Toys for Mavi

I'm gonna post this so I can get this off my mind.

I've been bugging the husband since last week that we should be getting Maverick a decent toy.  We've been getting him books, but no toys.  Poor boy.  Every child needs a toy, something that they can enjoy and play everyday.  He has toys, but look at them, he can't figure out how to use them yet! Those are lego blocks which his Dad has brought him like three months ago.  He just kept on biting them, and throwing them everywhere.

If we were in Bacolod, I would have bought him tons of toys already hehehe.  Toys are so cheap there.  But just be careful when buying toys for kids.  Always check the appropriate age for the toy, and if it's made of some dangerous chemicals.  Dito, we always check if it's made in C.Some toys here are made locally.  We usually get him either a Fisher Price or a Playskool or local brands as well.  We are considering getting him wooden toys, compared to plastic.  But goodness, they price difference is waaaay too much.

Look at him, since he has no toys to play with, the boy became very creative hahaha.  He plays with all our trash!  Take this plastic bottle for example.  He loves that.  Every single day, during his play time yan ang bitbit nya lagi.

Mavi needs a toy, a good one that enhance his motor skills. We were supposed to get it this weekend,but due to a bad weather, we weren't able to make it to this huge toy shop, just a few blocks away from our place.

This morning, I searched the net for some ideas on what  to get Mavi, and here's SOME of my pick.

POMPOM

I am liking this multi-colored pompoms.  I can use this for Mavi during our study the colors activity.  Since this would probably be made up of yarns, it's pretty safe. But of course, he'll only use this with my supervision.

BUTTON CHIPS

I wanted to train Mavi develop the "transfer the object" thingy. Wherein, I'll laid out some small objects, and will instruct him to transfer that object from one place to another.  I'm thinking of using buttons, colorful buttons.

WOODEN BEAD MAZE

I so heart thisssss!!! I hope we could find something like this here.  My son will totally love this toy! 

SHAPE SORTER

Another colorful and fun toy for Maverick.  If we can find something like this, he'll be trained how to sort shapes.  Haaay, I am so drooling!

And here's the rest of the toys I wanted to get him:  Alphabet blocks, Electric Piano with Animals popping, and a Magnetic Drawing Board for doodling.

Haaay.

Lesson 4: Week 2

Here are my notes on Mavi's homeschooling for 14 months - Lesson 4, Week 2.

Date: November 20 - November 26, 2009

Curriculum Source:  Letter of the Week 
(This and other resources for homeschooling will added on my sidebar widget. I don't proof read, so pardon me if I don't have correct grammar hehehe.  I write this on-the-fly kasi.)

This is the first time that I started proper homeschooling activities for Maverick. Though I have exposed him to reading books and other educational toys since birth, I haven't really thought of making it this serious.

So what pushed me to actually start this program.  For Mavi to be a genius??!! Definitely not!!Genius people are not normal hehehe. They don't live a normal life, don't have happy childhood because they spend their time mostly on studying hahaha.

Kidding aside, I am homeschooling Mavi to make use of my time, to be more productive, to practice the thing that I love doing.. that is teaching, to stimulate Maverick's brain helping him learn and discover things.. to teach him how to listen, to focus on the things I am teaching him.  I want him to acquire this abilities as early as possible.

So without further ado, here's what we did for this week.

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WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!!!

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This is how Mavi reads his book

Guess his second word...

He's always so serious every time he discovers something new

Car.

He's so articulate saying this word. He speaks it with a "British" accent though. Hmm.. Richard Quest's influence maybe? Hehehe

Other words that he can clearly say:

• Daddy
  
• bird
• No
• Plane
• Dede
  

He's blubbering non-stop. That's why Daddy is happy that Mommy is the one spending more time with his bebe boy, kasi madaldal at maingay at magulo daw si Mommy at buti nalang naipasa sa anak. Kasi if si Daddy lang... wala, walang ingay.. kaya ayaw nyang malayo kay Mommy kasi Mommy brings color and gives life to him hehehe.

Everday, he waits for his Dad to arrive

Daddy, please come home already

Poor boy.

Maverick owns a mobile phone

Aside from the remote control, he figured out how the phones work.

One day, he surprised me.  The phone (landline) rang and Maverick immediate said "Allooo??".  I don't know how he did that.  Maybe he's observing us all the while, when his Dad calls a taxi from his mobile phone, or while I answer or give a call through our home telephone.

"Allloooo Dad-day?"

Tsk tsk.  Then he started playing his Daddy's mobile phone and the husband can no longer use it.  Good thing, it was a cheap phone.  So what the husband did was buy a new one and gave his old cheap cellphone to Mavi.

Same time, last year

Last year, we celebrated All Souls Day at Rolling Hills Cemetary. I took Maverick with me because I don't have a yaya. My relatives adviced me to dress Mavi in red.  I really don't know what's the explanation for it, but I took their advice anyway. I had a great time that afternoon.  The food was great as well.  My Mom and I bought some "finger foods" for everyone from Quan.  While my Tito Lito prepared Valenciana... twas the best!

Haaaay, this picture makes me miss everyone and everything. The food, the places and of course, the people.

I have two reasons why I post this.  First, because here in Belgrade, they don't have this kind of holiday. Well, as far as we know.  And that makes me appreciate the Philippine calendar year, lots and lots of holidays and non-working holidays.

Second, two days after this, Maverick's eczema worsened. He had mild rashes already, on some portion of his body.  But after this, he had an outbreak.  I remembered it all so well, how can I not forget? I watch him like a hawk.  I was thinking at first that he was allergic to the pollen, but I was told that eczema was genetic, and that I can't blame anyone for it but my gene hahaha.  So anway, the rest was history. The only time that his rashes disappeared was when he reached his 6th months of life.  But it didn't just go-away entirely.  From time to time, he still gets the rash, but this time, its manageable.  Poor boy.

Hope that everyone offered a special prayer for their loved ones who passed away.