted to the other campus to watch and take part in the day’s activity. We also brought some food that will serve as our brunch: fried rice, boiled eggs, and sweet potato. Except for the water that we brought, I had them try the hot coffee and choco (P10 each) from the vending machine in the canteen and the pearl shake store nearby. We bought medium sized ones which cost P28. These filled us up until lunch time.

Wall Climbing

After the morning program, we spotted an area set up for wall climbing. We were interested but only P did actually climb. Perhaps, next year again? :P

It was way too hot but P managed to get to the third board. Not bad for a 7-year-old starter who seems to be scared with a lot of things. :D

Reading Family

We settled on some picnic area to read: D with a PDA, M with a smartphone and P with his Kindle. It was such a good feeling.

We headed home around one in the afternoon after hanging out on the school grounds. It really made me appreciate the place once more. I’ll be looking forward to another trip next time.

Exam Week

It’s another grinding week for both Mom and Son. We have to extra prepare for the non-English subjects which are really daunting tasks. Good thing is that we started a little early and didn’t really cram altogether. That doesn’t mean that we were able to cover all subjects well. I still cannot say so coz the Fil paper has not been returned yet. The Makabayan paper boasted of two mistakes, less than the typical five that he usually gets. Yey!!

End of Year G1 cont.

EXAM WEEK

Tests.

This week flew by with Fil and Makabayan reviewing. We did a bit of other subjects as well but it all seem to be futile if he still didn’t make an improvement in the non-Filipino subjects.

I’m off to photocopying and even really writing out a review questionnaire for him which I didn’t really do previously. It’s a good thing that he’s already familiarized with the basic rights of the child (in Tagalog, of course) sometime during one of the school breaks before. It wasn’t that hard to connect it to the new set that he has to cover in the remaining time of the school year. We’re talking about responsibilities, the counterpart of the rights each. That’s a bit tricky to be familiar with because it does sometimes overlap.

Another one hard part is where they were asked to write a short description on a certain children’s rights program or agency. One or two sentences is still a tough one for P. He can definitely write something if it was in English but in Filipino, he doesn’t have enough confidence in writing out phrases or sentences yet. All he is able to do is write down a few incomprehensible words. Sad.

Filipino stumbling blocks are the usage of plural, second and third person possessive pronouns, irregular verb tenses, synonyms and antonyms. All of these can be blamed on his limited Filipino vocabulary. It is such a daunting task to let him learn these things. All sorts of games, tricks and even bribery had to be used.

It is also hard to find word usage exercises online. There is a limited source of worksheet generators online. Most of the time, I would have to photocopy from a textbook or write a set of my own. It isn’t that easy if it was in Filipino though.*(-_-) *Ironic grin

Between the two subjects, I can say that it was easier to prepare for the Makabayan than that of the Filipino in terms content since the former is easier to relate to real life. Filipino, on the other hand, is typically dealt heavily in grammar at school. The stories that I found on the books are a wee bit hard to digest for my first grader. We have to do a little bit of catching up on stories on that language to make it easier for him next time.

On second thought, could it be that the stories on the textbooks are not that all easy for most of the kids? Why is it that kids (and adult, too) have a hard time learning the language? Is it because of how the language is taught in school? Or is it also partly because of the choices of stories in their books?

That is an idea that I have to consider as I prepare our summer homeschooling in Filipino. One thing that I have to remember though is that he might be back in grammar dose again when he goes back next school year. The literature- based activities should also be supplemented with written grammar exercises.