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Back-to-School Finds at SM Stationery

May 12, 2017 · 16 Comments

We’re right smack in the middle of summer vacation now and we all know what that means – it’s time to get ready for the next school year. When I was still a student, the thing that excited me the most about starting a new school year was shopping for school supplies. Haha! I’m sure a lot of you can relate.

Most people go to the bookstores to shop for their school books and supplies and that’s why those places can become really crowded during this time. If you hate crowds and long lines like I do though, you can steer clear of these places and shop somewhere else.

I was at SM Southmall this past weekend and was pleased to find that SM Stationery actually has a wide array of back-to-school items that you can choose from. I love shopping at SM Stationery for my crafting needs but I’ve noticed that their list of back-to-school items keeps growing every year. Let me show you some of them.

All-in-One School Pack

You should check out these bags though because they’re not just bags. They are called the All-in-One School Pack that already contains some school supplies that your kids will need.

You can choose a pack depending on your child’s grade level. I love that each pack contains several school supplies already, such as crayons, pencils, ruler, scissors, notebooks, folders and more. It makes shopping for school supplies faster and more convenient for us moms. There are a few designs to choose from as well. Plus, they’re super affordably priced at only Php 399 per pack!

You’d be happy to know that when you purchase this pack from May 1 to June 30, with a minimum single receipt purchase of Php 1,500 at SM Stationery, you will get a watch for FREE!

Notebooks and Pad Paper

There are so many notebooks and pad paper to choose from that cater to all grade levels. The notebooks come in various designs and colors. Some of them you can buy individually while there are others that are already in a bundle.

Pens and Pencil Cases

There are rows and rows of different types of pens. As a certified pen addict, this made my heart sing! Haha! They have ballpens, markers, brush pens, sign pens and more.

Of course, if you plan on hoarding a lot of pens you need pencil cases to put them in. I love that there’s also a huge assortment of pencil cases available at SM Stationery. The have the plastic ones, the hard cases, and even zippered pouches in a lot of different colors and designs.

Art Materials

The area that my kids liked the most was the art materials section because they’re all into arts and crafts.

There are lots of coloring and drawing pens.

There are different kinds of paint and paint brushes.

There are all sorts of glue and tape.

There was also a huge wall containing several types of board, paper and other materials that can be used for art projects and the like.

I even saw this super cute pack of label stickers that you can use to label your kids’ school materials.

Filing and Storage Materials

I especially love their range of filing and storage products. Because I’m homeschooling my son, Ziggy, we store a lot of school supplies at home and it’s essential for me to organize them properly. I can’t have enough storage materials, if you ask me.

What else can you find at SM Stationery?

Aside from back-to-school items though, you can also find office supplies at SM Stationery.

There were even some business-related machines, such as cutters, paper shredders and laminators on display. I can actually use a laminator for our homeschool. Putting that one on my TO BUY list!

They also have some printer ink. Printer ink is very important at our house because I print a lot of our homeschool materials.

There was also a whole wall of computer accessories, such as these very cute and colorful headphones and earphones on the photo above that my daughters really liked. Those colorful Sibyl headphones only costs Php 349.75 each.

My daughters and I also couldn’t resist the cute stuff we found at SM Stationery, such as these different types of washi and paper tapes……

….. stickers and die cuts.

My daughter, Ziya, really loved these sticker patches, which was priced at only Php 169.75 for a pack of 3.

Here are lots of super cute (and yummy-looking!) erasers.

I even found these magnetic fans…..

…. and this adorable Cool Fan that looks like a lollipop! This only costs Php 59.75 each.

In case you need a power bank for your mobile devices, SM Stationery has several of those too. I’m really loving that blue and pink unicorn one! Those emoticon power banks each cost Php 349.75 only.

Below are some more items you can find in SM Stationery.

If your daughter loves pastel colors (like I do!), she’s going to love these items.

For your techie kids, they’ll surely appreciate these items above.

These colorful school supplies above will be a huge hit for kids who love cartoon characters.

If you ask me though, my personal favorites are the Hot Deals because I love getting the best value for my money. I especially love the Crayola BTS pack shown above. It’s perfect for my son who’s going to be in first grade in June. He loves to draw and color and is always in need of more drawing and coloring materials. I love that the Crayola BTS pack already has crayons, pencils and two types of markers for only Php 249.75! Hot deal, indeed.

