Our Homeschool Room

Everything that happens in our homeschool and inside the homeschooler mom's mind

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Postcard Collection

My daughter’s postcard collection is growing every month. I think it’s not just her who gets excited whenever she receives a postcard but the whole family. It’s really fun to receive a random postcard from people from different parts of the world. Most of the people who sent her postcard are also so thoughtful in their personal notes.

I wonder how many postcards my daughter will receive this year. If she continues with postcrossing until she grows up to her teenage years, I’m sure her collection will be huge. I could just remember my younger years, when I used to collect stamps. Hubby also has a coin collection, I’m not sure though if he has morgan dollar coins. Anyways, here is a sample of the postcards she received last month.

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The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook

The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook

I’m currently reading this book , The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore. Even if I’ve been homeschooling my daughter for a year now, but this book has somehow changed my perspective in homeschool.

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’ve been a Reluctant Homeschooler Mom. I didn’t ‘choose’ to homeschool but the circumstances around ’forced’ me to do it. But as I read through this handbook, I was finally convinced, that I’m not opting for the ‘lesser’ education for my kids but the BEST. Education is not just about a good curriculum or letting the children excel in academics but it’s shaping them as a person, their character with a parent’s loving and gentle guidance. I’ve also learn that children are only ready for ‘formal’ education from age 8-12 years old. There has been a lot of references and cases discussed in the book that somehow proves that it’s never too late to teach kids how to read by age 8-12 years old. And it was just days before when I got frustrated with my 4 year old who can’t remember the letter sounds. Oppss..

After reading this book, I think I will be a more ‘relaxed’ homeschooler mom. No more pressures and too much emphasis on ‘formal’ learning but I’ll be placing more importance on building character, family bonding and lots of activities that can enhance my kids curiosity, learning and experiences.

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Her Ambition - It’s Final!

I’ve posted earlier what my daughter wanted to be.. she had a variety of ambitions from a surfer to a preacher. It was like she wanted to be everything except to be a business person, but I think that would be okay since she won’t have to think about Employee Purchase Program Events . :) But seriously though she changed her ambition. Recently, she has been telling everyone about it and she said it ‘final’ and she won’t change.

This is what she wants to do when she grows up. ” I want to build a home for the children. Every morning before breakfast, I’m going to go around with my truck and pick up all the children in the street then bring them to my children’s home and take care of them there and tell them about Jesus. “

As a mom, I can’t help but be proud that my daughter’s ambitions are ‘noble’ and is not about her but other people. I appreciate the fact that as young as she is, she wants to help people . I don’t know whether this will take place in the future but it is my prayer that indeed as she grows up,she will be a great blessing for many.

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My Li’l Postcard Enthusiast

Last month, I registered my daughter in Postcrossing.com for her to send and receive postcards from all over the world. I wanted her to build up on her writing skills and at the same time be exposed to different countries in the world through post cards.

It has only been a month since I registered her and we’re so happy because she already sent 10 postcards and received 8! The postcards are beautiful and the messages written for her are quite encouraging too. So far she has received a postcard from USA, Canada, Finland, China, France, Japan, Portugal and Germany. Amazing huh! :)

The postcard above is the one she received from France. This is one of her favorites!

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Playtime

Both my kids are playing right now. I just love to see them play together. I never though Polly pocket dolls and Power ranger action figures can be ‘friends’. :) That’s how they play together, daughter still gets to play with her dolls while my son still gets to play with his robots and ‘boys’ toys.

Our kids are really blessed these days, aside from us buying toys during special occasions, they also get to receive toys as gifts. I’ve even come to a point when I decided to stop buying toys for them. Aside from saving up money in doing this and not worry everytime the barcode scanner beeps, it’ll also make less clutter and mess for the house.

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Slowly But Surely

We already bought my son’s homeschool materials a couple of months ago. I then attempted to start the curriculum with him but it does seem he is not quite ready yet. So, I just let his books sit for awhile while I try other informal activities for him. As of now, I’m letting him to a few pre writing activities a day and introducing 1 letter a week. He’s enjoying it a lot. In a few days time, I’ll be reading to him the simpler books from his program.

I’m in no rush to ‘school’ him, since he’s not even four years old.

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Very Less TV Time

I really admire how other moms can strictly forbid watching TV for their kids. Some moms hide the tv remote control with the wii remote controller . I just couldn’t do that because I consider the TV as my ‘helper’. It keeps my kids occupied while I cook or do other chores.

But for the past days, I’ve noticed that my kids haven’t been very interested with TV anymore. They were more engaged with the toys or books. It’s indeed a joy for me to see them quietly sitting without the ‘magic’ of the tube. I think my kids have just grown older now.

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Got 10 Free eBooks from Scholastic Teacher Express

I’m so glad to be a part of a homeschool forum where I can get to learn of information and support from fellow homeschooler moms like me. One of the blessings I got from this forum recently is when someone shared a $10 coupon from Scholastic Teacher Express. This same site is have a 1$ sale which meant I could easily get 10 eBooks from my coupon.

So, I immediately went to the site and chose books and materials for my pre K son and Grade 1 daughter. It was during the check out when I realized that I already chose a total 28 books! So, I had to narrow down my choices to 10 eBooks. Oh, it wasn’t easy to let go of the other books but I just had to choose the best. And I’m just so happy with my free ebooks. Thank God for coupons, document imaging and ebooks.

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Tick,Tac, Tock Game

I taught a university student today. Since it’s our last day of her Beginner’s class, I decided to just have a review of our lessons and play some games. Our last unit is on Telling the Time, so we played the Tick, Tac, Tock Game with her. It was an enjoyable game and a great way for the students to practice or master telling the time.

I will surely play this board game with my daughter next time. She already know how to tell the time but I think she still needs more practice or mastery. Who knows after expertly telling the time,she might get michael kors watches as a gift? :)

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My 7 Year Old’s Nearsighted

We just discovered it tonight.I seems that my 7 years old daughter is near sighted.

We were in the car on the way home when our friend was reading the street sign while we stopped at the red traffic light. We are living in Thailand so, the street sign’s are in Thai characters but below is the name in roman letters. When our daughter heard our friend saying the name of the street, she was so amazed that our friend can ‘read Thai’. But our friend pointed to her that underneath is the name in ‘English’. But our daughter insisted that underneath the bigger Thai sign is also a Thai script.

When I overheard their conversation, I was a bit alarmed as to how she thinks that the smaller sign is in Thai when it’s clearly in roman letters. But I didn’t think much about it since our window’s tinted and maybe it’s not so clear on her side. But as we went to Tesco for our dinner at the food court,the street sign conversation came up again and so we tested our girl with another signage which is a bit far from our table. We chose something that the 3 of us ( friend, Hubby and I) could clearly read. When we asked her to read it,she said she couldn’t read the word. She had to go near the sign, before she came back and told us what was in written on it.

Sigh!… I think our girl is near sighted ( or known as myopia) at age 7. But we will have to go and see the Optometrist or an Ophthalmologist to have her checked. But it is my prayer that this can be corrected and my girl will enjoy 20/20 vision for a long period of time.

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