Progressive School: Moving Up To Greater Heights!

Moving up,  a very apt phrase for what we used to call recognition day or graduation back in the days. 

 

Last March 22, my two wonderful kulitogs moved up from Kinder 2 and Nursery. Oh my, before I know it they’ll be in college already. Time flies, pretty fast.

Sam, irritated by the bow tie and already sleepy but participated from start to finish. So proud of my little boy 

Sophie reciting the Dr. Seuss poem. I didn't behave like a stage mom, as promised. Didn't mouth the words or made crazy gestures

During the moving up activity Sam was awarded Bodily Kinesthetic/Visual Intelligence Active Explorer title. I remember her teacher introduced him as 'everywhere kid'. He roams around the classroom during class discussion so they thought he’s not paying attention but surprisingly can answer all questions when asked. The little princess was awarded the Verbal-Linguistic/Visual-Spatial and Nurturing Child award.
I have posted our journeys in Progressive school setting for years now but really I still get dumb founded by the terms used for special awards.

I shall try to break down each term, maybe it's easier to comprehend that way. 
Kinesthetic relates to sense of touch and physical activity. Kids with kinesthetic intelligence loves jigsaw puzzle and textures. Visual Intelligent kids loves to draw, color and doodle and very good in sports. Verbal-linguistic is someone who is good both in written and verbal expression while visual spatial is someone who is good with, well images, and has good sense of direction.

Whew! Another advantage of the kids going to school is that we parents also learn along the way. Why, during their quiz show I learned what an arboreal animal is (animals who lives in trees). More so, we learn how to be effective parents, just as one parent speaker during the ceremony cited.

The moving up activity was a whole day event for us. We attended Sam’s moving up at 1pm while Sophie’s at 5pm. It was a whole day emotional roller coaster as well - teary-eyed one time, laughing another time and doing both most times. On some parts of the program, I didn’t even bother to hold back the tears. Hubby, just a few minutes after we whisked Sophie to line up for the march, said he thinks he's going to cry with the kids' new milestone. When I looked at him to say something, his eyes were already misty. Such a cry Daddy!

Honestly, the moments were just overwhelming: my little boy performing despite being really sleepy, the awarding ceremonies, my little girl's poem recitation and the K2’s final performance. 

With my graduates at Alex III for dinner. Sam pretended to be asleep. He just has a thing with cameras

 

To Sophie and Sam, Dad and Mom will forever be proud of you. We will always be here when you need us and we will always support you in your endeavors. Congratulations my dear graduates!

Here's an excerpt from Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss, a poem recited by Sophie during the Moving Up activity. I really suggest you read the whole poem, it's now my favorite.

Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

Progressive School: Palarong Pinoy 2012

Our Palarong Pinoy experience this year was a little different from last year's song, dance and re-enactments.  This year, it was all fun and games for both children and parents in the aim to introduce to children the very Pinoy games like luksong tinik, kadang kadang and other games that make use of organic materials like coconuts and bamboo.

Hubby and I were as excited because both our kids took part in the activities. Love, love taking photos of my kids as they frantically wave their colored flags and played in the games assigned to them. They were such sport, knows the concept of participative play and were so proud of them. Both were in high spirits the whole event. 

The truth is, my little girl packed her kikay bag 3 days before Palarong Pinoy. Excited much :)

During the parade of colors

The opening prayer. Sophie sang the Lupang Hinirang

 Sam with his classmates

 Sam joined the relay race of Nursery level. They won the game! :)

Sophie was part of the luksong tinik game. Her partner had to sit it out in the middle of the game so they were not able to finish the game. 

While this is the 'tulala' me when I learned that our game was race on coconut shell or 'patiyakad'. We were about to win when the other team's coconut crashed and we had to change the game to sack race. We lost but it was all fun. It was actually my first time to join a sack race :)

This year, it was the school teachers and staff's turn to do the dance and play part :)

At the end of the program, awards and prizes were given away and just as Sophie thought she has no prize from the games, she was called to stage as the Batang Active Thinkers ng Palarong Pinoy. Yay! Being the student who was the most active and all out from practice to the actual program, she took home several books, art materials and a game board.

We look forward to next year's Palarong Pinoy but I'm sure it's gonna be new experience since my kids will be going to different schools next year. 

