12 June 2017
Last June 05, classes in public schools began nationwide. It was Dylan's first day back to school after awhile and I was apprehensive because it was also the first time that we will be part of the public school system. Private SPED (Special Education) schools are pretty expensive so we considered ourselves fortunate that there was a public school which has a Special Education department near us. We didn't have to shell out any money for tuition. Still, we felt a bit of a culture shock as we continually adjusted with our new environment.
I started this blog as an alternative to talking to my mom who died so suddenly. It has evolved since then as an online journal for my family's adventures and misadventures - our travels, our dining out, our entertainment and so much more! Feel free to leave your reactions :)
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Dana's Graduation Day and Dylan's Birthday
18 March 2016
Today marks the end of Dana's elementary school life. I can't believe that time has flown so quickly that Dana is now finished with elementary and will now be embarking on her High School journey. Still, this is a milestone in our family's life and we're just so proud of her for making it this far. Congratulations Dana! :)
On another note, today is also Dylan's birthday so it's a double celebration for our family! :) Happy birthday Dylan!
Today marks the end of Dana's elementary school life. I can't believe that time has flown so quickly that Dana is now finished with elementary and will now be embarking on her High School journey. Still, this is a milestone in our family's life and we're just so proud of her for making it this far. Congratulations Dana! :)
On another note, today is also Dylan's birthday so it's a double celebration for our family! :) Happy birthday Dylan!
Dana's 2016 Family Day
20 February 2016
I woke up just as Dana was getting ready for the day. She mentioned that it was Family Day today and that she'd like it if we attended. Well, of course we would, as least I would, because I knew that she and her class have been practicing really hard for their performance. In fact, they were already proclaimed Champions in their category and their performance today would just be for family and friends, to showcase their skill :)
I woke up just as Dana was getting ready for the day. She mentioned that it was Family Day today and that she'd like it if we attended. Well, of course we would, as least I would, because I knew that she and her class have been practicing really hard for their performance. In fact, they were already proclaimed Champions in their category and their performance today would just be for family and friends, to showcase their skill :)
SCC's "It's Beginning to Look-A-Like Christmas"
04 December 2015
Today, Dylan and I went to Dana's school for their "It's Beginning to Look-A-Like Christmas" program. I mistakenly thought they were holding a look-a-like competition among the students but it turned out that the school invited "Look-a-Like" celebrities from an upcoming show called "Let's Mall In". The event was very entertaining to say the least!
Today, Dylan and I went to Dana's school for their "It's Beginning to Look-A-Like Christmas" program. I mistakenly thought they were holding a look-a-like competition among the students but it turned out that the school invited "Look-a-Like" celebrities from an upcoming show called "Let's Mall In". The event was very entertaining to say the least!
Ibong Adarna screening at the AFP Theater
Dylan's celebration of Nutrition Month in school
July 20, 2013
One of the more recent school activities that I've experienced is Nutrition month. It's a very practical demonstration of health and fitness that makes it easy for students to understand its value. Teachers, though have to be creative when they plan their class programs.
In Dylan's case, their preparations included making the hat with plastic veggies on it at home and practicing their song and dance number in school. Now, our part wasn't so hard to accomplish. It just meant that Dylan and I needed to take a trip to Quiapo and buy our materials from there. Interesting enough, even the sellers at Quiapo were attune to the needs of the schools and already had a bunch of veggies packed and ready to sell. Others also had the ready-made hats with the veggies! Dylan and I chose to create our own so we bought the separate hats and veggies.
One of the more recent school activities that I've experienced is Nutrition month. It's a very practical demonstration of health and fitness that makes it easy for students to understand its value. Teachers, though have to be creative when they plan their class programs.
In Dylan's case, their preparations included making the hat with plastic veggies on it at home and practicing their song and dance number in school. Now, our part wasn't so hard to accomplish. It just meant that Dylan and I needed to take a trip to Quiapo and buy our materials from there. Interesting enough, even the sellers at Quiapo were attune to the needs of the schools and already had a bunch of veggies packed and ready to sell. Others also had the ready-made hats with the veggies! Dylan and I chose to create our own so we bought the separate hats and veggies.
