My poster boy 2

Last Thursday, Ben volunteered to be one of the poster boys for this year's Co-Curricular activities poster/tarp. Well this morning the tarps are up. Two of them actually. One on the bulletin boards just outside the cafeteria, the picture of which follows:

That's him on 3rd from left on top, for the i-Rock (Science) Club.

The other bigger tarp is hanging up in front of the main entrance to the Grade School. I'll take a picture of it later today when I pick him up from after school. Even Mang Ron, the lobby guard, called my attention to it. This year, I'm encouraging Ben to take more part in school activities. I'm hoping these volunteering efforts he's been making are just a start.

Bonfive...long overdue post

This post was originally supposed to be published last October. Apparently, afer saving it, I forgot to publish it. Anyway, I thought I'd post it rather than let it lay waste in the drafts folder.

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Last Thursday, Oct 11, the Ateneo Blue Eagles basketball team made history by winning five consecutive UAAP championships. Of course, Ben was ecstatic. The school officials scrambled to get the Bonfire celebration (with photo and autograph signing session) organized for Saturday Oct 13, for which mother and son hastily left the house on that particular morning.

We arrived early enough (if two hours ahead of time isn't pushing early) so we were among the first to line up for the photo and autograph signing session. Although we did this last year, after ADMU won their 4th, I thought I'd take Ben again as (bad as this may sound) I have a feeling that this might be the last Bonfire celebration for a while (I would love to be proved wrong about this next October).

So here are the kid's pics with the players. Not all of them because 1) for Lim, the photo is awfully blurry. I couldn't take another shot because the organisers where rushing us through to get through all the people who wanted to get photos and autographs; 2) Sumalinog, I wasn't even able to take a shot because the organiser had pushed Ben forward to Ravena.

Anyway, photos from the celebration follow:

Homework

First weekend since school started and already Ben's not living up to our agreement. He is only supposed to play video games on Fridays and Saturdays (or if there is no school the following day) but he has exceeded his limits again. Still, I'm a bit lenient with him this first week because classes have not really started yet.

They do have homework for AP for tomorrow, and that is to pick a photo from a place they visited this summer and to write/type something about it. We (or rather I) chose a picture from Bakhawan Eco-Park in Kalibo. Beautiful mangrove area, reforested. He agreed, and here's a picture of him doing his short paragraph about it:

Earlier, Kuya Toti went impulse buying and bought a Samsung Note, the 10.1 inch one. He decided to come by the house to see if how Ben will react. I was pleasantly surprised when, after he was asked by Kuya Toti if he wanted to play, Ben answered "No, I can't because I have to do my homework." Even Kuya Toti was shocked. Kuya Tony told him, if he gets good grades then he will buy him a tablet, just the cheap ones. I told him if he passes the entrance exam to Philippine Science HS, I'll get him an iPad Mini or something like that. Here's hoping that would encourage him.

My poster boy

Day 4 of school and already I missed one day of posting...I had meant to take a picture of him yesterday soonest we got to school, because he was going to recite the opening prayer for their grade level orientation (he volunteered), but I forgot to. So instead, here's the picture for today:

He volunteered again to be the poster boy for one of the co-curricular clubs in school, and that's the what he wore for it. He is posing in the same way he posed for the picture. It's the one he had chosen in the past couple of years, I-Rock, which is Science Club. I am encouraging him to volunteer and take more part in school activities. He's even planning to run for class officer.

On a more frustrating note, he is still pretty careless with his school stuff and in his writing. That's something we will need to work on this year.

A picture and something learned daily

So ok, how do I document the year when Ben will first graduate? Take a daily picture, or as often as possible, and get a quote or thought about what he learned for the day. Can be about anything under the sun. Here is today's picture.

The story behind it: ideally, he isn't supposed to be using the computer (unless it's for school work) anymore when it's a weekday and there is school the following day. But since this first week, there aren't any lessons yet, I thought I'd cut him some slack and allow him his last hurrah. Will I be able to hold out for the year and keep away from the computer during schooldays? I hope so. This kid needs discipline and have to learn responsibility.

As for his something learned? Upon question, his answer: 'Study harder and listen to the teacher more so I will get good grades this year.' Motherhood statement, not valid I said, but then I figured, fine I'll note down what he says he learn and then let him go back to it later.

He's a good kid, on the whole. I just want him to have more self-discipline and be more responsible. Ok, that's one goal for the year.

Another school year begins

Today, Ben started another school year. From Grade 4, he is now in Grade 6...but before you think I've got a genius (well, he's pretty smart ;)), the reason why he seemed to have skipped a grade is because his school relabeled its grade levels to match up with the new K-12 educational system our government has begun implementing. As it is, everyone in his school skipped a level. No Grade 5 for him, and to top it off, he's graduating at the end of the year.

And with the new school year, I continue the tradition of taking a picture of him on Day 1. Here are a couple:

Certainly a far cry from when he began going to school back in 2005. As I'm fond of saying, time sure flies.

Lately, he's been visiting this blog and asking me why I haven't been very active (ok, not active at all) in updating it, and I wondered too. It's not that I've not had the time. I don't know either. In my last post, I said I'll try to be more active with this blog, but obviously, I didn't do that. There certainly were a lot of things I could've written about, not to mention our trips this past summer which dug way too deep in my pockets, but was worth every centavo.

Well, again, I resolve to try and do better this year. I wish I was creative enough to think up of a cool way to document this year, his last as a grade schooler. Maybe a picture each day. With digital, pictures don't cost a thing anymore. Yeah, maybe I'll do that and then I'll be forced to sit down and write even just a little bit about each day. We'll see...

My 4th grader

Ben started the new school year today, and is now in Middle School. I told him that now he's in 4th grade, there will have to be changes. I'm not sure how soon we will be able to implement these changes, but hopefully my patience won't wear thin too early. :)

Here are the pictures I took this morning to start the year:







Was looking through some of my earlier posts and it's weird to see how much he's grown up. There are times when I miss the little Ben. Still I'm thankful he is still affectionate. I know the time will come when he won't be anymore, so I'm holding on to that while I can.

This year, I hope I'll be creative enough to think of a good way to document how things are going for us. Blogging regularly, maybe? Am keeping my fingers crossed.