A Glimpse of What We've Been Up To :D

Oh my gosh! I haven't updated this blog for quite some time now. Yikes! :) I actually meant to post about the free parenting seminar on reading we attended last month here, but did so at Truly Rich Mom instead. Anyway, forgive me for the lack of updates. It's been a busy, busy almost-two-months! 

Here's a brief glimpse of what we've been up to in our homeschool:

• Reading more Bible stories :) We got a new but old (pre-loved) Bible called "The Young Learner's Bible Storybook" from Book Sale and it has been very useful! :) It contains activities, songs (some based on popular nursery rhymes), memory verses, learning "themes" and more! :) On "lazy" homeschooling days, we just read lots of stories from this book! 

(And when I feel bad or guilty about that, I will try to remember this line from the blog Simply Living... For Him: "If we were to do nothing but read the Bible everyday for a few months, then we still win. God's Word is more powerful and active than any textbook." Though of course, she was referring to the actual Bible in that post; not a Bible storybook. Nevertheless, I'll take Bible stories over not doing anything else any day!)

• More unit studies from Five In A Row (though on many weeks, it was more like "Three In A Row" and "Two In A Row" meaning we only read the books and did the corresponding activities for three or two days! Waaaahhhh!) 
• Week of July 2 to July 8: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
• Week of July 9 to July 15: The Story of Ferdinand
• Week of July 16 to July 23: Mirette on the High Wire
• Week of July 23 to July 29: The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• Week of July 30 to August 5: Make Way for Ducklings
• Week of August 6 to August 13: A New Coat for Anna
• Week of August 14 to August 19: The Glorious Flight

Books for The Story of Ferdinand

Books for Mirette and the High Wire week :) 

Measuring activity inspired by A New Coat for Anna

• Memorizing this Bible verse about glorifying God in all we do
• Birthday celebrations 

Our little flower turned 3! :)

"Making" a birthday cake for one of their fellow homeschoolers :)
With lots of help from Papa 

• A "field trip" to the Robot Zoo (Details here.)

• Starting soccer training for our little man, with fellow homeschoolers, under the Azkals Global Football School. :) (This deserves an entirely different post! :) God has been generously providing for the payment for these sessions somehow! Thank You, Lord!)

• LOTS of water play using this great water table I got at 75% off! BUT we are cutting down on that now; our water bill is ridiculous! Besides, we're trying to teach the kids about conservation and loving the environment, especially because of the recent floods.)

• "Homework" time — What the kids call workbook time. :) Rysse usually just scribbles and draws; Tim works on (sometimes) his preferred worksheets; sometimes I choose them. I'm still too flexible about this, I think! LOL! :) We do this on weeknights, sometimes, or weekends. 

• Special Playtime + Storytelling session and Arts and Crafts with other kids while Teacher Mama attended a free seminar on How to Make Reading an Effective and Lasting Habit. Tim was also assessed for free at The Learning Library. (Photos here.) We are thinking of enrolling him for additional reading (and writing?!) lessons BUT... well... y'all know our main concern when it comes to enrichment things like that, right?! Still, God is faithful, right?! :) Let's see what September will bring!

• Being interviewed for ANC :) The segment aired was super short (according to those who watched it — we haven't yet!) — but the day of the shoot was full of drama (prior to going to the venue, which I need not describe in detail anymore); playtime with fellow homeschoolers; etc. I was very proud of Tim for how he answered the reporter's questions — praise God! :) Will post a link to the video soon. In the meantime, here's a photo one of my friends posted on my FB wall:

Praise GOD for this opportunity to share about homeschooling, even if it was only for 60 seconds! 

• Lots of outdoor play + YES, videos on DVD, too, plus Disney Jr. shows when the kids are at my in-laws. Plus the occasional computer game. We try to limit screen time (mostly for Tim), though many days, the key word is TRY! *sighs* And yes, for those of you who don't let your kids watch any TV at all, you guys are truly my "idols!" But, well, for now, this sometimes-frazzled-work-at-home-often-sleepless homeschool mom will go with whatever works, especially when there are deadlines to meet. (And I will do my best not to feel so guilty about it, especially when I read non-TV-watching-homeschool-families' blogs! LOL!)

