This post is the second of 7 posts that I’ll be writing this week, as my response to Jen @ Conversion Diary’s 2nd Epic Blogging Challenge. To God be all the glory! 
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I always like looking back at the days that have gone by — they help give me a better perspective and realize just how blessed we are. This helps me especially on not-so-good days, when life seems hard and problems seem to weigh me down. I believe that all of us — especially homeschoolers — need to take a look at every week that has passed, count our blessings and little ‘homeschool victories,’ learn from our failures (both homeschool-related and otherwise), and then move on.
So for those of you who are new to my blog — welcome! 🙂 My ‘The Week and Day That Was’ posts, which are linked up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Conversion Diary, are my way of documenting (sort of) our homeschool days — come take a peek at what goes on at the Kingdom-Seekers’ Academy!
So you all probably know from last week’s post that I have decided to let the kids play outside more often in the afternoons, after ‘Learning Time’ is done. We were able to do so last week and I can tell that the kids are so happy about it! 🙂 Reminder to self: This is one way to ‘rekindle‘ the kids’ (and my) love for the outdoors, free play and God’s creation — even if we live in an apartment smack-dab in the middle of Quezon City, we are still blessed that our landlady is fond of trees and plants, and so there are small patches of greenery inside our small compound. Even Anne breaks out in a big smile whenever we go outside — she loves it when I place small flowers and leaves in her hands! 🙂
Last Tuesday was the beginning of ‘super-busy-filled-with-deadlines’ week for me (although it feels like that every week! Ha, ha!). Still, I’m blessed by the fact that I got work done, the kids had ‘Learning Time’ and the house is still not a complete mess!
We’ve taken to staying downstairs now almost the whole day, as compared to a few months ago, when we’d have ‘Learning Time’ upstairs. It makes sense to do so because it’s A LOT cooler downstairs anyway. 🙂 This way, we save on electricity too! (No need to turn on the aircon to cool down our bedroom in the afternoons!) Of course, the living area (again, it’s not really a room!) tends to look like this a lot:
Again, forgive me for the lack of good photos! I really need to get a phone with a good camera! It’s more practical for me to take pictures with my phone right now, given my crazy schedule! :)
We attempted to make slime last Tuesday, too, but failed. Oh well. Time to try again this week! 🙂 This is one way I’m trying to ‘rekindle‘ the kids’ love for science and experimenting with stuff!
Mixing what was supposed to be slime
We went grocery shopping in the evening. I find it more convenient for us to do so during weeknights — less people, shorter lines. 🙂 I love that we stay in a place that has easy access to nearby shopping centers and malls. Thank God for this blessing!
On Wednesday, the kids woke up later than usual. We went about our usual day and I was happy to see this on one of Tim’s Math worksheets — one of the perks of homeschooling! 😉
Lately though, he’s been writing “Do you love me Mama?” and “Yes” and “No” under the question. Then he asks me to circle which is my answer! I feel guilty whenever he does this — does that mean he doubts my love for him? *sighs* I know I haven’t been the best mom to my kids so I think I really, really need to rekindle the love and make them feel more loved every day. Pray for me as I pray for you, please?
On another note, Tim also started reading their Life of Fred books more on this day — hurray! He even read one before he went to sleep. 🙂 You see, our primarily auditory son prefers books being read aloud to him, rather than him reading them for himself. So I’m praying this will be a regular thing! Rysse loves Life of Fred, too, and especially when her Kuya reads out loud for her!
Anne also took more than two steps on this day! Pretty soon, she’ll be toddling along without any help! Waaahhh! Someone freeze time please!
In the blogosphere, a few moms and I from the Catholic Bloggers Network announced the Keep Love in Lent Blog Link-Up. I hope you guys with blogs can join us! It’s a great way to rekindle our love for all things Lent, and for God, too, of course!
On Thursday, I was featured on my friend Chinky’s blog, Looking at the Bright Side. You can hop on over to read about what I am currently thankful for. 🙂 Our day was full of playing, working, learning again, and we enjoyed playing outside. YEY! We also went on an impromptu, unplanned trip to the mall in the evening, to pay bills that needed to be paid. I ended up buying some puzzles and magnetic letters for the kids.