Progressive School: Nutrition Week

I’m sure mommies who have school kids have had a busy nutrition week as schools celebrated this event by either bringing only healthy snacks to school, students being that plump tomato or a carrot mascot who struggled to deliver their lines in a school play.

My kids spent Nutrition week with mini field trips to Greenwhich for my Nursery son and to Johnny Rockets for my K2 daughter. Both of them loved the out-of-school activities.  My daughter particularly loved that she went to a trip for the first time without her yaya. She felt so adult. My little boy naman had so much fun winning the parlor games hosted by the fast food chain. He even brought home to Mommy the pizza he made during their pizza-making activity. Isn’t he the sweetest?

the little kulitog and his pizza 

Why Johnny Rockets and Greenwhich on a Nutrition week you say? I asked the same boggling question. The teachers shared during culmination day that they explained to kids that these places serve sometimes food and the kids should visit these places only accasionally. Ayun naman pala…

Part of the homework of my K2 girl was to produce a 3-5 minute video ala cooking show featuring one main ingredient which was mango. The video should show a parent-child cooking tandem and the dish should be nutricious and delicious. Came culmination day, the video was shown and judged by guest judges including a nutritionist. Sample of the dishes were also presented to the judges and the scored based on taste. Effort 'di ba?

Although I wanted to see our submitted video as they presented it in school, I was busy preparing the sample dishes. Sophie and I prepared two: Creamy Mango Jelly and Rainbow Salad for the judges to taste. By the time I got out of the classroom-turned-mini-kitchen, I only had a glimpe of the CBB (closing billboard or credits) of our video.

Our submitted recipes: Rainbow salad and Creamy Mango Jelly 

Came awarding time, I was seriously praying that Sophie gets at least 3rd place. She put so much energy and effort during our rehearsals and she was such a great host :) The heavens heard my prayer and gave us something more - a 1st place! Yay! 

The little girl (and I) proudly went on stage and took her prize. I shared in several posts how my kids love to cook and bake and this prize is a great motivation for the little girl to continue with her passion. Her prize was a cookbook made for kids and she’s just excited to do everything in that book ( I think I need to stock more butter and flour now).

I’m as happy that all the efforts (and one sleep-deprived weekend) paid off. My husband told me that our video was a hands down winner because it was edited just like a cooking show; that we can make more cooking videos and upload it online. Well, for one it would be a shame that my job is to make sure programs on TV have everything they need to launch and air without glitch but can’t make a simple cooking show project for my kid. 

The video was shot using a Samsung digicam (in HD) and edited using Window Movie Maker. One tip: unless you have a powerful PC, better to convert an HD video to SD (standard definition) so that it will be faster to edit. You can donwload free converters/transcoder online. Our video was simple but it has all the elements of a 5 –minuter cooking show: title card and chargens (made with powerpoint), music/score, an edited body and credits. 

As for making this a regular thing, let's see... I even don't have the guts to post our video here (super shy?). For now, I'll give you the title card, the title was Sophie's idea :)

our tcard, with downloaded template from Microsoft 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

The Kulitogs in School

Before school started on June 13 for kulitog girl, we got all ready with her school stuff and what have yous. On her first day in school, I was there with her from the start until the end of her class. The rest I would say moved along pretty well since she’s already in K2.

And then, Déjà vu happened.

Last weekend, we repeated the whole process of school prep this time for the kulitog boy. Although a week late for first day of school, we enrolled him in the same progressive school as his ate. Good thing the school accepted him, as nursery. 

Take 2 kami on everything: enrollment (thank God for mid-year bonus), trip to the bookstore and grocery to buy those 6 rolls of tissue, toiletries (good that Human Nature products are already available in groceries) and school supplies that should be left in school. By Sunday, I was feeling like Neo in the Matrix when he saw the cat twice and I'm sure I bore that 'WTF' look on my face. 

all packed for school, he personally chose the tiger scissors :)

Why are we late for enrollment? Well, he's supposed to start school next year pa. He's only 3 and he can very much learn from Mommy through our daily activities. My husband and I believe that 4 is a perfect age to start school because once they start, there's no turning back. 

The thing is, every time his Ate gets picked up by the school bus, we'll hear these sentiments from our little boy :

‘Wala ako school’ or ‘I want to go to school’

‘I have no teacher’ or ‘ I have no baon’

One time, when he accompanied Ate to school, he knocked on the door of the school administrator/owner and said, ‘Ayaw Daddy go to school ako.’ The owner then asked why and he replied, ‘Baby daw ako. Samsam Garcia ako eh.’

