Little Victories

And so it's official, we are enrolled as a homeschooling family with TMA Homeschool.

UPDATE 11/4/2016: TMA Homeschool is now known as Homeschool Global.

I went and attended Curriculum Day today, and listened to a short talk by Joy Tan-chi Mendoza on how to choose books and material that will be customized for the needs of the kids.  I liked how flexible it was, and with R counted as a special needs kid, it gives me a whole lot more leeway on how to teach him, considering he's not really speaking yet.

And some of the slides shown are the following:

So yeah, a lot of these I've studied when I was in university, but it was wonderful to get a refresher on these.  It also helped in narrowing down the books that we're thinking of purchasing.  I was also pleased to have received a P50.00 voucher for their newly-opened bookstore.  I bought the book Achieving True Success using that voucher to make it a bit cheaper as this book is required per family.

This book can also be purchased online here.

As for the rest, we're tackling the following subjects for R- English, Filipino, Math, Science, And Bible and Character.  Achieving True Success is part of their Character curriculum.  The books for the others, hubby and I have agreed to set aside some time to peruse them together.  Luckily, I didn't feel pressured to get any books today as they are available for purchase online at http://www.home-schooling-solutions.com/ and can be delivered to your Metro Manila home within 48 hours.

To augment R's social skills, we've enrolled him in classes and playtime in Gymboree.  He loves it, to the point he gets all excited when I call him to go and play, or attend class.  He enjoys the music and singing, and even has favorite teachers already.  The slides and climbing are really good for his vestibular needs, and the space he has for running around is great for working off his energy.

R has been progressing rather rapidly since we started Gymboree.  He can now call his grandpa and his uncle (my brother) by name, and he can answer "Yes" to some questions.  He's also started noticing other kids, when they cry or shout.  He'll even look for the source of the crying.

But the best part is that we see some pretend play emerging.  Because of Gymboree and their constant use of play dough to teach letters, R now wants to play with play dough with me every night!  To think he used to be grossed out.  So a couple of nights ago, I made a little fish out of play dough, and he started to move it in the air as if it was swimming.  Hubby and I were thrilled.

But just in case it was a fluke, I tried again last night,  This time, I made a horse out of play dough.  You see, we just spent last weekend in Baguio with my dad, and along the way saw lots of cows and goats.  In Baguio, we tried to take him horseback riding.

He wouldn't.

He was perfectly content to watch the horses go by and wave bye-bye to them.  So last night, when I made the play dough horse, he picked it up, looked at it for a while.

"That's a horse," I told him.

R gave me a little smile... and proceeded to play and pretend that the play dough horse was running on the floor!

This makes me very hopeful that with pretend play emerging, he will be speaking soon.  I hope for that day with all my heart, and praising God for the little victories and improvements we get.

So this is it.  I am a little nervous, but God will guide us.  Counting on Him day by day.

Onward to homeschooling!