• Talking about the heavy rains + typhoons + floods and ways to help the victims

Well, I guess that's it for now. :) I really should be getting more sleep, LOL! ;) September is almost here (ohmygosh!) and since we recently registered with Kolbe Academy Homeschool and are waiting for our materials, I am a bit tempted to "restart" the school year to coincide with our American friends. :) PLUS, I really SHOULD get our CHC materials in order so we can maximize them more! *sighs* Let's see how it goes.

In the meantime, God bless, everyone!......zzzzzzzzz..... 

The month in review: June 2012 at The Kingdom-Seekers Academy

I am trying to be more consistent in keeping records of what we do in our homeschool, so here's a quick review of what we did this month of June:

Kids playing with lights :)

• First day of school: Orientation on rules - 1. Pray always. 2. Obey right away. 3. Work hard. DO EVERYTHING IN LOVE.

• Books "rowed": Clown of God (bought it from The Learning Basket! Looooove their selection of books!); The Chair King (inspired by The Learning Basket's unit study here); The Story About Ping (a steal from Book Sale for only P5! With minor damage, though.)

The Story About Ping and go-along books 

• Additional books read: Fly High, Fly Low (because Tim was SOOO excited to read it! Got it at National Bookstore for only P100!); Books in preparation for Philippine Independence Day (June 12); Katy and the Big Snow (we were supposed to row this, but we didn't end up doing so! Haha!); The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin; My First Book of God's Animals and Other Creatures; Animals Under Water; Danny the Duck; Birds; different books on Kangaroos (Rysse chose a book on Kangaroos during our last trip to the bookstore) + many, many more! (in between "school" time)

Rysse chose the book "Life Cycles: Joey to Kangaroo" by herself. She initially chose "Life Cycles: Pup to Shark," actually! Hahaha! :)

• Topics covered: 
• Social Studies: 
• Respect for Elderly - Timothy named elderly/older people whom he is friends with (his grandparents on both sides; one of his dad's co-workers; Lolo Tony {our godfather from India})
• Geography - Identified locations of Sorrente, Italy; India; San Francisco, USA; the Yangtze river in China; and the Philippines on our atlas
• Thankfulness - We talked about being thankful for the blessings we have - We don't have to "beg our bread" and "sleep in doorways." We also talked about being grateful that kids during his time were "free," unlike the kids we read about in our Independence Day books.
• Dealing with difficult people - We talked about how we should forgive and understand others when they are being difficult and how there will always be people who will give us a hard time, but we must be patient with them.
• History - We discussed {very} briefly the Renaissance period and related it to some of our books that described the Philippines during different periods (in preparation for the Philippine Independence Day). We also talked about Philippine national heroes Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio and the struggle for independence.
• Responsibilities - (From Katy and the Big Snow) Each person has a job to do; a task to fulfill, including in our home. 
• Relationships - (From The Story About Ping) We talked about the importance of discernment (what is "good" and "bad," etc). We also talked about obedience. 
• Writing: Tim wrote down the names of the people we are thankful for. He also reviewed writing the letters A-Z. (Writing is NOT one of his favorite activities, LOL!)
• Phonics: We reviewed all the letter sounds via Sing, Spell, Read, Write (SSRW) + did A LOT of Phonics practice via Easy to Learn workbooks, Starfall and other websites :)
• Reading: Tim practiced reading 72 words - Words with the middle "a" and "e" sounds (36 each, using SSRW). And sight words using Easy to Learn workbooks + more! :)
• Foreign Languages: We learned a few Spanish words (from Si Segunda, Noong Panahon ng Mga Espanyol). 
• Math: Tim learned to count by 5's up to 100 (he's still mastering this, though). He also practiced writing his numbers (Told you, writing is NOT a fave around here! Hehe!). He also practiced adding (all of Ping's family members).
• Religion: We always try to read at least one story from our children's Bible every day and discuss the lessons we can glean from it. On Corpus Christi Sunday (June 10), we also talked about Jesus being present in the Eucharist; I used a book on The First Holy Communion (Book Sale for P65 {I think!}) and My First Mass Book (Books for Less, P25).