What kind of Mommy am I if just turn a deaf ear on that? 

So after much compute and recompute of our monthly and quarterly budget (bringing 2 children to school is no joke for a budget freak like me), we finally decided to enroll the Sam. You should see the look on his face; it was filled with happiness, excitement and triumph over his detractors (aka us!). I tell you, the time we told him he’ll finally go to school he finally made peace with his dad and gave him lotsa hugs and kisses. Talk about kids manipulating parents :)

Oh well, we let the little boy win this argument anyway. Why, some kids throw tantrums and cry themselves to death because they don’t want to go to school. This little one didn’t give so much as a sniff (although I think I did) when I had to release his hand as he entered his classroom. 

Oh my, my two kids now in school and before I know it they'll all be grown up and do grown up things...

Progressive School : Wiz Kid Quiz Show

Last February 29, my daughter's school held a Wiz Kid Quiz Show. Almost all students participated in the event and parents were encouraged to watch. Hubby and I took the morning off from work to attend this event.  

The kinder level getting ready for the first question.

Questions ranged from math, science to civic and culture, language, spatial, etc. and were categorized as Easy, Average and Difficult questions. The questions were flashed on a projector screen and read to the students as well. The students wrote the correct answer on the paper provided. At times up, the teachers/teacher aids checked the answers of each student and showed a sign to the tabulator if the answer is wrong, right or no answer. They do not verbalize the result as this may frustrate kids to go on with the quiz show.

At the end of the quiz bee, guess who won? My daughter Sophia! She's the Wiz Kid 2012 Kinder Level.

Proudest Mommy moment for me really :) When hubby and I were driving back to work after the contest, we were still in awe that our little girl won. It is at this point in my life when I thought, "I must've done something right. "

She also got certificates for subjects like civic and culture and science for having one of the highest points. 

For the per subject category prizes, since quite a number of students got high points there were tie breaker questions and Yay! she was able to answer the questions too! (tsimis to, the boy in red gave him a rose last Valentine's day. I found it cute, the dad was furious. haha!)

With proud parents. Sulit na sulit and half day leave namin :)

With her teacher Cath who guided them during review sessions. Thanks T. Cath :)

The little girl can't get enough of her very first medal that she slept with it that night. Haha! 

Congratulations again to our little princess. We are so proud of you! :)

linking this post to : 

Happy Thoughts

I have lots of that these days. God really knows how to keep us balanced.

Work right now is kinda toxic! I get home every night with a tad of energy to make a conversation with my husband. He asked why and I said "By lunchtime I feel like I’ve been raped by 3 horses. Lunchtime pa lang 'yan!" So imagine how I feel at the end of the day. Haay. This too shall pass…

On the other hand, my personal life is awe-inspiring right now. 

With husband getting on the physical regimen and making a personal effort now to live a healthy lifestyle, that brings a smile to my face.

Sophie naman is vying for top of the class. Yay! Progressive schools don’t have honor rolls but the ‘most holistic child’ is their version of it. A Holistic child is someone who has show exemplary development in all aspects of learning - mental, physical, socioemotional, etc.- from the first day of school until the last assessment period. During our 2nd trimester parent-teacher meet last week, my daughter’s teacher showed us Sophie’s progress and eagerly relayed how fast Sophie finished the assessment exam. What else is nice? Somehow she had mastered the art of working fast. Remember my post here? She's still OC but faster. I just let her remember our new mantra when working on art – mabilis at maganda (quick and beautiful) :)  I let her say that when we're working on her homework so she will be conscious of time and at the same time not sacrifice quality of her work. Looks like its working. Whether Sophie makes it to the top or not, I’m already so proud of my little girl :)

My little boy Sam is also an achiever on his own. Last January 14 was his first out-of-town trip without the diapers! Yay again! He is turning 3 in two months time and although he is off diapers during daytime and nighttime since he turned two, our trip to Subic was his first long trip without the diapers. Hubby asked, ‘what if ma-wiwi siya during the trip’ and I said with conviction, ‘marunong na ‘yan magsabi. We will stop in the middle of SCTEX if he wants to go wiwi. It’s now or never’ I’m that confident of my boy. And yes, we made it to Subic and back without a single drop of wiwi out of place. Last week, we went from QC to Makati and nobody even worried if Sam should use a diaper or not. Good boy Sam!

