1. Kids have started using Wikahon to supplement their Filipino subject. For Ian, we opted to start with Wikahon Pre-A as he seems to find Wikahon-A a bit difficult. Luckily, a friend in our homeschooling community sold me a set from her big box designed for classroom (contains 5 sets). I love my homeschooling community!
2. My kids studied a few animals and facts about them using worksheets from Nove Tan. I made sure the kids also know where the animals may be found and discuss what they learned and written on the worksheets about the animals they want to feature. We’ll continue to do this throughout the school year.
3. Nereus studied about the Spanish occupation of the Philippines and the heroism of Jose Rizal, etc., using video links provided by our homeschool provider as well as the Halo Halo Histories Espesyal: “Jose Rizal” from Tahanan. For Ian’s Araling Panlipunan, we are using Halo Halo Histories Espesyal “A Lolong Time Ago” and “Cashaysayan” so he could learn about prehistoric events in the Philippines and history of Philippine money, respectively. Both books are also by Tahanan. What I love about the books are that they are fun to read because of the side comments and meme that kids can relate to. I caught my kids laughing while reading the books. Also, it has become my advocacy to support locally published books more. Below are just some of the books I got from the recently concluded Manila International Book Fair.
4. The whole family went to our first travel expo this year, The Philippine Travel Mart, where we got to avail of a cheap Batanes tour so that Gugu and Chabibi will see the majestic island in person. My eldest son has read about Batanes in his Filipino book and got curious about the Ivatans’ culture and food. During the travel expo we also got to see replicas of “bahay kubo”, vinta boats, played Kulintang, watched Maranaws play their instruments, listened to indigenous music, and met Muslim women who sell homemade delicacies. In the expo alone, both my kids learned a bit about Filipino cultural diversity. I had not expected the expo to be so engaging for my kids, I thought they’d get bored! I’d say visiting a travel expo is one of the cheapest ways to experience different Philippine and Asian cultures! We need to go visit a travel expo at least once a year!
5. Second Geology Tour with our local homeschooling coop, STPH QC.
I love sharing about what I know to people, hence, this blog. But I love it even better when I get to show what earth science is all about through Geology tours. So this month, I decided to bring my local homeschooling cooperative to the National Institute of Geological Sciences as some of them where not able to join the first batch. It was a privilege to show the kids the different rocks, minerals, fossils, and societal roles of Geologists at the museum and through a short fieldwork inside the institute. With the short fieldwork, the kids got to be geologists for a day! I also taught the kids what to do during an earthquake through a drill along the corridors of NIGS. I’m happy the NIGS admin had allowed me to do that again.
6. Continued with their piano lessons.
Ian has composed his first song, “The Little Snowman, while Nereus has almost completed and perfected his piece for recital, “Arabesque”.
7. Continued with their Baybayin lessons.
All of us in the family can now write Baybayin scripts fluently. It was one of our objectives for this academic year and I’m just glad we were able to do it successfully. I even prepared a worksheet and conducted a free class in Baybayin for STPH QC, my local coop, in Maginhawa St., UP Village. It was a success.
(Related article: Learn How to Write Baybayin)
8. Nereus continued his lessons in fractions all the way to decimals while Ian learned about “longer”, “longest”, taller, tallest, shorter, shortest in Math. He has also learned how to add and subtract numbers from 10 to 40. We are still using Singapore Math because Ian seems okay with it. The last two weeks of this month has been exceptionally hard for me and my eldest son as he struggles through solving math problems. There were times when I snapped and had to move away from him before I could say hurtful words. I’m a work in progress myself, obviously.
9. We did science experiments such as how to grow crystal using alum crytal and simulation of an erupting volcano. We also conducted an ecosystem study in UP campus.
Related article: Ecosystem Study in UP
10. Ian and Nereus have started doing Book Studies by reading books of different topics, writing down the new words they’ve encountered, and writing a summary of the story in their worksheets. This month, Nereus made books studies for these story books: “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down”, “The Lego Movie”, “Dog Man Chapter 1, A Hero is Unleashed”, and “The Little House”. Ian reads books a lot but he hates writing. So instead of writing on his worksheets, we decided to orally discuss the stories he’s read.
11. The kids and I went to the Manila International Book Fair to purchase the books we felt we needed for this year. I will write a separate book reviews for the ones I got from MIBF but for now, I’m happy with Tahanan’s Halo Halo Histories Espesyal books and the chapters for fractions and decimals from the book, Everything You Need to Ace Math in One Big Fat Notebook.
12. Country Study
Nereus read books about Italy and Canada and wrote what he learned about them in the Country Study worksheets that came from Nove Tan’s iHomeschool planners which I got for free.
13. The whole family went to Batanes.
I will write a separate article about our tour in Batanes but to say that the kids enjoyed the whole time we were there is such an understatement. Batanes has become the family’s favorite destination next to Palawan. Below are some of the highlights of our trip.
We tried to be less traditional now with our homechooling and more spontaneous and analytical. My eldest still finds Math challenging but it seems the latest reference we bought from MIBF has become his reviewer for fractions and decimals at least. We are struggling through problem solving still. As you prolly noticed, we’ve also used a lot of Nove Tan’s worksheets for our lessons.
The Fabulous Scientist 