Stop the Clock

How often I pause in my tracks now and wish there was a way to stop time in its tracks.

How fleeting are these childhood days! How blessed I am to spend these dawning days!

How often do I spontaneously burst out, as Wendy did to Peter Pan, "Oh, the cleverness of you!"

A Confession Note

Jed's lessons from We Choose Virtues and stencil art came together last night when I got home to find this note taped to the main door.

It says, "I am so sorry, Mom. I broke my wax hand. I am feeling scared. Please forgive. Love Jed " with a checkbox for "Yes, forgive" and another for "No forgive".

How could I possibly turn down such an honest & cute letter of contrition? Of course, I checked Yes.

P.S. The wax hand was made in HongKong and stored in my ref, as my memento of Jed's fleeting childhood days.

Reading Out Loud in Filipino

Jed reads out loud from his Filipino book. Filipino lessons are excruciating for both him & me. But, we march bravely on.

I admire his perseverance because he has no idea what these words mean, most of the time.

Here we go at his pace, which is as slow & persistent as a garden snail. I do not push him as hard in Filipino as I do in Math or in English.

An Essay on Jed's Grandma

Jed reads out loud from his Composition book, a short essay he wrote about his grandmother. 

Equalizer

Jed insisted we play a game and when I asked him to "choose a game any game", I was pleasantly surprised that he chose Equalizer, a Math version of Scrabble. I love that he finds Math as much fun as I do. 

Playing with the Neighbors

Jed took a break from homeschooling lessons to have some normal rough-and-tumble with the neighborhood kids in the parking lot, while I took photos from the third floor balcony. 

Reading: Toy Story

We love to read before bedtime. When we drop by National Bookstore, Jed always keeps an eye out for fun comics with lots of words & equally lots of photos. The latest addition to his collection is Toy Story. 

Stencil Art: Animals at the Farm

Today, Jed picked out a stencil book from his library and got to work. 

More Math

Math crunches after breakfast

Math with Grandpa

Grandpa Jerry dropped in yesterday & helped Jed with his Math. :)

This brings back fond memories of me lounging on my dad's office sofa, while he threw out multiplication problems for me to solve. 

Chores: Swashbuckling Pirate Swishing a Mop

I bought a mop last week and Jed commandeered it from under my nose. If I so much as put my hands on it, he grabs it back from me enthusiastically, "Let me, mom. Let me. You just sit back & relax."

Everyday he gets to choose which scent will fill our room. Yesterday, he chose lavender which was perfect because strong rains lulled us to sleep in the evening. Today, we are doing peppermint.

Here's my little pirate swishing the mop. 

Chores: Two Mad Scientists on Bathroom Duty

On Sunday afternoons, my bathroom is a secret laboratory for two mad scientists (Jed & his 8-year old cousin Dericke) who enjoy "mixing chemicals" while trying to outdo each other's portrayal of an evil-genius laugh.

No nagging, no whining. It's a painless, fun way to get 8 & 9 year-olds to do their chores. 

Kumon Math

Today is the day!!!
Jed did 20 addition problems and 20 subtraction problems. And, bless my heart, got them all perfect!!! 

Human Body Part 3: The Big & Busy Body Book

As I have mentioned before, Jed is a kinesthetic learner. he needs to do in order to learn.

We hit the jackpot with this Big and Busy Body book.

It's got flaps to open, and other secrets perfect for an active & curious learner.


For instance, in this page, we can open a panel to see the major organs inside the body.

We can also lift up each tiny organ to see more facts about it.

Jed is loving his science classes!

Human Body Part 2: The Major Internal Organs

Human Body Part 1: Jed and the skeleton

There are 3 types of learners. I am a visual learner: I learn best when I see the information on paper. The 2nd type is an audio learner, for whom podcasts would work well. Jed is the last type - a kinesthetic learner. He needs to do in order to learn, to move in order to think.

Here's how we study the human body.   

Here's Jed in action:

The final product occupies a place of honor in our study station: 

Reading Aloud: The Diary of A Chrysalis

Remember this book? 

Here's a video of Jed & me reading a poem for two voices. The poem is entitled The Diary of a Chrysalis.

A Spelling City Video

Here's another video that shows a glimpse of our home lessons. This one is for our spelling classes. I adoreSpelling City. I can just type in the words for the day. It then gives them to Jed one at a time, with a sample sentence. Because it is so much like a novel online game, he just loves it and will keep on playing it. Meanwhile, I am free to do my chores while keeping an ear out for him.

Spelling City

We finally try out a new online tool: Spelling City. Not surprisingly, Jed loves it because Jed loves anything  like online gaming.

Previously, I would have a PDF file open with his spelling words. When he was done with one word, he would ask me for the next word. If I was writing an email that needed focus, he would have to wait patiently for 2-3 minutes for the next word.

This tool takes all that fuss away. I just put in the words and he goes through them at his own pace. Then, he saves his results and shows them to me.

Here is our first run-through today.

He gets one word wrong and, on his own initiative, goes through it all again. It's all fun & games to him, so he doesn't mind re-doing it at all.



 Finally, he gets all the words right. His reward: spelling games!

Observing Leaves with a Microscope

This afternoon, I finally found (made) time for the leaf-gathering field trip I promised Jed two weeks ago. Jed wants to be a scientist when he grows up so I thought this would be a fun start for him.

Right beside our third floor apartment is an untamed lot, filled with lots of plants, shrubs, bananas and trees. Jed put on his gardener's boots and gloves and we went on a leaf-picking adventure.

Then, he spent the whole afternoon sitting down on the balcony floor, looking at the different leaves through his little microscope.

There were long leaves and spiky leaves. There was a heart-shaped leaf and a fan-shaped leaf. I wish I knew their names. Next week, I will teach him to draw in his journal what he sees through his microscope.

 

It blesses my heart to see the rapt focus on my son's face, in the warm afternoon light.