by The Happy WAHM
This is an actual three-way conversation between me and my two homeschoolers, Bea and Jude. I started the conversation as an avenue for an oral recitation in Math – addition and subtraction for Jude; and addition, subtraction and multiplication for Bea. But the conversation turned out to be a lesson in something far more important than Math. A lesson for me, on love and selflessness, and how my children’s respective characters are being developed.
Me: Jude, bibigyan mo ba si Mommy ng money mo? (Referring to Ninong Ogie’s gift to him.)
Jude: Yes, sa ‘yo na lang, pero kukuha ako ng isa. (There were 6 bills.)
Me: Bakit isa? Ano ang bibilhin mo?
Jude: Gamot. Wala na akong (name of his med) e.
Me: Hindi toy? Meron ka pa namang gamot, bagong bili ni Daddy.
Bea: Dahil ‘yon ang kailangan, Mommy, saka may toy pa s’ya.
Me: Okay. Ganon nga ba ‘yon, Jude?
Jude: Ilan ba ang money ko, Mommy?
I showed him the bills.
Jude: Sige, dalawa na ang kukunin ko. Isang pang gamot, isang para pambili ng electric guitar ni Ate Xia, para four ang sa ‘yo.
Me: Bakit para kay Ate Xia? Paano ka?
Jude: Sayang ang money ko ‘pag toy ang bibilhin. Pwede ba ‘yan sa electric guitar, Mommy? Kasya ba? Pag hindi, saka na lang.
Me: So talagang ayaw mo ng para sa ‘yo?
Jude: Ikaw, Ate Bea, ano’ng gusto mo?
Bea: Violin sana, pero mahal ‘yon. Pwedeng idagdag ‘yong coins ko, Mommy, 400 na ‘yon.
Jude: Three na ang kukunin ko, Mommy.
Me: Hmmm… Gamot, electric guitar at violin… So ano’ng gagawin natin sa natitirang money?
Jude: Sa ‘yo na, Mommy.
Me: Ano’ng gagawin ko don?
Bea: Pambili ng pagkain at gamit sa bahay.
Me: Bakit? Kulang ba ang pagkain natin sa bahay ngayon?
Bea: Hindi, Mommy. Para hindi ka mahirapan mag work.
Me: Hmmm… Ano’ng connection sa work ko?
Bea: Konti na lang ang work mo pag dadagdagan namin ang money mo.
I cried.
This is homeschooling at its best. You never know when you’ll get hit right in the solar plexus. When you’ll feel torn between feeling like your chest would burst with pride, and bawling like a baby for being humbled by the selflessness of your six- and eight-year-olds!
And these two are getting a perfect 10 in Character for this quarter.
by The Happy WAHM
Jude is now officially a first grader at the Aberásturi Home Academy! He was supposed to start last December, but with my crazy schedule, it simply was not fair to get him on board without me 100% ready for his needs. Plus, I needed to run an errand in Mindoro, so I had an out-of-town trip that ate up my time for lesson planning.
As with all the best laid plans, the AOP Science curriculum that Bea (now in third grade) used will just be a supplement. Recognizing Jude’s special interest in astronomy, we will focus on Exploring Creation with Astronomy for the whole year.
For the rest of the subjects, we’ll have the following:
Math – Lifepac Level 2 – Alpha Omega Publications
Language – Speak, Read and Write 1 – C & E Publishing
Reading – Reading Network – Sibs Publishing House
Bible – Following God 1 – ICI Ministries
Character – The Power for True Success – Institute in Basic Life Principles
Filipino – Binhi 1 – Jo-Es Publishing House
Social Studies – Mystery of History Volume I – Bright Ideas Press. To be supplemented with Makabayang Lahi from Ephesians Publishing, because we have to comply with DepEd’s directive that Social Studies be taught in Filipino.
Music – We are still fluid on this. He’s still deciding between the ukelele, the guitar and the piano.
Arts – Online materials, and Sing, Sketch, Stretch 1 from Abiva Publishing House.
Etiquette – Family Book of Manners – CLC
Welcome to A-HA, baby!
by The Happy WAHM
Today has been really productive for me and my third grade homeschooler. I took time out from my regular WAHM routine and focused on working with Bea on her English lapbook. Since we are still waiting for our Science and Math books, we were able to finish our first quarter lessons for English last week, and as our output for the quarter, we decided to make a lapbook of lessons we have covered for the period.
Pictured below is our project we decided to call Bea’s English Garden. Remember that we have lots of left over flower cut outs from the Teachers’ Day cards? We originally planned of putting them to good use with this project, but like any other plan, changes happen. We stuck with the garden theme, but better ideas came up as we were working on the components.
All the papers we used in this project were from our binder of printed lectures and activity notes from the past years. We really have used so much bond paper in the past two years that I promised to just re-use them this year. And do you know how much broken crayola can accumulate in 6 years? That’s another item that I’m not buying this year. And maybe in two more years. Ha ha! I collected all the broken (and some still whole) crayolas around the house and I was able to fill Xia’s old lunchbox with them.
Bea worked so hard on this project, staying up late in her excitement to finish the whole thing. She applied the trick she learned from Ate Xia, that of rubbing off the color with tissue paper after applying it on the drawing. The effect is a glossy finish and really even coloring. It really helped that she is ambidextrous, as she had to cut out all the mango fruits, 48 of them, and then writing 5 examples for each of the 8 types of nouns we have covered. She would start to say, “I’m tired,” but she would still push herself to work on it, simply transferring the pen from her left hand to the right.
In creating this lapbook, we went through the process of agreeing on a theme, and then brainstorming on the components that would form part of that theme. After deciding on the garden theme, we listed down all the things that we’d like to see in our garden. The mango tree was the first to be put up, and so I thought, “there goes the garden, now it will be just a tree.” I was thinking that maybe we’ll just put everything in different branches. But then she wanted to have the clouds and the butterflies and the flowers. So I made her line drawings of everything and she took care of coloring and writing down the topics.
I’d say that mounting the garden has been a resounding success and really quite a great way of completing our first quarter for English.
by The Happy WAHM
It’s my third year, and I’m still learning.
For the first two years of our homeschooling journey, each time someone asks the name of our school, I just tell them we’re with The Master’s Academy (TMA). Until I met Tina Rodriguez. We met online, via Facebook, and she was in need of some pre-school materials, and I was just about ready to let go of some of mine, and so we agreed to meet so she could buy my old curriculum. And it was during the course of our conversation that she mentioned something about giving her homeschool a name.
Of course, I’ve read from other homeschooling blogs that they do have names for their homeschool. I just didn’t care much about giving ours a name. Or I was too lazy to think up of something that I would actually like, long term. So I just left it at that.
And then came that A-HA! moment yesterday morning, as I was writing my status update on Facebook, and out came the Aberásturi Home Academy. So simple, and it sounds so right. Because every day, as I teach my children, I learn something from them. Our homeschool will always give me A-HA! moments.
Project for the kids… make a banner for the Aberásturi Home Academy, with logo, to be accomplished before the school year ends.
