Parol-Making

As part of our Christmas project with Teacher Reinier, he asked us to make the traditional Filipino Christmas lantern to design our school. Our theme is Filipino design product with recycled materials.

We needed bamboo sticks to form a star but since we cannot find these in the market area, my father bought a complete parol to take off the original plastic cover. Then, we use and cut the foil wrappers of snack foods as its new cover by using rugby glue (it was so sticky and it won’t get off unless it is dry). We chose different colors to make it more attractive.

Finally, we decorated two plastic bottles with the cut-out foil wrappers around it and hang these below the two bottom tips of the stars as extra design.

I liked it we even finish it before deadline!

We also made additional four smaller stars but I did not submit it to my teacher anymore. These were simpler using barbecue sticks and we just stick glitters or small confetti to decorate. My little brother Aim loved doing these small starts.

Now they are all hanging in front of our house and above our dining table.

Merry Christmas to all! 

Speed Building

On November 26, me and my family went to the Alabang Town Center to join the Lego weekend contest called Lego Star Wars speed building.

In this competition you need to build as many Lego mini-figures within 1 minute. Each mini-figure must be correctly build like the head, arms and legs are all facing forward. If one part is incorrect or inverted, that’s not counted. If there is a tie between one or among players, a tie-breaker face-off will be done. Whoever has the most mini-figures that built wins P1,000 worth of Lego toy.

In my age category, there were 4 contestants so I have a few opponents though they all looked determined to win also. I made 10 Lego mini-figures but 2 pcs were not counted due to wrong parts position. The other kids  some got 4, 7 and 8 as well so a tie-breaker was called by the judges.

For the face-off round, I got a heart-racing 11 correct mini-figures (out of 12)  while the other kid still got 8, so I won the competition.

My prize was a Lego Chima set, a Star Wars poster and the Lego book catalogue. The other contestants also got a poster of Lego Star Wars as consolation prize.

I thank God for giving me this wonderful gift

Let God’s Love Prevail

After our second quarter exams, we celebrated the United Nation Day. We, the grade 7 students, made a interpretative presentation about the ongoing Syrian civil war. In our performance the UN is protecting the poor, defenseless Syrian people from the evil terrorist group called ISIS. They wanted to kill all the people of Syria and the UN is protecting them. After the first wave of the battle, they sent bombs to destroy the UN army and all the Syrian people.

These terrorists don’t have mercy, love and kindness to the people. They have anger, terror, violence which causes famine, which becomes worse by other people’s disunity and apathy. And now the defeated country has fallen into the hands of the evil ISIS.

War will not solve any problem.

Stop the hatred and let God’s love prevail. 

Why are we homeschooling?

Homeschooling, presently, has gained quite a solid base following after many years of being frowned upon and misconstrued as a sort of deficient learning method. We clearly remember before how well-meaning friends and family members around us either giving us their blank stare of disbelief or an upfront unsolicited advice to bring our son to a traditional school whenever we told them that he is being home-schooled. 

Looking back, our home-school journey started with painful a family tragedy. Back in 2008, while we were living overseas, we lost our 22 month-old daughter. We were devastated. But with God’s healing and loving support of people around us, we slowly picked-up our broken hearts and discerned how to move forward with our eldest son Zek who was barely 4 years old at that time. Wanting to spend more time with him, intent in sharing our own and shared family values and for lack of any Catholic educational institution in our host country, we searched for options, found a few choices and ultimately decided to home-school our son.

We him enrolled into one of the pioneer-provider of home schooling in the Philippines, the Catholic Filipino Academy (www.catholicfilipinoacademy.com) from Pre-school up until Grade 6.

We had a great time learning lessons together, making it fun and creative. Despite living in a foreign land, Zek learned a lot about our Filipino culture specially our religious belief while taking advantage in learning other things around him. We use lots of Legos, game boards and materials that can be interactive to help us to have more fun in learning. Admittedly, making every lesson interesting to Zek was really a great challenge for us every time. He’s unending questions wore off our energy and our patience so we needed a lot of time out just to gain back our strength to finish our daily tasks. Praying together everyday is what makes us at peace together and helped us persevere.

