My Lesson Plan for the Library Trip

The Library Trip:

While walking to the gate, Unno will summarize the store of Caterpillar and Polliwog and tell me who his favourite character is. He has to tell me how that character changed and grew. (Reading)

On the tricycle or jeepney ride going to the library, we will name all the nouns he can find on the road and tell me if its proper noun/common noun and if it is a count/non-count. (Language)

Once we get to the library, inform Unno about our task which is to get the layout of the library so we can plan where to go first. If there is a line in front and if the receptionist is attending to someone, ask him for the best way to get the information we need. He has to explain to me the consequences if he acts on his impatience. (Language: waiting for our turns)

According to the library’s website, they have a science and discovery center in the library. There were also some statues of astronauts in that area from what I saw in their website. If these are still available, we can start there and discuss about these great guys who were pioneers or who made significant contributions in their fields. Unno will tell how he thinks these people made it great in their chosen careers and how they have blessed the world with what they did. At this time, we should be almost done with the science and discovery center tour and we would need to move on to the rest of the library. What area to go to will depend on his answer in our next discussion.

We will then discuss about his interests and the ways he can earn money from them. Our next stop should be the section in the library that contains info on his “dream” career. We will then list at least 3 names of people who made a name in this field. We’ll pick one from the list and find his biography. We need to highlight the “yaman tao” or the skills that this person has and the hard work that he did to reach success. (Sibika and Filipino)

Next task for Unno is to find out from asking the librarian, where he can find old pictures of Pasig City. We’ll just look through them and review last week’s lesson on pamayanan, populasyon and yamang tao. (Sibika)

After this we shall visit other parts of the library that interests him. We’ll end the Library tour there and proceed at Mcdonalds for snacks.

While queuing at Mcdo to order, we’ll talk about waiting for our turns again. Discuss more if we were not able to do earlier at the start of our Library tour.

I’ll ask him to come-up with a complete set of go-glow-grow meal. It is very important to stress that the manner the food we are about to eat was cooked is not really healthy and they should not be eaten very often. While eating we will discuss ingredients of the food we are eating, the vitamins and minerals we can get from them and their classification in the 3 food groups. Ask him to answer orally LET US RECALL and the plan his 2-menu project.

We shall then discuss a scenario that happened last Saturday when he got mad at his cousin, Miguel. We will explore his feelings and ask him how was able to get over his anger. We’ll recall some other things that made him feel intense feelings of anger, sadness, happiness, excitement etc. Bring into the discussion, Mama’s habit of talking to friends to de-stress. Ask him what he thinks are the effects to me when I am able to spend time with talking with my friends. Ask if he also feels the same way when he tells people close to him about the events in his life. Discuss how it feels good to talk to someone especially if that someone knows us very well and loves us very much. Transition now to praying as a way of talking to God and getting assurance that everything will be okay or that He is with us in all our joys and sufferings.

We should now be at the Pasig Church’s adoration chapel. We will then spend a few minutes there. (CLE) I’ll tell Unno also, at this point, that we have a pile of desk work to do and some math drills to finish so he better God for a lot of patience and concentration to finish his tasks.

And this should end our trip for this afternoon.

Mama’s prayer:

Dear God,

You are my strength and my rock. You know the challenges that we face presently. I thank you for all these challenges as I know that all these are the works of Your Loving Hand molding me. I cannot do anything without You Lord, be with us today.

May you give us a sunny afternoon with cool winds and please send Your angels to watch over us this afternoon. And lastly, I pray for patience, lots of it. I love You. See You later. =)

The Challenge

Last week we were able to cover the week's lesson in 3 days but we were left with a lot of book exercises that needs to be finished off. It also happens that I have a lot of errands to do for our house renovation. What to do? What to do? Oh! What to do???

Hmmm, from our previous experience, I know that my son is able to work independently (especially if I dangle a nice reward in front of his face). But with the amount of desk work left with us, I was not that confident that time. But I really need to finish off my tasks so I decided to just give him all the exercises but not to expect much from him. He will be tackling a lot of book exercises in 5 subjects, some easy, 2 of them are lengthy and hard. We went through all the instructions together and I told him he can call me anytime when he needs help. With that done, I set out the door to tackle my own tasks.

He called me indeed. I was in a meeting with my contractor and then with the meralco guy and he called, multiple times. These calls, although not that convenient for me to take, only mean one thing: he is really doing his assigned tasks. I could just cry. I was very proud of my little boy.

When I got home, I checked his work and oh my gulay... He really did it. in my estimate he got 80%-90% of his task right! You might now be wondering, what was it that motivated him to face and finish his daunting task?

No it was not the latest computer game, Nope it wasn't movie tickets either.

Reward was...a simple trip to the library here in Pasig.

God was really with us that day. Sending many thanks upward to heaven!

Today is the day for that trip and I will be posting shortly my lesson plan for this trip.

Day 2

Today was our second day of homeschooling. How was it? How was our first day? Yesterday was okay. I survived basically. And felt satisfied that we finished before noon, and that he was able to pick up something from me.

By the way, since Unno, my son-student was super tired from the EK trip last Sunday, it was quite a struggle for him to wake up at 8am. But that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because as I was doing my old trick of splashing water to his sleepy face, I suddenly realized that the situation was an ideal way to jumpstart our science class.

So instead of pushing him to open his sleepy eyes, I covered his eyes with a shirt and started a guessing game. Our science lesson was about the different senses. I opened the toothpaste tube, had him smell and guess it, ask him to guess what was going on around him just by listening to the sounds, had him taste and feel the texture of sugar and so many more. It was fun and that really woke him up.

Today was a bit different though. There were more exercises to do in all the subjects.

And I started having doubts if we made the right decision. I feel in my bones that homeschooling is the way to go. I guess, feeling doubtful is just a natural reaction whenever we are faced with some challenges.

This is our first year and although I have been hands-on in rearing my son, homeschooling is still quite an adjustment. Today I was scaredand doubtful (but these has been just replaced with a grateful heart and super optimism, just this second! Thank God!). I was scared that I might not

give my son the best that he deserves.

Thank you for these heart saving blogs.

Confessions of an Imperfect Mom from the Nanay Notebook

I'm okay with not being a perfect mommy from Topaz Mommy

1st day blues

On the way home from ek last night, i thought to myself just how great a way it was to end a summer vacation. The boys, my son a

nd my two nephews, just had the time of their lives. We were all giddy, happy and laughing our hearts out as we recall the events

of the day. And then my son was asked, when does your school start? "i Donnt know", he answered. Naturally, that question was passed

on to me and I answered, on the 13th, not sure what day that is though. but its on the 13th. Then mom-in-law said, "bukas na kaya yun".

Raised shoulder, holding my breath, nostrils flaired

HUWAAAAAAT????

NEw thought in my head: Tom is the first day of my homeschooling class and its now 10.30PM and I still have not reached our house and most

importantly I have not opened my curriculum to prepare, ERGO: I have no idea what to teach tomorrow!!!

Fast forward now:

I had a good night sleep, I woke up 6Am, two hours before breakfast time. Read through today's lesson plans, prepared activities and have squeezed in

making this blog (finished 30 mins later earlier and was contemplating on dozing off for adtl sleep but then decided to make myself productive, and so this blog)

Oh Yes I'm not your most organized mommy, I know that. That's why the first thing I did today was kneel down and pray.

God bless us today!