So, as you have seen above, SM Stationery truly has everything your kids will need for school this coming school year. I love the variety because it gives me and my kids so many choices, depending on our preference and budget. No need to go anywhere else for school supplies!

I also super love that everything is so organized! Each section is properly and clearly labeled so you will know where to go and not waste your precious time finding what you need.

So, if you’re already starting your back-to-school shopping, head over to the nearest SM Store and find SM Stationery!

To learn more about SM Stationery, follow them on Facebook and on Instagram.

Homeschool Diaries 2016: Recap of the First Four Weeks

July 13, 2016 · 19 Comments

Last month, I shared what our homeschooling set up is for this year. We are now on our fifth week and so I thought I’d do a recap of what transpired during the first four weeks.

I’m pleased to share that all is good in our preschool homeschool journey so far. The weekly homeschool planner that I designed has been instrumental to keeping us organized. I usually plan out two weeks worth of lessons at a time and that has worked really well for us especially in keeping track of our progress.

Ziggy actually has 7 subjects this year including Language, Reading, Filipino, Writing, Math, Science and MAPE. I”m so proud to say that we’re already done studying all four Science lessons required for the first quarter of the school year. This is great because that leaves us more time to dedicate to more difficult subjects. In Ziggy’s case, that means Filipino.

To help with our Filipino lessons, we have enrolled him in Beginning Filipino classes under The Learning Library. He just had his first class yesterday. Although each class only takes an hour, we have to go to the center three times a week and so I’ve had to adjust our homeschooling schedule at home. It hasn’t been a problem so far but we’ll see what happens in the next several weeks.

Today though, I’d like to share with you some of the activities we’ve done so far. I’ve posted some of them on social media and I’ve received questions about where I get the ideas and materials from so I thought I’d share them with you. Before that, let me just say that the activities I choose for Ziggy are usually related to the topics we’re discussing for the week. Ziggy’s a kinesthetic learner, which means he learns better by experiencing things, being active and doing things as opposed to only reading or hearing about them. So, I chose activities that he can have fun with but at the same time help him remember and understand concepts better.

Here are some of the activities we’ve done so far.

Sorting Largest to Smallest or Smallest to Largest

One of the Math lessons we had was on sizes. I researched and found printable cards that will help your kid sort photos of items from largest to smallest or smallest to largest. I found these card printables via MontessoriMom.com. It actually comes with a printable board too which your kid can use as well to compare sizes but although I downloaded it, I decided not to use it anymore for this particular instance.

I love the Montessori way of learning and think that it’s the best way to teach Ziggy, so I’m planning on using more Montessori activities in the future.

Learning Opposites

We subscribed to the Toddler version of the Buribox for six months. Although we’ve stopped our subscription already for now, we still have a lot of unused materials from the boxes we’ve collected from them and this activity is one of them. Aside from learning about opposites, this also teaches kids about shapes, sizes and counting.

We love the Buribox but since we’re done with the toddler versions we’d have to transition to their Young Reader version if we want to continue our subscription, which is what we plan to do soon.

HaluHalo Stand

This is another activity sheet from the Buribox. This is actually a counting activity. As you can see below, there’s a number dice. Kids are supposed to pretend that they are selling halo-halo from a stand. They’re supposed to ask their customers which ingredients they want included in their halo-halo. Customers will then throw the dice to determine the amount of such ingredient the kid has to put inside the “glass”.

Domino Flash Cards

Sometimes I get ideas for activities from Ziggy’s own school books, such as this idea on using domino flash cards to foster understanding on numbers and counting. I made two sets of domino flash cards using Powerpoint, printed and cut them to size.

One other idea I got from one of his books is to let Ziggy make photos by gluing different shapes together. It was super time-consuming just drawing and cutting a lot of different shapes. But it was also super worth it because he really enjoyed that activity.

Taking Care of our Teeth

One of our Science lessons involved learning how to take care of ourselves physically. That involves oral hygiene, which is also affected by the types of food that we eat. I researched online and found this activity sheet from PrintableWorksheets.In. The sheet has two columns: one is for a healthy mouth and the other for an unhealthy mouth. Under that are several drawings of different types of food that you can cut out.

