K.I.D.S. Moving Up Day

K.I.D.S. Moving Up Day was held last Saturday, March 14, 2009 at the Mariners' Home in Malate, Manila. We arrived at the place at around 8:45 am. Griffin looked so handsome in his white polo and blue jeans. My baby is now Moving Up to big school this coming June.

I feel kind of sad because I really love K.I.D.S. If only they offer Grade School, I would still let Griffin study there. I don't know how Griffin is going to adjust to big school. I hope he doesn't have a hard time as he still has difficulties in writing. He has to practice writing this summer. I hope he cooperates when I ask him to write. That is my main worry for next school year.

I also don't know how he will cope with Chinese as a new subject for him. Anyway, I'm open to him transferring to another school if he won't like studying Chinese. I asked him the other day if he wants to learn Chinese and he said, "no". I told him that there's going to be Chinese in Xavier and he fell silent then told me that he would just study at K.I.D.S. again. I don't want to force him as he will probably have a hard time also once he starts having Filipino as a subject, and we can't do anything about this. Hoping that everything turns out fine specially with another adjustment for him once the new baby comes in May.

Check Out This Outfit

Here's a photo of Griffin trying out his white polo and blue jeans for Moving Up Day on Saturday.

Narrative Report: February 9 - February 27, 2009

Narrative Report
Period Covered: February 9 - February 27, 2009
By Teacher Cristy

I really missed the children during my leave of two weeks and I am glad to see all of them again. It's unfortunate that I missed several special activities like our Valentine's Day celebration, the class picture taking and the Family Day. Everyone seemed to enjoy the Family Day as they talked about it when they got back to school. Griffin said he liked playing in the sand and where there were ropes, as others talked about the different animals and riding a horse and going fishing.

T. Mina's observations about Griffin are very consistent with how he has been performing in school these past months - He is smart, witty, very quick to learn, follows directions without difficulty and works with very little supervision. He just gets easily frustrated when he makes a mistake, as he wants his work to always be perfect. He also continues to have difficulty writing but is always willing to do his best.

As we learned to tell time (by the hour abd half hour), Griffin was quick to grasp the concept and answered his activity sheets with great ease, except when it came to having to write the time, as he has to be reminded not to write his numbers too big and to write within the space provided.

Griffin continues to spend play time with boys although there was one time, he played "house" with girls. When his friends asked him why he was playing girls stuff with the girls, he just looked at them and said, "it's ok". He also continues to remind those who are not sharing that "sharing is good". He is extremely observant and knows who brought a particular toy and left it in the slide outdoors. He even noticed that Maddie came to school one day wearing the same clothes she was wearing the previous day! "Why are you wearing that green shirt with pink flowers inside, you were wearing that yesterday!, he told her."

New Black Shoes

Yesterday, I bought Griffin black leather shoes because he's going to be a ring bearer on May 10. This will also be his school shoes when he goes to big school in June. When we got home, he put on his shoes and was showing it off to everyone...

Griffin: I'm going to wear these shoes when I go to Xavier. Xavier is Apit's school but he doesn't use it anymore becuase he's big already.

Blue Jeans, Fat Genes

After going to Mass yesterday, my mom, Griffin and I went to Mc Donald's Kingswood to eat. While eating, I was telling my mom that Griffin sometimes has a big appetite. Just the night before, he ate hotdog with rice, then when Willie brought home some fries and chicken with rice, he ate again. My mom said that it's good that he's eating a lot more now.

Me: It's good that he doesn't eat so much because he has bad genes.
Griffin: What's bad genes?
Ama: Ama and mommy have bad genes because we have fat genes.
Griffin: Me, I have blue jeans because I'm thin.

K.I.D.S. Family Day

K.I.D.S. had their Family Day at the Fun Farm in Sta. Elena, Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Willie was not able to come with us because of the seminar he had in the office. It was only Griffin, my mom and I who went.

We arrived at the Fun Farm at around 9:10 am. Griffin joined his classmates Enzo and Colin and they tried fishing. He wasn't able to catch any fish though. After fishing, Griffin rode on a cart pulled by a carabao then he went horseback riding. He told me it was both fun.

This is actually Griffin's first outing. He's never been to a summer outing. He's never even been to a beach. Griffin enjoyed the other activities like boating, climbing on the ropes, playing on the swing and going up and down the tree house. He also tried feeding the rabbits and guinea pigs although he didn't like holding the carrot while the animals were munching on it.

There were a lot of games for the family, I wasn't able to join any because of my big tummy. Griffin had so much fun. He even told me that that's why it's called the Fun Farm because you have fun there.

Fishing with Colin

Valentine's Day

We had our Valentine's Day lunch at TGI Friday's last Saturday.

This photo was taken before we left for Glorietta.

Active baby

Baby #2 is a very active baby. She moves around in my tummy so often. When I was pregnant with Griffin he was not this active. It seems that this baby loves to move her arms and legs. Even during the congenital scan, the doctor mentioned that the baby kept on moving. I wonder if she's going to be this active when she comes out of my tummy.

