Saturday, April 23, 2016

Letter of the Week Preps

After a couple of years discerning our path and a couple of crazy months researching all about curriculums or whether we should or shouldn't start with one just yet..here I am, finally doing it!

Most days I ask myself, "what should I do with my toddler?" Of course we play and read books all the time. We even engage in sports activities. But still there are down times for me (as in zero energy na!) and she's still up like an Energizer bunny that's hop hop hopping! Seriously I always asked myself, if 2 years old is still too young for preschool then what should we do?? Yes, when we attended CFA Catholic Filipino Academy's discovery session, a homeschool provider (not sure if that's the correct term), we were told that Z has to really be at least 3 to be enrolled with them. 


I admit that was a downer since I thought we could start our homeschool with them as the DEPED accredited provider. But looking at it now, it became an opportunity for us to yes, still homeschool, but to do it ever more gently here at home :) 

So now I'm busily preparing our materials for the upcoming school year. And can you tell that I might be more excited than my child? 

I started with free preparatory curriculum from www.letteroftheweek.com and we even have a Learning Board for that. This is where you have a theme for the whole week and it introduces one concept/vocabulary/letter/shape/color/number/poem per day.


However, I felt that it was a bit lacking in some parts and that I wasn't up to the Pinterest-challenge of making my own activities from scratch! So the next best thing was to purchase a download file from COAH www.confessionsofahoneschooler.com for US $15.00 and that's what I've been busy with these days. By the way, all her printables are downloadable for free but really, who has time to collate and download 1,400 or so files individually? For me the price she charges is reasonable enough for her efforts. And hey, all these things Im printing and prepping could be used by our future children, right? 

Trimming the sheets so they'll be ready for when the Amazon laminator arrives. Seriously guys, it was good I had an open box for shipping in the US. Way cheaper to buy the laminator and pouches from there. The bonus is I learned how to make "tipid" (pagbigyan niyo na, kahit papano) by just using the laminate on the front part. Just watch COAH's demo, it's super neat! :)


And since we found out that it's only 'mandatory*' to enroll by 5 years old for kindergarten, I've more stuff coming so we can stretch our preschool homeschool for the next school year or so. 

We are also excited to receive our package for BFIAR or Before Five in a Row and also lots of fun manipulatives from www.timberdoodle.com

I literally can't wait to have the box shipped to us so I can at least share to you our first-ever "Box Opening Day" naks! :)

Ooohhh this should be really, really fun!

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Timbuk2 for the mini you

Well if this isn't just about the cutest lil boy, awesome bag and s-s-s-swagger then I don't know what it is 😂


photos from Timbuktu.com newsletter

Talking about feelings

Hi, I'm still in the hospital and majorly bummed that I don't get to spend as much time with my daughter and especially about our abrupt weaning :( 


She seemed okay on the outside but would sob sometimes. So I decided we need to spend time and maybe process how she's feeling.

Using her book, I asked whether she was happy or sad..

She looked at it briefly, turned the page and pointed to this instead:



Yikes, but I'm not surprised. I understand her and would probably feel the same too if I had to go through what she's experiencing. 

So many things we've learned and are learning the past few days..taking care of one's health, vigilance, family, and basically not letting anything no matter how "small" it seems go unnoticed. Especially feelings of little ones. 

While I'm glad I'm out of the woods in terms of my health condition well at least for now..I'm heartbroken that I'm helpless in the homefront :( 

Looking forward to next week to better health and restoring relationships. God bless you all! :)

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