Mommy mode: ON

I've been spending the last few weeks thinking of ways to get Miguel ready for the UPIS Kindergarten entrance exam. I know it's a long shot because only 100 children will be admitted, and 60% of those will be UP dependents -- so hundreds of children will be vying for the remaining 40% of slots. Nevertheless, it would be good for Miguel to experience taking a school readiness test.

Taking a page from my sister's book, I made something like a word chart for Miguel. It has what are called "sight words," also called the Dolch Word List. These are some of the most frequently used word in the English language. It's important to teach pre-school kids these words because many of the sight words cannot be analyzed phonetically, and also because a number of the sight words cannot be taught using pictures.

I started off with the list of pre-primer words. There are about 40 words in the list, and I used these ones first:
As he masters the words, I'll be replacing them with the other words on the pre-primer list. I think it's happening sooner rather than later, because he read all these words easily when I showed him his chart (yes, proud mom here!).

A new obsession

Thanks to Slurpee (sister's poodle) and Baci (another sister's lab), I've grown to like dogs. And ever since I saw a picture of my brother-in-law's hybrid poodle, I've been wanting to get one too... a westiepoo! I think I'll have to wait a while though, because I don't think Miguel is ready to help me take care of a dog. Sometimes when he plays with Slurpee he gets too rough and the poor dog runs away.

Anyway, I've been reading up a bit about westiepoos, and what I like about them is they don't shed (like poodles) and they're very intelligent.

(photo from Westiepoo Hybrid Dogs)

One Sunday...

This was taken a couple of weeks ago right after I picked up Mig from Sunday School. He looks forward to attending Sunday School, and whenever he comes out of the room he always has a biscuit for me. :-)