It seems like I've been gaining a pound a day these past few days. I'm not as big as I was when I was pregnant with Griffin but I hope I don't keep on gaining weight.

Baby #2 is .....

a GIRL! I had my congenital scan last Saturday. Results of the ultrasound were normal and it is now confirmed that the baby in my tummy is a girl. As of now, I'm leaning towards the name Hailey although I'm still thinking of a second name. My mom, brought out and washed the baby girl clothes she bought 4 years ago when I was still pregnant with Griffin. We also looked through Griffin's old baby clothes and got the yellow colored ones which the baby could use.

Narrative Report : February 2 to February 6, 2009

Narrative Report
Period Covered: February 2 to February 6, 2009
By Teacher Cristy

Except for the tantrum he threw last monday when his seatmate Maddie accidentally hit his hand while he was doing his dot to dot activity, Griffin was in a positive disposition during most of the week.

When asked to draw God's creation, he drew his family. And as we talked about God's love and Jesus on the cross, he referred to our crucifix as Papa Jesus and kissed it as we passed it around. When he made a doorknob hanger with a sign "Jesus is watching over me" on one side and "do not disturb" on the other side, he asked what "the do not disturb" side is for. At first, he only decorated his hanger with a few cut-outs but when he saw the others full of cut-outs, he asked if he could add more pieces to his work.

He did very, very well (as usual) during worktime and just told his friends to wait for him when the worksheets involved writing letters (which he is still not very comfortable with). During one exercise where there was a picture of a hut and he has to fill in the missing letter _ut, he couldn't figure it out. When I told him it was a hut, he quickly wrote "h" and then asked what a hut is, I tolod him it's a small house. "I don't live in a hut", he was quick to say. :)

During one group hug, which we sometimes do at the end of classtime, he got hugged a bit tighter than usual and cried. He stopped crying only after several prompts. After that though, he went on to join us for our final song, as if nothing happened.

Infected tooth

We went to Griffin's dentist last Friday, supposedly for fillings on his canine tooth. Unfortunately, the dentist said, there is infection on the tooth so fillings are not possible. He has to either extract the tooth or perform a root canal. However, he wants clearance from Griffin's pedia before doing any action. We went to Griffin's pedia yesterday to ask for clearance but he says he doesn't give clearance unless the procedure is to be done in a hospital. He just prescribed antibiotics. Hopefully, the antibiotics would get rid of the infection.

Narrative Report : January 19 to January 23, 2009/January 26 to January 30, 2009

Narrative Report
Period Covered:January 19 to January 23/January 26 to January 30, 2009
By Teacher Cristy

We missed Griffin for several days of weeks 30 and 31 but are somehow glad he was able to join us for our special activities, i.e., pajama day and field trip. Science is something he seems to show a lot of interest in. He was very curious about our little experiment on simulating a volcanic eruption. He was likewise attentive when we watched a video about the solar system, and had a thing or two to say about the planets in space. He really is still a little boy as he initially went in front of our big screen and jumped up and down while playing with his shadow. :)

Because he had to answer extra worksheets, his worktime was longer than the others. "Why am I taking so long"?, he asked, but went on to answer his math and phonics worksheets without difficulty. There were just times though when perhaps because he wasn't feeling very well, he was easily agitated and became irritable with his colds dripping from his nose. He would need extra prompts for work time, especially when it involved a lot of writing. Sometimes he would say he's sleepy. When given time to rest a while, he goes on to work after. He often felt better after snack time.

He missed our lesson about the planets but when he saw our chart with the planets arranged from their proximity to the sun, he read all of them by himself, only needing a little help with uranus. :)

Narrative Report : January 12 to January 16, 2009

Narrative Report
Period Covered: January 12 to 16, 2009
By Teacher Cristy

Griffin's initial comment when we started to talk about our latest theme, EARTH, was about aliens coming to invade it. :) He was quick to identify land and water forms like oceans and mountains and volcanoes as we looked at various pictures, and when we talked about the need to take care of the earth and keep it clean, he said "I always pack away my toys."

Decoding our clean up slogan required patience as it took longer than our usual activities to complete. Griffin needed some extra prompts to finish his work, which he eventually did at almost the same time as the others.

He was very cooperative when asked to do extra activities to improve his penmanship, he answered 2-3 pages at a time of the writing book - so far, so good. :)

During our cloud gazing activity, he was the first to form an image with the clouds, saying " I can see power rangers"! And when we had an activity about clean vs dirty water, and talked about fish dying if the ocean is dirty, he said, "the water in my aquarium is dirty but my fish is still alive". He also said that the glass of his aquarium broke.

When asked if mommy is pregnant, he first answered " I think so". The next day though, after mommy brought him to school, he said "my mommy was wearing that blue dress when I was still in her tummy". :)

Griffin's Colds

Griffin's colds just started again just when I thought his colds were going away. I wonder what's wrong with him. It seems that everytime he's getting better, he gets colds again. It might be allergy since this has been going on for 4 weeks already. My poor baby, I hope his colds go away for good. I don't want him to miss school anymore since they only have a few weeks left before summer vacation.