Teacher Mommy, Mommy Teacher

As part of the school's thrust to be partners in education with the parents, Jared's school invited me to participate in the Parent-Teacher program.

This means that for 30 minutes, I get to play teacher to Jared's class! What fun!

I stressed over this for days. I realized it's more difficult to prepare for a lesson to a roomful of 4 to 5 year olds than to present to general managers. =)

So, since there was no clear directions on the topic, I chose to do story-telling over my initial plan of conducting a more exciting, but also more taxing science experiment lest the kids get overly excited and cannot sit still for the rest of the class.

The story...

I brought my laptop, introduced the characters and played the video. Because August is Linggo ng Wika, I downloaded a Tagalog video.

Okay in defense of me presenting a video, most kids speak English and cannot understand what I will say (I think) if I just presented the story from the book, so the video helped them with the story.

I still had to translate all the lines though.

And because looks are always a part of the entire package, I created an antenna headbacd so I can be the ant. =)

 

 

So, what did we do again?

 

I introduced the charaters, I am the ant and they are the grasshoppers, or tipaklong. I asked them to stand up, and hop and hop like a grasshopper.

 

 

After the story, I asked them for the lesson in the story. Glad to know they were actually listening!

 

Here is my son with a dazed look on his face. Still cannot believe I am his teacher!

I also distributed the old-fashioned dry-erase boards. They were only P8.00 each and amazed the kids no end.  Apparently, ths kids know the more high tech versions of this toy only.



Then, I also brought a piggy back and gave them all toy coins. Then one by one, they dropped the coins in the piggy bank- to reinforce the value of saving.

This little girl asked for my antenna after the story.She said it matches her jacket.

A picture with the happy bunch. I am carrying my son at the back.

 

It was a fun, fun, fun moment for me.

Independence Night (First Time to Sleep on his Bed)

Last night was a bittersweet moment, for me at least.

It was the first night our boy declared, no make that trumpeted, his independence by declaring he will sleep on his bed.

It was my idea in the first place... to fix his room up. Get him a bed, store his toys in his own room. He's really kicking and slapping and doing all sorts of acrobatics while asleep that I fear I will wake up one day with a black eye.

While the said bed (just actually the mattress) was moved inside our room, I can't help but feel sad and sob that my little boy is really not so little anymore. We had been co-sleeping since he was a baby and his smell (no matter how sour it gets during play) comforts me. Last night as I watch him sleep on his own, I can't help but long for those kicks that come randomly at night. hehehe.

Maybe, I will return that mattress back to his room tonight.

Unsuccessful Tries

A few years from now, reading on my blog posts, my son might mistakenly think I am supermom. Although I would like to think so, I'm still a few-hits-here-and-there mom, baby.

So, here are our projects that were not so well-received, or those that did not look too good to warrant a separate entry, or both.


1. Superman cape
I used a really old, tattered white undershirt of my husband. The thing Jared willingly put on--but only few a few seconds. I don't blame him-- it doesn't make him look like a superhero at all.

 

 

 

2. Homemade Gak

This is a pinterest inspirattion where you form a slimy ball with glue as the main ingredient. We started out fine, but lacked glue so no matter how much cornstarch we add, the slimy thing just won't hold.

 

 

3. Captain America

Then to indulge in his Captain America fascination, I thought of bleach painting a shirt with the iconic star. This is another Pinterest inspiration.

 

 

The shirt looked pretty good...

 

Until I sprayed too much bleach..... and the star was literally wiped off.

4. Reusable Bag
Because I can't quite make up my mind if banning plastic and using paper bags is good at all levels, we tried to go a bit more and sewed our own reusable bag from an old tshirt.

This is my first ever sewing project, and the result was this really useful yellow bag my son uses to tote his toys around.

Sadly, it just didn't look too cute.

So, Jared, mommy tries hard in coming up with activities for us. It's just that mom isn't always so successful. =)

Keeping my Hands Busy

There are some days when I have this urge to just create-- anything actually.
This usually happpens when we're in the house most of the time during weekends (which is a rare occurence and something we need to do more often).

One rare free Saturday, I spotted a box. And my mind went on overdrive.

I was about to throw this away when inspiration struck.

Why not dress up the box with these leftover kitchen towels?

Use a spray adhesive, cut and cut the cloth and stick it in alll the right places.

And this box now holds toys in the little one's room.

It's not perfect by any means... farrrr from it. But from a distance, and in the eyes of a 4 year old, it doesn't matter at all.

My son thinks I'm the greatest. =)

Stay Sane in a Crazy World

So, what is a girl (on a diet) to do when pressured and tired???  Hmm, I cannot eat the yema cake I so love, or the 3-in-1 coffee that has accompanied me through difficult times at work.

Hie off to the nearest mall and get her eyebrows done.

It's free and gives a much needed morale boost.

eyebrows almost non-existent. stray eyebrows yucky!

 After a few minutes.....


Well-groomed eyebrows make you look polished and ready to take on whatever life throws your way.

This is now my new favorite product. Even I can do it and believe me, if I can, so can you. =)


A very dramatic post for such a trivial matter eh =) Maybe this is what will bring me out of blogging drought.