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
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.
by The Happy WAHM
We used to do our activities on the dining table. And then I read somewhere that the kids also need to have a space that will remind them of school. So I had a desk made for them. One that would fit in that very small space in the living room of our very small house. We actually had to give up our sofa to make room for our school.
All their books are easily accessible. We actually started building up our library before I even gave birth to our first child. We invested on Time Life book sets back when I was still pregnant with Xia. My husband and I are voracious readers, so there has been an unspoken desire that we would encourage our children to love books, too. We just made sure that we have enough to get them started. My long standing joke has been, and I guess it’s really true, that if robbers would come to our house, the only things of value that they would get would be our books.
by The Happy WAHM
Today, we officially started Bea’s homeschool year for 3rd Grade. Based on what I’ve experienced in the past two years of homeschooling, preparing the portfolio can be really costly, particularly in producing the pictures that will support their output. So for this year, to cut on cost on ink and paper, I decided on creating a blog site for our homeschool that will chronicle our daily activities. It will not only save us money, I’ll also be helping on saving Mother Earth. As I write this post, sitting beside me are four reams of bond paper (more or less) used from our last year’s activities.
I have thought of putting our homeschool blog in either of my existing sites by simply creating a page and mapping it as a subdomain, or create a blog on a free account with either Blogger, WordPress or Weebly.
I finally decided on creating a separate site altogether where I can be spontaneous as a mompreneur. And so here I am, writing this first post, immediately after posting my About page.
On our first day, we did three subjects:
Bible – Textbook is Following God
We opened with a song: Jesus Loves Me
Memory verse is Psalm 119:105
We discussed why God is being likened to a treasure map. Then identified traits that will lead us to heaven.
Forgot to have the National Anthem. We should have that. So this is an action point for me.
Filipino – Textbook is Sanghaya
Pagbati, Pagpapakilala at Pagtanggap ng Panauhin
Bea read a story aloud. Then made up dialogues of introduction from different scenarios.
Special attention was given to the use of PO and OPO.
Civics – Textbook is Makabayang Lahi. To be supported with The Mystery of History (I’d like Bea and Jude to travel through this together.)
We explored the Philippines using a map. Identified the regions. Listened to the music, Bayan Ko.
Afternoon activity was a badminton game.
Her Math and Science books have been ordered, but it may take two more months before we get them. While waiting for the books, I’ll be on the lookout for 3rd Grade activities online.
This is going to be a challenging year for me as Teacher Mommy, coz now I have a freshman in a traditional high school, and the two young ones (Jude will begin as a 1st Grader in December, or earlier) will be homeschooled. More challenging than the past years, because then, our schedules were synchronized. This year, I will always have to take into consideration Xia’s schedule, too.
Keeping my faith!
