Blogging comeback

It has been a long time, approximately three and a half years since my last post. I kind of regret not blogging these past few years as I was not able to record in writing the special events and milestones of my kids. Of course, I have pictures but not everything can be captured by photos, like small anectdotes and conversations with my kids. I hope to blog regularly from now on.

This past school year has been very good for both Griffin and Hailey. Hailey had a merit card for three quarters while Griffin obtained First Honors for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter. They both missed the Annual awards because they got a grade of B in one subject for one quarter. Griffin would have graduated with honors. He was kind of sad that he did not get a medal.

Since it's summer vacation, it's breaktime from school. They are both enjoying activities they love. No need to get up early and no homework until June.

Hailey in school

Hailey has learned a lot in school. She loves singing the alphabet song. She can recognize all the letters although for some letters she does not remember the name. Instead of the letter names she says the sound or a word that begins with that letter. At times she does not want to go to school. There was also a time when she did not want to work in school and kept dropping her pencil. But overall, she has been a good girl.

Hailey is 3 years and 1 month old

Hailey at 37 months, is very talkative. She loves asking questions She is enjoying school as she told me, "I just love school!" Whereas before she does not want to sing the alphabet song, now she would often ask, "Can I sing ABC?", then she would stand and start singing. She has also started sing the "Days of the week" and their good bye song although she has not mastered it yet. She also showed how they pray before eating their snacks. She has learned so much in school. I'm glad she's having fun while learning. I wonder how she is at school, how she talks to her classmates and how she is when she's doing her work at school. She is really good at forming the letters she traces when painting. She has very good control and very good fine motor skills. She is also a sensitive person. When she knows you are mad at her she says "soyi" (sorry). When she feels bad, she goes to a corner and "emotes".

Hailey's first day of school

Yesterday, June 13, was Hailey's first day of school at KIDS. Her class was at 12 noon but by 11 am, she was still asleep. I dressed her up while she was still asleep. She woke up but was still sleepy. I told her she had to get ready for school. After a while, she was awake already and ate bread with cheese spread and drank some chuckie. Around 10 minutes to 12, we left for school. She had her backpack with extra clothes and her lunchbox with piggy and doggie shaped cheese sandwich and some froot loops. When we arrived in school, she was introduced to her classmates and she played with the toy kitchen. I told her, I'll be leaving already and would be back later. She said, "Ok, bye Mommy." I picked her up in school at 3pm. The teacher was letting them out, one at a time. When she saw me, she ran to me and I carried her. She even said bye to her teachers. She enjoyed going to school. She finished her snacks except for a small portion of the pig sandwich. She showed me the smiley face stamp on her hand and gave me a piece of paper where she colored a cat violet. I've got some free time 3x a week when Hailey's at school. It's relaxing but I do miss her while she's at school. I keep on thinking of what she's doing there. I'll be picking her up in an hour. I hope she had fun.

Griffin: First Honors for SY 2011-2012

Griffin has achieved First Honors for SY 2011-2012. He also has Subject Excellence awards in Language, Reading, Filipino and Science. I'm so proud of him. He'll be getting his certificates and medal probably by early next school year. Last school year was a breeze, if only he would do his homework first before playing the computer then it would have even easier for me. :)

Griffin and school

Griffin is doing so well in school. He has had First Honors for the last 3 quarters, hopefully he maintains good grades this fourth quarter. I have not much problems with him except that he keeps on playing on the computer. He doesn't even want to come with us when we go to the mall.
I' m less stressed though when he does not come since I only have to take care of Hailey. Griffin still does not eat much except for chicken, nuggets, hotdog, luncheon meat and cream of mushroom soup. I hope he grows out of being a picky eater. It's difficult eating out with him because he always has to have Mc Donald's if the restaurant has no fried chicken or chicken fingers.

Bullying in school

Griffin was a victim of bullies last Monday, July 18. He told me what happened to him during lunch that day. He usually plays with Andre but while playing in the quadrangle they got separated and he couldn't find him anymore. That's why he said he was playing alone when Ethan kicked him. He said he wasn't even playing with them. Ethan punched him then did a flying kick to his tummy. Then he said Hanz spit on him. He said Ethan told Hans, "fight Griffin". Ethan was his classmate in Nursery. He even told me he played with Ethan during the first week of school. This incident isn't the first time Ethan and Hans ganged up on him. Two weeks ago, he told me Ethan and Hans made him eat plastic (a Nissin wrapper). I don't know how they forced him to eat the plastic. I told him to tell a teacher or tell teacher Roi but he said he didn't know where to find T. Roi. I just told him not to go near those 2 kids.

