every kid starts with homeschooling...

a lot of parents doubt if they have the skill to homeschool their kid. in fact, i was one of those parents. but as i was told, i also realized that i am already doing the job of a teacher for my son... but the difference is it's in a more relaxed and unstructured manner.

my son should thank me as i'm a "cool" teacher for him... and my style is somewhat lax. little did he know that i don't want to stress myself. hahaha.

but honestly, i just let him learn what he wants to learn by now and learn the other things when he's ready. simply put, NO RUSH--my mantra as a mom.

as far as he can imagine...

you remember the toy that i bought him for his first birthday? it's the wooden blocks set. i also bought him the wooden train set, which added to his collection. he's very much into these toys and these alone can keep him busy for hours. i love it! haha.

and what i love more about these toys is it develop a lot of skills in him: imagination, creativity, balancing, building, shaping, pretending, etc. he can now manipulate the blocks set and train tracks on his own. he can build a round railroad, a sloping railroad, a straight one... he's an engineer in his own rights. =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i heard someone criticizing schools which did nothing but ask its pupils to imagine and fantasize. i winced. it's what i wanted my son to primarily do at his age. hehe.

the little bookworm

he began flipping book pages even before he took his first solid meal and i'm glad that now, reading books is always part of his daily routine. he has his set of favorites such as eric carle's from head to toe, sandra boyton's goodnight mooon and runaway rabbit, and joanna cole's i'm a big brother. the dr. seuss books are just waiting for him to learn to read.

speaking of reading... jude was very impressed with his son when he heard him reading words. even without the pictures, iñigo can now read some words like apple, lion, horse, dog, cat, umbrella, fish, etc... words that he frequently see in his books. he also can read the names of the popular establishments: chowking, SM, jollibee, mc donalds, kfc... even tapa king. hehe.

though i am happy on his new skill, i still doubt that sight reading will do him good later on. i am not yet keen of introducing reading until he's five or six, and by then i guess he is already ready to read through the phonics method.

aside from sight reading, he also knows most of the letters by now and can recite the alphabet song, although still slurred in some letters like "w" and "x". but as i've said, no rush... it wasn't me who taught him anyway, but himself... see? =D

count him in

iñigo saw our family photo in our PC desktop and began counting, "one daddy, one mommy, one nyigo (for iñigo)... yehey!". it was a funny moment for me, but it was also the start of iñigo's skill on counting.

i taught him how to count even before his second birthday but he was not contented to stop with any number and he continued until he's done with "10". so six apples was as still 10 apples for him. hehe. but now that he has matured, iñigo would count correctly. he would count the teddy bears in his book, the plates on the table, and whatever he sees around the house... then followed by "yehey!".

he also knows how to motivate myself. =)

Q & A portion

mommy: what's your name

iñigo: nyigo!

mommy: how old are you?

iñigo: two!

mommy: where do you live?

iñigo: cabuyao! (with a twang, feeling kano)

mommy: what's your complete name again? iñigo bustamante...

iñigo:  nyigo mante...

mommy: bustamante

iñigo: cabuyao!

yeah right... our son has also a tendency to be extra PILYO!

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artistically challenged

my son also has his own share of weaknesses and one of them is arts. he's not interested in coloring and drawing figures. though he would ask for a color or pencil, and paper, but give him a few minutes and he's no longer interested. i also bought him a molding clay but he's not too keen...

the most that he can do is draw a round shape and identify some colors.

but it should not come to us as a surprise as both of his parents are also not into arts. =)

the only thing he does best in the arts section is photography... este, taking pictures. =) i guess you will be surprised that the photo below was taken by him.

he made the tower--12 blocks stacked up--all by himself, too.

there you are. iñigo's report card in his 28 months of learning and growing. i realized that it's kid's semestral break this time and most of them already received their report cards... so i thought of also doing my son's own report card for his milestones, accomplishments, and waterloos. =)