Meeting Friends

Later, when my mom and I left the house, we went to SM Hypermart in Pasig City and my friends were there. We ate some food at the restaurant. I ate chicken and rice. Then we went to Quantum and play then I won a prize. And my friends (Lila and Fry) have a dog named Chino. We played marble with them and we had lots of fun.

CFA Friday Club : Story-telling

Later, my Dad and I went to the ninth floor with my classmates because the story-telling and the puppet show show is starting. So we all went inside the room and the first story is about the fish and the shrimp and the teachers were doing the action that the fish and the shrimp were doing. And the teachers asked questions. The second story (puppet show) is about the goat, lion and two dogs with music and the teachers asked questions again. The third story is about the ant and the dove and they did actions too. And the last story (puppet show) is about the mouse and the lion. The lion wanted to eat the mouse but he released him and the lion was captured. The mouse rescued him. We pray for all the stories (lessons learned) and we ate snacks (courtesy of the birthday couple - Bro.Bo and Marowe. Thanks po :) ) and play with my classmates. Then we went home and got lots of fun and that's the end of my story. :D

Museo Pambata

When we travelled to Museo Pambata, we had lot's of fun learning.

First, we went to the forest where there is a bahay kubo and an eagle with a slide. Second, we went to the under-water sea where there are big fish and a shell. Third, we went to the city where we saw lots of heroes (Filipinos during Spanish time), boat (Spanish Galleon), funny faces (those thing-a-ma-doodle where you insert your face and you have a painted figure on the other side), a train (early tram), church (Binondo), jeep, and a big (Spanish-style) house. Fourth, we went upstairs and went inside through the giant mouth entrance (except for Aim who was obviously scared by it). We saw the inside of the body, an x-ray, mirror, magnifying glass, body noises and a "jumping rope" inside the stomach (Rowin: :D that's the 25-foot small intestine replica).

Fifth, we went to the city with Chess game and a TV, a wind mill, factory, a bicycle, a cow and a jeep. Sixth, we went downstairs to see the art class with painting and a shop. Seventh, we went to Singapore area. There are clothes, big drums and a slipper painting.

And that's the end of the museum visit.    

Aim's First Hair-Cut

Pauline's 7th Bday

When the party started, the children played games while their parents eat lunch (actually its early dinner :D). I ate tarts, barbeques, spaghetti and hotdogs then I have photos with my friends (and cousins!). I ate also cotton candy and popcorn. Then at night, we danced and played and popped the balloons. Then, we went home.

Manila Ocean Park

When my family woke up, I ate some breakfast and we went to Kids Inn and after that we went to (Manila) Ocean Park with kuya JC. First, we went to the Sea Lion Show. Second, we went to Oceanary with lots of fish. Third, we went to the Fish Spa. Fourth, we went to the Antartica with lots of penguins. Fifth, we went to the slide and snow then we went to the Penguin Talk show. Then we travelled all the way home.

Thanks Tito Remir and Tita Bles for the free tickets!

Ang Kartograpo

For our lesson in map-making, Zek was asked to choose two places and make a complete road map with legends. He chose Malolos City to Paranaque City, his most frequented places in the past months. After scribbling for around 15 minutes, the result was really great with full of details.

Eskala

Everytime Zek makes an honest and open remark about his lessons, it never fails to put a smile on our face. 

Below is a sample when the book asked him to make a face to show his feeling about the "kahalagahan ng paggamit ng eskala" and his answer was straight-faced expression and the remark " nahihirapan ako sa panggamit ng eskala" (I find it difficult to use the scale).

Honesty is the best policy.
Always :)

CFA - Anointing Day 2013

Yesterday morning, I went to church to listen to the priest. Then after the church, I ate my snacks before I played Bingo, Chess and Monopoly with my classmates. Then, we went to Reyes Bangus for lunch. Then, we went to Toyota Alabang. I watched Transformers and Iron Man, then we went to Tita Shirley's house. I played with kuya Gelo and kuya Pao then we all go home.

Last Friday June 14, the Catholic Filipino Academy held its Anointing Day to usher in the new school year. And as early as 8:30 am, excited kids and their equally excited parent-teachers flocked to the Chapel of the Lay Formation Center in San Carlos Seminary, Guadalupe, Makati, bringing with them their snacks, creative name tags, art materials, game boards.

At 9:00am, the holy mass started where the parents and their student-kids were prayed over and re-committed themselves to the principles of homeschooling. Bro. Bo Sanchez gave a short inspirational talk and introduced this year’s set of administrators and parent-coaches for each grade level. A hearty potluck snacks followed before the different group activities started.

Students of kinder up to Grade 2 were treated to an art lesson activity.  Grades 3 up to Grade 6 enjoyed each other with all the board-games they can join into. The high-schoolers, on the other hand, underwent a separate but short lecture. Special gifts were also handed outs to those who came with their creative name tags. On the sidelines, the parents had group sharing, welcoming the first-timers and sharing their joys and challenges of homeschooling.

The past days have seen cloudy skies with heavy downpours brought by the tail-end of typhoon. But that has failed to dampen the high-spirits of the parents and children who participated on that day and who look forward to another fruitful, love-filled learning experience with each others.

Truly, it was an anointed day from above. - Daddy Rowin

4th Grade - Homeschool Made

by Mom Menchie

In preparation for this school year, we put a sticker chalk mat on one side of our wall to serve as our board lesson. It was divided into two parts. The upper part is being used for our math equations or other subjects while the lower part is for the imagination-unlimited scribbles of Aim, our two year-old son. This keeps him busy so Zek, our incoming fourth-grader, can focus on his lessons. Unavoidable as it may, Zek’s interruptions becomes productive as well since he engages himself in making drawings for his brother’s entertainment,  just like some figures on his coloring books.  

In addition to, Zek really loves his LEGOs since he was a toddler so we prepared his Lego Star Wars theme this year by printing out his book tags and his Journal book with lego mini figure pages that he can draw on to his favorite famous series lego characters whenever he needs a timeout (for his event story-writing to be transferred in his e-journal posting http://readyaimzek.blogspot.com/ ).

At the beginning of each week, we sing the national anthem – Lupang Hinirang on Mondays and we follow it with morning calisthenics and a hearty fruit, rice and choco-drink breakfast. Then we give Zek the printed worksheets of LEGO math, practice for reading comprehensions and spelling from http://www.superteacherworksheets.com before we slowly introduce him again the formal CFA textbooks. Admittedly, Zek gets easily bored and his focus has been our main concern ever since so we have to stay away from the books as much as possible and put the daily lessons into some other materials just to make them “attractive” or else it will be a whole day of struggle and mind setting mood for us.

Homeschooling our eldest son for 4 years in CFA now is really not an easy task with all the challenges and even emotionally-draining dramas in some occasions. We almost gave up the past two years, even requesting for recommendation letter with certification of good moral character, in our attempts to enroll Zek into one of the traditional schools. But we still end up with homeschooling upon realizing that this is still the BEST SCHOOL for him after all and that with more patience and creativity from me and my husband as parents-teachers, his learning environment and pattern will be better. The most important for us is that our family is learning and growing in love as we spend priceless time together, which traditional schools will simply “robbed” away from us. 

May this year be a more fruitful learning one for all of us. More than following the academic standards and lesson plans, we do need to follow our own children’s path of learning and to make our Lord as the great teacher who will lead us and guide us according to His divine will. 

God bless us all.