School year 2011 – 2012 is fast approaching. For the homeschoolers no more, we only have two weeks left of our summer (now rainy) vacation left.
The children have been enrolled and now we face the task of getting the school supplies needed for the school year.
At the start of the summer vacation, I managed to go over the school supplies that the children used and saved several things like pencils, erasers, papers, pencil cases and unused art materials. I gathered these together and put them in a big plastic tub together with the other supplies we have accumulated through the years.
Since the school give us a list of what we need to bring, we more or less have an idea what we would need.
The list would include:
a sleeping mat for the third grader (this was the same sleeping mattress that the high schooler used when she was in Grades 1 -3) since the children up to third grade have nap time during noon
health kit which includes soap, face towel, a roll of tissue paper, toothpaste and toothbrush (we already have the plastic boxes from last year and we will just re-use with new supplies inside)
school supplies like art materials in plastic envelopes (the unused art materials have been saved so these can still be used)
uniforms have been “whitened” during summer for use when school opening comes
shoes have yet to be shined and cleaned (the son will still use his since the shoes are a size bigger and this goes for the high schooler, the youngest daughter has a new pair)
bags still need to be cleaned (high schooler got a new bag hurrah! since she alternately use backpacks she’d have since 4th and 5th grade and had no bag upgrade ever since)
I still need to look at the used books and see which ones can still be used (to think I had given some away at the start of summer!) . We have to buy books this school year and this is a bit of a burden with us who have three children. For as long as my eldest child had been enrolled in the school (this is her 11th year in the school) school books have been included in the miscellaneous fee. Now we have to pay for the books separately. Sigh…
Are you parents ready for the new school year?
In a way, we’re not ready yet but we do have a certain excitement in meeting new challenges and in the chance of doing better this school year.
One more thing I’m missing is her playing the recorder. She said she has forgotten some of the musical pieces she mastered when we were still homeschooling. 🙁
She loves to tinker with the MS Paint, experimenting here and there until she knows what the tools are for. I don’t think I can do this myself. Can you? 😀
I am a believer in non-traditional school setups so when mommy blogger friends and I were invited to visit Active Ambassadors Academy, I did not hesitate to go because this is a school that has a part-traditional and part-progressive approach to teaching.
Based from the experiences of my mommy blogger friend iMom whose youngest son goes to Active Ambassadors Academy, I pretty much surmised that this school is different.
Active Ambassadors Academy:
is committed to nurture and educate children to be globally competitive with skills and knowledge that will make them successful ambassadors of positive change
has two supplementary education providers: Active Brain Inc (ABI) and Dash Cultural Educational Institute (DCEI)
preschool curriculum aiming for competencies in English and Chinese
“Handiworx” a life skills program which aims to develop independence, creativity and practical life skills
believes in developmental approach to learning and thereby espousing a holistic and developmental approach to teaching
AAA Graduates are:
Ambassadors of Wisdom and Knowledge
Ambassadors of Excellence and Service
Ambassadors of Love and Peace
AAA Core Values:
Resilient (I can do it)
Determined (Practice makes perfect)
Global Thinkers, Proactive Leaders (Possibilities are Endless)
Generous (Care and Share)
Environmental (Think clean, think green)
Humble Servants (Love your neighbor)
Christ-like (Live for Christ)
The AAA Program is composed of the following:
DASH CEI Chinese language program
MIKIDS Multiple Intelligences Program for English
Handiworx Life Skills Program
Supplemental programs of Chinese Character Canon and SIP Abacus and Mental Math Brain Training Center
Children wowing us with their Mental Math skills made possible through SIP Abacus and Mental Math Brain Training Center<.
Active Brain Inc. is Philippines sole distributor of SIP Abacus Brain Training Program and Mikids Multimedia Intelligence Program.
Dash Cultural and Educational Instituteis the sole distributor for the Chinese Character Canon program and has developed their own Chinese language etymology course. Chinese teachers are native speakers of Mandarin and came from China. And yes, adults can learn mandarin here too.
Active Ambassadors Academy is located at #35 Dona Hemady Avenue cor 5th Street, New Manila QC. Contact numbers: 02-4755576/02-5248195
Homeschooling does not just mean that the learning takes place within the confines of one’s home. Homeschooling means having the option to choose from among the many learning enrichment centers that provide more skills and new things to learn for homeschoolers.
When my children were still homeschooling, I considered daily tasks as avenues for learning: Science and Math concepts at the supermarket; scheduling and time management for the day to day activities; practical life skills (plus home-making skills) with the household chores; good moral and right conduct with how we deal with the people we encounter throughout the day; honing creativity and imagination through arts and crafts. The list of possibilities and opportunities to learn are endless, if only parents are resourceful and have the “energy” to pursue extra-curricular activities.
I’ve recently been introduced to a not-so-new concept of teaching children academic concepts in an enriching manner, through NumberWorks’nWords, an international learning center for Math and English. What I meant by not-so-new is that I also do the process NumberWorks’Words do with the students: assess, make a program and do a progress report.
What sets the centers apart from the usual tutorial centers is that there are individualized programs for Math and Reading available in NumberWorks’nWords. The centers have evolving learning computer software that they have been developing for years to meet the students learning needs. These learning modules have been developed by educators and software engineers.
Professor Dan Handy, the Managing Director of NumberWorks’nWords explained that their centers want the children to love learning through their programs. The Math Programs are being continually developed by experts while the English programs are geared toward reading, comprehension, writing, spelling and grammar.
NumberWorks’nWords provide assessment process to be able to create individualized programs for the children enrolled with them. They also provide progress reports. All these in an atmosphere where learning is enjoyable.
