Honestly, I don’t want to rush him. But since he is pretty pumped up because of his being able to reach his goal of 5 to 10 pages for each PACE per day and the reward he can exchange his Congratulations slip with.

Congratulations Slip

The reward he is to get for every Congratulation Slip he gets is an Angry Bird stuffed toy. Jed was never into stuffed toys save for his Mr. Mcguire Ty Beanie bear when he was little.  We are really thrilled! Because despite the fact that he is having a hard time reading in Filipino, he is able to absorb a whole lot of things about the Philippine history in his Araling Panlipunan subjects.

We are continuing his supplement classes: Karate and Voice. If you can count some of the education iPad apps like the talking spanish dictionary that he recently got fond of, then that’s another. He’s so much into reading and still wants to be a robot maker and a pastor when he grows up.

New words are introduced practically every day in my son’s homeschool curriculum. While I can easily answer what the “new words” mean, I prefer to go to an authorized reference for the proper contextual meaning of the words. My son can play/use (with limits) the iPad after his afternoon nap. But during homeschool time, he knows it is there for that particular purpose – reference. Can you blame me much if I begin to love iPad and everything Apple more and more?

Two years in and I can only thank God for this opportunity of being able to homeschool our son. Sure, there aren’t social security benefits to being a work from home mom. But it’s the choice I put both feet, mind and heart on. I love, love, love homeschooling! My son does too. I would from time to time ask him if he’d like to go to a real school already and he would confidently say that he does not need to. He has classmates in Sunday School and in his Karate class. No socialization issues so far and I think those are the exact affirmations I need to press on and do what I have been doing these last couple of years.

The manual starts off with School of Tomorrow Curriculum’s 5 Laws of Learning:

1. Student must be placed at the academic level in each subject where they can perform.
2. Reasonable goals must be set each day.
3. Students must be controlled and motivated.
4. Learning must be measurable.
5. Learning must be rewarded.

We initially planned to start with Level 1 program before Christmas vacation. But Teacher Mama was down with Acute Gastroenteritis this week. We are therefore resuming classes on January instead. Another milestone yet for us. We encourage fellow homeschoolers to get their fuji cameras ready to capture home education milestones like we do.

Unofficial English language translation
I am a Filipino
I pledge my allegiance
To the flag of the Philippines
And to the country it represents
With honor, justice and freedom
Put in motion by one nation
For God, humanity,
Nature and
Country.

* this is the new version that was handed to me during my son’s graduation practice last February. All the while this version was what we were using. I’m not really sure why they have to keep revising the pledge.  It can be confusing. Methinks my generation’s version is still the best. But that’s my biased opinion.

This was the version that we used last school year which was supposedly the “revised” version already:

Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas,
Aking lupang sinilangan,
Tahanan ng aking lahi,
Kinukupkop ako at tinutulungan
Maging malakas, masipag at marangal.
Dahil mahal ko ang Pilipinas,
Diringgin ko ang payo
Ng aking magulang,
Susundin ko ang tuntunin ng paaralan,
Tutuparin ko ang tungkulin
Ng mamamayang makabayan:
Naglilingkod, nag-aaral at nagdarasal
Ng buong katapatan
Iaalay ko ang aking buhay,
Pangarap, pagsisikap
Sa bansang Pilipinas

Panatang Makabayan ng Pilipinas: the old (original) version that we used in our generation

Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas.
Ito ang aking lupang sinilangan.
Ito ang tahanan ng aking lahi.
Ako’y kanyang kinukupkop at tinutulungan,
Upang maging malakas, maligaya at kapakipakinabang.

Bilang ganti ay diringgin ko ang payo ng aking mga magulang.
Susundin ko ang mga tuntunin ng aking paaralan.
Tutuparin ko ang tungkulin ng isang mamamayang makabayan at masunurin sa batas.

Paglilingkuran ko ang aking bayan nang walang pag-iimbot at nang buong katapatan.
Sisikapin kong maging isang tunay na Pilipino,
sa isip, sa salita at sa gawa.

Aside from school uniform, we also need to buy art materials like construction paper, et.al. We’re going to have this done real soon as I am also planning to buy this scanning software I need for some online tasks I need to get done.

I will make it a lamp unto my feet 

and a light unti my ath.

I will hide its words in my heart

that I might not sin against God.