Rysse "reading" one of our Golden Books about God :)

• Arts and Crafts: Made the Philippine flag (OK, we're not artsy-craftsy people here, haha!); "freestyle" painting in the bathroom

Making the Philippine flag

• Science: We discussed different kinds of birds; the life cycle of the kangaroo; different kinds of baby animals; why ducks' feet are webbed
• Language + Writing + Art: Tim tried making his own book (with some help from me!) and we're currently working on another one (titled "Ping Meets Timothy"). :)
• Music: I taught the kids to sing This Little Light of Mine, and they enjoyed "making music" with their Kindermusik instruments + other instruments (including "drums" made out of some of their books) to its tune, plus the tune of Every Move I Make.  

Instant "drums" using books from our home library!

At Kindermusik

• "Field trips" and extra-curricular activities: 
• National Bookstore Main Branch - The kids had a blast looking at the wide selection of books there!
• Movie time with Lolo Mon! :)
• ROCKERs Kindermusik session and pre-Father's Day activity
• Father's Day celebration 
• Lolo Mon and Lola Tita's visit + outdoor play time with them! ;)

The kids HAD A BLAST playing with my parents! :) Thanks for visiting us! :) We love you!

• LOTS of "socializing" with our neighbors (their cousin's cousins from the province) + my in-laws + other people, including Ate Dolor, the secretary at Kindermusik with Teacher Suzette and Friends

I was SO surprised at how these three became "fast friends"! :)

• Puzzle play + blocks + outdoor play + imaginative play + (most recently!) SAND play (thank you, Mariel, for the gift of sand for our sand boxes!)

Puzzle time! :)

I'm a princess! :)

I'm a superhero! :)



Thank you for the sandbox idea, Rosanne! :)

Whew! :) This is a pretty long post already, so I'm going to stop here for now. :) We did more than what's described here though, and admittedly, the kids also watched a lot of their DVDs and Tim played a lot on the computer, too! (Shockingly enough, yes, we do let our kids watch TV and use the computer!)

We're enrolling Tim in Kolbe's Kindergarten program this week (they follow a K-12 curriculum, which works well for us, since DepEd in the Philippines is now officially doing so, too) but plan to keep doing what we're doing while waiting for our materials. (And probably even after that!)

So what did you guys do last month? :)

Welcome back to school, Kingdom-Seekers! :) {Our "curriculum" for SY 2012-2013}

We started having a regular homeschool routine again last Monday, June 4. Yes, folks, it's back to school time here at the Kingdom-seekers Academy! :)

Actually, ever since God "overturned" our initial decision to enroll Tim in a non-traditional progressive preschool and literally put His call for us to continue homeschooling "in our face," I have been thinking and praying about what curriculum to use and whether we should go with a DepEd-accredited homeschool provider.

Well, we've decided to continue being independent for this year and after a super-loooooong "break" from our previous homeschool routine (which I pathetically tried to document on a daily basis here, haha!), we're finally at it again! :)

Source.

Though we've been "off" the "schooling" part of homeschooling since December (gasp!), when I decided to just focus on reading lots of good books about Advent and Christmas, I don't think learning has stopped for the kids, as I'd like to believe we try to be as vigilant and aware as possible about making everyday experiences learning experiences for the children. :) (OK, so maybe I am being a bit defensive here, haha!)

Our Advent/Christmas books

In fact, I was affirmed recently that the kids, particularly Tim, are learning well — even without much input from me and their Papa. When we had Tim assessed at different progressive preschools in March during our long discernment period, all of the teachers who assessed him said that his skills are just right for his age, and one teacher even said that he has above average IQ and comprehension skills! :) Praise the LORD! :)