Last of the Library Cards

....and last of the Kids Can Projects! Whew!


These are Rogan's endangered animals:








A heartfelt and relieved THANK YOU to Heather Roselli for coming up with these library card templates! They were a lifesaver for this family! :)

Finishing Up the Projects

It's crunchtime. Or close to it. The kids are feverishly finishing their drawings and their research, while I upload what I can to their blog. Raegan's project is due tomorrow, Rogan's the day after Raegan. Thank goodness for small favors, eh? Hehehehe. Sigh! I will be ecstatically happy when this week will be over!

It was a busy Sunday. We started by going to the Swim Camp for a parents' seminar given by Coach Powers. It was mostly stuff Japa and I knew, since we were athletes, too. Once upon a time, hehehehe. At least for me. Japa still is. I have no claim whatsoever to the title of athlete now, LOL!

Japa took the kids to Ayala while I begged off. I had to make huge dents in the project otherwise the kids would never be able to submit anything!!! Ack!

Here's Raegan's final library cards, crafted by yours truly, thanks to templates from Heather Roselli:


Oh yuck, sorry, the photo wasn't photoshop-ed. It came straight from my cellphone camera :)

A close up of the library cards:

Swim Camp x 3

Raegan, Rogan, and Raine all attended the swim camp this morning. It was exhausting, according to them, but they were excited about it. They came home with stories about how to wait and dive into the pool during relays. The proper way to do the butterfly. And the breaststroke.

Raine proudly told me that Coach Archie had told Coach Rick that she had good form for the butterfly. Rogan added to it saying he heard it too :) That was a first, for sure, LOL! Rogan backing up Raine!

Poor kids though. After swimming, they had Kumon afterwards. I pity them sometimes.....they don't seem to have too many breaks, what with swimming and Kumon, on Saturdays! This weekend will be jam packed for them, too. They've got the last day of swim camp tomorrow! Yikes! Exams, camp, projects. It's a wonder we're still standing now!!!

Mass at the hospital, a quick dinner, then it was back to the drawing boards. Literally. The kiddos still need to finish up their Kids Can Project, and I've got to update their blog! Like I said, it's a packed weekend!

Sign Language

I interviewed a hearing-impaired person today. His name is Kim and he is an intelligent person. He can also communicate well. Despite his being deaf, his non-hearing did not deter Kim from talking to me. Sure, his words were a bit slurred (some were) and sometimes it was hard to understand him IF one didn't pay attention, but he sure was a talker, lol!

He unashamedly used his hands to communicate. And spoke as he signed. He told me who he was, how old he was, why he wanted to work for us, etc.

And it came to light how truly pathetic some people in this world are: Kim told me that he had gone on several interviews where the interviewer just bluntly told him that he couldn't hire Kim. This, without attempting to interview the guy first!!! Yes, there is a strident, indignant tone to how I said it! The reason? They said that Kim would not be able to communicate with other employees!!! Ack! The NERVE of some people!!! Just makes you want to hit them, doesn't it! Grrrr! Pissed ME off when Kim told me those things! Sheesh!

Anyhoo, I did call one of Kim's references, and Bambi was all praises. She said Kim was dedicated, focused, a hard worker. He was conscious of the time and would not allow himself to have even a minute less than what was required.

He would be a good addition to the staff, I believe. I look forward to learning from him as well. I'm pretty sure it would be a very interesting time with him at the office. And yes, I want to learn how to sign, too! :)

Sandwich Book Report, Take 2

Yup, another sandwich report, this time for Raegan, featuring The Bridge to Terabithia. Thank goodness the basic sandwich has already been done! :) This time around, it was much easier to put everything together.

But Raegan was pickier than Raine, that's for sure. She searched for the main photos, and sat beside me, especially as I was doing the cover. She also insisted that I put a ROPE on pretty much every page because she said the rope was a key object in the story. LOL! Talk about detail-oriented!

Raegan's Sandwich Book Report, ready for submission:


Individual pages here:








Two down, one to go! Crossing my fingers Rogan wants to do a Sandwich Book Report as well, LOL!