I wrote a letter to his teacher and emailed the school director about this incident. The 3 kids were called. They talked to Mr. Avanzado about it. The 2 kids admitted what they did to Griffin. Ethan admitted that it was an accident when he fell and that he kicked Griffin. Hanz also admitted that he kicked Griffin on the leg. This, I did not know. I didn't know that both of them kicked Griffin. It was Cody, his classmate who told their teacher about the incident. When T. Roi confronted them about the plastic incident, they said it was a joke, such a cruel joke! I don't know what disciplinary action was done. Just hoping Griffin does not encounter any bullies anymore.

2nd quarter test scores

I am so proud of Griffin. He is really such a smart kid. I saw his 2nd quarter test scores pasted in his HSCN and he got perfect scores in Reading, Language, Filipino, and Chinese, while he got 39.5/40 in Math. He has been very good in school and hasn't given me any problems whenever he has tests. He knows his lessons well that he does not need to review much when he has exams.

Mid quarter PTC at Griffin's school

We went to Griffin's school for their mid quarter PTC. We arrived before 10:30 am, luckily there were no other parents waiting so I was able to talk to Teacher Karen right away. She had very good feedback on Griffin's performance. She told me that Griffin is smart. He is doing well in school. He recites when he knows the answer and does well in his worksheets. She told me though that he easily cries and does not talk much to his classmates. Although, I think he does not mingle much with his classmates because he does not know them so well yet. I wanted to talk to his Chinese teacher too but there was a long line so I decided not to anymore. Anyway, he's doing well in Chinese. I just got a graded worksheet and he got a perfect score. He was able to recognize the chinese characters that the teacher dictated. I'm surprised he could recognize the characters because I haven't practiced him at home except for posting a list on the wall with the English meanings.

The PTC actually lasted for just 5 minutes but we stayed for around 30 minutes more because Griffin wanted to play in the playground. We left at around 11:10am. Griffin said he had so much fun in school even if there were no classes.

First day of school: SY 2010 - 2011

It was Griffin's first day of school yesterday as a Prep student. They had an open house so we were at his classroom till around 12:30 pm. He now brings a large trolley bag. It is quite heavy but at least it has wheels so he just has to pull it. Unlike last school year, when they had to carry their bags on their shoulders. When we arrived the school's vicinity, there were grade 1 students going home since they had half day classes today. Griffin said, with his hands together, " Please, I don't want to be in Grade 1." I asked him why and he said, "I can't wake up early.". That is truly a problem, because I can't even make him get up at 9 am what more if he has to get up at 6 am. I'll
just have to figure a way next year. Maybe homeschooling could be an option. No more travel time to school. As for this year, I am really glad that Griffin can understand and speak Filipino already. He's not that good but at least he's losing the accent when he speaks Filipino. When we picked him up he said he had so much fun running and playing in the playground.

School's out! Vacation time!

Griffin had his last day of school yesterday! The day before they had their last exam then had special center time where they had face painting, made some music and had the chance to eat from the chocolate fountain. Griffin's first year in big school has gone so quickly. It was a breeze since he did not have any problems academically. He is growing so fast. He is also taller now as evidenced by his school pants which are too short for him now. He'll be in Prep this coming June, I am hoping it would be a good year for him too. He's happy that school is out because he is excited to go to the beach. It is going to be his first time at the beach. We'll be going to Acuatico in Laiya. The beach sand will be grainy and not the type for making sand castles but I hope he would still enjoy. Maybe when Hailey is older, we could go to Boracay.

Griffin's 3rd quarter Report Card

Griffin got his Report Card today. I am so happy with his grades. He got 5 VS marks and all the rest are HS. He also got a big Happy Gram, an award for Penmanship and another achievement award for academics. I hope that he always does well in school. I am also glad that he has learned to speak and understand Filipino through his playtimes with Ran Ran and Em Em. He hasn't mastered it but that's ok. I know that he will learn eventually. At least, I am no longer worried that he will have difficulties in his Filipino subject when he is already in Prep.

Pet Ecology Week

It is bring your pet day today at Griffin's school. Originally, he was going to brung his sea monkey but I asked him if he wanted to bring a fish to school. He told me he'd like to bring the fish like those Apit used to feed the Arowana, ie. feeder fish. Last Wednesday, we went to Cartimar and bought a small square aquarium and 2 colorful guppies. He was set to bring those to school but yesterday, we went back to Cartimar and bought 8 little crabs and a container with a handle. This would be easier to transport and also easier for Griffin to carry to his classroom. Aside from the convenience, I think it is a unique pet, not something a kid would bring to school. I hope he has fun looking at all the animals in school today.