Progressive School : Dentist Visit

Sophie joined her school in their dentist visit last month. I'm a proud mom when my daughter showed me her dental record : Zero cavities! Yay! 

Honestly, it's a challenge to keep kids her age from sweets especially chocolates and candies so this report makes me super happy especially since she's turning 5 in a couple of months. Before I thought keeping tab on the date of their tooth eruption when they were babies was more difficult.
Loving chocolates and candies is part of childhood. I let my kids have them once in a while because I don't want to deprive them of those happy treats. We love baking cookies, cakes and other desserts so we are a sweet tooth family.
One thing important to keep their teeth healthy is to teach kids to take care of their pearlies and to love brushing them 3-4 times a day. My little boy enjoys brushing his teeth, too (with matching Barney song). He knows it's always part of the sponge bath routine and reminds his yaya about this.

 

Progressive School: Parent-Teacher One on One After Assessment Period

Guess what’s Sophie first spelled word is? ASIM! Haha! She spelled this without assistance from anyone J

I guess because Daddy kept on saying this word to her so she was able to syllabicate and spell it all by her lonesome.

I’m glad she added some more words to her list of spelled words the past weeks. She can now spell Janaki, Stephen, Samuel, Lolo, Lola, ball, mat, rat, mop and all other 4-5 letter words by just hearing them. She’s now a birthday card maker savvy after making birthday cards for all the celebrants in the family J

spelling with clay

During the recent Parent-Teacher one on one (which is done after their Student- Teacher assessment or the Trad school version of quarterly exam), her teacher Cath showed hubby and me how Sophie progressed in writing, reading and spelling by providing us compiled works of our little princess. Teacher Cath is also Sophie’s teacher for Reading Readiness summer class and she proudly told us that our Sophie has gone a long way from not being able to write her full name during their first meeting to now writing words and phrases during class! She also now writes legibly, very conscious of the lines. She also pointed out how very creative and family-oriented most of her artworks are. Always, telling stories about mom, dad and her little brother. She loves her little brother dearly.

One thing that Sophie’s teacher is still worried, though, is her promptness in doing the activities. She is a super OC (obsessive compulsive), doesn’t like her work to be messy so she makes sure no color will go beyond the lines. She’s also very creative; she doesn’t color one object with one color. It’s 2 or more colors per object. During break time, teacher said she also wants her table clean and lunch paraphernalia neatly arranged which takes time given the short break. Thus, she is sometimes behind especially since she prefers to bring rice and ulam as baon. So effort na ang preparation, effort pa ang pagkain. Her teacher recalled one experience when she prompted Sophie to finish her work so she can join outside play (the PE version of Kinder class). The little girl hurriedly colored her work making some lampas-lampas coloring and teacher recalled, ‘Mommy, nakita ko talaga yung frustration niya na hindi maganda yung work niya. But I just need to prompt her because she will miss outside play again.’ I assume she will always give up outside play for art activities. How do I handle this?

Right now, we just prepare her sandwich or light snacks for school. Yesterday, it’s hotdog shaped as cherries and triangle-shaped eggs J I always include biscuits and fruits since she has a big appetite and easily gets hungry without rice. So far, she not behind but helper says that she immediately asks for rice once home.
Her yaya also taught her to color with crayon flat (not using the tip) so she will color big pictures faster. Somehow she is improving on speed but I hope this will keep up. 

Progressive School : First Hand Experience

This is Sophie's school calendar for the SY 2011 to 2012. Sophie goes to a progressive school and honestly, when I first received this I was a bit overwhelmed by how busy their calendar looks but after a while I realized it's still manageable. Just needs a lot of constant follow through and make sure everything is prepared for prior to the activity especially since both my husband and I are working (I placed this calendar on our ref door so I can see it all the time). 

Like a couple of months ago we had a PTC (parent-teacher orientation) which basically was a get together of the students' parents and their teachers so we won't be a stranger to each other in the succeeding school activities and meets. Then a week after that came the PTC (Parent-teacher conference) where parent and teacher discussed the kid's strength and weakness observed during the 1st few months of school as well as expectations by the end of the school year. It was rather an enlightening experience for me because prior to our talk, I was asked to answer a questionnaire which will provide them a background of the family at home. From there, teacher will better understand the behavior and personality of the kid in school. Although Sophie's teacher said that a kid may portray dual personalities; she may act differently in school than at home so it will always be on a case to case basis. 