Zek is more of a visual learner with an entertainment type of personality. We needed to prepare a lot of drawings, posters or visual aids for each topic and we did a lot of art works together that all our walls around the house are filled with hanging papers. We looked for his activities related to his lessons for the mastery of his skills. We visited museums, watched theater plays and frequented theme parks. We also enrolled him to a music class for he loves to sing. We also encouraged him to write about every event that he attended to or any outdoor activities he did into his blog site from www.zeksantos.ph to www.readyzekaim.blogspot.com for this is one of our way to keep track of his amazing journey in learning besides making his portfolio with his progress reports to be submitted quarterly.

After more than 7 years of homeschooling, we still ask the same question to ourselves every now and then especially during tough times teaching our eldest son. For now, he has started his Grade 7 in a traditional school because we feel he needed to learn and experience a real-world educational environment and to learn to deal with different kinds of people and situations too. We also decided to build our own house away from the city to improve our lingering health concerns like endless asthma attacks, sinusitis, rhinitis and the host of other pollution-related allergies.

Now that our youngest son Aim has turned 5 years old and is a preschooler, we are leaning towards independent home-schooling based on his learning pattern and do his lessons according to his interest. Aim is showing skills as an auditory learner with organizer type of personality and he loves to read books. With God’s guidance, we will hopefully journey with him as well throughout his young learning life.

We are always thankful and grateful to God for all the amazing years of home schooling journey of our family.  After all, enjoying while working together with our kids is always a mutually learning experience we look forward to.

May God bless us all.

Martial Law Years

On September 21, 1972, Ferdinal Marcos declared Martial law.

Ferdinand Marcos has a suspended the writ of habeas corpus meaning that he jailed anybody who did something that he did not like.The time when Ferdinand Marcos was president, many people in Philippines were jailed, tortured and even killed under his command.

The people in Philippines were protesting because they did not like the president Ferdinand Marcos so he jailed the people that were protesting.

He makes election every 4 years but he still won because of the martial law and he was greedy power power

In 1979, Ninoy Aquino has heart sickness so he went to USA for his operation.But the people in Philippines were asking Ninoy Aquino to go home and help fight Ferdinand Marcos. Ferdinand Marcos has cancelled Ninoy’s passport so he will not go home and he told stories like he will die if Ninoy returns.

On August 21,1983. Ninoy Aquino returned to Philippines and he was shot by an unknown sniper and he died.

There was an election in 1986 and Ninoy’s wife Cory Aquino became the president and all the Filipino people joined her and fought Ferdinand Marcos.

One of Ferdinand Marcos’s general in police, Fidel Ramos and army friend, Juan Ponce Enrile were no longer loyal to him and they joined Cory Aquino. Ferdinand Marcos ordered to kill all rebel soldiers in EDSA but Cory Aquino called on all the Filipino people to defend their camp and Ferdinand Marcos’s army refuses to shoot innocent lives.

Slowly all Ferdinand Marcos’s army and police joined Cory Aquino and Ferdinand Marcos has no choice but to call help from America and brought him to Hawaii.

Ferdinal Marcos was president for 21 years.

photos downloaded from Google site

reference video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG2Mx7Y5vzc

This article is part of Zek's National Heroes Day homework for his Pilipino subject.

Animal Arts

Last Sunday, we went to Alabang where we made our dragonfly artwork

First, we went to the Molito Building where the artwork is located, and then we registered and went to the table where we will make the art.

These are the items we used – wooden clothesline clip, paintbrush, color paints, water, two eyeballs, glue, wings, bendable wire and button.

To make the dragonfly, these are the steps:

1. paint the cloth clip, add some design 

2. glue the button then the two eyeballs

3. put the wings to the cloth clip

4. to make the other kind of wings get two bendable wires

5. make the bendable wire into wings

6. do the same with the other bendable wire but make it smaller

7. then put it to the cloth clip

After we were done making the dragonfly we all went home

Itik-Itik sa Linggo ng Wika

Last week, my new school Seven Pillars celebrated the Linggo ng Wika.