Kids: Dana's First Holy Communion
December 08, 2012
It is a blessed day today. Not only is it the Immaculate Conception, but it is also Lolo Angel's birthday and it is also Dana's First Holy Communion celebration. The Sacrament of Holy Communion is one of the most important Catholic sacraments because it is through this religious practice that we become one with God. Also, it is something that is regularly affirmed not like the Sacrament of Baptism, Confirmation or Last Rites, where it only happens once.
The culmination of Dana's Holy Communion rites happened after much preparation for the students, the teachers and the parents. Everyone was enjoined to purify themselves through Confession and Recollection to be prepared to receive the Holy Communion at the appointed time. As parents, it is our responsibility to make sure that kids understand the sanctity and the value of Holy Communion.
It is a blessed day today. Not only is it the Immaculate Conception, but it is also Lolo Angel's birthday and it is also Dana's First Holy Communion celebration. The Sacrament of Holy Communion is one of the most important Catholic sacraments because it is through this religious practice that we become one with God. Also, it is something that is regularly affirmed not like the Sacrament of Baptism, Confirmation or Last Rites, where it only happens once.
The culmination of Dana's Holy Communion rites happened after much preparation for the students, the teachers and the parents. Everyone was enjoined to purify themselves through Confession and Recollection to be prepared to receive the Holy Communion at the appointed time. As parents, it is our responsibility to make sure that kids understand the sanctity and the value of Holy Communion.
Kids: Dylan's UN Day
October 27, 2012
One of the regular school activities in October is the United Nations Day. Fortunately for us, it was just Dylan who will have to invest in a costume and this year, he was saddled with Peru for his country. It was lucky that Peru has an easy native costume to replicate and all we had to do was buy a decent hat for Dylan.
The kids paraded around the school and then proceeded to the venue where they held their activities.
One of the regular school activities in October is the United Nations Day. Fortunately for us, it was just Dylan who will have to invest in a costume and this year, he was saddled with Peru for his country. It was lucky that Peru has an easy native costume to replicate and all we had to do was buy a decent hat for Dylan.
The kids paraded around the school and then proceeded to the venue where they held their activities.
Kids: Dylan's 2012 Field Trip - Part 3 - Casa Santa Jardin de Miramar
September 22, 2012
Now, we've come to the last part in Dylan's Field Trip. We've saved the best for last because our last destination was the Casa Santa in Jardin de Miramar in San Isidro, Antipolo City. It was funny because going there our buses could hardly fit on the road and they had a hard time making it through the curves. It's the right time to visit Casa Santa seeing as it's now the start of the "BER" months and Christmas is just around the corner. When we arrived, we spent our time eating our lunch at the great garden while waiting for the puppet show to be set up.
I just had a beef to settle with some of the parents during the trip. We were expressly told to bring packed lunches and I even woke up pretty early to manage that. Well, what do you know? Along the way, we had to wait for these parents to BUY their lunches from the Jollibee store we passed and it took a while so those of us who actually followed the rules had little time to eat!! grr! I could understand that the administration of the school wanted to please everyone but really, you have to stick to the rules because it's unfair to those of us who followed them.. okay so back to your regular programming...
The puppet show was a hit with the kids who had been recharged since everyone has just had their lunch. Their excitement was contagious and their happiness was boundless. Picture taking after the puppet show had to be contained because everyone wanted to be the first. Fortunately, Dylan was among the first.