Kids are supposed to sort through the cut-outs and choose which types of food are healthy to eat or not and then paste them under the appropriate column.

Personal Hygiene Chart

Another printable I found online that helps teach lessons on taking care of oneself is this Personal Hygiene Chart also from PrintableWorksheets.In. This worksheet has several blank rows and columns that contain days of the week.

On the left most column, kids are supposed to jot down what they need to do in order to keep themselves clean and healthy, such as bathing, brushing their teeth, washing their hands before meals, etc. Then, they’re supposed to track which days of the week they are able to do those things. I had Ziggy update this sheet at the end of every day for one week. It helped make him more aware of whether he has done enough to keep himself clean on a particular day.

Circle Time Songs

I schedule five minutes of circle time each time we start our homeschool session. Circle Time is when we pray, update his chart (including the date, day, weather and time of day) and sing “welcome” songs. I usually pick out one song per week. Doing this helps him memorize the song better compared to using a different song every day.

For this, I also went online to find a list of songs I could use. I found a downloadable PDF file from TeachingMama.org. It contains 8 pages. The file includes one preschool song per page, with lyrics, that are perfect for starting your preschool homeschool day right. Ziggy loves all the five songs we’ve used so far. He loves them so much that he usually asks to sing it several times before we end our Circle Time. Sometimes he ends up singing them in his spare time too.

DepEd Kindergarten Education Resources

I stumbled upon this site, called DepEd Tambayan PH, that provides a lot of information, resources and printables related to the DepEd K-12 curriculum. It includes weekly lesson plans with suggested activities. They even have free ready-made sample exams for periodical tests.

I found the page dedicated for the Kindergarten level very helpful. It gives me ideas on what teachers in regular schools teach and the activities they do that help students have a better understanding of the lessons. You can download the weekly lesson plan but the page also has links to stories, test items, and such, as well as information on the Kindergarten Legal Mandate and the Kindergarten Education Act among others. You can access the Kindergarten Resources here.

I usually research for resources once or twice a week. I still have more on my list that I haven’t included here simply because we haven’t tried them yet. I plan on doing a homeschool update here on the blog at least once a month though so I’ll be sharing the other resources then. Until then, you can follow me on Instagram to see what we do for preschool homeschool each week.

For now, I hope you’ll find this post helpful. If you’re a more seasoned homeschooler, I’d appreciate it if you can share your resources too in the comments below. Thanks!

Improve Your Kids’ Reading and Comprehension Skills Through The Learning Library

June 30, 2016 · 9 Comments

By this time, a lot of Filipino kids are already back in school, with others starting soon in July or August. My kids are back in school too – my teen daughters are back in high school in a traditional school while my five-year-old son is now doing preschool homeschool under a provider.

Pretty soon, school kids will be busy with homework, tests and projects. As parents, it’s our role to guide them in their learning journey and be there to provide whatever assistance they need in order for them to really learn their lessons. Not all parents have the extra time to devote to this though especially since a lot of schools are tougher these days.

In cases like this, what we could do is get a little outside help, which is what I’m actually planning to do for my little boy. Yes, he is homeschooled and I’m his main teacher. But even I can admit to the fact that I can’t do everything and that I could use some help in one area of his learning – in Filipino.

My chosen partner for this is The Learning Library. My kids have already experienced taking summer enrichment classes at The Learning Library last year but they have different programs during the school year. So let me introduce you to the programs that they’re offering students this school year.

THE LEARNING LIBRARY offers English and Filipino programs that help improve comprehension and make learning enjoyable. By developing fundamental skills through enjoyable and accessible literature, they advance independent learning critical to long-term academic success.

They are currently offering three (3) programs: The Reading Advantage, Wika’y Galing and Test and Homework Help.

The Reading Advantage

The Reading Advantage develops strong fundamental skills that enable a learner not only to read words, but understand the meaning of what they read through guidance and practice. By exposing them to the best of children’s literature, they are encouraged to read more and read better, and given excellent models for composition.

Under this program, you can avail of either the Beginning Reading or Comprehension and Writing – English.

Beginning Reading (45-minute sessions, 2x a week / 1-hour sessions, 2x a week)

Beginning Reading provides the scaffolded learning approach for children who are just beginning to read. The activities use all 5 senses in the course of the sessions with the Reading Coach. Paired with engaging stories that are right for your child’s reading level, these activities ensure that your child will acquire skills that are necessary to make him an effective reader.

