My son and I started with our Wheatgrass Project a month ago. We intended to blog about it. But swamped with work I am, which explains why I am backlogged to my neck when it comes to blog articles I have lined up. Even as this Wheatgrass Project is not exactly a part of the curriculum, I have incorporated it in the things he could learn about – even off class. He is amazed at how the wheatberries (seeds) sprout out roots and later grow real grass out of those tiny bits.

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Another focus of ABCs with Ace and Christi’s curriculum is to develop the preschooler’s fine motor skills. One of the exercises that encourage that is the writing exercises. Here is my son practicing his writing skills. He is doing better by the day. He’s currently done with two paces of Word Building and Animal Science and 1 pace of Math. Read this article »

Jed’s moving up day early this month marks a milestone not just in his life but ours as a family as well. The awards definitely got us elated, especially so that we have never expected that he’ll receive any. The next program that our son is to take this coming school year is ABCs with Ace and Christi.

ABCs with Ace and Christi is School of Tomorrow’s learning to read program. It is a multisensory, phonetics program. Just like the former program our son graduated from (Preschool with Ace in Christi). This particular program is designed to prepare the student for the individualized instruction of School of Tomorrow’s program, which was formerly known as Accelerated Christian Education (ACE). ABCs with Ace and Christi is used after a child is diagnosed as “ready to read” using the Reading Readiness Test.

I am confident that my son is going to breeze through this program. The former program he was enrolled in was so good that he now knows how to read! Jed even now knows how to spell correctly, up to six letter words! I am one proud Mama Teacher, that’s true. It can easily surpass the feeling of sending out birth announcements of sorts. I am one privileged parent and I am thoroughly loving home schooling to bits.

I guess the purpose why we’ll get him enrolled in the ABCs with Ace and Christi program despite him knowing how to read already is for mastery and for him to practice his writing skills more. And it would be a little too early if he’d jump to Grade 1 right away anyway. He’d get to that later this year.

The hubby and I are still beaming from ear to ear. When we had our son attend those graduation rehearsals, we were not expecting that he will graduate with awards. For one, we are homeschooling. So he is not up competing with other students. But I figured this is the purpose for LHA’s requiring us to submit grades and for that oral testing that the kids had to go through previously (which was not announced). It being not announced makes for a perfect assessment. Because it will be able to determine if the parents who homeschool their kids keep up with the standard of the curriculum.

We can have the best curriculum in homeschooling, but if the parent or guardian, who will stand as the child’s teacher will not apply what is advised in the curriculum, the child will not be able to maximize the learnings he could get out of it. Here’s a fact: it is so easy to be complacent when you are homeschooling.  So unless a parent has the right reasons to homeschool a child, it is better to send them to a traditional school.

Best in Sound Recognition

When the host said that the first award was Best in Sound Recognition, I did have an inkling that it could be our son to get that award. The previous oral assessment was a give away when all the teachers were amazed by how our son’s timing and tone for every song he was asked to sing. (The Preschool with Ace and Christi curriculum makes use of music for every letter sound of the alphabet).  But then again, we cannot be so sure. It might always be that the other graduates did well as he did. So when he was called, we were not any less surprised, we were very pleased even.   So proud of our son.

Most Number of Excellent Marks

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Today is the last day of graduation rehearsals. The sky was overcast and the heat was not so extreme, which is really a blessing. Given that the previous times we had to travel from Antipolo to Paranaque, we were all on the verge of heat exhaustion. The hubby took a picture of my my son and his friend, Tiffany with me on the background (far right) and a fellow homeschooling mom and her kid.

The rehearsal prior to this, the Academic Manager of Living Heritage Academy did an oral examination of all the graduating students. The parents were allowed to be in the office with the head as she tests our child. It’s nothing like an employment screening, I know. Nevertheless, we cannot be more proud as our son readily recited all the pledges (to the Bible and Christian flag), memory verses and animal songs with ease. The teachers were there too to witness and said that his voice sounds like the kid singing from the demo music.

Last Friday was Jed’s third time to rehearse for their upcoming graduation (March 12). Their next will be on the 11th, the day before the graduation. It is a pretty long travel for us to have to go to PCST every time. With the heat and the now inefficient a/c of the car, we always come home short of having heat exhaustion. But we’re pressing on. A graduation is not something we get to witness very often and it is a milestone that our family is looking forward to being a part of.

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We had to leave very early today to make it to The Philippine Christian School of Tomorrow in Paranaque for the first rehearsal day for our son’s graduation day (Preschool with Ace and Christi and ABCs with Ace and Christi) on March 12, 2010.

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One of the few things that we have not bought yet for our home school activities is a trampoline. I think we need to buy one soon. I have delayed getting one because of the limited space that we have here at home.

We do make up for it by doing physical activities to replace the rebounding time via the trampoline. I could say that I even get some exercise that I need during our physical activities time.   Read this article »

This is the newest addition to our growing list of tongue twisters!

Young Yalta Yak knew when not to Yak

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One of the newer things that we have been doing lately in our homeschool class is tongue twisters. Tongue twisters help preschoolers to recognize the words better as they hear the sound.

Here is a list of the tongue twisters that we have been working on in the last couple of weeks. All of them have something to do with the 23 letter sounds that we have learned to date:

1. Abbie Antelope had an accident.
2. Milton Mule made a mini mule.
3. “Splash, swish.” Sandy Sunfish swims.
4. Felix Fox follows Father Fox.
5. Ricky Rabbit rode the Rabbitville Rainbow Train.
6. Ellie Elephant exclaimed excitedly.
7. Brave Bucky Buffalo flew in a balloon.
8. Nicky Nightingale noticed new neighbors.
9. Gary Goldfish grew in Giggle Gaggle Gulf.
10. Tiny Tiger counted ten tiny tarts.
11. Petey Peacock praised Piney Pine.
12. Inchy Inchworm’s itchy-pox itched.
13. “Drum-diddy-drum-drum,” Davie Duck drummed.
14. Hellelujah! Here’s Humphrey Hippopotamus.
15. Oliver Ostrich was not an olive.
16. Little, lively Leonardo Lizard leaped.
17. Kikki Kangaroo came from Kalamazoo.
18. Connie Cockatoo’s company came to Country Castle.
19. Jimmy Jaguar saw a Jingle-Jangle Juggler.
20. Whoops! Wacky Walrus was wounded.
21. Unkie Umbrella Bird found an unusual pup.
22. Victor Vole vacuumed with vim and vigor.
23. Quentin Quail was quite good at quick quiz questions.

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