When I went to our gymnasium, I was wearing classic Filipino shirt called Camizo de China with a farmer hat and a pair of rubber slippers.

Our grade level performed the “Itik, Itik” dance. The lower grade levels also danced while the upper grade levels performed play-scripts about old Filipino folk stories.  The Grade 8 class presentation is a bit nice because they have props, sound effects and costume.

After we danced, we went to our classroom to rest and changed our clothes then we watched the program.

Our school also made some food stands for the school’s business club. Before there was one stand and then there were three.

I enjoyed our performance because I learned some old folk dance moves. 

Moving In

Last June, my family transferred to a new place in Sta. Rosa called Laguna Bel Air 2. There is also Laguna Bel Air 1, 3 and 4 so it is a big residential area. We are renting a big yellow house which is near my new school.

The time when we arrived to our new house, it was both exciting and scary for me because I can meet new friends and I get to sleep in a very dark room.

From Monday to Friday I go to a traditional school named Seven Pillars Catholic School. It has two big green buildings, one for the students below grade 6 and another for the higher levels. In this school, all of the teachers are friendly and even the principal teaches us.  It is quite fun there because every Friday we go outside and do some physical exercise and I can do my favorite sports there like badminton and football.

 I met new friends there and their names were Justin, Sean, Carl, Raphael, John, Stanley, Jonathan and Marcus. Not all of them are friendly but I still like them and I’m still kind to them.

 Every time I return home, I finished my assignments and then I can have fun time like watching in the computer, reading some books, playing my favorite toys with my brother Aim and so much more.

I think this place is nice and now I feel happy and even more excited.

Buddy Builders

Last May 21, 2016 we went to the Robinsons Magnollia for our Lego Nexo Knight shield-building contest.

As I entered the mall, there were lots of stuff in the Nexo Knight contest such as displays, statues of knights, a building area, a game zone, mini cinema, shelves of Lego toys and even the mascot Clay, one of the mini-figure character from the Lego Nexo Knights.

The contest is to build a shield that is rare or unique, stable, and close to reality. Once chosen, the winner will get to win P3000 worth of Lego items.

After we built our shields, Aim and I took a picture with mascot Clay before going home.

Then next day, we received an SMS message that my brother Aim has won in his category! We were so excited to claim the prize and build another sets of Legos. 

[Daddy Rowin : Zek and Aim also joined a Lego cake building at Lego Shop BGC last May 15 but the winner will be announced at the end of this month. Both are excitedly waiting for the result and hoping to win again.]

Learn and Play

Thank you to Edu-Cube and its energetic teachers for an hour-long free learning through arts and play.

The East of Galleria kids surely had a blast.

Cheers.

Ready...Aim....Fun

On May 17, 2016, we went to Malolos for our yearly swimming vacation.

In the swimming area, there are four kinds of pool. First is the big blue lap pool, second is the shallow kiddie pool, third is the deep Jacuzzi, and the fourth is the wave pool which is the biggest with fascinating waves. In the wave pool there is a beach shore design with water sprinkler in the middle.

There is a couple of big brown bahay-kubo where we stayed to place our stuffs and to eat. There are also two zipline and a playground within the resort.

The wave pool is nicer because it has giant waves that can push us back. My cousins and I do tricks like two people locking arms together while the third person sits on our arms. We tried going over the waves and under the waves. After each set of waves, we raced around the wave pool using our yellow and pink ringed float.

After swimming, we went back to our grandparent’s house to celebrate my brother’s birthday. My brother likes Minecraft so we bought him a minecraft-themed cake with surprising details.

Then we all went back home.

Everything Starts Now

On April 1, 2016 we went to Lantana St, Cubao and to a church named Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral for our CFA graduation and moving-up ceremonies.

At first, we went in line to register. Second, we gathered together to final-practice our song. We waited until 10:00 am for the holy mass to start. Afterwards, the ceremony for the batch 2. We marched to our assigned seats on the front with our parents on our side.