Comprehension and Writing -English (1-hour sessions, 2x a week)

Success in school is grounded on a student’s ability to process the information read and the ability to accurately express ideas through writing.

In Reading Comprehension and Writing, The Learning Library matches students to stories that are just right for their reading level. They choose what book to read to give them a chance to enjoy reading. With the help of well-trained and motivating reading coaches, students are taught a variety of comprehension strategies that help them understand and effectively apply the information that they’ve learned to texts they tackle in school.

In addition to processing information, students are also taught how to write well-thought essays. Using stories and text that illustrate the program’s writing goals, the reading coaches ensure that children are able to convey their ideas using activities that hone grammar and composition skills.

Wika’y Galing

Under this program, you can avail of either the Fundamental Filipino or the Comprehension and Writing – Filipino.

Fundamental Filipino (1-hour sessions, 2x a week)

In Fundamental Filipino, The Learning Library not only enhances your child’s vocabulary, grammar and expressive skills. Using stories written by Filipinos for Filipinosand fun, highly interactive activities, they teach your child to appreciate Philippine culture.

The Filipino speaking workshops equip students with a basic knowledge of the language: they learn it using literature specifically chosen for the session. Students learn to speak in Filipino in a supportive environment with other children through activities that enrich the story for the day.

Post-workshop sessions with reading coaches tie in new skills and knowledge with their school curriculum: they match their balarila activity to the topic currently discussed in school. This ensures that success in the program is translated to success in school.

Comprehension and Writing – Filipino (1-hour sessions, 2x a week)

Many good students have a difficult time with Filipino subjects, primarily due to insufficient vocabulary and limited use of the language. To cope, these students resort to memory work. This leaves them with a very basic knowledge of Filipino that is often not enough to handle school level requirements.

The Learning Library’s Comprehension and Writing in Filipino has successfully addressed this by “meeting students where they’re at”. They surround them with storybooks that are just right for their reading and speaking ability, and allow them to choose what to read. They acquire comprehension skills quickly and confidently, and the stories leave a lasting impression – be it additional knowledge of Filipino or deeper appreciation of our culture.

Aside from comprehension activities, students are given balarila exercises that complement the actual school curriculum. This ensures that lessons learned during their sessions are applied in the classroom, and built upon to create a foundation for long-term success.

Test and Homework Help (5x a week or 3x a week)

For those who just need assistance when there are tests or homework, this is the program for you.

The Learning Library builds fundamental skills for independent learning. Test and Homework Help works hand-in-hand with their Reading Advantage and Wika’y Galing! enrichment programs to help your child learn effective comprehension, writing and study skills to enable him or her to work independently. A thorough assessment of your child’s proficiency level, a close following of his school curriculum, and built-in enrichment is The Learning Library’s way of ensuring both short and long-term academic success!

Because our son is not yet fluent in Filipino, we are planning to enroll him in the Wika’y Galing program. I’m still going to teach him his Filipino lessons at home but I’m hoping that this program will complement what I teach him at home and make it easier for him to learn and eventually gain confidence in actually conversing in Filipino.

The Learning Library has branches in the following areas:

New Manila
Greenmeadows
Loyola Heights
Alabang
Makati
West Triangle
San Juan
Bonifacio High Street

To learn more about The Learning Library’s programs, visit www.learninglibraries.com and follow them on Facebook and Instragram.

Our Homeschooling Set-Up for 2016 – 2017

June 27, 2016 · 18 Comments

We started homeschooling our son, Ziggy, last year when he was 4 years old. It was nothing too serious though. We homeschooled independently and didn’t use any curriculum. I taught him basic knowledge, such as the alphabet and numbers, started him on writing and phonics exercises, sang and danced with him to many different songs, and read him a lot of books. Besides that, we just simply taught him about life and the world around him.

This year though, we are doing things a bit differently now that he’s 5 years old. According to the local Department of Education, kids entering kindergarten must be 5 years old by the time school starts in June. Thus, we figured it was time we tried enrolling him this year but not in a regular school. We opted to still continue homeschooling but with some changes to how we do things. Here are the major changes in our homeschooling set-up for this year.