Here are other points that I like about progressive schools:

1. student centered - the ratio of progressive class is usually 10 (or less) students per 1 teacher (plus a teacher aid). This gives the teacher (and teacher aid) a chance to focus on each student and guide them better. Sophie spent her Reading Readiness summer class in the same school so her teacher now was able to see her progress from the 1st time she came to the school until now. We are both very happy with how she progressed in reading, writing and the arts. I could say that my kid's school was able to bring out the best in her :)

2. One on One Assessments Instead of Standard Exams - kindergartens now are only as young as 3 or 4 years unlike in my time when kids need to be at least 6 yrs. old to get into that level. Although I recognize the fact that kids now are more advanced thinking, it all boils down to them being just toddlers and does not deserve the high level of stress that quarterly and numerous pages of exams given to kids in a traditional setting. I know one parent who's kid just walked out of an exam out of exasperation. Some teachers shared that other kids hid under their chairs :( For progressive schools, they conduct a one on one assessment with teacher and student. The school said the students need not study for kids will have to answer based on what knowledge is stored in their brains. No memorization. Come to think of it, which memorized subjects in school were you able to remember until now? 

3. Social Engaged Intelligence - experience is the best teacher and progressive schools uphold this wisdom in their curriculum. Instead of classroom discussion on the works of a fireman, a dentist or a carpenter, kids are exposed to the 'people in our neighborhood' (remember the Sesame St. song?) to know more about these professions. For this weekend, to celebrate Linggo ng Wika, students and their families will join the Palarong Pinoy activity and I'm all geared up to teach Sophie all forgotten street games like piko, tumbang preso and patentero :)

Although the big question for students coming from a progressive teaching environment is if they will be able to cope when it's time to move to a traditional big school? My view on this is, I believe that as long as kids were properly taught the fundamentals while in kinder and prep, they will be as ready as any student when they get to Trad schools. It is also the parents' role to make sure that kids learn what they should be learning from progressive schools or if they might be behind. The internet has a lot of insights and studies to help parents. 

School Hunt: Almost There (But Not Quite...)

 I have been meaning to share this with you as this is one of the most important decisions we (husband and I) will make for our little daughter. There are moms out there that have schooling children and experienced school hunting. I hope you can help me. I have mentioned here that I went school hunting for the most appropriate school for our little girl. I say appropriate, not the best. To be honest, I used to want the best school but after a while I realized, it’s not a matter of what’s best but what’s best for which child personality. Also, I found from one site several months ago that before you go hunting for the right school, write down the 5 most important values that you would want your child to learn from the school. Last year I wrote down these:

1. God fearing / Place God Above All – I sort of copied this from my company’s mission/vision. This is very important for me that my children develop a personal relationship with the Lord.
2. Love for Knowledge
3. Respect/Care for Others
4. Discipline
5. Love for Art and sports

Items 2-4 are self-explanatory. For item 5, my husband and I are really art lovers, he for music and writing and me for theatre, dance and sketching. We value being able to express our thoughts, emotions and dreams through art. It’s also a very important tool to destress so we want our children to experience artform in its purest form.

To make the story short, we were able to shortlist the schools that we think is right for our daughter. Both are progressive schools. School no. 1 scheduled her assessment one Saturday morning. It was your typical progressive house-turned-school. We were requested to wait in the office while the teacher and teacher assistant gave her skills test in one room. Basically, the test covered alphabets, numbers, colors, shapes and basic questions in information and social awareness. The verdict: with her age and skills, she can start at kinder level. She can skip nursery but they suggest that she take a summer class on reading/writing readiness in order to prepare her on her first year in school. She kinda fell short on writing but aced the shapes and colors tests. I was happy with the result and most importantly my little girl felt at home immediately in the school and with the teachers. She’s the type that doesn’t warm up easily to strangers, suplada kumbaga, so I was relieved to know she likes it there.

We decided to try another school just to see how it will go. We wanted to get a second opinion, in a manner of speaking. So off to school no. 2 we go. This is a much bigger school compared to school no. 1 since they accept students until grade 6. Sophie was whisked in a room while we stayed in the lobby. After half an hour (or less), the teacher already called us to discuss the result of the exam.

