Thursday, June 27, 2013

Bela'a Neuro Psychological Test Results for Academic Skills

I forgot to blog about this but we visited Bela’s pedia last May and he administered a Bela'a results for Neuro Psychological Test for Academic Skills and just look at Bela’s results.

Bela is 7 years old and is in Grade 2 this school year:

General Information – 6-7 years old
Oral Reading – Grade 3
Reading Comprehension – Grade 3
Mathematics – Grade 2

I am one proud mommy. But more than the academic skills, I am happy because Bela is growing up to be the kind child who knows how to share her blessings and looks after the welfare of others. Hope she will continue to grow to be a God fearing individual and a responsible member of the society.

I kept on wondering what she will be like when she grows up. For now, she is fascinated with anything about animals so will she be a veterinarian or a zoo keeper someday? Or since she loves Science, will she be a chemist and scientist just like those working for www.lspceramics.com/.

But whatever it is that she likes to pursue, we her parents, are just here to support her all the way.

A Special Card from Bela

Look, Bela made a card for us and what makes it even more special is that it is written in Tagalog:
This is one of the art works that they did in her Tagalog Class with The Learning Library. Bela enjoys her class with them because it is not a formal classroom setup. They have games, reading activities, arts and crafts and they just incorporate Tagalog language with all these activities.

I really saw some improvement with Bela’s Tagalog skills because she is starting to speak in Tagalog and she can even understand some of the words if we speak to her in Tagalog. Too bad they don’t have Saturday class this school year because I would have wanted her to continue with their Tagalog class for the entire school year until she gains confidence and be fluent with the Tagalog language.

Bela’s Music Studio

Last week, Cobi and I watched Bela during her session with Teacher Elmer. Teacher said that Bela improved a lot and he asked Bela to show us what she learned for the past weeks:
Bela was so proud as she plays this tune to us. This is the basic and from it, Bela can create more melodies and tunes. Teacher Elmer said that a few more sessions, and he will already teach Bela how to play a song.

Bela only has the starter drum set so she really can’t practice at home because she said that her drum set is missing some pieces (I don’t know what it’s called). She wanted to have her own drum set so she can play and practice at home but hubby and I decided to postpone it for a bit and observe first if this is really something that Bela will stick too. And from the looks of it, she is really having fun and this is something that she will be really interested to learn.

That is why hubby and I talked and we really have to save money so we can convert one of our spare rooms into Bela’s music studio. I got really excited actually that I already started looking for studio furniture and stores where we can buy her drum set. Hope that this is something that we can do before November so it will be our birthday gift for her.

Epic Movie Date with the Kiddos

Bela had been waiting for the movie Epic to be shown in theaters that is why one Saturday night, I treated her and Cobi for a movie and we watched Epic.
It was a good movie actually. I love the plot of the story and how they highlighted the relationship between father and daughter.

Hubby was really jealous because he is usually Bela’s movie date but he is away on temporary duty. But Monster University is showing soon so he can make up to us for missing our Epic movie date.

My Rock Star

Just look at my Bela, enjoying her drum lessons at Academy of Rock:
My drummer girl
She has been taking drum lessons for 2 months now and I am really happy that she is enjoying it. This is the second music class that she attended. First was a violin lesson which she took 2 summers ago and I can see that she was really not that into it. But it is really different with her drum lessons now because she always mentions it to us and she is really excited to attend class. She is also at ease with her teacher and they are like good buddies, which help because it makes the learning more fun for Bela.

Teacher Elmer is also starting to introduce reading notes to Bela which is important as she can apply it too if ever she wants to play other instruments. Looks like we will have to save so we can buy more musical instruments for the kids like keyboard and guitar so they can really hone their talents.

Bela's 3rd Book: Reptiles

Here are a few pages on the 3rd book that Bela is working on:
Few pages in Bela's book @dudehowie
The first book that she made was a story about Brother Bear, the second book was all about Dinosaurs and this is her third book which is all about Reptiles.

She said that she is summarizing the books that she had been reading about Reptiles and compressed it to a few pages so that other kids can read and learn about reptiles too without having to read thousand pages of book.

What makes this book really special is that Bela is doing the book so she can sell it and the proceeds will be donated to Project PEARLS, which is the NGO that my husband and I supports, so that she can share money to buy food for the kids. I am one proud mommy.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Impromptu Playdate

Last May 26, we had a visit from my friends with their kids for an impromptu playdate. We have been talking about playdates and we have wanted to meet up as we have a lot of catching up to do but are schedules don’t meet.

The conversation started in Instagram when I posted a picture of our inflatable pool and then we are all free on Sunday afternoon and before we know it, we have a playdate.

Bela was so excited when I told her that friends will be visiting us for a playdate and she started planning what are the activities that they will do.

They first swam in our inflatable pool, thanks to our parker hose distributor, we were able to fill the pool with water in time, when all the kids arrived.
Then they watched movies, played game boards, bike, basketball and more. And while the kids are busy playing, the mommies were able to chat, had our manicure and pedicure and eat until we’re all so full.

It was a very fun day. Hope we can do this more often.

Bela, the Future Book Writer and Illustrator

My daughter is very bus and did you know what she is busy with?

She is doing her own book about Dinosaurs. She received a Dinosaur book from my friend last Christmas and it contains tons of information about every dinosaur you can think of. What she is doing for her book is she is drawing the different dinosaurs and then she is summarizing the information and is writing it down in her book.

She said she is making this book and she will give it to the kids in Ulingan so they will learn about dinosaurs too. Isn’t she is the sweetest? And I am proud that she just not thinks of herself but of others as well. Another proud mommy moment here.

Saturday, June 08, 2013

Summer is Over. Start of the New School Year

I can’t believe that the 2 months of summer vacation is over just like that. Next week, Bela will go back to school as a grade 2 student. I remember last year, I have a lot of fears for my daughter as it is a big transition for her, moving from Sr. Prep to Grade 1.

In Grade 1, they will have teachers for each subject and she was in school almost the whole day. On the first week of class, Bela would go home almost at the brink of crying and she keep on telling us that teacher does not like her. I was even asked by her special programs teacher for a meeting as Bela would hide under the table and she needs to do a lot of convincing before she comes out of the table.

My heart was shattered as a mom, seeing my daughter like that. But every time I will ask her, she will say that she still loves school so I am thankful that it did not reached the point when Bela would detest going to school.

Hope this school year will be different. I am really praying to God that Bela will have supportive and patient teachers and adviser and nice classmates so it will be a smoother transition for her this time.

And speaking of first day of school, I suddenly remembered that I have not printed sticker labels for Bela’s notebooks and books. Good thing I remembered that I ordered to print flyers at printingamerica.com few months ago and so I will check if they print sticker labels and bag tags too.

Good luck my dear daughter. Have fun in school.