Enrolling in a Homeschool Provider

My hubby and I really want to homeschool independently in the future. But for this year we had to consider the fact that I’ll be giving birth in a few months and would be busy with a new baby, aside from chores, my blog duties and my work responsibilities to my clients. I didn’t want to spread myself too thin because I didn’t want to risk not having enough time to homeschool.

Homeschooling our son is a priority for my hubby and I, so we wanted to make sure we’d be able to do it successfully. For this year at least, that means getting help by way of enrolling in a homeschool provider. Over the summer, we considered three local providers and ended up choosing Peniel Christian Academy for several reasons – they provide an open curriculum (although they can provide you with the DepEd curriculum as well if you choose to follow that), they can provide you with the books (although you can choose other books as well), they provide the homeschooler with activities to bond with other homeschoolers (such as field trips, etc), and they can provide the homeschooler with a report card at the end of the year and other DepEd required documents.

Basically, we figured it will make homeschooling easier for us this year because we now have a curriculum to follow. Besides, we wanted to experience having a provider so that in the future we can decide better between homeschooling independently versus having a provider.

We chose to avail of the books provided by Peniel. They are all local books that follow the DepEd curriculum. We’ve been using these books to guide us in the lessons. I ask Ziggy to do some of the activities prescribed in the book. But, I also add other activities that are fun and will supplement his learning.

Designated Homeschool Area

Last year, I homeschooled Ziggy in our bedroom, at least one hour per night. He used to sit on a small chair by the bed and work on a small table. This year, we decided to set up a learning area for him because 1) the bedroom will be occupied with a new baby soon (and I don’t want to disturb a sleeping baby with all the fun and chaos we’ll be doing while homeschooling), and 2) we scheduled homeschool lessons in the afternoon now while my husband is still sleeping (he works on a graveyard shift).

We decided to set up Ziggy’s homeschool space in one area of our living room. That area in between the upper and lower shelves is where the TV is supposed to be but we never placed it there anyway. We hardly entertain visitors too, so we might as well make this place useful, right?

I used the shelves to store Ziggy’s books and other materials. We added that 3-tier shelf on the left just this past weekend because we saw it on sale at Shopwise. Then, Ziggy uses a small desk and chair that we purchased for him a long time ago. The goal is to make this a Montessori-inspired area but that’s still a work in progress.

Some people might say that setting it up like this is just like bringing the school to the home, which is not really what homeschooling is all about. But, it’s not that case at all for us. I’m just OC. Haha! In our house, there’s a proper place for everything because I don’t want to waste time looking for stuff we need. I just wanted a designated place to put all his stuff. The truth is, we homeschool even if we’re not in this area because homeschooling should not be restricted to only one place. As I like to say, the world is our classroom.

Homeschool Planner

Peniel has provided us with a list of lessons to be learned, per subject and per quarter. However, it is up to the homeschool parent how he or she will schedule the lessons throughout the quarter. Because I’m OC, I chose to organize the lessons using a homeschool planner I made myself using Excel.

My weekly homeschool planner lists down the lessons to be learned for the week, for each subject and for each day. I usually print two copies – one for my homeschool binder (where I store all weekly homeschool planners and my resources) and one for tacking up on the wall in our homeschool area. Because I’m teaching Ziggy to be organized too, I ask him to highlight each lesson or activity he has done for the day so that we can easily track what we have accomplished. We need to track these things because we have to submit to Peniel a portfolio of his projects, lessons, and other activities accomplished by the end of the school year. I’m not one to cram so we’re preparing the portfolio as early as now.

Fun Educational Activities

I’ve been researching on fun educational activities, especially pertaining to arts and crafts, since last year and because of that we’ve also accumulated quite a lot of arts and crafts materials already. Plus, I was subscribed to the toddler version of the Buribox for six months and I kept all the activities there that we have yet to finish.

I believe that children learn best at play and so even if there are activities in Ziggy’s school books, I still choose ones that are not only related to the lessons for the week but are also fun for him too. It is only Week 3 in our homeschool year but we’ve done quite a lot of activities already. Here are some samples.

We tried a clay making activity last week when we were learning about the five senses. This activity was supposed to be for the lesson on sense of touch. It was a fail though because the recipe didn’t quite work. Haha! But at least we still had fun.