Based on the age, she is already qualified for Kinder but based on the assessment, she needs to start with Nursery + summer class. Their Kinder level requires children to be able to identify number words up to 50. They should also be able to write well already and can copy some words and assignments on the board. Plus, I was expecting an assessment on the other skills like in school 1. Apparently, my daughter was only assessed based on her knowledge of reading, writing and numbers. I was surprised by this and slightly saddened. I felt that school 1 gave a more holistic assessment. 

Everytime I share this experiences to my friends, they are equally surprised at the expectations of school no. 2 to kinder level. Now, I don’t know if school 1 is just too lax in their curriculum or school no. 2 is too much? I would also like to know if I have been too lenient in teaching my kids the basics of education like reading and writing? Both my children love books, they love to write on their blackboard, love to paint, draw and color.

I was even bothered to know the news about the two gifted kids in the commercial years back. Remember the kid that can memorize the solar system,etc? Until now she has no college degree. According to some friends who are her batchmates from college, she could not decide what course to take. At some point, sadly, she somehow just got burned out from studying. That’s a sad story that I don’t want my children to experience. Another friend was sad because her child doesn’t like to continue her ballet and piano anymore. This kid got in school at age two. She attended ballet, piano, guitar lessons and other extra curicular activities since she was a toddler. Now she’s in gradeschool and only wants to practice her guitar. The others she just dropped out, got tired according to the parent.

Right now, I am willing to give progressive school a try as I have been receiving good reviews but one lingering question on my mind is: when these kids from progressive schools become adults, how will they fare in terms of critical decision making and high level stress in college and the real world? 

Gosh, am I over analyzing this? 

School Hunt Part 2

The past few weeks, husband and I have been busy with school hunting for Sophie. Basically, I do the research which schools around our area have good rep (based on parenting sites, websites, etc). I already made an entry for two schools that we checked and so far we still feel we need to search more. So far, this is as much as we got:

Good Shepherd Catholic School – Rado St., Fairview, QC. This is a traditional school, with average 25 students per class for Nursery and Kinder. One thing that got me interested in this school is that it’s a Catholic school and I, coming from one, believe firmly that children should be exposed to as much religious activities and practices because somehow it deepens their relationship with God. I want to inculcate that in my children. However, when I talked to the registrar, I got disappointed because, being a full traditional school, they’re not as accommodating and open to queries as the other schools. We weren’t even given a chance to check the classrooms saying classes are ongoing. Makes me remember how strict the nuns and school personnel in my school.

Active Thinkers -  http://activethinkerscdc.multiply.com/. this is a progressive school and just 5minutes away from home. Although it’s progressive, they also incorporated the use of some textbooks so that children will not get disoriented so much when they transfer to big schools and get a load of textbooks. It’s a small school, basically a home transformed into school. It accepts students for the toddler’s playgroup to prep level. My husband and I were able to talk to the owner teacher Lenith Nolasco and I think she convinced my husband with the progressive way of teaching. You see, my husband is skeptical that progressive school will effectively prep a child when it’s time to go to big school. We have shortlisted this school J

Kinderheim – 35 Holy Spirit Drive, Don Antonio Heights. http://www.kinderheim.com/.

This is also a full progressive school and I was able to talk to the Asst. Directress (sorry I forgot her name) who was very patient in answering all my queries and showing me the classrooms and facilities of the school. The school looks more like your average home-turned-school but it’s really not. There’s a 3-story building with a gymnasium when you get through their one-storey homeschool. You see, Kinderheim accepts students from daycare to grade 6. This is a very impressive school, very modern-looking, clean and well maintained.

My husband and I were also able to check out Falcon Learning center again and he agreed with my worries about the security of the school. Diliman Prep was also in our list of nice schools. I got answers and a nice tour from one of the personnel but husband is worried about the location since it's on the other side of Mindanao Ave. We don't really want to stress ourselves and Sophie with that travel to school five times a day. Also, Diliman Prep is a big school and we feel that Sophie will be better off starting in a smaller school. 

So now, we're actually down to Kinderheim and Active Thinkers. Both schools told me I’m an early bird and I still have time to think so the next few weeks will be spent jotting down the pros and cons of both schools and making the final decision. Both schools also suggested we enroll Sophie in reading readiness class on summer 2011. Since next school year will be her first time to go to school summer classes will help her become oriented with school life and aid her reading skills.