After the puppet show, we had some time to burn because another tour group which was ahead of us are still in the Casa Santa so we were told we can explore the whole place until it was time for us to go in. So, Dylan and I just took our time walking around the vast garden. Honestly, it was such a restful place because of all the greenery. We were content to remain outside :)
Check out the pictures we took in this slideshow:
Now, if you viewed the slideshow, you may have seen excerpts of Santa's house. Casa Santa really is a small house full of Santa and Christmas-related artifacts. It's like being transported to the North Pole and you kinda expect elves to come out and show you around. The house itself is pretty small so if your tour group is a bit large, you may have difficulty going around all at the same time, which is why they segregate the groups to accommodate just the right amount of people inside. Dylan particularly liked the Star Wars Christmas toys they had on display. :)
We took our time going around since we were the last tour group for the day. There was so much to see although you have to be careful of the little items on display and some are really fragile. That was a problem with some of the kids whose "energy" couldn't be contained and they had to be escorted out hehehe
From here, we visited the Antipolo Church on the way home and we took time to buy "pasalubong" like cashew nuts and suman.
That was such a fitting end to a really tiring but fun day. This is one reason why I love going on educational field trips with my kids. I, too, learn so much from it and it's a great bonding moment for all of us because we all take away precious memories from them.
Now, we've come to the last part in Dylan's Field Trip. We've saved the best for last because our last destination was the Casa Santa in Jardin de Miramar in San Isidro, Antipolo City. It was funny because going there our buses could hardly fit on the road and they had a hard time making it through the curves. It's the right time to visit Casa Santa seeing as it's now the start of the "BER" months and Christmas is just around the corner. When we arrived, we spent our time eating our lunch at the great garden while waiting for the puppet show to be set up.
I just had a beef to settle with some of the parents during the trip. We were expressly told to bring packed lunches and I even woke up pretty early to manage that. Well, what do you know? Along the way, we had to wait for these parents to BUY their lunches from the Jollibee store we passed and it took a while so those of us who actually followed the rules had little time to eat!! grr! I could understand that the administration of the school wanted to please everyone but really, you have to stick to the rules because it's unfair to those of us who followed them.. okay so back to your regular programming...
The puppet show was a hit with the kids who had been recharged since everyone has just had their lunch. Their excitement was contagious and their happiness was boundless. Picture taking after the puppet show had to be contained because everyone wanted to be the first. Fortunately, Dylan was among the first.
After the puppet show, we had some time to burn because another tour group which was ahead of us are still in the Casa Santa so we were told we can explore the whole place until it was time for us to go in. So, Dylan and I just took our time walking around the vast garden. Honestly, it was such a restful place because of all the greenery. We were content to remain outside :)
Check out the pictures we took in this slideshow:
Now, if you viewed the slideshow, you may have seen excerpts of Santa's house. Casa Santa really is a small house full of Santa and Christmas-related artifacts. It's like being transported to the North Pole and you kinda expect elves to come out and show you around. The house itself is pretty small so if your tour group is a bit large, you may have difficulty going around all at the same time, which is why they segregate the groups to accommodate just the right amount of people inside. Dylan particularly liked the Star Wars Christmas toys they had on display. :)
We took our time going around since we were the last tour group for the day. There was so much to see although you have to be careful of the little items on display and some are really fragile. That was a problem with some of the kids whose "energy" couldn't be contained and they had to be escorted out hehehe
From here, we visited the Antipolo Church on the way home and we took time to buy "pasalubong" like cashew nuts and suman.
That was such a fitting end to a really tiring but fun day. This is one reason why I love going on educational field trips with my kids. I, too, learn so much from it and it's a great bonding moment for all of us because we all take away precious memories from them.
Kids: Dylan's 2012 Field Trip - Part 2 - Dolljoy Museum
September 22, 2012
Now we come to the 2nd Part of Dylan's Educational Field Trip. To see what happened during the first part, check out this post. For the 2nd part, we all proceeded to the Dolljoy Gallery and Museum in Caniogan, Pasig to see how dolls and stuffed toys are made. They have different collections of dolls and stuffed toys which everyone loved taking pictures with and the first part of the tour involved everyone walking through their exhibits. Check out this giant panda that Dylan's hugging :)
Apart from the exhibits, the kids were asked to participate in a "Dress your own Doll" activity. Boys were given male soldier dolls to put together and Dylan enjoyed this activity :)
This was a fun activity because it was timed so the kids were really excited and were racing to finish dressing up their respective dolls.