Update:
We picked Griffin up in school. His pet got a special award as Rocker Pet (the hardest pet).

Report Card - Second Quarter

Griffin got his Report Card today. He got even better grades than in the First Quarter. The S's he got last quarter are now VS except for one. His penmanship grade also improved from Limited Progress to Satisfactory. He only has 2 Satisfactory grades and the rest are VS and HS. I am so proud of Griffin. He got an Achievement Award again for Academics this quarter.

Griffin is doing very well in school. As I mentioned in my earlier post, his teacher said he's the fastest reader in his class. He was also chosen to be one of the prayer leaders for their prayer service on Monday. I don't even have to help him practice reading the prayer because when I asked him to read it, he read the entire prayer correctly. I don't have any problems teaching him his Reading subject as he already knows how to read. In fact, I have no problems teaching him any of his subjects, whether it's Math, Chinese or Language.

Dance practice

Griffin was selected to participate in a Chinese dance for their Chinese New Year festivities on February 10-14 next year. They will be having their practices everyday from 3:00 to 3:30 except on Fridays, . I asked him if he would like to join the dance and he said yes. I hope that we'll be invited to watch the dance as I would love to see Griffin performing a Chinese dance.

Bad tummy

Griffin had a tummy ache this morning. He still went to school. When we picked him up at school, his classmate told us that he vomitted in the classroom. He probably had indigestion because according to his teacher, he threw up 3 times in 2 minute intervals. He was sent to the clinic but went back to the classroom after a while.

When we got home, Griffin took a bath and told me that his teacher said he was the fastest reader on his class. I'm so proud of him. I hope that he will always do well in school.

Good Reader

Griffin is a very good reader. He's a good sight reader but we tried asking him to read Tagalog words, he can also easily read them. He does not read them per syllable. He just says the whole word right away. I bought him a vcd and cd of Filipino songs to help him learn to speak Filipino. I hope he learns through singing the songs. I hope he'll be able to speak and understand simple Filipino before next school year.

A Visit to K.I.D.S.

Griffin had no classes so we visited Teacher Cristy at KIDS yesterday. We arrived at around 11:00am. We were lucky that Teacher Cristy was there because she said she was not teaching this year. She will be in school only for 2 weeks because Teacher May was on leave. Griffin showed his Teacher his Happy Grams, Good job cards and Achievement award. She asked how was Griffin's penmanship and I said he improved a lot. Teacher Mina asked if he has tantrums in school and I said he was well behaved in school. I told Teacher Cristy my worry was Griffin not being able to understand Tagalog and I told her about the Filipino enrichment class I saw. But she said there's no need, he'll learn in school. Anyway, I still have time to teach him before next school year. I also told her that Griffin reads so well. He doesn't read slowly by trying to put the sounds of the letters together. She told me that he's really been a good reader. He sight reads so well.
Griffin had so much fun playing in the playground with his former classmates specially Enzo. His classmates Chesley, Nadine, Maddie and Angelo were there. He was really sweaty after playing on the slide and shooting balls with Enzo. We left at around 11:45 am. He told me he would like to visit again. I told him he could visit if he has no classes. Maybe on December he can visit again.

Report Card - First Quarter

Griffin got his report card last Friday. As I expected, he had good grades. He even got an achievement award in academics. His lowest "grade" was in Penmanship where he has Limited Progress. I'm not bothered by it because he has improved so much in writing, coloring and even in drawing compared to before he entered big school. He loves writing in his Megasketcher. He can even draw stars and hearts already. He can also draw by just copying a drawing unlike before when he would have tantrums because he couldn't copy the drawing.

UPDATE: I emailed Griffin's teacher to ask what grade he got in his Reading exam. Griffin told me he only got Good in Reading while he got Very Good in Chinese and Math because he got perfect scores in these tests. His teacher answered me today and said that he also got a perfect score in Reading.

School Boy

Griffin has been really good at school. He is well behaved as evidenced by his Good Job cards and Happy Grams. Academically, he's doing really well. His quizzes have perfect scores except for one chinese test where he got 2 mistakes. His seatworks are mostly very good too. He also did very well in his oral tests in chinese and english. I am looking forward to seeing the results of his quarterly exams. It was really easy studying for the tests because he has mastered all his lessons. I just had to review him a little.