During the first week, we learned about the different parts of the body. So, we had a hand tracing activity, among others.

My mom celebrated her birthday last week so I asked Ziggy to make her a card. Since it was also Father’s Day the day before that, Ziggy made a card for his dad too (not in the photo though).

Today, we were finalizing his lesson on shapes. So, I thought it would be fun if Ziggy can make pictures by gluing different shapes together. Look what he came up with!

Play Time

Ziggy doesn’t have a book for Music, Arts and PE and so I have to come up with activities for those and I usually choose those that incorporate lessons from his other subjects, such as the clay making and shapes activities. The same goes for the songs I teach. For instance, I taught him to sing “Sampung mga Daliri” among others when we were learning about body parts. I always incorporate actions when we sing too so that we can both have some physical activity.

Moreover, although we have our homeschool planner, it’s not rigid. I know there will be days that we’ll do less or do more depending on what else is going on in our life. And that’s okay. That’s the beauty of homeschooling for us – it’s very flexible.

For instance, last Thursday, I had to attend an event. I took Ziggy with me and he had an opportunity to play there with other kids his age. So, yes, not only did he get some physical exercise, he got some socialization too.

We also went to another event where he got to play with old friends and participate with some games. Then, there was this instance when we took him to a playground when we visited a mall. He got to play with his bubble gun and had fun with the kids at the playground too.

Below was Ziggy playing with an Ipad app I downloaded. Even though learning about flags isn’t part of our curriculum yet, he’s learning about them now through this puzzle up, just because he’s interested in them. We want to encourage him to explore his interests and so we find time and resources so he can pursue them. Like I said, it’s not all about the lessons in his books.

Lifeschooling

Even when Ziggy was a baby, we already started teaching him about the world around him and that doesn’t stop now. He goes with hubby and I all the time, even when we’re just doing errands. We take those as opportunities to teach him how the world works.

For instance, when we go to a store to buy something, we let him practice paying at the counter. He can’t actually count money yet but it won’t hurt to get him comfortable already with the experience of going up to a counter and handing the items we’re purchasing plus the payment to the cashier.

When we do the groceries, he already helps us figure out which particular items to buy. By now, he’s already familiar with the brands or products that we consider staples in our household. Last Friday, when we did the grocery we also had an opportunity to stop by two pet stores. So, that was like a mini field trip for him as well.

He even got to accompany me to my 6th month prenatal check up. We see it as an opportunity for him to learn what OBs to do ensure mommy and baby’s health. He got to hear the baby’s heartbeats. He also got to witness me getting an anti-tetanus shot. All this will help prepare him for being a big brother.

So far, that’s what we’ve been doing. We have a lot more plans for the rest of the year. One of those would be enrolling him at The Learning Library for Filipino lessons. The Learning Library has partnered with me in promoting their programs for the year and since Ziggy is not really conversant in Filipino yet I thought it would also be a good opportunity for him to try out their program. I’ll be blogging about The Learning Library soon so watch out for that.

Some of you might think that what we’re doing is too much work and that you can’t possibly homeschool your own children. It’s really a serious choice to make and just because it’s right for our family doesn’t mean it’s right for yours. And just because this is how we are doing things now doesn’t mean I would recommend the same for other homeschool families. Each family, child and parent is different. Do what works for you and your child.

For us though, homeschooling is not just a choice brought about by the desire to save on money (although cost was a consideration on our part). It’s a huge commitment. You have to really want to do it with all your heart and be willing to do whatever it takes to make sure your homeschooling journey will be a success. If you are truly committed, you can make it work.

Hubby and I believe that this is the best way to educate our child. Ziggy, on his own, doesn’t want to go to regular school and prefers to be homeschooled instead. He has taken part in several short classes in sports, math, reading and science already where he got to experience regular and classroom type learning. Although he enjoyed some of them, he says he just wants mommy to his teacher. So this is where we are now. This is what we do. Good luck to us!

For those of you who wish to join us in our journey, I promise to share more in the future. In case there are veteran homeschooling moms or dads reading this, we’re very open to your suggestions as well. Just comment below! Thanks!

Unboxing the November BuriBox

November 22, 2015 · 22 Comments

Last month, I blogged about the first ever BuriBox, the October version. Ziggy and I have been happily using it ever since. So, you can imagine how excited we were for the November box to arrive. A few days ago, it finally did!

