Sunday Afternoon at the National Museum

It's Sunday and it means we can visit the National Museum for free! Cutting the intro short, here are some pictures to tell our story...

Our family enjoyed looking at a wide variety of paintings, sculptures, and other art forms by Filipino artists including Luna, Hidalgo, Rizal, Francisco, and Amorsolo as we indulge in the rich history of the Philippines.

Our "adopted" family member for a few days, Ninya, made our visit even more memorable. We spent time sharing knowledge on history, geography, arts, culture, etc. The reason why we were at the museum in the first place was to give her a simple tour of Manila.

James and Adam enjoyed the Shipwreck exhibit the most, seeing all the cannons and cannon balls!

Different species of plants and animals were also displayed and the boys got a kick from the animals preserved in jars such as geckos and snakes as well as the stuffed flying lemur and tarsier. James had a closer look on different kinds of grasshoppers and tried to find their differences from each other.

In between explorations, we also had some treats! Cesar enjoyed playing with the ice cream vendor's baby. I love that about him!

At around 5PM, we left the museum and gave Ninya a quick tour inside Intramuros, the walled city. We headed to Quezon city and enjoyed a dinner of spaghetti and garlic toast with Cesar's family. Cesar's friend, Jerome, also dropped off some scratch paper for the boys.

Comments

Exploring Naujan, Oriental Mindoro

About a minute after I started researching about the things we can do in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, I received an electronic notice that informed us that we missed paying our internet bill and then the connection was cut immediately. Usually I would panic, but we resorted to our original plan instead: to explore and be surprised by the things we will find on our own, to be lost and ask about places we can visit, instead of having a list of "things to do". Actually, not-knowing adds a distinct flavor to adventures, which offers a thrill factor when you navigate through places you have not seen an online preview of. This free-style travel plan also help us take our time and just enjoy the experiences instead of rushing from one destination to another. So here are some of our new discoveries: The municipality of Naujan boasts a good collection of ancestral homes that took us to another era in our history. For only P100, yes one hundred ...

Day#3: Mansalay's Mangyan Burial Cave, Mangroves, & Buktot White Beach

While enjoying our ride, Daddy saw a port and was curious, so we stopped to explore like we usually do and it was just the perfect time to enjoy some snacks so we bought some chips at the local sari-sari store as well. As we were licking our salty fingers, we saw some mangroves or bakawan, lining up a portion of the shore. Here are some pictures of what we discovered and enjoyed next. We walked along the white shore, soaking in the unbelievable sight composed of mangroves, white dead corals mixed in the sand, and clean and clear water. It was definitely a stop worth taking! When we reached a certain point, we found out that there are sea guards who are more than willing to take us to a cave. The tide was high, so we had to walk in knee-deep water, which made the experience quite relaxing and memorable. We learned that the Mangyan Burial Cave is the resting place of some skulls and bone...

Flexibility in Homeschooling

This afternoon, the nearby public school cancelled their classes. This meant that James and Adam's friends were free, which also meant that our homeschool session would be cancelled. One of the reasons why we chose to homeschool is flexibility. We always have time to accommodate spontaneity. We can slow down with our lessons if a child doesn't get a concept in Math, maybe wait when he's ready for a language arts lesson, or skip a topic that doesn't interest us. In our household, we do not follow grade levels or certain curricula. We also do not give/take tests so there's no need to hurry just to tick off some boxes of to-learn lists. We take our time, we deep-dive if we have to, we stop when we get bored, or we change course when we see signs that learning isn't happening the way we want it to. So today, instead of Math pages, some writing activity, and independent reading, the boys spent the afternoon with friends. Some might think that it's wastin...

Unschooling James and Adam

Search This Blog