Today I brought Nikki to the the movie theatre.  It’s his first time.  He was supposed to watch The Incredibles at the theatre but he got scared and never went through with it.  I think he was around 5 then.  Anyway, a few days ago I told Nikki that I was going to take him to the movies to watch Ice Age 3.  He’s quite familiar with the story already so I was sure he was not going to wonder about the characters.  I decided to leave Ethan at home because (being wary of the dark) I was sure he was going to put up a fuss.  We left the house at a few minutes past 10 and when we got to the mall, we found out that that movie was going to start at 11:15.  So we bought some food first and some snacks.  At 11am we headed back, bought our tickets which cost P132 each, and went inside the theatre.  We were the only people inside so I quickly decided to take Nikki’s photo to document his first time inside the moviehouse.  Nikki wasn’t scared at all.  He was fascinated, in fact.  He looked about him and he was really interested in the small windows at tha back where the projector was. Anyway, a few minutes after that, the trailers started and after the 5th or sixth one, Nikki commented, “Why isn’t the movie starting?”  I explained to him that they were showing future movies.  It’s just too bad that they didn’t show the trailer of the movie Up.  It would have been nice to see that.  Anyway, once the movie began Nikki just watched it all.  He of course, couldn’t help talking about certain scenes in the movie and he would forget to keep his voice low but I would just whisper to him to just talk softly so as not to disturb the other moviegoers.  Anyway, we loved the movie.  It was funny and it was nice to see the pack grow with Peaches.  Personally, I love Peaches.

Anyway, I’m having some misgivings on taking Ethan to the movie theatre because I think he’s really not ready for it yet.   For one thing, he dislikes new and unfamiliar places.  Secondly, he doesn’t like the dark and lastly, he doesn’t like it when a place gets too loud.  But Ruther wants me to try at least just so Ethan will have an idea how it is inside the mall.  Well, we’ll have to see how that turns out then…

I bought some brownie mix last week and encouraged Nikki to make some.  It was his first time to bake brownies and I wanted it to be fun and easy for him.  (He hates messes.)  He followed the instructions perfectly although I had to help him with the mixing and the pouring.  Other than that he did great.  Here are some photos.

Cracking an egg.

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Mixing water, egg and butter.

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Adding some candied almonds.

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All set and ready for the oven.

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All done! Yummy!

Here are some homeschooling tips I found at http://www.homeschool-living.com/Homeschool-Ideas-Everyday.html.  Hopefully I’ll be able to find a good one for the boys during one of our “what do we do today” moments.

The following are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Keep a camera close by. Take lots of pictures. These are the moments of which memories are made.
• Mix it up. Children love surprises. A variety of activities keeps their interest.
• Be prepared. Select 7-10 . Then you’ll have choices. One may be appealing/appropriate for one time, another at another time. Include some that would engage your preschool homeschool children and others for your high schoolers. (I usually sat down every two weeks or so to pick them.)
• Post the ideas in a convenient place.
• Have a project spot. Look over a list. Gather or purchase any materials you need.
• A special treat: Check out this site for fun monthly and holiday Word Search Puzzles.
• Stay flexible.
• Check out this interesting source for lapbooks! Creating lapbooks is a hands-on method ideal for learning, teaching and reinforcing material. It can also be used for making memory books about our children and their learning adventures.

Nikki just discovered The Lion King.  I tried to make him watch it when he was younger but he didn’t appreciate it then.  A few days ago I tried to let him watch it again and he liked it this time!  Ethan thought at first it was Chicken Little (because of the intro) but realized later on that it was a different movie.  Anyway, we got Nikki a Simba stuffed toy when he was a baby and I looked for it and gave it to him while he watched the movie and he really enjoyed the story.  So now, that’s his “new” fave movie.  He says he doesn’t like Scar (who would?) and he really likes Simba.  He also says Timone and Pumbaa and Zazu are funny.  He was surprised when I sang along to the songs.  I told him he’ll learn them in time too.  Ethan doesn’t like the movie that much yet but I’m not worried.  I’m sure  he’ll appreciate it when he’s bigger.

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I’m planning on taking Nikki to the movie theatre when Ige Age 3 shows.  It’ll be his first time in the theatre and I’m not sure how he’ll take it.  The first time we tried bringing him to the movie house he panicked and wanted out immediately.  He didn’t even get to see the start of the movie.  My sis took him to watch The Incredibles.  Apparently then he was not ready.  Hopefully this time he will be.  Ethan definitely is not ready yet because he’s still too fearful of the dark.  So maybe in a couple of years or so.  I’m actually excited to see his reaction once he’s in the moviehouse.  I hope he won’t be too scared and I hope we’ll get to watch the entire movie.

We’ll have to wait and see…

I got these DVDs for Ethan.  He hates forced learning and enjoys watching educational videos so I thought of trying out these with him.  He enjoyed the DVDs and I was glad.  He now knows some opposite words and can read them.  He’s not very fond of the action words DVDs yet but I’m sure that when he’s good and ready he’ll come to like it as well. 

Haven’t blogged for a while but that certainly doesn’t mean that we’ve been idle or haven’t been homeschooling.  We’ve managed to do activities and such these past days.

