1st Korean Summer Break

Summer break was filled with camps, performances, out-of-town trips and a loooot of reading at home.

Science, Math and Arts on Korean Liberation Day!

The highlight of our summer, I guess, is our Suwon overnight at a friend's place. P's friend took us to see the Gwacheon Science Museum and Seoul Land. We spent almost twelve hours in the area, almost half at the Museum and the rest is at the outdoor amusement park. I am not really a bit fan of amusement parks so most I hardly took any photos from there.

Since it was a national holiday, there were a lot of special activities going on in the museum. There was even an international math conference along with an art exhibit related to math. It is actually International Congress of Math which we had no idea about before. All I can say is it's a cool geeky thing. hahahaha..I just hope that P had something taken away from that experience since he met one of the exhibitors who had a written a book that looks like a guide in creating cool geometric stuff. That part of math is all I can dig. 

The photos below are the other art/math stuff we found interesting.

origami made from paper bills

posted from Bloggeroid

Korean Kids Lifeskills books

I found some new books that P has been using with his Korean drop-in tutor. They used to have some Korean language for kids which are at beginners' level. It look like first grader's book but just a bit less daunting as the ones that they usually use at school which usually consist of a two books per set.

On the other hand, the ones below are a bit different. These are basically life skills in keeping safe as a kid in Korea. The pages were illustrated in through comics which children can find interesting and easily relate to.

posted from Bloggeroid

Blog Update: Forward to 4th Grade in Korea (1st Semester)

P School's School Calendar 2014-15
1st Semester: March 3 - July 29

We haven't done any update on this end for quite a while. And it has just gotten worse since we moved countries. Here's a quick run through with what we've covered so far for the first semester at school.

The first semester has been an adjustment period for all of us and we still are adjusting until now. The classes are shorter. They finish at 3 pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, and around 2 pm on the rest of the week. The kids usually have after-school activities, either at school or at another private academy of everything like English, Math, Arts, Piano etc. They don't have to wear uniforms to school except for the after-school Taekwondo.

We were overwhelmed with the after-school activity choices during the first few months when P comes home with a number of newsletter from the school. All the notices were sent out to each kid including articles on proper parenting, nutrition, and even the school's cafeteria menu for the month. There was also the schedule for "neuk-sek omunim" or the "traffic enforcer mom" that helps out the kids going to school on the crosswalks in the morning.

Most of the after-school activities from school are either free or has a very minimum monthly fee. P ended up with Taekwondo four times a week and an orchestra twice a week. There was also a whole semester of one hour Korean one-on-one tutorial at school once a week and for free. He really needed the Korean language lessons still.

We also managed to get him another Korean language one-on-one lesson two hours, twice a week from the Multicultural Center for free. We had to wait for around a month after we signed up though.  He was able to start around June and we were told that they will start charging a minimal fee by the next month. Luckily, they haven't done so until now. :D P still likes the class and I think this is also helping him learn the language.

Part of the after-school activities are mountain trips once a month, weekly fun stuff at school which actually looks like "fancified" babysitting for kids whose parents are out working. Nonetheless, these Korean students have quite a lot of things to choose from.

During the first semester, he was able to join a bilingual speech contest and made it to City level and perform with the kids' orchestra. He sure had a busy first semester with nothing much to show yet for the academic side because of the language. He can fairly hang out with his classmates now but we still have our work cut out for us on the academic rigors of school. Most of the subjects are still a shot in the dark except English and Math. He was able to figure out the latter a bit easier than the rest, thank goodness.

Before the semester ended, the school sent out activities announcement for the summer break. This will be on my next post.

2nd Grade is Flying Fast

Third Grading at school is almost over and we have got to update what we have been doing these past few months. 

2012 
June 
July- Lil Red Plane, CBO Election
Aug. - Buwan ng Wika
Sept. Intrams
Nov. Eng Club
Dec. Violin

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.