On Friday, my heart broke when I read news reports about all the protests and resulting violence happening around the world. This photo especially left me in tears:
Source: america.aljazeera.com
It kind of reminds me about our own EDSA People Power Revolution, which we remember today actually. Thankfully, it was a peaceful protest for our countrymen that time. Sadly, it’s not the same in other countries now. Let’s continue praying for peace in the world – especially in the countries where violence has been the ‘norm’ for quite some time now. I took the opportunity to talk about peace and war with the kids — I showed them a few of the pictures (the not-so-violent ones) and we talked about the need for more love and forgiveness in the world, starting in our own homes.
On the homeschool front, I was a busy, busy bee last Friday and so ‘Learning Time’ happened in spurts instead of the fixed block of time that we usually have. Tim was the one taking out his books and working on them independently, asking me questions only if he didn’t understand certain things. Needless to say, I was shocked but grateful and happy at the same time!
Anne was especially cranky that day, and I thank God for her siblings, especially Rysse! I couldn’t get her to stop crying at one point but when Rysse started singing nursery rhymes to her, she just stopped and started smiling at her sister! 🙂 Ah, sibling love!
Saturday was SUPER hectic for us! 🙂 We picked up Rysse’s {super}advanced birthday present, returned the walker that a friend had lent us for Anne (she never used it!), went to the mall where I was set to meet someone who wanted to interview me for one of her subjects in school (Thanks again, Sam! :)), and went to anticipated Mass because we were set to attend the Money Smart Kids workshop on Sunday, among other things. Whew!
Rysse was SUPER excited and happy to get her birthday gift! Here’s a {not-so-good-so-sorry-about-this!} photo of her with it:
On Sunday, we attended the Money Smart Kids Workshop. It was a fun event, though the kids already knew some of the concepts that Fitz talked about. Here are a few shots of the workshop:
Waiting for the workshop to start
‘Working’ i.e. coloring a picture to earn money
Fitz Villafuerte talking about where money is made
Ginger of MommyGinger.com and ManilaWorkshops.com, and her husband EJ, pretending to be the ‘bankers’ — the kids lined up to deposit their savings at the ‘bank’
One of our goals as parents is to raise independent, lifelong learners who are not just ‘mind smart’ but money smart too — I pray that everything we did last week was able to help us in doing so! 🙂 (Thanks again to Ginger for inviting us to the workshop!)
We spent the rest of Sunday catching up on chores at home and spending time with my in-laws. 🙂 Although our weekends are usually full, I thank God for the times when we are able to rekindle love — especially among our family members!
Yesterday, Monday, was another typical day for us — nothing much to write about. Except that we did play outside again and had lots of fun! 🙂 Oh, and my first post for Upside Down Homeschooling came out — YEY! Click here to read how I’m currently dealing with my homeschooling fears. And if you want to read about ‘Seeing Doubles,’ Medela Moms’ support group for moms with multiples, hop on over to Philstar.com for my post about it! 🙂
How about you? How did last week go for you? How’s this week going so far? Come share!
**Coming up next: A BONUS post about independent homeschoolers in the Philippines!
**Don’t miss the first post in my 7 in 7 series:
Hi Tina! Thanks for attending the workshop. 🙂 I’ll wait for your email ha! 🙂 Love lots, Ginj
Hi Ginj! 🙂 Thank YOU for inviting us! I owe you an email nga! Love and prayers, Tina 🙂
Ah! I wish it were nice enough to spend the afternoons outside here, too! The workshop looks like it was really fun! So creative!
Hi Lisa! 🙂 Well, it’s almost always sunny here in the Philippines! Except during typhoon season, which is why we’ve been going out more often only recently. Thanks for dropping by! Saw your blog and left a comment too! God bless!
You are one superwoman for me. Doing all these is not an easy job. I love the photos you showed (but I agree you need better quality. hihi) because it’s unpretentious. You’re house is a work space both for you and your kids, you get things done there and you are not afraid to show it despite the (living room) mess.
My kids love the outdoors too. We walk around the subdivision every afternoon and play in the park. I love how this activity pushes them to live a more active life than just watch tv all day.
Hi Camille! 🙂 Naku, I’m definitely no superwoman! I fail my kids every day! I yell more often than I should! I’m cranky sometimes (well, a lot of times!)! So very, very “un-super!”
Thanks for your kind words though. And YES, I need better quality photos — just don’t have the luxury of time to use our point and shoot camera, upload photos, resize them, etc. So it’s either I really make time for doing this or get a phone with a better camera! Any suggestions? (Yung medyo affordable, haha!)
Re: outdoors, I love that you get to walk around in your subdivision! Kami, compound lang. Haha! My kids would love to be able to play in the park too! Kudos to you for getting your kids to be more active! 🙂 God bless!