Nikki started his vegetable “garden” the other day.  We planted kangkong seeds in seedling bags (due to lack of garden space and so we could easily move the seeds from shade to sun).  We decided to start with an easy-growing vegetable because I don’t want Nikki to be disappointed should the seeds not sprout.  Anyway, another advantage of planting kangkong is that it needs only minimal maintenance and among the seeds sold at the store, this one could be harvested after 30 days.  So hopefully, we’ll see some growth in a few days.

I’ve also been doing research in the internet these past days for some homeschool freebies.  Of course, it’s not easy surfing the ‘net but I must say I’ve found some really nice freebies and I’m happy.  Although it takes time, the rewards are great so I’m excited to make use of all the new materials I found in the future.

We’ve also done some baking.  Nikki made brownies for the first time.  We used the oven toaster mix because my mother-in-law doesn’t have a working oven.  I had to help Nikki with the mixing of the batter but he did well with the cracking of the egg and following the instructions.  We added some candied almonds to the brownie and it turned out great!  We shared the brownies with the people here at home and they enjoyed it.  But more importantly, Nikki enjoyed the activity.

With Ethan, I try to encourage him to do some learning online.  Since he hates workbooks, I try to engage him in other learning methods.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  But as always with Ethan, I have to be patient with him.  The other day though, he had a lot of fun on the uptoten and playhousedisney sites.  I think that will have to do for now.  No use pushing him too much because Ethan is the type who would hate learning when forced.  For the past days, he enjoyed playing with his playdough and going for walks to the bakery.  Hopefully we’ll be able to do more activities for him next time.

This evening, Nikki did some Math worksheets.  As always when it comes to Math, I always hesitate on how to best teach Nikki the concepts.  It doesn’t help that I’ve always had this fear of numbers.  I do try to be patient with Nikki during lessons but I admit that I sometimes snap at him when he spaces out.  And then I feel awful because I used to space out too when I was little and would get reprimanded for “not paying attention” when the reason why I spaced out was because I was completely clueless.  So I know that I cannot pressure Nikki the same way and I hope that Nikki will not come to hate numbers like I did when I was in school.

Anyway, I’m still planning some activities for us to do tomorrow.  It was a rainy day today and it would have been great for the boys to play in the rain but with the A(H1N1) virus hanging around, I didn’t want to risk it.

Anyway, more homeschooling updates next time! Take care all!

Happy homeschooling!

Kuya Nikki and his microphone. It’s great that he enjoys singing.  I hope Ethan will follow suit eventually.

We did pretty well today in terms of homeschooling.  We haven’t been doing “serious” study for the past 4 days because of all the birthday atmosphere so we ended up just doing anything we wanted.  But today, we were able to do some lessons.

We started with piano lessons this morning.  Nikki still remembers his earlier pieces so I just let him play them to improve his playing, rhythm and tempo.  He already knows Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hot Cross Buns, Rain Rain Go Away, Old McDonald, Row Row Row Your Boat, Ode to Joy, Yankee Doodle, London Bridge, Ten Little Indians, Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells and Frere Jaques.  Then, I added two more songs for him to learn:  Chopsticks (easy version) and Mexican Hat Dance.  I didn’t push him to learn them immediately.  I just let him be familiar with the melody.  He was okay with the new songs.

After that, we did some worksheets.  We did a review of compound words, syllables and syllabication, contractions and reading comprehension. We did just a few pages.  Then for the rest of the morning, the boys did whatever they wanted.

In the afternoon, we went to the bakery to buy some pandesal for Ethan.  It was showering and on the way back, we saw a pitiful kitten sitting and mewling in the middle of the street.  Nikki was concerned that a car was going to run over it so I asked him if he wanted to let the kitten into the garage so it would be out of the rain.  He agreed so we “pusss pussss pussss” it into the garage and thankfully, it followed us.  Nikki named it Mittens (from the movie Bolt) and we fed it some fish scraps.  It was a hungry little thing and Nikki just wanted to be with the kitten.  He asked me to get a small stool for him and he watched the kitten while it ate and groomed itself.  Then it started to rain even harder so I told Nikki to come into the house and just let the kitten stay in the garage.  When he went out a few mintues after, the kitten was gone.  Nikki was sad about that but I told him maybe the mommy cat came and got Mittens.  I think it’s nice that Nikki shows concern for animals needing help at his young age.  Hopefully he will be sensitive to these things when he is older.

Come evening, the boys played with their playdough.  Ethan got an ice cream bar dough set and they ended up scooping colored dough, making twist cones and slicing and cutting and shaping and kneading and rolling and flattening and pressing and doing other stuff with the dough.  I think playdough is fun so I joined them and we made lots of stuff.  I think it helps in building their creativity, Nikki especially since he has a very practical mind.  Ethan is more imaginative.

Anyway, tonight I let Ethan watch an episode of Magic English.  Ethan is currently not very fond of books yet so he learns how to read through videos.  Right now, he can read the colors (yellow, green, brown, etc.), shapes, the planets’ names, and some easy words.  Hopefully, he will learn more words in the next few months.  Later, we might just do a review of Nikki’s abacus.  I’ll just let him do addition and subtraction exercises and then that’s it.

It’s been a good day and I’m hoping tomorrow will be too.

Happy Homeschooling all!