God Fixes Bad days

Last week, I was at OMF to pick up more copies of The Power of a Praying Wife. 

I also picked up another book that I now see was a divinely inspired choice. 

There was a heavy downpour on Friday night while Jed & I were still at the mall. The taxi could not make his way through the flooded street. 

So, 20 paces away from the apartment gate, l hoisted Jed up on my back and made my way cautiously through the strong current that threatened to sweep us off. I

t was tough going and by the time we were warmly bathed and snuggled in, it was already 2AM.

But l delayed sleep a little longer because it was the perfect opportunity to open our new book- 13 Very Bad Days and How God Fixed Them.

Great Wall, Little Man

This is Jed's finest moment, as a little man.

Not only because of his accomplishment. But, more importantly, because he showed courage, boldness and perseverance.

We originally planned to visit the Mutianuy section of the Great Wall of China only for a look-see. But, when we got there, Jed remember the scene from the Karate Kid movie where Jackie Chan had Jaden Smith running up the wall to train. He said to me: "Mom, I'm going to be a legend. I will climb the Great Wall of China."

Such a huge heart for a little boy! The final steep part was agonizing. Grown men beside us were giving up.

But, in the middle of the climb, some ladies Jed had befriended at the foot of the long climb saw him lose heart and they raised their fists and cried out, "Forward!" Those ladies didn't make it to the top. But, their cries of encouragement gave Jed the energy boost he needed to finish the climb.

And then, when he had gone and accomplished what very few 9-years old accomplish, can you guess what he did?

Why, he found a shady nook and proceed to astound all the adults who were still huffing and puffing by calmly pulling out his PSP and playing his favorite video game. Ha!

One Country, One Nation

We use One Country, One Nation for Philippine history.

I am infinitely glad that Jed has his Philippine history and social studies in English. I still have nightmares of my elementary social studies in Filipino, a language that was then as foreign to me as Swahili.

I came from an English-speaking family. Thankfully, I grew to learn and even love Filipino, in my own time. Almost 10 years after I first encountered it. And more than five years after I first started speaking it. For the first two years, I listened but would not speak it, as the teasing and harassing was too much for me.

I would love for Jed to learn to love this language in his own time, too.  

Reading: Knights & Castles

Jed loves going to the bookshop every week and choosing a book to read. This week's pick is on: Knights and Castles.

Jed's been telling me that if he lived in the old times, he would have to leave me and study to be a knight by age 7. And how lucky I am I have him to myself for many more years! 

Greenhouse Effect

Jed chose to do a greenhouse from his Science Activity book because he loves puttering around in the ground.

Here is his greenhouse which he made himself with an old cereal box, some old plastic and barbecue sticks.

In a few days, the onion leaves were shooting straight toward the sun. Jed poked holes in the plastic because he was worried that not enough air was coming in.

A Collage on Communities

Here is Jed's mindmap of his lesson on communities plus a collage  for each of the three rural communities. 

The farming community:

The fishing community: 

And the mining community:

I am... Perseverant

For no reason, violin lessons became tedious this week. This was also the week that we decided to learn the Lupang Hinirang which led Jed to tears and me to tug at my hair in frustration.

So, this was the perfect time for Jed to learn about Perseverance!

Here is Jed plowing through violin exercises while listening to the original piece on CD. 

Love to Share

Me: How do you show your love towards your mother?
Jed: By giving my mom a glass of water when she is sick and too tired to stand up. 

Sweet kid!

The Creation Book

 We got our book the Mystery of History last week. For Jed's first activity, he did the Creation Book. 

There is one day per page.

Day 1:

Day 2 & 3:
For Day 3, Jed likes to say: "God made the seas and he made vegetation." He's very proud of that grown up word 'vegetation'.

Day 4 & 5:

Look at the richness in the sea. My favourite is the bottleneck dolphin. There is also a squid, an octopus, a shark and a lobster.

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Day 6 & 7: 

Day 7 is my most favourite day of all. It simply says: "God rested". Underneath that, Jed drew a picture of a church, to show that we rest and go to church on the 7th day, too.

Violin practice at home

I'm not as good as Jed's teacher Adrian. But, I try to get him some much-needed practice, once in a while.

There's something so poetic about hearing Jed play his music while the trees sway in the breeze through the open door. 

Interpreting a Bar Graph

Hands-on Bible

Jed got an early Christmas gift from me today.

Isn't it great that there's a hands-on Bible for energetic kids? I had to pry this away from Jed to force him to eat his breakfast.

There are experiments he can do. How cool is that?!

This one is called Sink-or-Swim. He poured 4 spoons of salt on a pail and cracked open an egg. Imagine his amazement to see the yolk float instead of sink.  The lesson: God's love holds us afloat, just like the salt does the yolk.

After the experiment, he devoured the story of the floating baby Moses, then stoutly declared, "My Bible is way cooler than your Bible, Mom."

Next up, Jed's gonna do the Rocket experiment which says, "Build this rocket to remind you that Jesus broke through the bonds of death." Can't wait to get that on video.

It's Beginning to Look like Christmas

Jed had a fever today, so Dericke came to keep him company. The two boys commandeered the hammers. The poundings gave me quite a scare, as I had visions of them tearing down the house.

The end result was a lot lovelier.

Now, we have a bit of Christmas in our house, thanks to two energetic boys!

Singing Landforms

I found Jed singing out the words in his Social Studies book. A brilliant way to memorize today's lesson on land forms.

I think it's cute that he loves to study while seated by our doorstep. Learning is learning wherever it happens. 

Naughty

Someone's been naughty for several days now.

So, the laptop  has been impounded. And an old friend for discipline has been put up. The last time we used the Reward Chart, Jed was five years old and going through a growth spurt which included testing the limits of the grown-ups around him. It seems we are going through yet another growth spurt.

For my parenting principles, I subscribe to the teachings of the One Minute Manager especially that children must be taught to "catch themselves doing right". So, the rules are pretty simple.

Jed knows what he should do and when he should do them. If he does it without me reminding him, he puts a star with my approval. When all the stars are up, he gets his laptop back.

It's a painless way to discipline & motivate him, perfect for little goal-driven boy.

He works so hard for the stars, too. On the one instance that he was rude & back-talked me, I asked him to take out eight stars. He ripped them out, then fled to the privacy of the bathroom where he cried his heart out. After several minutes, he stepped out and asked forgiveness.

All is well. We will weather this tempest together and come out safely on the sunny side, with no hearts damaged or trust betrayed.

Jed's First 100-pc Puzzle

I remember that, in Australia, Tita Roni attempted to befriend Jed by having him do a world-map puzzle and Jed almost burst into tears as he emphatically declared he couldn't put it together.

I never brought up puzzles again.

Until last week, when Jed spontaneously picked out a Disney puzzle from a shelf in National Bookstore and insisted we do it together during our family time.

That happy, satisfied smile blesses my heart! 

Note: This is tagged under Math, because puzzle-making requires logic & analysis.

Writing About the Playground

We have stopped spelling classes, as Jed has completed the Grade 2 set. We are now doing more writing & composition.

Jed found this tedious at first, but learned to enjoy it when I pointed out to him the times when I write in my journal, too.