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Yup, it’s that time of the year again…  No, I’m not talking about Christmas.  

I have to submit my boys’ grades this month! And I have a lot to do!  Oh boy.  You want a list?  Here it is:

1.  Finish grades.  I have to submit the boys’ grades on the 28th!  I don’t think I can accomplish that because…

2. My parents are arriving from Zamboanga on Monday.  Which means, I have to spend time with them.  Which means, I have less time to do even more stuff.

3. I have to help my mom do her photobooks.  Yes, photobooks with an “s”.  As in “two”.  And with my mom’s obsessive-compulsiveness, it would take almost forever, I’m sure.

4. I have to do the boys’ portfolios.  I have to put in two binders a year’s worth of lessons.  For TWO boys.  Heaven help me.

5. I have to finish my business course.  It ends next week and then I have to take an exam to receive my certificate of accomplishment.  That means, I have to have time to study for the exam.  Where do I get/find time? You tell me.

6. Trying to run my online store.  I figure, I need to start focusing on my products, add more products and offer a shipping option.  But this could be done later considering I already have a lot on my plate.

So yeah, I think I won’t be blogging for a while.  But that doesn’t mean I won’t be checking in once in a while.

See you in a bit…

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From time to time, my boys enjoy doing projects. I do too, especially those that don’t take longer than 30 minutes to get done.

While fixing some drawers, I found a sheet of paper with Nickelodeon characters on it.  Upon checking it, I discovered they were iron-on designs for pillowcases (the iron-on paper was free from the Nickelodeon magazine).  I thought it would be a nice project for the boys.

So I searched for a plain pillowcase (the more cottony, the better) while Nikki cut the designs he wanted.  He decided to go with Spongebob and Patrick.  After he cut the designs, I proceeded to iron them on the pillowcase.

And here is the result:

 Not bad, right?  I know the designs are tiny but that’s how Nikki wanted his pillowcase to look.

I guess it’s not so bad for a 10-minute activity with free materials.

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I’ve always been interested in correspondence.  When I was younger, I had a ton of penpals from around the world.  The one friend I could never forget was Rachel Lynn Woods and she was from Illinois.  We lost touch when I was in college and until this day, I still remember her and wish I could find her again.

Anyway, I thought that the boys would also enjoy this type of activity.  I know how much they hate writing so I thought, why not a postcard exchange instead?  I’ve found some sites catering to this need but it wasn’t so kid-friendly or there were so many rules to follow it was such a turn-off.  I finally found a nice group and after posting my interest in an exchange (in behalf of Nikki of course), I got some replies.  And now I’m excited.  Tomorrow, we’re going to National Bookstore to get a bunch of postcards.  I’m sure the boys won’t appreciate the activity immediately, but once those postcards start arriving, I’m sure they’ll be ecstatic. Besides, they love geography and what a perfect project this would be for them.  

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I discovered another website for my boys.  It’s actually a good resource for learning tips and strategies for our homeschooling, I believe.  The website?

http://www.edutopia.org/

They have very interesting and very informative articles, different learning strategies for different learning styles, wonderful ideas for lessons, and solutions to education problems.  I’ve just discovered this site and I’m really enjoying it.  Oh yeah, and the founder is George Lucas.  How cool is that?

I loved reading the article Parent Involvement in Early Literacy.  It shares a lot of my attitude towards books and reading and involving the kids from an early age.  Try reading it. It’s quite enlightening.

Anyway, have yet to discover much about this site.  So excited.

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I really really really want Ethan to learn a sport this summer. I just want him to get out of the house and have fun doing something.  I read an article about autistic kids and sports and it basically said team sports (basketball, soccer, etc.) is a no-no.  The best kind of sport for Ethan would be individual sports like track, biking or bowling.  Since Ethan can’t bike yet without training wheels (he fell once and didn’t want to try anymore), and since we don’t have a place for track nearby, I suppose bowling is it.  I would want him to try martial arts but maybe when he’s a little bit more mature.  I think bowling will be fun for him since we could all go as a family and if he develops a positive attitude toward it, I might enroll him in bowling this summer.  Ruther says that his officemates mentioned going bowling this Thursday at a mall near their office.  We might tag along and get our own lanes.  Can’t wait to see how Ethan takes it.  Keep you posted.

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My boys tackling their Math lessons…

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Because I wanted my boys to learn how to be money smart at a young age, I thought that letting Nikki sell his old/unused toys to his classmates would be good practice for him. My parents, though they had very good intentions, never gave me an allowance until I was in college so I did not know how to manage or handle money.  I knew how to save, but didn’t know what to do with it, what I could do with it and how to make it grow.  I don’t want to make that mistake with my boys.  I want them to know how to make money grow while they are still young.  After all, if my intention in homeschooling them is to teach them about life, then why not teach them about money too, right?  

So anyway, I gathered some of their old toys, priced them and gave Nikki a small notebook to keep track of his sales.  He was very attached to his toys and didn’t want to get rid of them unless they were broken or damaged.  I told him it wouldn’t be nice to sell those kind of toys and if he won’t get rid of his old toys, he wasn’t getting ny new ones.  So he agreed.  In a way, selling their old toys is good for Nikki because he’s learning to be less attached to material things and to let them go when he should.  It helps him grow and mature and I like that.

So the other day, after some months of selling his stuff, we decided to count his earnings and he earned P1085!  And this from toys that were sold from as high as P20 to as low as P1!  Isn’t that amazing? Even Nikki was pleasantly surprised.  So now, he’s even more excited to sell his stuff.  I even made some bead bracelets for him to sell to his girl classmates.  

I’m quite happy that Nikki is slowly learning some money smarts.  Hopefully, he’ll be more confident about his money skills in the future. 

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I chanced upon this website as I was searching for advice on how to properly homeschool Ethan.  I found the article to be very informative and to be honest, it gave me fresh hope that I will be able to homeschool Ethan successfully. I know I might not have the means or resources now, but at least I have a guide.  Homeschooling one child with ASD is already overwhelming for me, I never thought about how families with more than one special child manage their time (or sanity!).  I think what I should do is focus on what Ethan needs to accomplish and learn at the end of the school year and to not obsess about every little thing.  I know it will be hard but I have to try to make it work.

Ethan is a visual learner.  I usually have to draw pictures in his textbooks to make him understand the lessons more.  It’s challenging, but when I think of how he would be able to understand the lessons in his own way, it makes things easier.  As recommended by the website, I think I will try Worksheet Works and EdHelper.  I hope to find as many free sites, resources and tools since we are a one-income family.  I don’t want to have to spend too much on resources only to find out later on that Ethan is not feasible to it.  I will try the other resources listed in the site.  Hopefully, it will work for us.  If not, we could always try something else.

I hope years from now, when Ethan is older and ready to go out into the world, I will be able to say with conviction that I successfully homeschooled my ASD son.