For practical reasons, go karting has a height requirement. Our 6 yo is a couple of inches over 4 feet.

One of the things in our agenda that we got to scratch off was go karting. Our family enjoys go karting so much that we wanted to share the experience with our loved ones. We headed to City Kart Racing in Makati at the 7th Level car park, Park Square 1. So those who were able, came and had a blast. It was our 6 year old homeschooler’s second time to go karting and he was no less than thrilled than he was the first time.

getting ready to race

But before this homeschooler was able to ride the kiddie kart (go karts for midgets kids), he had to listen to instructions that he needs to remember aside from the motorcycle helmet that he’s got to keep on for the duration of the race.

Below is a short video clip of our little guy having a smashing time on the race track.

It was yet another fun Christmas Eve celebration at my folks’ place together with my sister’s in-laws. It has kind of become an unplanned tradition. Our son, being the youngest of the bunch received the most gifts from his family and Ninongs and Ninangs.Aside from his usual “hotwheels” gift request, we thought we’d surprise him with his very first console, A DSi XL. It was his reward for finishing Levels 1 and 2 in 2011. We thought of giving him more than the usual chocolate birthday gifts for him because he’s been extra good this year. We chose the Nintendo DSi XL instead of a PSP or any other console because of the many educational games that he can play in it. To date, his favorite is Mario Kart and Need for Speed Shift. But he switches from that to the Spelling and the Brain Age game. We just thought he was ready for it and with how he manages to stop playing when he needs to affirms just that.

As always, my husband was again able to surprise me with three different cards throughout the day which he strategically placed first thing in the morning (before I slept), midday and just before I sleep on December 8, 2011. As I was reading through the cards, our little guy would curiously look at each one and vowed that he’s going to make us a card as soon as he gets his hands on a piece of paper. I saw him have this look of awe on his face when he saw me happily reading through his father’s messages for me written on the cards. It makes me almost sure that he’s going to be a great husband himself when he grows up.

Our 6 year old son’s Happy Anniversary card for us

To: Mama and Papa

From: Jed

“Mama, did you know that I love you and Papa?”

“Thank you for inviting me to your 10th anniversary.”

Not perfect. With an erasure and the word “anniversary” wrongly spelled.  But he did it all by himself with no help from any of us. I wasn’t even too sure that he was getting on it still.  I love that he thanked us that we invited him to our anniversary. Because really, we could have easily chosen to just leave him behind and celebrate without him.  Somehow in his little mind, he knew this was possible so he thanked us for inviting him to our 10th anniversary celebration. And here’s the kicker – he placed the card inside my bag. When he thought there was no way I was going to rummage through my bag anytime soon, he hinted for me to check out my bag and get the card he made for us. How can we have the heart to leave such a sweet boy behind?

My F&V doctor’s bag anniversary present that Jeff bought for me some weeks back. I am the sole soul who owns this kind of bag and I cannot be more thrilled.  This made our not being able to line up in this one store in Hongkong (which we originally planned) okay with me. The line was awfully long and our son was already complaining from all the walking we have put him through. I have my friend, Frances, to thank for. She could have chosen to just keep and not sell it. It’s all leather and I love, love, love it!  Should blog about it soon!

Because our little guy saw how I loved his father’s anniversary gift, he wanted to buy me titanium bracelets for present when we went duty free shopping when we came back from Hongkong. But stopped short when he realized he cannot afford them. Haha! I’m not sure if it has something to do with men being competitive. But he has always wanted to buy me something whenever his papa gets me anything special.  I have such a sweet and thoughtful young man in the making. Thanks to the “training” his father is unconsciously giving him by being such a loving husband.

Now that he’s six years old, he figures things out almost instantly. Something he took after his father and for which I am grateful. I would not be surprised if he’d take on Web Developer Jobs when he grows up. Even now that he is more responsible, he only gets to play the consoles an hour a day, max. The rule stays. We all know the ability of these zombifying consoles to people’s productivity.  We are glad that he’s gotten used to being told when his time is up. Sure there is a level of resistance, sad face mostly. But he has learned to jump right off of it and grab a book to read or do something else more productive.

The kid is pretty busy anyway with his PACES and is currently 1 PACES away until he levels up to Grade 3! Exciting time for us. Another milestone we are yet to celebrate!

Enrolling our homeschooler to Trumpets has been a part of our plan. It was my husband’s idea. As opposed to having our son train in a Pop Music school, he really would rather that he is exposed to learning the “proper” way to sing. Our son really enjoyed the workshop. I will blog more about it later. I still have to download the photos and videos from the cameras we used.

We had a mother and son date after the workshop. We headed to Rockwell Powerplant and spent quite a bit in Fully Booked book store. Jed browsed through several books. Most of them “novelization” pieces of movies like Puss in Boots, Toy Story 2, et. al. He also read a couple of chapters of The Little Prince. There are a host of other books he checked out. He even had a look see at books and magazines about cars and rv loans. I had to lead him back to the kids books section until we ended up in Manga section.

He first chose to buy The Little Prince but decided on Manga Mutiny instead. Since he already finished The Manga Messiah, he really wanted to buy the rest of the installment of the series. The others are: Manga Metamorphosis, Manga Melech and Manga Messengers. I only allowed him to buy one book this time. We can go right back anytime when he’s done with the book that he bought.

There’s good news to Manga Messiah followers too. The installment books of the series are now selling for a fraction of the cost of Manga Messiah used to sell for. The Manga Messiah used to sell for more than P800. We only got the Manga Mutiny for P215! The Manga series are now locally published! These homeschoolers sure love it!