Swim Camp

Raegan was one of the few 'small kids' picked by Coach Archie to join the Swim Camp with Coach Rick Powers. Cool! That in itself was an achievement, I thought :)

Raegan was excited when she came home, saying that she learned a lot in the few hours of the seminar and training session. There was talk of lactic acid, proper nutrition, stretching, visualization and other swimming things. She said the swimming part was easy; I told her it was only the first day, bwahahaahahha!

Raegan took down notes in this itty bitty notebook of hers. Can you see me rolling my eyes? She also scribbled some notes on the 2-page paper that was given to the swimmers.

When she got home, I knew she was tired, but also alert because of her excitement. Taking advantage, I told her she had to study a little bit more for her exams tomorrow. The excitement faded a little bit from her eyes, but she knew that there was studying to be done.

The advantage of having the kids still do training during their exams? The exercise does help clear their brains of extraneous stuff and will actually help them absorb MORE. Trust me. Been there, done that! :) So the kids have NO reason to complain at all! :)

Ok, off to update the kids' project blog!

Sandwich Book Report, Take 1

Warning! Image heavy post!!!

Raine's Sandwich Book Report, featuring Princess Pooh:


Individual pages are here:







Isn't that a COOL project?!? I was excited helping Raine do it, too! Those are her words, not mine. The scrapping was mine, though, LOL! I thought this was an awesome way to do book reports! It wasn't even boring; in fact, it was fun! :) And yes, it was good to bring out the glue sticks and studs and other tools.

Squeezing in a Book Report

OMG. Could this week even be more stressful?!?!? What a start of the week! Not only was I doing exam reviews, Raine arrives from school and announces that she had a Book Report due. This week. On Wednesday!!! Aaaaargh!!!! It was all I could do from screaming my head off!

She is so lucky her mother is a scrapper! That was the good thing. The bad thing? I had to read her story so that I could understand what she was trying to say in her report. Raine thought of what to write, typed everthing on the computer, and emailed me her report. Thank goodness for technology....and for the fact that the kids know computers. They should, seeing that we pretty much have enough desktops and laptops for everyone to use, even Ranger!

Ok, gotta go and hopefully some creative mojo comes my way for the Book Report! SOON!

We did finish Raine's Kids' Can project:


Some close ups:

Weekend Before Exams

.....and what am I doing? Yup, exam writing. With a frenzy!!! In my mind, I had assumed exams were going to be next week. Boy, was i WRONG!!! It's THIS WEEK!!!!

So I pretty much fastened myself to my laptop, feverishly typing away, making heads and tails of the kids' books, quizzes, tests, role sheets, etc. I swear, after this week, I do NOT want to talk anything about science and social studies! Blech!

Rounding Up February

Getting the questions to the Round Up from Katie the Scrapbook Lady:

Round Up: February

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I finally did some reading this month! Yeah! It helped that the kids went to Serendra at The Fort for their late Christmas gimmick, and we spent a few enjoyable (at least for me!) hours going through Fully Booked, this 5-floor bookstore at a corner street there! I picked up ---and read--- two Jodie Picoult books:

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Good thing we watched it at the very start of the month, since we didn't have a lot of spare time during the month.

For TV, we finished Monk last month and started on NCIS. Finished NCIS in a few days, I couldn't stop watching it! Started on Numbers as well.

What special days did I celebrate and how?

February: we celebrated the birthdays of Reese and Rielle with dinner. Valentine's Day was at La Vista, starting off with Tito Rey's lechon baka. There was also school's Family Day and we went to Enchanted Kingdom to celebrate.

We had a special all-girls' trip to Hong Kong where we ate, slept, ate, shopped, and ate :) Yup, that's all we did!

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

Swimming towels for Reese and Rielle. Nerds candy for the kids' Valentine's Day. Pooh and friends stuffed toys for Teachers' Day. Nope, didn't do anything scrappy-fancy for Valentine's Day this year. It was sooooo much easier and stress-free to just give away the boxed candies! Yeah!

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

Migraines, during periods. And a little bit before, a little bit after. Barring all the walking and shopping we did in Hong Kong, my back was fine. Except during those days of the month. Bugging the heck out of me, too! Grrr!

