Wetsipon Workshop : Homeschool Journeys

The hardware part of the setup was actually a breeze,  this after a colleague sabotage sometime early 2000s when i was new in the IT industry,  new to my company and just in time for the annual local computex.  I was a fish out of water and a colleague assigned me in the front lines.  Ok,  my job was about marketing, but everybody knew i was not a CS grad,  and that my only claim to fame getting in the company is because i am a user of one of the specialized hardware they have,  an editing gadget coming fresh from my stint as an editor for iWitness.   Like i had a week to learn,  understanding the parts of the computer and then memorizing the specs that we were highlighting.  (He could have just assigned me to video cards or a motherboard or just 1 or 2 components but he just had to give em all,)  components plus the laptops, plus the barebones, plus the servers on our inventory,  Anyway knowledge is knowledge and for a person who hoards useless knowledge,  this knowledge template stil

Yesterday my daughter had an assignment in science,  it was a sr. Nursery discussion about gender as symbolized by the clothes they wear.  Check if the article of clothing is for girls and cross if the articles of clothing are for boys.   I had to balance reality and the function of the assignment,  generic dresses, floral panties and clear cut hair accessories for girls are easy to tag,  but the shirts, shorts, pants and shoes that are not dainty i had to clarify as "for boys" with the definition of "what daddy can wear" since i myself tend to be more comfortable with the boys set shirt, pants, boots when going to the office and shirt, short combo at home.   I am glad that J is having the same comfort playing and moving about dresses and shirts and pants. I prefer the later and rarely go around with the former.  So i am actually cross dresser but it is a non issue because i am a woman and i am straight.  Hurray for feminists before m

I never had this experience of living life in a community, not that our community is a perfect place to do this but this is the first time i had work, school (daughter's) home in one baranggay.  In primary school thru high school, it was 2 municipalities and maybe 15 baranggays apart living in philam talon 2, las pinas and studying in la huerta paranaque.  Later in college was worst living in las pinas and studying in espana, manila... During the time of flyover constructions that made my commute a good 2 hours (or more more)  1 way.  Office for a while was also las pinas-makati, mandaluyong-qc, qc-makati and i had some moments of home office that was actually more travelling than staying at home.  Today i have my office so near that the gps circle would touch the tip of the office door when i am at home in my bedroom.  About 150 steps away just because the entrace of the compound is than farther my house that the actual office is. My daughters school,  initially was a bit further

For a digital native like J,  one of the learning milestone challenges we are having is handwriting.  We have been giving her workbooks, coloring books,  new and pretty crayons,  different types of pens just to encourage her to write or start to love writing.  We have allow her to write on walls because she seems to be interested in writing with chalk but that eventually graduated to all other writing implements only on walls and other surfaces except paper.  There has to be major patience (and detergent and vinegar wiping on walls) to be applied here but we know it would pass.   At 3,  she already reads even big words,  tough words (huh by the way i will try her out later to check if she can decipher tough.. tough is tough) like advertisement,  wellness, Bible, Psalms, business,  she can mentally spell small words, type in words and do youtube, spotify and google searches,  do word play like rhyming and invent words (and songs) so the basic concept of words and what to write is not a

Anywhere is a chance for learning.  Daddy and J have this errand bonding tradition at the supermarket.  Daddy will let J ride the pushcart and tours her in the produce section.  They name each and every item on shelf so J can see the fruits and vegetables in its raw form.  This beats just hanging posters and pointing to her pictures and objects,  beats doing powerpoints of the same.  I know this is still artificial but this is just the only way she will encounter the stuff in the urban setting.  Great venues would be sm hypers, rustans  and puregold.  The bigger the better,  so there would be more cart space because the sessions can take minutes to go around.   Enjoy!

My J have this selfie phase of her life.  Some kids like to see themselves in the mirror, unfortunately most of our mirrors are high and uncomfortable for her to do her facial experimentation comfortably so her phone or tablets’ camera would be her pseudo mirror.    Every so often that i archive and clean up my memory there would be some small heartbreaks for me chasing to delete which photos to keep.  There are just too many of them.  Her favorite app would be the Photo Booth and CamWow both iOS because of the presets or filters she often play with along with playing with her face.   And then she snaps a photo of me with this... This reminds me of circa 1990’s where achieving the Warhol like effects would need a town to achieve!  In those day and age of color separations that would need days to develop, a print ad was done with a whole lot of departments and a whole lot of job functions plus a whole lot of suppliers that are now obsolete.  I started as AE

Nakakakilig,  right before bedtime as she was cooling down to prepare for sleep with her iPhone in tow,  i took a peek at what she was doing.  She was doing searches on her own thru google.   These are her usual search words  cookies www.facebook.com > as in! she types in the www for real barney stoorys (stories) pig chair glass door greendoor I understand that the internet may be harmful and all,  but I just like it that she is exploring and practicing to spell and type words on her own. Just to share.. This is one of her first time I notice her typing (I don't even know how to get those emoticons :).. Actual screen grab J @ 3 years 1 month

Her first day ballet.  We are ready for her possible first day tantrums.  Great that the class was small,  and i appreciate how the teacher, teacher olive spends effort to get to know the students, quirks and all.   She was open for us to immerse in class unlimited times,  i think itll be a good break for J who does her learning via av.  She can see her instructions live,  over and over and over again.

J actually invented this yesterday,  she was holding 2 random refrigerator magnets in her hand.  the letters F and R  as she hugged me with 2 letters in her hand,  she was saying the word FRiends over and over.  I got her immediately.  to an adult its like humming an LSS song (Last song syndrome) her's was a last letter seen.  So i zeroed in the letters FR.  FR-I-E-N-D-S. Friends. FR-Y. Fry. FR-O-W-N. Frown. Free. Frightened.  Later on we used the letters in different parts of the words like FouR, FoR, FuR, FiRe.   It was a lot of fun for us.  spelling, pronounciation, reading (i wrote the words later in her megasketcher) and new words vocabulary.  Just because she had two letters in her hand.  April 11