School Hunt, Take Two

We had the chance to take Marcus to a trial class in another school near our village.  Good thing hubby thought of this other option when I was a little bummed that the first school we tried didn't meet my standards.  I think this is IT - my little dude's first school! 

I like it because it matches my 3 main requirements - proximity, English-speaking teachers, and "scientific" methods.

Let's walk through with photos...

This is how it looks from the entrance to the building.  I like how it's far from the main road.

Before you enter the room, there's a nice little play area.

Teacher Rizelle assisting Little Dude

This school uses the montessori method of teaching.  Seeing these materials (how the tools and "toys" are called), I got filled with a feeling of familiarity.  Then I remembered, these were the same stuff I used when I first went to school in OB Montessori in Dasma Vill!  How cool!  This just goes to show that it's an "authentic" montessori school, hindi lang sa pangalan.

Maria Montessori, the founder of the montessori educational method, believed in making use of the senses to learn. The numbers on these boards are actually textured so when you touch it, you will feel the difference between the number itself and the rest of the slab.

That's Marcus and his new friend Topher.  They're playing with the binomial and trinomial cubes. Pang-Algebra na ang level te! Kahit ako mahihirapan ata gawin ito!

This is how the room looks like.  There's only one huge area.  I guess because it's a small school, the students interacting with each other are at mixed levels but on different programs, depending on their progress.

 

The teacher's assessment of Marcus at the end of the class is that he has a strong personality and that he's a fast learner.  I hope she's just not saying that to talk us into enrolling.  Hehe. 

I'm a Discerning Top Mom

 

Visit this link if you want to take his quiz too!

Give Me Back My Hair! (and being chemical-free)

I've always had black, shiny, straight, VIRGIN hair. I never had anything done with it, not even a cellophane, color, or hair spa. Modesty aside, "it" is a natural and had been quite a source of envy from my cousins (male & female), friends, and colleagues.

Well, until I got pregnant and had really bad hair fall problem. Actually, it is still happening now and it's becoming frustrating. One of my n@wie sisters recommended trying Human Nature's hair care products so I got myself these last Monday:

 Natural Strengthening Shampoo with CREAMFoam technology & Conditioner, about P300 for both

I'm now on my 2nd day of use and so far I just noticed that my hair is a little less unruly. (Ewan ko lang if this is just psychological though).  I'm still experiencing hair fall but it's ok since the label says it takes about 4 weeks to reduce the hair fall by 80%.  I am hoping this will solve my problem because I'm growing my hair long again and I want to get rid of all these "antenna" (as we call it way back in highschool) and irritating bangs soon.

If you want to check out the rest of the products, you can visit their website.  They have a wide array of products from facial & lip care, to hand and body care, baby & kids care, even make-up!  I also bought the little dude the Citronella Bug Spray to protect him from insect bites and the next time I visit the shop I'm probably getting him the spray sanitizers as well. 

This could be the start of my chemical-free products addiction! As their tag line says, to which I'm now becoming a fan of, "only the good". :)

Our Trip to the Koi Village

We (unexpectedly) spent most of our weekend at my parents' house in Makati.  I said unexpected because we were supposed to be home by Saturday afternoon, if not for the "overseas emergency support" we had to extend to my bro who is now based in Singapore.  We picked up my sis-in-law from the airport on Saturday morning and by 3am on Sunday (earlier today), we were sending her off back to SG.  Para lang syang nag-lunch sa Pinas, literally.

But that's not my topic.  While my sis-in-law took a nap (she's a new mom and I practically dragged her to the bedroom to get some decent sleep because I so know how it feels to lack sleep during the first months), we went to the Koi Village in Magallanes.

It's actually just a five-minute walk from our place.  I've been here once but not since we had Marcus.  My objective is to let little dude see some pets, while for hubby, it's to check if we can buy a dog (to which I rolled my eyes on - I'm not an animal person).

This is how it looks inside the Japanese-themed pet mall.  Obviously though, their business is more on koi's.

There's an area where they display the dogs on sale, like this:

We didn't get to stay for long because Marcus wasn't enjoying was trying to hide his fear of animals (like mom!), but if you're one pet lover who'd like to check what you could add to your home zoo, then this place is worth a visit.  As for me (and maybe my little dude), I'm just happy we went home empty-handed.

First Trial Star

For the longest time, my mom has been bugging me about little dude not being madaldal yet.  So, just to pacify her, we went to a developmental pedia a few months ago and had Marcus tested.  Turns out, and as we expected, he's perfectly fine, even advanced in some areas.

The doctor, however, recommended that we start sending our little one to a toddler school in order to have more interaction with other kids.  Since both hubster and I are working, Marcus is left with just the yaya (who I bet would rather text and watch telenovelas than talk to my son) the entire day.  There are also no kids of his age within our neighborhood so there's really limited "communication venues".

Hence, we are now on hunting mode for a toddler school for Marcus.  Right now, my major considerations are:

1. Proximity - At this point, I don't think I can bear the thought of having to entrust my boy's safety to a school bus service of some sort to take him to his classes.  Plus, I wouldn't want to stress him out with byahe pa lang so we're really aiming for a school that's close to where we live, walking distance, if possible.  The good news is, we have 4 schools within the village so I'm hoping at least one of them qualifies.

2. English as medium of instruction - I always believed in teaching my little dude English as his first language because I thought Filipino can inevitably be learned anyway.  We talk to him at home in English and we kind of force yaya and our families to speak to him in English too. Although I learned from my other co-n@wies that it isn't easy to learn Filipino once he's used to speaking in English, I still want him to be taught mainly in English.  When he grows older, sa dami naman ng mga nag-ta-Tagalog, I'm sure he'll learn din naman.

3. Appropriate Teaching Methods - I want the learning interventions to be well thought-of, scientifically-proven kumbaga.  I am not comfortable leaving my child's learning to a bunch of teachers who are not properly educated themselves to specialize on young minds.  Also, since this is just toddler class, I am expecting the teaching techniques to be fun but educational and age-appropriate.  It's not supposed to be very academic at this stage (baka magsawa sya kaagad and end up hating school by the time he's a teen) so I guess it should be really more "play-based".    


So anyway, we went on a trial class this week and now we have some idea how the usual classes go.  Not sure if we're going for this one already but one thing's for sure - my little boy IS ready to mingle with classmates! He had so much fun dancing (and screaming!) with the other kids.  Too bad I didn't get to take photos (took a video though) except for this, which I thought was really cute.

I hope you can still see the star stamp on his hand.  He really loved this!

Hopefully, we'd be able to have another trial class in the coming weeks so that little dude can officially become a school boy. :)