Whoever said that a home educator’s life is easy cannot be more wrong. Homeschooling isn’t a walk in the park. But it still is the road we chose to take anyway for a host of good reasons. Aside from our desire to be our son’s primary influencer, we also would love to see him maximize his potential in a way that, in our opinion, traditional school cannot do – at least in the duration of his formative years.
Our 4 year old son graduating with honors on his first year of preschool (March 2010)
When our son got at least a couple of board games for Christmas last year, I thought they were to be left in the corner of his room for a few more years. That is until our five year old himself showed me the label from the box that the Monopoly Jr. is for the 5 year old and up.
It turns out I underestimated him. Our son’s being restless and playful somehow got me to think that he might not last a while sitting through the game. I cannot be more wrong. Apparently, it was our son who has kind of set a family game night as he became hooked to playing Monopoly Jr. for a while. He read through the instructions himself and got on to being the banker, collects, distributes the money allotted for each player like a pro in no time. He was a natural!
With my home-based work and the plateful of things I do on a daily basis, it can be hard to draw the line when to stop and just spend time with the family. Our family game time, which something that our son ever so looks forward to, at least twice a week, allows for us to strike that balance between working and family bonding time, which should really be of utmost priority.
Marriage and Beyond turns 3 years old today! From that fateful wee hour of November 27, 2007, when I finally had peace with the domain name to this post, being the 1, 466th. It took me from 9pm of Nov. 26 to 4am of Nov 27 when I claimed it as ours. All the good “family oriented” domain names must have been all taken and I wasn’t just about to settle for second best.
We originally planned to hold an anniversary contest just like last year’s. With one of our local Christian bookstore pledging their support of giving away good books about marriage and parenting. But because there are just too many things on our plate, I never got around to doing it.
Our son is grounded from watching videos and playing the game consoles this week. He acted up last Sunday when a boy in church won’t allow him to borrow his Ben10 toy. As adorable as he seems to be (at least to us), this little guy also has some naughty tricks in him and because despite of the number of warnings, he still pushed it. So it is a no videos week for him, aside from the spanking that he got for pushing the boy.
Whether a child is disciplined through spanking, a word, standing in the corner or facing the wall, the ideal way to end it is to sit the child down and run through what happened and explain why the discipline had to take place.
When we started reading to our son when he was still an infant, when he obviously cannot yet appreciate what we were talking about, I really did not have the clue if it was really going to work in the long run. The idea is for him to get used to our voices and the tones as we spoke.
I love seeing my husband and son bond during bedtime, just before we say our family devotion. Our son loves being read to. Yes, even now that he knows how to read himself. He does read by himself during day time. But now at 5, he either reads with us or prefers to be read to. A habit he got used to.
Here is a website that is currently making waves and parents should be made aware of - Omegle.com. Yesterday was the first time I visited the site and it surely gave me the creeps! All one has to do was head over the site, choose between text or video chatting and you are basically hooked up with a stranger online.
We are in a generation filled with distractions of all shapes and forms. This is why it is no longer surprising why the default could easily be to raise up children with short attention span problems. A considerable percentage of attention disorders roots back to the galore of distractions made available to children before they are able to control and make a grasp of the value of time management.
While I do not have anything against game consoles, its potential for distraction is too real when left in the hands of children without giving them limits. This can bring about a barrage of problems, to say the least.
my son wearing his Action Man watch from Kids Watch Central
One thing that has worked right from the time our son was a toddler, long before he became an expert at telling time, was teaching him to keep track of time. How? For example, we tell him that time is up when the long hand is on number 8. The watch is the one tool that has allowed for him to set his mind that there is time for everything. A child should not be left on his own doing what he wants to do until he feels like it.
Now this contest is as fun as fun can be, an easy one at that.
Mechanics:
(Contest will run fromJune 9, 2010 to July 9, 2010)
Wyeth sent me a can of Wyeth’s Progress Pre-School Gold and a Healthway card for mother’s day last week! Thank you Wyeth!
Committed to helping mothers raise healthy children, Wyeth’s Progress Pre-School Gold now goes beyond providing superior nutritional products by offering superior medical care as well. Working together with Healthway, the joint project aims to provide families increased access to quality maternal and child healthcare services.
My husband and I first reconsidered getting a helper to assist us around the house last year when we first jumped into the homeschooling grind. But as I later went on adapting to our home schooling schedule, we held that thought in and pushed it back down until now, a year later.
Truth be told, I could really make use of a help, being the lone person who takes care of the house, home school my son, while I work from home (as a virtual assistant and blog for a living). There are days that I get pretty overwhelmed and the busyness gets the best of me, which shouldn’t be.
Our son here is playing with other graduating kids during their 15 minute break. He easily makes friends, that’s for sure. The hubby and I overheard a girl from the bunch ask Jed if he can be her new best friend. My son was all smiles as they were both on the see saw and quipped, “Why do you want me to be your bestfriend?” The girl readily answered “Because you are the kindest.” Jed answered back, “Wow! Sure, I like that.” All this time we thought he was not paying attention to their conversation and was too busy playing. But after a couple of days, during his random talks with the hubby, he told his papa about this girl in school who wants him to be her new best friend and with all her thoughts, saying that he likes her too.
Time flies by so fast. It was as if it was just yesterday that I could carry him with one arm effortlessly. Now with his close to 55lbs at his age of 4, he is often mistaken to be 6 year old by many. (He sure won’t be a candidate of human growth hormone in the future) Sometimes I wish I can stop time and just relish the moments a lil while longer.
When my son and I attended the launch of Pampers Yoga Stretchycise last week at Gymboree in Manila Polo Club, I cannot help but remember the times when he was still the ever so dependent baby. It was such a short, sweet time. Babies grow up too fast, really. My son now is 4 years old and even though he sat down with me for a bit during the talk, he really preferred to be left alone in the play area with the other kids.
The partnership of baby experts Pampers, the Mother and Child Nurses Association of the Philippines (MCNAP) and Gymboree Play and Music, developed the Pampers Yoga Stretchycise. It is a routine that a parent/guardian does with the baby that combines stretching and yoga moves. It is said to help encourage the development of the baby’s mind and body.
MarriageandBeyond.com was officially launched first week of December 2007. Posts were live from Nov. 27, but importation of contents from their previous free hosted site wasn’t quite done yet until December. I have been blogging since 2004, so even though MarriageandBeyond is still practically a baby, its contents traces back to four years ago, which you guys will find in this site’s Archive.