Our grade-school head, Ms.Rita Yokingco, announced our names one by one to receive our certificates and medal awards on the stage and to have our family picture taken with Bro. Bo Sanches, our school founder.

While waiting for my name to be called, I felt nervous the whole time but then I felt proud and happy when it was over. I got 2 medals for loyalty and for character award which is Forgiveness

My classmates, Mico and Maida and I talked about of our recent entrance tests in other schools and where to live. We also played some Filipino games and exchanged a lot of jokes with each other.

To all my good CFA classmates and friends - Maida, Mico, Mau, Mandy, Paul, Nathan, Echo and Belle, congratulations and I just hope I could see them all again soon. And to my parents, parent coach Ms. Imee Binay and most of all to Jesus, I give my loving thanks.

I am so excited now to turn Grade 7 because I am gaining more knowledge.  And as I go to the new school, I will surely meet new friends

Congratulations, Zek!

To our dearest Zek,
How time flies!

We can still remember you as our young energetic toddler who runs around tirelessly and aimlessly towards anything that catches your attention.
Now, you are a fully grown-up boy knocking at the door of adolescence. We are very proud of you and all your accomplishments in our home-school learning and life-fulfilling experiences.
We did have a "colorful" home-learning experiences because during challenging times, I saw red, then you turn blue. But at the end of the day, we can see the white light at the end of the tunnel. We always saw it through the bad times.

You are a smart and loving boy. You will always be. And if you master the art of focus and hard work, we believe in our hearts that you will be a successful student and a significant person for life.
Congratulations to you, our proud graduate!
#loveandfunpamore
We love you very much!
Daddy, Mommy and Aim

Word Play

1.     Who is the actor that likes changing weather?

Answer: Liam Season

2.     Who is the Autobot that cannot be seen?

Answer: Iron HIDE

3.     Who is the Decepticon robot that likes to block?

Answer: Barricade

4.     What do you call a tower full of pizza?

Answer: Leaning Tower of Pizza

5.     What is the favorite movie of rabbits?

Answer: Hoppit

6.     Who is the Autobot that likes music?

Answer: Jazz

7.     Why does Darth Vader’s army always bring umbrellas?

Answer: Because they are Storm-troopers

8.     What is the pogostick’s favorite season?

Answer: Spring

9.     What happens when the Flash falls into a water?

Answer: He becomes Splash

10.  Who is the Star Wars character that always wins?

Answer: Obi-WON Kenobi

11.  What do you call a bread spread that has many colors?

Answer: Butterfly

12.  Who is the Star Wars character that likes to mental-exercise?

Answer: Master Yoga

13.  Why can Batman drive well at night?

Answer: Because he is Bruce Way.

 

.(Daddy R: Zek has always been fond of reading jokes and amongst his favorite booklets are those old copies of our Snoopy and Archie digests. He also loves reading K-Zone magazine and guess what section he immediately flips onto as soon as he holds a copy? Your guess is right – Jokes Section! So it is not a surprise anymore that every time out-of-the-blue, he would blurt out a joke to us or his friends or cousins. Above are some of his “originals” and surely more will come. :D)

Semana Santa

It was a busy holy week.

On Palm Sunday, we went to the church in EDSA Shrine to celebrate Palm Sunday and we bought plants for us to shake and wave after the mass.

On Holy Wednesday, I went to home to Malolos with my whole family.There was a procession and there were lots of “karosas”. In our family karosa, there is St Peter with the rooster and two angels decorated with lots of flowers. After the mass, I pulled and pushed the karosa with my cousin Bono. Our grandfather, papa Ben was leading the way. The procession went around Alido subdivision.  

On Maundy Thursday, we went back to the EDSA Shrine church. Our Kid’s Inn Choir sang religious songs at the roof of the church while the people pray the 14 Stations of the Cross. We sang at least 8 songs and we sang them every 30 minutes for 4 hours. And after our singing, I went inside the church for a confession.

On Good Friday, we went back again to Malolos for another procession and this time my other cousins were there to participate in the procession. There was no mass but the was longer because we went around the entire Alido.

