first day high!

And just like that, we're back to homeschooling! :) It's as if the hectic Christmas holidays didn't happen and we're just rolling along our "normal" routine. Unfortunately, I'm reminded everyday that the holidays did happen because there's a huge stash of opened gifts by our bedroom door that I didn't clean up yet. Hohoho! #OrganizeMe2015 is clearly not happening in our home! But... we'll talk about organization in another post as today is all about our first day of homeschool for 2015!

If you're a bit confused with the post's title, it refers to the feeling of optimism or excitement ("high") during the first day of school. Which is what January 5, 2015 was in our home :) And instead of slowly easing into our homeschool routine, we jumped right into it after breakfast! I remember when I was a kid that I dreaded going back to school after the Christmas or summer breaks; but thankfully, our two girls are excited to do school activities again.

The Eldest (right) wanted to color her Jollibee placemat (from her cousin's birthday party) while The Youngest started her pre-writing exercises. Her book is wipe-clean and is a gift from her aunt. Thank you Aunty Rye! She loves it and finished half of the book in one sitting, w00t! Our toddler's focus is definitely improving :) After all the writing and coloring, we had our reading and Math lessons with this awesome flip book:

I scored this reading / spelling / counting flip book in JS Gaisano Panabo for only P30 / $.060! It's very sturdy and is the size of a letter-sized paper folded lengthwise :) JS Gaisano is a homegrown Davao City department store that now expanded to putting up small malls in provincial cities like Panabo. Most of their items are affordable and I got lots of stationery items from them for less than P90! Frugal me was sooo happy, hihi! JS Gaisano Davao is located in Gov. Duterte St. It's different from the much bigger Gaisano Mall / GMall along Bajada.

Anyway, more on the flip book: the front pages are for 3-letter words. The middle part has vowels (a to u) and the first and last parts are various consonants. The back pages (of the letters) deals with numbers. It has a numeral part, counting items and number name. With a flip book like this, teaching the girls how to read and count is easy-peasy! I've even seen The Eldest studying this alone. Awesome right? :)

And here ends our first homeschooling post for 2015. To sum up, our first day of homeschool this year was painless and quite productive. I hope the next few days, weeks, and months will be as great as today too, haha! Wishful thinking! But hey, a harried homeschooler mom can dream right? Hihi! How about you and your kids? Did the first day of school for 2015 went smoothly as ours? I sure hope so! Best to start the new year with good vibes!