Like last month, we got the Toddler Box again, because Ziggy’s four years old. This time though, it came with a brown outer box (the one on the left on the photo above). The first one didn’t have that. I like that they now have this outer box because I feel that it protects the BuriBox from getting crumpled during delivery.

This month’s Toddler BuriBox is designed to help the child discover the people and the objects in his or her surroundings. It also teaches the child how to understand and express his or her emotions.

The Parent’s Guide included in the box explains to the parents how important it is to teach children about emotions. They say that “teaching your child about his or her feelings is one of the most important life skills you can impart to your child. Children who understand their feelings are less likely to throw tantrums or exhibit behavior problems. ” I definitely agree.

So, here’s what you can find inside! As usual, there is a mix of books, activity sheets and art materials all in theme.

Here are the four books included.

The books included are as follows:

Masaya Ako – increases awareness about one’s feelings, helps the child label the feeling and express them clearly
The World Around Me (Green) – helps the child make sense of the things around him, helps in building schema about different things as well as his vocabulary
Figure This Out 2 – develops the child’s visual perception skills
Magkulay Tayo 2 – helps the child make sense of the things around him, helps in building schema about different things as well as his vocabulary

The first 3 books are bilingual, using both Filipino and English. So far, we’ve only used Masaya Ako during the past few days. But based on our experience with the October BuriBox, I’m sure we will love all four books. I credit them for adding more Filipino words to Ziggy’s vocabulary.

Below are the activity sheets. They’re all bilingual too.

There are 6 activities in this box. They are as follows:

Face Puzzle – shows that different feelings can be represented by different facial expressions, shows that we can also use our body or face to show different feelings
Masayang Mukha, Malungkot na Mukha – helps the child become aware of his feelings, helps the child label his feelings and communicate them better
Mga Gamit sa Aking Bahay – increases one’s vocabulary about the things around him
Mga Gamit sa Aking Eskuwelahan – increases one’s vocabulary about the things in his school
Popsicle Stick Faces (2 sheets) – helps the child become aware of his feelings, helps the child label his feelings and communicate them better
The World Around Me Puzzle – develops fine motor skills (in picking up and handling puzzle pieces), enhances visual spacial awareness as well as problem-solving skills, develops hand-and-eye coordination which is an important skill for writing, increases a child’s attention span

So far, we’ve only been able to do two of these activities, the Face Puzzle and the Popsicle Stick Faces.

It was Ziggy’s first time to handle popsicle sticks for arts and crafts so he was really excited to use them. Here are the finished products.

I love how the books and activity sheets work together. We did this activity after reading the book, Masaya Ako. So, making these popsicle stick faces helps reinforce the learnings from the book about feelings. While Ziggy is already aware of the different types of feelings, he didn’t know what they are called in Filipino. Now, with the BuriBox, he’s learning those too.

Ziggy also loves puzzles so this was the second activity we tried.

Ziggy is usually very good with puzzles. In fact, he finishes puzzles pretty fast. However, with these I noticed that he struggled a bit when matching the top part of the face to the lower part. This just goes to show that he still has much to learn about facial expressions.

In the end, he was able to figure out everything though. I know he’ll get better at it in time.

The box also contains art materials that you can use for the activities.

I love that the BuriBox contains everything you will need to teach the lessons. No need to buy any more materials from the bookstore!

If we were happy with the October BuriBox, we are even more satisfied with this one. It’s partly because the lessons are very appropriate for our son, who’s still in the process of learning how to express his emotions properly. Being only 4 years old, he acts out sometimes out of frustration and we know that’s only because he doesn’t know yet how to express what he’s feeling. With this month’s BuriBox, I am hoping we can teach him how to make sense of it all.

Anyway, I can’t wait to receive next month’s box already! To those of you from the provinces who were not able to subscribe before when shipping was only limited to Metro Manila, you’d be happy to know that BuriBox can now ship nationwide. Yay! Payment is still limited to Paypal though, so get yourself an account if you don’t already have one.

The BuriBox sells for Php 799.00 only and you can have a choice between the Toddler (3 – 5 years old) and the Young Reader (6-8 years old) BuriBox. To learn more, do visit the BuriBox website.