On Easter Sunday, we celebrated the “Salubong” in EDSA Shrine. It was the day of Jesus resurrection. There was a procession for Mama Mary and for Jesus that finally met at the top side of EDSA Shrine. After the procession we get a balloon attached with a written a prayer-letter to God. Then, all the balloons were let go to fly up into the sky. After that there was a mass and we stayed there until 1:30 am in the morning.  

Hello Summer!

On March 16, 2016, we went to a resort named Sol y Viento where there are hot and warm swimming pools.

Before we went swimming, we first went to the reception area to inquire for a room. And as soon as we went to our room, we left our stuffs to swim.

There are four kinds of pools. Two are with warm water and the other two are hot (like boiling!) springs, One of this pools has water sprays around the sides of the pool while the other bigger one has a bridge in the middle.

After and before swimming we fed the koi fishes and saw the beauty of the mountains and trees.

We enjoyed the trip because of its fresh air out there and the fun relaxing swimming.

Rizal Shrine

Before we went home, we have a quick visit to Rizal’s home in Calamba. His house was so old but big, so I think that he was rich. 

As we entered, we saw very old items like bed, dining table, kitchen and the visitor’s table. There are two rooms upstairs. I was surprised about the toilet because it’s like a long chair with a hole on it and another room is where the buckets (aka tapayans) of water for the toilet are. Beside the toilet, there is a well. In the stone garage, there is a carriage. We saw Rizal’s spacious backyard with a bahay-kubo and a statue of the small Rizal.

Afterwards we went to the other museum halls full of old items like his hat, clothes, money during his time including the ones with his face, polo, coat socks and his pants. We also saw a statue of Rizal as an adult.

Did you know that:  

                                                                                               

 1.   There are three animals named after Rizal such as Apogonia Rizali, Draco Rizali and finally  Rachophorous Rizali.  These species of animals were the ones he collected while he was an exile in Dapitan

2. Contrary to popular belief, the Rizal monument in Luneta was not made by a Filipino artist. The design was the work of Swiss sculptor named Richard Kissling who won second prize in an art competition

.

3. Rizal cured himself of tuberculosis.

(source: http://www.filipiknow.net/jose-rizal-facts/) 

Stargazing

It was a very early wake up call for me and Aim. We woke up at 3:00am so we were still sleepy to go there.

We were going to a place called University of the Philippines or UP to visit the PAGASA ( Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and  Astronomical Service Administration ) Astronomical Observatory for our stargazing. There were so many kids there and some are from my CFA school. There were even some camping tents there because there were people that went to the UP early and slept there to wait for the early morning stargazing.

There was a big telescope for us to see stars and planets like Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. As my father and I walked towards our car, I saw a giant telescope that looked like a turret. My father said that the telescope was inside the building and not going out there. We went inside the reception area where there were posters of the universe and parts of the telescope and how it works. We also learned about the time differences of the other countries.

We have so much fun there and we learned more about the stars and the planets after we left the UP site. 

CFA Recollection

On March 10, we, the Grade 6 students of CFA, participated in a year-end recollection where we learned new stuffs and played games. We talked about teenage life with our teacher Kuya Pao and Tita Mayette.

First, we played a game called “Do you love me?”. Next was, “Introducing yourself” and wrote something about ourselves and writing about the things we love and hate. Then Teacher Pao showed us some short videos for us to memorize and he also showed us a few pictures examples for seeming, seeking, identity, seeing, selfie  and sinning.

 After we read Psalm 136:14, I thought that what the Lord is telling me are not to be afraid and not to worry. He will always be helping me in times of trouble, and He will help me to find my passion.

Mandy and I went to the photo studio to take pictures of us wearing graduation clothes. Afterwards, went back to CFA to get our stuff and went to our parents so I could go home.

Shell Eco-Marathon

We went to the Shell Eco-Marathon last week and we saw so many stuffs there such as exhibit tents, promotion booths. And as we entered to the marathon there were so many things to do. 

