P.E. Time! Kickball!

Homeschooling by Grace and WonderfullyMadeKids Homeschool teamed up to spend an afternoon of fun and fellowship while doing MAPEH stuff together.

We started with a short devotion about Romans 12:9, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”

We shared our food and the kids spent some time free-playing, reading together and doing board games, as well as bit of basketball.

Then everybody went out to play “Kickball,” which is a striking/fielding game that is a fusion of baseball and soccer. Now, as with most things, the rules of the game and how it is played can be learned at home through books, google search and watching videos online. However, there is no substitute in actually trying to play it — especially since it is a team game. There are things you learn only from experience. Things like…

  1. How to explain that we’re going to play a game that is like baseball mixed with soccer when most of your kids don’t know how baseball is played. (Mental note: Teach baseball next) SOLUTION: Be patient and let them try it to learn the game as they play.
  2. The kids are told to tag the kicker by throwing the ball at him/her but the catcher throws it directly at the kicker’s face. SOLUTION: Explain further that the purpose of throwing the ball is to tag the player and not to injure him so they are not supposed to aim at the person’s face.
  3. What to do when one of the kids kick the ball too hard and it goes over the wall off to Neverland? SOLUTION: Modify the rules of the game. The ball we were using first was light and could be thrown at a player to tag him out. The ball that was left was too hard and heavy and would cause injury if we tried to throw it at the kicker. So instead of throwing the ball to tag someone, the catcher now has to hold on to the ball and touch the kicker with it to tag him out.
  4. How to deal with overeager players and parents. Like when the older kid pushes the little one who kicked the ball and now has to run the bases. Thankfully the little one wasn’t injured, but of course, there was much crying. SOLUTION: Try again next time. The bigger kid didn’t intend to hurt the little one — they were all just very eager to win and because they were not well-exposed to these kinds of team games, they were all trying to figure out how to play it well.

All-in-all, it was a good learning experience and a chance to practice patience, how to listen to and follow instructions, how to work with your team and how to have self-control. May they have learned that while rules are important, in certain situations, there are rules that can be modified. We hope they were able to practice how to persevere, how to learn from their mistakes, how to say sorry and how to forgive. And that while it is the goal of each team to win, it should always be everyone’s goal to be kind.

Thank You LORD for this day!

Advertisements

Go, Grow and Glow Foods

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” – 1 Corinthians 10:31

Multi-level homeschooling entails finding common topics from the different subjects from all the grade levels. Also, school projects should integrate those topics that both simplify the work to be done (less number of output needed) AND at the same time also make it more meaningful by using real-world situations and experiences.

And so for example, instead of cutting and pasting pictures of different types of food, we went to the grocery and they looked for the actual foods for each of the following categories:

  1. GO foods or Energy-giving foods
  2. GROW foods or Body-building foods
  3. GROW foods or Body-regulating foods

This may be used as the integrated project for the following subjects and topics:

Pre-school and Grade 1

  • Science: Basic needs of people
  • MAPEH: Food pyramid (Health)
  • Math: Grouping by color, size, and shape

Review can be done while in the car going home, and there was no need to open our textbooks for this one.

When it comes to learning about the different kinds of food, the end message is the most important:

“Eat right, eat healthy, and eat a balanced diet.”

God bless you!

Buwan ng Wika 2018

It’s that time of the year again! We’ve been celebrating Buwan ng Wika here in Jeddah for 6 years now. 6 years of God’s faithfulness and relying on His love and grace in our homeschooling journey. Praise Jesus!

This year we had a simple celebration with old and new friends. We learned “Baybayin,” the ancient script used by Filipinos. We made T-shirts with the Baybayin script that says, “Anak ng Diyos.” We played a Pinoy game called, “Patintero” and watched the family movie, “Seven Sundays.”

With little babies in our families, it is more challenging to plan and execute any program. But we embrace this season in our homeschool families’ lives and do our best with whatever wisdom, strength and opportunity given us by the Lord.

Thank you Laxa, Fuentes and Salva families for celebrating with us! All Glory to God for He is worthy of all our worship and praise!

Trip to Taif 2018

Taif or Ta’if is found east of the holy city of Mecca. It is around 3 hours drive away from Jeddah and is also called summer capital of Saudi Arabia due to its relatively cool climate and breathtaking scenery.

One of the highlights of our visit was the Telefric or cable car ride. It was a 21-minute adventure down the rocky slopes of the Hejaz mountains.

We also visited the highest peak in Al Shafa just in time to take family photos with the golden sunset as our background.

More than the peaceful ambiance and interesting places to see, we also got to experience Pinoy hospitality that trancends borders and nations. It was also a wonderful bonding time with our kids who practically grew up together here in K.S.A.

Thank you to Contreras family for planning this trip! Thank you to your friends who welcomed us in their homes and prepared our food! Thank you dear AGCF family friends for always being a blessing! May God continue to bless your generous hearts!

By the Red Sea…

As we strolled near the beach, Kuya Sam remarked, “I wish we could see the Red Sea from the Bible, the one where Moses crossed.”

Dadi and Momi smiled and explained, “This is the Red Sea from that story in the Bible! This was the same one that God parted in the middle and which the Israelites crossed. We are in the land where the Israelites wandered for forty years.”

After 11 years in Jeddah, I am still amazed at how God has brought us here so we could build our family in the desert. With all four children born in this land, for us, this is home.

God revealed Himself to us here, faraway from our families and from all that we knew — just like Moses and the Israelites. Here, he showed us His great love and allowed us to grow in faith and trust in His grace.

While we are grateful for our home here, we know that our time here will end. And wherever God may lead our family next, we pray that we will always put our hope and our trust only in Jesus.