Continuing with the tour, our next destination was the simulation room where you get to see a sampling of what goes on in the making of dolls. Everyone saw where they made the hair and how it was styled for a specific doll and how they painted the faces on. Imagine all the work that goes into one doll. Everything was hand-painted by these artists. We even saw how they put the stuffing into the stuffed toys!
Since we took a lot of pictures, I just put them together in a slideshow so you can see the other dolls in their collections.
Our last stop was at the Casa Santa at Jardin de Miramar.
Now we come to the 2nd Part of Dylan's Educational Field Trip. To see what happened during the first part, check out this post. For the 2nd part, we all proceeded to the Dolljoy Gallery and Museum in Caniogan, Pasig to see how dolls and stuffed toys are made. They have different collections of dolls and stuffed toys which everyone loved taking pictures with and the first part of the tour involved everyone walking through their exhibits. Check out this giant panda that Dylan's hugging :)
Apart from the exhibits, the kids were asked to participate in a "Dress your own Doll" activity. Boys were given male soldier dolls to put together and Dylan enjoyed this activity :)
This was a fun activity because it was timed so the kids were really excited and were racing to finish dressing up their respective dolls.
Continuing with the tour, our next destination was the simulation room where you get to see a sampling of what goes on in the making of dolls. Everyone saw where they made the hair and how it was styled for a specific doll and how they painted the faces on. Imagine all the work that goes into one doll. Everything was hand-painted by these artists. We even saw how they put the stuffing into the stuffed toys!
Since we took a lot of pictures, I just put them together in a slideshow so you can see the other dolls in their collections.
Our last stop was at the Casa Santa at Jardin de Miramar.
Kids: Dylan's 2012 Field Trip - Part 1 - Meralco Museum
September 22, 2012
Today, it is Dylan's 2012 Field Trip. Though it was hard for him to wake up so early, once he found out that today was his field trip, he got up in no time at all. They were going to have a full day ahead so it was essential to start out early. The assembly time was at 630 AM and the first stop was going to be at the Meralco Museum. Here he is in the bus looking a little sleepy and there we are at the parking lot of Meralco in Ortigas. Apparently, we arrived early and they were still setting up. That was T. Karen with us.
I honestly didn't have any idea what to expect when we got inside. But, I wasn't disappointed. There was a lot you can learn about electricity and the history of Meralco (which they showed through a film showing although I don't think the kids have any appreciation for that). The kids loved the interactive parts of the museum, like where they can hop on and off on the tram, generating power through manipulation of the exhibits and turning the light switches on and off.
The highlight for Dylan was being able to ride in the Meralco bucket truck. He also loved taking pictures with the huge trucks around the parking lot :)
Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there.
After the Meralco Museum, we all proceeded to the Dolljoy Museum in Pasig see next post.
Today, it is Dylan's 2012 Field Trip. Though it was hard for him to wake up so early, once he found out that today was his field trip, he got up in no time at all. They were going to have a full day ahead so it was essential to start out early. The assembly time was at 630 AM and the first stop was going to be at the Meralco Museum. Here he is in the bus looking a little sleepy and there we are at the parking lot of Meralco in Ortigas. Apparently, we arrived early and they were still setting up. That was T. Karen with us.
I honestly didn't have any idea what to expect when we got inside. But, I wasn't disappointed. There was a lot you can learn about electricity and the history of Meralco (which they showed through a film showing although I don't think the kids have any appreciation for that). The kids loved the interactive parts of the museum, like where they can hop on and off on the tram, generating power through manipulation of the exhibits and turning the light switches on and off.
The highlight for Dylan was being able to ride in the Meralco bucket truck. He also loved taking pictures with the huge trucks around the parking lot :)
Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there.
After the Meralco Museum, we all proceeded to the Dolljoy Museum in Pasig see next post.
Kids: Dana's 2012 Field Trip Part 2 - Zoobic Safari
September 02, 2012
After an entertaining day at the Ocean Adventure (see previous post), the 2nd half of the field trip was devoted to Zoobic Safari, a 25-hectare amusement park with a variety of animals and activities, complete with tour guides to assist you on your way.