We first went to the Fan Zone where there was a Shell booth that gives away mini toy cars that runs with salt water. Then we saw the part where the participants assemble their cars which is rare because they run with only a little fuel inside. But they are more small than the normal car because only one person can fit inside. We also tried the remote controlled toy cars to move around a mini city within 2 minutes. After the game we collected prize giveaways such as notebooks and key chains with LED light. 

After that we went to the picture booth with a mini gas station and two cars.We pretended we were a gasoline crew and a car owner who wants to gas up. Next, we watched the race track competition of the assembled mini salt cars. Later, Aim joined the drawing zone and put his drawing in the wall of pictures. Meanwhile I joined the Coke zone where I tried to make a puzzle in one minute. They gave me a red rubber bracelet.

Because it was only the first day and all competitors were still assembling their cars, we were only able to see 1 car go around the tracks for their test-run. 

Finally we went to the energy zone where we learned, using virtual 4D glasses, how Shell company explores gas under the sea and how the engine car works. We also received more giveaways inside the Energy zone.

Lots learned and lots of fun!

Celebrating EDSA 30

On February 24, 2016 we went to the EDSA Shrine church at 7:00 pm so we can join the procession. There were so many tents full of snack for us to eat after procession. My friends Bill and Cyrus also joined the procession. Cyrus joined the altar service so when the mass was done, he was on the front of the procession.

There was a Mama Mary float which is at the end of the procession and the priest was at the middle of the procession while he prayed the rosary. There was also a marching brass band at the front of the procession. We went to the EDSA road then got inside the Corinthians Garden.

 After that, we watched the cultural dance performance of the people. First, there was the candle dance. Next was the kiddie dance which was cute because it combine modern and traditional Filipino dances. Bill and I sat on the stairs and watched them.

Finally, Father prayed to Mama Mary’s help and intercession, for all of us there and for the food we will eat.

I ate with my friends and we all went home.

Paint-Me Masks

Kung Hei Fat Choi !

At Robinson’s Galleria last February 8, Chinese New Year, their event was free painting of Chinese masks! There were so many big golden statue animals like pig, rabbit, dragon, snake, rooster, rat, dog and so on.

This 2016 it’s the year of the Fire Monkey. In the event there were so many stuffs to design our mask like glitter glue, paint and sprinkler. Aim made one mask while I made two masks. Aim’s painting on the mask was a bit messy but nice ( because mommy help my brother). I did a striped mask at first. Then I made a half face painting, one side has green and yellow to the other side. I even put my name on its forehead.

We brought these back home for our play.

All is Well, When Aim's Well

Despite not feeling well the past 2 days, our 4-year old Aim has, time and again, made us smile with his witty charm and innocent remarks.

Scene 1
Aim saw the plastic container of the cookies that our Hongkong factory manager gave me last month and went to ask me a question.

Aim      : (Holding up the container) Daddy, how much is this?
me       : I think it should be around 20 Hongkong dollar.
Aim      : Aaah, twenty na parang car.........honk honk...


Scene 2
As I was wiping his forehead with a wet face towel due to his light fever, I asked him if he was feeling cold or hot.

Aim       : I think I feel cold.
me        : You feel cold? 
Aim       : Ay hot pala?
me        : What is correct, you feel cold or you feel hot?
Aim       : Daddy, I feel cold and hot na lang.

Nayong Pilipino

On Dec 30, 2015,  we went to Nayong Filipino in Clark, Pampanga where I learned new stuffs like dancing the Tinikling, a Filipino folk dance, how the old Philippine villages looked like for the Aetas, Ifugaos and the Kalingas. I even saw a small Banawe rice terraces.

We also saw the replica houses of our three heroes named Dr Jose Rizal, Gen. Emilo Aguinaldo and Apolinario Mabini, the brains of the katipunan. Next we went to the Barasoain church. It looked just like our church in Malolos! Beside that is the Teatro, the place where the cultural dancing show by lively Filipino dancers was shown. After that, we went to the museum of old clothes (Museo ng Nayon). Next, we saw an orchidarium and even a laboratory for plants breeding.

Before leaving, we bought a sungka board and a lot of bird whistle for our New Year celebration tomorrow.