Sophia's 1st Assessment: Good in Manipulatives

She spent her 1st day in the drawing board.

Whenever my Little Bebeng (LB) brings home her assignment notebook, it causes me panic as to what her teacher had written there. Well, she was scheduled to have her first assessment last August 17th. I thought it was something else. I'm scared to see that I'm being called for juvenile delinquency! Haha. Nah, she's too young for that. And I will tell her father dearest to be present for that event in case it happens. Just so he'll feel what his parents felt when we were in highschool. Oh, maybe I will accompany him and bring a first-aid kit. I don't want him to get sick and suffer from hypertension. Yes, a stretcher or stand-by ambulance might help, too. Okay, I'm exaggerating things. Sophia is a good girl. Well, she has these attacks I would like to call "wriggler attack" that definitely resemble to the movement of a wriggler. In Filipino, a kiti-kiti. She has tendencies to be all over the place. Some says it's a good sign of being healthy as opposed to a kid, lame & sitting in one corner, very close to be a wallflower. But sometimes, LB was beyond being active.

During LB's first day in school, she was all giggling & smiling. She didn't do all the tasks that she was supposed to do but I'm relieved that she didn't do anything offensive. Her 2nd day was different, she refused to join in the circle, where they were all singing and dancing, and chose to play with puzzles. She wailed like a baby cow prepped for slaughter house until it was time for snacks. She wanted to eat her baon right away without doing their routine. Her teacher's rule: you can't eat until you pray. And like a mother hen worried for my favorite chick, I asked her teacher if I can help her. Teacher said yes, but only if she will pray. So the rest of her classmates were half way through their food when she finally prayed with her teacher that goes along like this, "Aming Diyos, Salamat Sa'Yo, sa mga pagkaing ito, Amen." LB's face lit up when I entered their classroom to help her with her food. But I left her the moment I saw she can do it by herself. It has always been my motherhood mantra to teach her to be independent. Since then, it was a much easier life for the two of us. Their school director was right. She tends to run over the lives of the adults around her. She thought that she can do things as she pleases because once she throws tantrums, us, the adults around her easily give in. I slightly blame myself for not educating her nanny then. And well, MIL said she didn't want to go through all the nag & sermon so she lets LB does her things. As the mother of the kid-on-jury, I must do everything to make it right. Even if it made my heart bled so many times, I never gave in. So far, so good. Well, there were occasional bouts of arguments, but that's how a normal mother-daughter relationship should be. I think it's healthy. It can't be goo-goo and gah-gah all the time, you know.

For two months, I have seen my daughter's progress. I used to work as a Real Estate Sales Trainer, gabbing endlessly to more than 60 people in a day, and I thought I'm already good in training. As far as the post training evaluation forms are concerned, I'm good. But never in potty training. I succeeded in the pee part but poop part was tough. I caught myself staring in the mirror and almost tearfully saying "you're a failure, Denise". I only resigned by self-depreciating my mommy self when my fellow fab mommy told me that her daughter used to be like that, too. But now she poops in the CR by herself. Boy, was she right! LB now does her business like a big girl --- and BIG time! Haha.

No more Drypers for 3 months now! 

This little girl sleeping two meters away from me is a jewel. I am in awe every time she shows off a skill. Like earlier, we had a game of sharing stories. I'm not an active mom who can play ball with her. We can read stories, paint, watch TV, cook  but I can only do hide & seek with her. So to entertain this little Energizer bunny while dressing her up, we started sharing stories that came from nowhere. I told her about two cellphones jealous from each other's unique traits; its moral lesson is to be contented with what you have. Right after I said "the end", she instantly shared hers. It was about the towel and the hanger; I assumed she saw her Powepuff Girls towel hung in the door handle of our cabinet. Her story was simple. The towel wants to be hung on the hanger but the hanger said no. Towel said "let's share". And then she said "the end". It's so cute! She can be a writer!  It is obvious in her skills that she's more inclined into arts. But I'm not sure yet if that's what her school thinks about her, too.

Got this photo from the school's Facebook fan page.

Teacher Lois, LB's teacher in Primemont Science School, told me after her 1st assessment that Sophia was good with Manipulatives. I didn't have the chance to ask her what it is as she was about to do her next assessment with LB's classmate. So I Googled. I found out that Manipulatives are basically learning materials, which has something to do with arrangement of things. I remembered Teacher Lois told me that LB can do it without instructions or supervision. I hope someone can enlighten me more about this. 

According to Utah Education Network, the purposes of Manipulatives are as follows:

1. To help children learn important mathematics knowledge about part and whole relationships, how to count, the ideas of patterning, classification, telling time, and using money. (The last two are not always a good thing for preschool age children). 
2. To provide sensory experiences through materials which have a variety of textures, weights, colors, sizes, shapes, and looks about them.
3. To allow children to develop fine muscle control as they experiment with as well as manipulate different materials.
4. To use manipulative materials for problem solving activities and important other mathematical concepts.

And these are what a Manipulative Area should contain:

1. Puzzles, pegboards, pegs, lincoln logs, tinker toys, dominoes, checkers, tokens, attribute blocks, beads and strings, scales, rulers, yardsticks, bean bags, and other items that are of interest to the children.
2. Many raw materials for counting. 
3. Teacher made file folder games that can be used for matching, classifying, categorizing, measuring, and also counting. 
4. Materials that children are able to use for preparing charts, like extra paper, and pens or markers.
5. Shelves and storage bins to carry items in and other uses.
6. Digital or regular clock, timers, pretend money, and old clocks or watches.

Ergo, if Manipulatives has something to do with Math, there is a big possibility that she can be good in Math! I honestly don't like Math. Sorry for my Math-lover readers. Hihi. Looking back, I hoped I was good at it. It definitely has a purpose in our lives --- problem-solving. I wish LB can be a Math wiz someday, a first in the family! My husband's family doesn't show some spectacle in the subject, neither ours. But my mom insists she was good at it when she was in school. Well, she should have taught us if it was true! :)

Sigh. All these that I have written only proved that she's indeed growing up. I'm happy to see that she's tall, smart & inquisitive. Her occasional maldita streaks are understandable. It's hereditary. I can manage that. After all, she's my Little Bebeng. ♥