Summer/Fall Filipino Reading

We revisited the Children's library last month and I found a pretty good number of Filipino books. With my husband's encouragement, I decided to create a more structured Fil-literature-based for P to continue learning Filipino. I have the list made up for the next three months at least.

The first three books which got me started were quite interesting that I decided to really make the list for the following weeks and not just pick whatever we fancy. Might as well structure it so we can make the most of the resources available. 

"Mga Tambay sa Tabi-tabi," is an interesting reference-like book for the supernatural beings in the Filipino folklore. Most if it were pretty new for me since I'm not that fond of reading scary stories at all. Some, I just heard from my Mom whenever she would be chatting with other adult when I was younger. It all seems very interesting listening to these stories. Not in a storybook kind of retelling but very casual way that it really did happen in real life of someone the speaker knows. I don't think it's more appealing than that. Unfortunately, my son had to contend with the storybook kind since his mother leans toward the scientific stories and wouldn't have a direct experience in these field.

I do love the stories though, specially the legends. I remember the well-thumbed in small pocketbook of legends in my elementary school library long time ago. This got me to pick up the book, "Ang Alamat ng Talangka." Modern writer penned this but it still has the elements of a traditional legend. Some Tagalog words would probably be at least for 5th grader coz there were some long and mouthful words. Not the casual storytelling words to use.

The next book is "Ang Mahiwagang Biyulin." I would have spelled the word violin as "bayolin" as I am pretty confused sometimes. This story has easy words even for me. It may be okay for a third grader to read at least. I managed to pick some vocabulary that I know might be unfamiliar or hard to decipher for my son. It was a fun read though, partly because of the little mouse appear in every page. The story itself was interesting.

This week's set (at least for the next two weeks) is the first on the list that I have. I tried to cover some folktales, legends, and biography. There were no legends that made it into this set. I was looking for another Lola Basyang stories but only found one. Juan Tamad sounds interesting and funny so I included it. And of course, the Aquino bio since yesterday was Aquino Memorial Day. We might start with this. 

To whoever made these books available in the local library, thank you. I just hope other immigrant moms will find and make use of these. Since there were other books in other languages there like Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indonesian, and I can only guess what else. 

Reading Log (as of September 2011)

August is P's birth month. Chuseok fell on Sept 12 this year. Upon DH's idea, P got himself a new ebook reader, Kindle, as a gift. It seems that the previous PDA's which he has been using as ereaders are not enough to hold the ebooks that he wants to read every now and then. Here is the book list.


Enid Blyton Series (15 Mystery,8 Adventure,1 Secret Seven, and 21 Famous Five, 5 Secret, 2 Adventure Four, 2 CIrcus, 6 Malory TOwers)
Thornton Burgess Series (13 books) 
Redwall Series (20 books)


Over the weekend, TM has to catch up with P in reading Roald Dahl's books. TM only managed to finish four from the list.


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Danny the Champion of the World


We managed to find the proper reader to be able to read the illustrated books using a laptop. And P was able to read the following:
The Enormous Crocodile
The Magic Finger





  

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. :)

The Mushroom Planet

Since P has started going to a regular school as a K2 last June, and Teacher M has also started part-time teaching outside the house, our learning-at-home activities has dwindled. Instead, Teacher D tried to fill in the gap and provided ebooks like the Mushroom Planet series.

P has already finished the HP series and wants to watch the final movie sequel. But of course, it will be until this Nov that people have to wait for that. As of the moment, it is the Basidium-X that the father and son are occasionally talking about.

But since last week that P had the exam week which only requires them to be at school for an hour (compared to the regular 3 hours), and coincidentally TM is also a bit off from school, we were able to go back to a little lapbooking. P has also been complaining that the teachers at school are teaching him things that he already know. This past week has just been a good chance for us to learn NEW things. We were finally able to finish his Invertebrate Page. This is after a few months of doing the vertebrates and hibernating afterward.

We were also able to finish cutting out the Wizard of Oz stuff but have yet to gather enough stamina to really glue them on. (Ah! We might really have to buy some supply of glue as we have been running out of it.)

At about this time also, (between June to Aug. this year,) P has also tried his hand on journal writing. I might have to scan the entry soon. It's barely a page filled but for a five year old who doesn't really like writing, it is an accomplishment. He was able to write down most of the words there except for some like Science, etc. Well, TM is not pushing now. Crossing my fingers that he would continue to have a positive attitude towards it.

Nighty night as P is a bit under the weather this past week. ;)

Pilip on Harry Potter

5-28-2010

When I finished book one of the Harry Potter, I thought that I was going to read it again.
I didn't know that there was a "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."
Then, when I was looking into my father's bookshelf, I saw the books of Harry Potter.
Then I got the book 5 and looked inside it.
Then, I showed it to my father.
Then when I finished the book 3, I was excited to be at chapter 16.
But then, when I was reading, it should have been three champions but there was four and the Hogwarts champion was Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter.
But there should be one champion in each school.
Before I read HP, and my father explained about it.
When I was at Chapter 1, book 1, I didn't know that the Dursleys didn't like Harry.

-Pilip, 5 1/2, Gryffindor

(This is a short response on reading Harry Potter books as dictated to Teacher Mom.)

Reading Harry Potter

Since late last month or early this April, Hubby introduced Harry Potter to kiddo. The little boy has taken a liking to the series that he is now starting on the 3rd book. Since we don't have the paperback version of Book 1 and 2, he has to make do with an ebook file.

He would read and read and try to talk about it in between. This has led the adults (Hubby and I) to reread the books again or at least browse and try to remember things from the books so we can talk about it. This was mostly Hubby part coz Me has more chores to do and not very much interested to start the series again. But I do try to snatch a few pages to where Kiddo has left off every now and then.

If only I can remember where the photos are so I can include it here. Hmm..racking the brain now.

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.

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.

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.