Ranger had to have some antibiotics again. As usual. Sigh! For some bronchitis or near-pneumonia. Again. I better pack some pounds into the little runt, he's too sickly!

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

Hong Kong all-girls' trip (with a chiko, Rod)
Math Quiz Bees for all the kids. Raegan got 4th, Rogan 2nd, Raine 3rd.
Iron Chef for Raegan - didn't realize it was such a big deal until I saw it in school, lol!
Rogan's Trumpets play where he sang a solo.
Everyone except Rogan joined the Ateneo Aquathlon again this year! Mama and Raine did the entire thing, while Japa and Raegan did a relay. Reese and Avic did a relay, too, and so did Matec and Franco. Rielle did the entire thing by herself, which was just AWESOME!!!

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

Cappricciosas (sp?), a new Italian restaurant in Greenhills. Almost everywhere we went to in Hong Kong was a new restaurant for us. With Bang in charge of food, each meal was an experience.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Nothing special was bought this month, including Hong Kong shopping. Probably the only stuff I did buy for *ME* were scrapping stuff, hehehehe. Shhhh!

What were my scrapping accomplishments this month?

Only 15 pages scrapped this month. Ack.

Anything else noteworthy to record?

Raine passed her taekwondo promotion test and is now a Blue Belter. She also won a GOLD in a mini-competition during the promotion test! I was off my time for the Aquathlon this year....by a minute! Grrr! Oh, and I am guesting for the wonderful Jacque Larsen this month!!! Love love loooooove her paper pieced designs!!!

[A SCRAPPED PAGE]

Squeezing in this last pager for the month:

SNAPSHOTS OF MY FAMILY-MACAU

Can you believe it's going to be MARCH tomorrow?!?!?! Sheesh!

Exam Writing

Yes, I have work to do. Lots of it. And I have the "other" work, which involves the kids and ALL their activities. So I'm taking a breather before I actually start typing up the reviewers for the kids' exams. I've found out that this helps them a LOT. I get their books and go through the pages for the quarter. I pretty much include definitions and fill in the blanks to make sure they remember what they've read. And yes, I mix up the words, too, hehehehe. Not to confuse them, but just to make sure that they're not remembering words and definitions based on the positions of those words on a page or something.

Then I ask them to answer my "test." It's guaranteed to be tougher than their actual exam, which should be the case while reviewing, right? :) And it HAS proven worthwhile, based on the past quarters.

So, some steps to exam writing:

1. Get the kids' books and prop them open next to the laptop.

2. Get the kids' Pointers for Review and keep them next to the laptop at all times. Better yet, make a copy or 2 just so I have a copy and the kids have their own copies.

3. At this stage (elementary level), just go through whatever is in the Pointers. Trust me, most teachers won't surprise their students at this point in their young school life :)

4. Identification - this one's a basic test item. Definitions galore. These are usually found either in the first or last part of a book chapter. Invaluable resource for exam writing, hehehe. I rarely include dates because really, who memorizes those things??? Except the REALLY important, famous ones.

5. Fill in the Blanks - Here is where I put the dates in, but as part of the question and NEVER for the child to answer. I found it helps the kids retain the dates more effectively because they read it and see it in the sentence; they now relate their answer (hopefully the correct one!) to the date written on the test paper.

6. Essays, Problem Solving - This teaches the kids to think. And it shows you how much of the lesson they understand enough to apply it to a real-life situation. Most of the time, I am surprised by the kids' insights. These aren't the usual from-the-book answers, but something they really think of!

7. Illustrations - Most of the time, especially in the younger grades, it's soooo much easier for the child to DRAW what he or she means instead of writing about it. Besides, writing takes forever to do, and illustrations on the paper looks so much prettier, lol!

8. Quizzes and Tests - Make SURE you have these on hand! Even if the answers come up twice or thrice, it's okay. At least the kids get a feel for what the exam may be like. And the best part, you don't have to think of how to do True or False, Modified True or False, Matching, and Multiple Choice. Not that easy to write a test you know! Besides, with the tests and quizzes in hand, it's soooo easy to change things around! Then you'll see if your child has studied or not!