Dana and I were both excited to be here since this will be our first time to see what they have in store for us.
At this point, even though we've been trudging on for half a day, our energy still hasn't waned.
The first thing that happened was each bus/vehicle that comes through the gate gets assigned a tour group and a tour guide. You will then follow instructions mandated by the tour guide to keep everything organized. Our first stop was an introduction to all the animals that you'll see in the park. We were asked to sit on bleachers while the host explained what Zoobic Safari was all about. Then came the animals. Everyone was so excited! My fear was kids may fall off from the bleachers because we were so high up. There were a number of tour groups that day. This slideshow sums up the animals that went on parade.
Our next stop was the Serpentarium behind the bleachers. I don't know if it was just me but it was rather scary.. It was dim and musky (which is what cold-blooded creatures love) but they do have a great collection of animals that you can't see anywhere else, like the skink and the albino python.
After a chilling walk through the Serpentarium (Dana and I aren't fans of reptiles), we were led to the aviary, which was kind of reminiscent of the aviary in Jurassic Park III. We entered a wide cage and you can walk among the birds inside. Some of them were still in cages though, especially the small ones. There was a portion there where the kids can feed the birds, I think it was P10 or P20 per a handful of seeds. I wasn't able to take a decent phot because the birds lapped up those seeds in a second! :) Dana said that although she was a bit scared at first, it was fun because it tickled :)
We kept on walking some more, not sure when we left the aviary though, because if you didn't pay attention, you may just find yourself in a different tour group. Anyway, we saw a bear cat, a camel and a full-grown lion whose roars and growls you can hear from afar. It was chilling because it was so deep and primal. I think he was antsy because he kept walking around near one of the lionesses in the cage.
Then on to the highlights of this field trip - Feeding the tigers from an enclosed vehicle at close range. This was one part of the trip that I was really looking forward too. Dana was excited and scared at the same time. To feed the tigers, you need to purchase chickens from them. Since there was only a limited number of passengers per jeep, parents just paired off and we all pitched in to buy enough chickens. As soon as we boarded the jeep, the kids couldn't stop screaming even though the tigers weren't visible yet!
Once they came out, one pounced on top of the vehicle and ate a chicken that was conveniently placed there. It was hard to take pictures because the roof was frosted (or just dirty). Once the tigers moved to the sides of the jeep, you can practically hear everyone's heart pounding. These guys were huge and can snap your head clean off and they snapped those chickens in a jiffy. But these tigers were used to being fed this way. They weren't like "attacking" the jeep or anything like that. So maybe it was kind of a letdown for me because they seemed tame hehehe
What gave me such a scare was when we stopped at a warehouse type of building where there more tigers in cages. I think they called this "A walk on the wild side". You walk next to these cages and your path is about half a meter wide so you're really, really close to the tigers. You have to watch out because they can spray you with their pee to mark their territory. You can literally touch them if you dare! This white tiger was at the end of the building. It was such an adventure! The other parents didn't want to go inside and they missed out on a lot :)
The tour guide mentioned that there was another lion at the far end of the building because his cage was being renovated. You can hear the growls and roars too.
Next stop was the Croco Loco, which you can probably assume that it's going to be plenty of crocodiles. Well, you guessed right! :) They were huge !! The way they made the pens was that you were actually walking on top of the crocodiles, on steel and iron bars and fences. So, you're looking down on them and from the sides. One parent even made a disbelieving comment, "Totoo ba yan?", roughly translated to "Are they real?" because the crocodiles were just lying there with their mouths open. Until one of them made a move and everything went haywire hahahaha When the big one suddenly moved, all the small ones scampered off and all the parents who were looking at them at close range suddenly scampered back too and started screaming LOL Too bad I didn't have a video of that LOL
The last stop of the tour was where they put together the bones of the animals who died. It's kind of like a Fossil/Bone museum. The fur of the Bengal Tiger was very smooth to the touch and if you imagine it, alive and breathing, it really was a magnificent animal.
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