“Manga Messiah” presents the gospel stories with Jesus referred to as Yeshuah, and Joseph and Mary are Yosef and Miryam. “Manga Metamorphosis” illustrates the book of Acts. “Manga Mutiny” goes back to the Old Testament and retells the stories of Genesis. “Manga Melech” continues the Old Testament stories from the Exodus to the stories of David. “Manga Messengers,” is about the tales of the kings and prophets of Judah and Israel.

It has been a while since we last went out on a date, just the two of us. I saw that my son immensely enjoyed it. He went on and on telling me what’s gonna happen when we were on the movie house watching Real Steel. He’s already seen it but wanted to watch it again. He was also the one who insisted we ate at Jollibee after.  It is a quality time with my son without me playing supervisor as I usually do during homeschool time.

Even if we missed our Boracay vacay, we still have another trip to enjoy and I’m talking about our planned vacation in Hongkong this coming soon in celebration of our tenth wedding anniversary. Our little homeschooler is so ready with his collection of disposable fuji cameras. Well, he’s actually wishing that it will snow in Hongkong during our vacation. We all haven’t seen snow yet. So that will be a first if ever. But then again, I really doubt that it snows in Hongkong. The last time it did was in 1975. But it does not hurt to wish, right?

Baptism is a willing pledge made by those who recognize their sin, understand the significance of the death of Christ and commit themselves to Him. Check marks on every count for this homeschooler. Nope, no baby christening gifts for us. That’s more for those who baptize their infants. There was not one instance in the scripture that a baby was baptized. If at all, baptism is preceded by some command for belief. A good example is Acts 2:38—“Change your hearts and lives and be baptized, each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.”

Nowhere in the Bible are we told to be baptized and then believe. But to come to belief, to trusting faith, and then display that decision by associating ourselves with Christ through baptism.  This decision requires understanding, which an infant clearly is incapable of.

When our son was three months old, we dedicated him to God. It is actually more of a reminder for the parents (us) and the godparents to be wary to look after the child and care that we lead him to the right path. It is more of a prayer and consecration.

Our son’s readiness for baptism was further affirmed to me during last summer’s Youth Camp.  It was during Kuya Alex’s message when he was all ears. All the while, I thought he was just fascinated with all the drama, the powerpoint presentations and the worship time.  He would come to me every time with questions about the message flashed in the screen. Why people choose this, why people mess their life up, and we should not do that, et. al.

When we went back to our room that night, in between bites (he was eating a sandwich), he would babble on and on how “I don’t ever want to let go of God’s hand” and practically relaying what he has learned during the message that night. I was even able to sneak my digital to capture what he was saying. It was funny how he went to the extreme of asking me to erase all his games on the iPhone and iPad.  Needless to say, he was intensely affected by the message that night.

After having recently viewed the video, I can only conclude that we cannot downplay a child’s thoughts. All throughout the time we were busy, from the people in the program to the counselors who led the youth to Christ – they can pick up more than we think they can.  Towards the end of the video, Jed was asking to have a look-see on the application on the phone (image above) that I used to lead a girl to Christ. It was an application of the Four Spiritual Laws. Having no nanny with me, Jed has to tag along wherever I go. I didn’t know that while he was on my other phone playing on the corner, he was actually taking it all in.

May 29, 2011, together with the other young people who expressed their want to follow Jesus in the waters of baptism, our son got baptized by his father. It was one sweet time when my husband did not just address Jed as his son, but his brother (in Christ), as well.

]]> http://www.christianhomeschooler.info/this-and-that/the-day-our-homeschooler-got-baptized/feed/ 1 http://www.christianhomeschooler.info/this-and-that/flu-shot-2011/ http://www.christianhomeschooler.info/this-and-that/flu-shot-2011/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:47:58 +0000 admin http://www.christianhomeschooler.info/?p=1146 Before this, the last time this homeschooler had his flu shot was in 2009. He was practically ill free throughout that year. Yes, we skipped 2010, for some reason. We probably got really busy getting back on our feet after the Ondoy devastation.

We finally got this homeschooler flu vaccine covered today. Although he was understandably scared of the needle at first, he was practically silent as the vaccine went through. Shocked, probably, that it was just that fast, as we told him. I baked him Choco-Oat-Chip Cookies, as promised. It was our deal that I’ll bake him his favorite cookies if he does not fuss during the vaccination. And we were not disappointed.

He’s been sick at least three times already this year. The recent being just a couple of weeks apart. He skipped class for a whole week two weeks ago. But we will be Back to School and regular programming this coming week.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and older children should not watch more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.

When I first read about this somewhere when my son was a newborn, I knew this made sense. Especially during the times that I did allow him to watch some Baby Einstein videos for long periods of time. Being the lone person in the house doing all the housework, taking care of the baby and doing my online tasks, the television is the easy instant nanny that I tried to make use of. The few times that I allowed my son to watch more than a couple of hours, he turned into this kind of wild child that won’t hear of it if I tell him watching tv is done. His zombified look was enough for me to learn my lesson and take APP’s word for it.

Now that our son is 5 years old, we still keep the two hour max rule, whether he is watching television or playing xbox or Wii. And we are actually glad, he knows this deal and takes note of the time and look forward to being able to watch again another day.

As he started lo learn about the dynamics of plant growth, he wondered and asked if he could plant some roses and take care of it for me. It was so sweet that he also got some pointers from his father how long stemmed roses are romantic and that is what he should take care of when our plant box is in place.