Free Educational Worksheets for Your Kid

One of the perks of being a home based virtual assistant is that I get to pay close attention to my daughter's education. And since I enrolled her in a public school this school year, I am doubly attentive to what she's learning.

Now, upon getting oriented with the Kumon program, I have decided to become more involved in her education. I have asked a cousin to loan me the books her son used in private school. I am also scouring the web for free worksheets that I can copy or print to supplement her lessons.

One site I found is My Child, Power to the Parents. It offers free downloads of English and Math lessons for your kids in four different stages, including SATs. You should check it out for yourself!

In School

In school we have seven subjects: English, Math, Filipino, Sibika at kultura, writing, communication and science. In morning our lessons are English and Filipino and in the afternoon our subjects are math and sibika at kultura

We have recces 2 times: one for morning and one for afternoon.

My favorite subject is English and my teacher says that I am very good in English.

Counting Fingers

Since we moved to our new house last Sunday, Gabby's afternoons became play time with her classmate KIM who lives next door to us. Today we had KIM come over for snacks because it is her 8th birthday. They were telling me stories about school life when we got to math.

I learned that she only got 53% in a substraction quiz in Math. She never liked subtraction. But what caught my attention aside from her poor grade was the fact that they were borrowing fingers. It turns out that when they need extra digits to add or subtract numbers more than 10, they borrow extra fingers from their seatmate. It amused me for a while but it also worried me. Time to pay attention to her arithmetic skills!

Mommy Bloopers #1

In terms of schooling, many things are different this year. It's Gabby's first time to attend public school. It's also the first time that she had to a spend the whole day at school. Before I always chose afternoon classes for her since we're both late sleepers and we wake up past 9am at the earliest.

The first day went well. I forgot nothing since I brought her to school myself and had everything on hand. The second day was bad. I forgot to give her the water jug and she went to school without drinking water. True to her form, she exasperatingly informed me that I forgot to give her water the minute she came home. I had to say sorry.

This is her third day of school. You'd think I'd be more mindful this time. Well, in terms of the water I was. Her water jug is safely in her bag. But I forgot her lunch pack. So she has no biscuits and no rice meal later. I must suffer the consequences and wake up before 11 and bring her lunch. You'd think that after 6 1/2 years of being a parent I'd be an expert at this. Geez...

I suspect there'd be more mommy blooper stories in the days to come! 

Gabby Goes to Central

Gabby has always attended private schools since she started going to formal schooling when she was 2 ½ years old. I have always chosen schools close to where we lived. The first one was a new preschool (I forgot the name) where Gabby learned a lot of art stuff and nursery rhymes. She only stayed there for a month a half since it was only for the summer.

The next one is a popular preschool near the municipal hall. I chose this was one because the teachers, two sisters from a wealthy family here in San Pedro, Laguna, spoke English without the usual Filipino accent. Plus, they got a nice multimedia curriculum. They aimed to make their students independent by not allowing guardians to accompany the students inside the classroom. Gabby used to cry come dismissal time because the teacher would not allow her to go home if she didn’t finish her school work. That got her disciplined a little.

We moved houses the next year so Gabby transferred to Mother Succor School in South Fairway. This was only three blocks from our house so Gabby was able to walk to and from school without a chaperon. This school, owned and operated by my high school journalism adviser, gave Gabby a chance to enjoy extracurricular activities. She won her first class declamation contest and competed in the school level. She had her first Cub Scout camping in the school grounds. She also took part in her school’s theatrical production as a thundercat. Academic wise, she started reading a little.

But Gabby learned to read fast in Divine Marie School. She transferred here after a year in Mother Succor because we moved to Camella Homes South. Located in Camella Homes Milan, this school is owned and operated by Teacher Sol out of the first floor of her home. There’s always less than 10 students and the teacher is able to focus on the kids. Children from three different levels all learned in one class so Gabby learned to interact with kids her age and those younger than her. She reveled in excelling in the class and this boosted her self esteem a lot. She also skipped a level, preparatory, because she passed the Grade 1 readiness test at 6.

This year, however, Gabby is starting on a new school and a public one at that. She will be attending San Pedro Central Elementary School as a Grade 2 student. At first, I wanted her to attend either Amazing Grace School or Liceo de San Pedro but financial difficulties made me decide to enroll her in a public school. Most of my relatives are against it but I did assure them that it would only be for a year.

So what are my reasons for enrolling Gabby in a public school? Here are they:

1. It would be a good way to save some money and pay off debts.
2. It will allow me to gauge Gabby’s adaptive and coping skills since it will be her first time to attend a public school and larger class size.
3. I believe Gabby will learn a lot in terms of experience since she will be staying in school for 9 hours, with 2 hour break.

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I wish Gabby will do good in this school. Or else I might be tempted to transfer her in a private school in the middle of a school year.

Who is Gabby?

I am Gabby. I am 6 years old. I am in Grade 1.

I go to school every morning. My teacher's name is teacher Sol. My favorite subject is Filipino.

My favorite classmate is Nicole because she is very kind to me.

Gabby Goes to Grade 1

Worried that Gabby would find Prep boring, I decided to enroll her in Grade I. It's a bit early since she is only 5 1/2 years old when the school year started. To find out if she was ready to enter elementary school, I made her take entrance tests in Liceo de San Pedro (LDSP) and Laguna Northwestern College(LNC). I'm proud to say that she passed both tests.

Unfortunately, LDSP would not accept her because of her age. I was set to enroll her in LNC but was worried that they have many students in her class. I finally decided to let her stay with Divine Marie School since this is where she learned to read. And boy could she read. Well, here's a pic of her in her school uniform!