9. When you type up the questions, MAKE SURE YOU TYPE THE ANSWERS right after the period!!! Trust me on this one! You don't want the child to ask you after he or she takes the test and you come up with zilch on this one! :)

10. When you're done with typing up the test, DELETE all the answers and SAVE AS the exam. This is what you'll print out for the kids to answer, and you'll have your answer key safe and sound.

Hope the above steps will help you in making your own exams for review! Sure beats having to pay a tutor to do it, eh?

Okay, now that I've inspired myself by going through the list above (hehehehe), off I go to type up some more exams!

Projects, Projects, Projects

***screaming***

I am up to my eyeballs in kids' projects!!! We always always ALWAYS attemp to NOT cram, but so far it's been impossible not to. For some strange reason, no matter what our intentions, we will realized that we only have so many days to complete so many projects!

It sure doesn't help either that I found out the kids have their exams NEXT WEEK. It sure wasn't in the "dates to remember" note I got from their teachers!!! Aaargh! So, with projects galore AND their exams coming up next week, it will NOT be a good week from now until then! Harsh? Not really. I'm just saying. Throw in Kumon and swimming training, and there really is NO time to give!

I've said from the very beginning that I wasn't going to be taking out Kumon and swimming especially because the kids had to CRAM for a project or a test! Valuable lesson to be learned here is time management. Including for me!

Ok. off to make reviewer exams in Science and Social Studies for the kiddos. AND force them to finish off their drawings for their projects and start on the research. I do NOT want to do their project for them, no siree.

Yeah right. Famous last words. LOL.

Lent Starts Today

Ash Wednesday. Start of Lent, and days of repentance, in preparation for Easter.

A short history of Ash Wednesday, and what it stands for, courtesy of Wikipedia :)

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days (forty days not counting Sundays) before Easter.

Well, no WONDER we always count it as more than 40 days of sacrifice! LOL! See what a little bit of research can do? We definitely learn more everyday! I never knew that we shouldn't count Sundays as part of the 40 days of Lent! Hmmmm...

Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of repentance.

At masses on this day, ashes are imposed on the foreheads of the faithful. The priest marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes in the shape of a cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until washing it off after sundown. The priest or minister says one of the following when applying the ashes:

Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return - Genesis 3:19

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. - Mark 1:15

Repent, and hear the good news. - Mark 1: 15

We attended mass at the office, where Father Al of PACEM said mass. Then it was a relatively light lunch, since we all mark the day with fasting and abstinence.

What are we giving up this year?

Japa - just fruits and protein during the weel
Me - no beef or pork and no really bad swear words (trust me, this is sooooo hard for me!)
Ate - no rice at dinner
Kuya - not doing bad things (this is from him. We'll see how it holds, lol!)
Dete - No seconds (rice) at all meals
Ranger - well, he's a baby, so he doesn't understand the concept yet.

Technically, the kids don't have to do anything since they're all underage for fasting and abstinence, but we did give them a choice if they wanted to do some form of sacrifice or not, and they all chose to do something. So that's good :)

Showing Off More Scraps

Just catching up on uploading layouts on the ole' blog:

FATHER-CHILD DAY

FRAMED HEARTS

HOT OIL HAIR DAY

I'm pretty sure I've used the photos in the last layout at least a couple of times, but aren't the girls just sooo cute here? Hehehe. Lai, we have GOT to have more of these girly stuff just so we have more kikay pics!

Dad's Out

Yay! Dad's been released from the hospital and went home this afternoon! Clean bill of health? Not really. I know he still has some antibiotics to finish, and of course he's weaker than when he was admitted, but he was in high spirits because he was going home. His bed sore was debrided and it looked nice and pink. Still gross looking but it looked way fresher than with all that dark green and black stuff around the sore. Ick.

And for all of us, it was with another sigh of relief that Dad has hurdled yet another obstacle.

Ok, here are some scraps that I haven't had a chance to show off yet:

POOH RIDE

WALL-E