Birthday Celebration - Homeschooling Style

It feels like only yesterday, I was reminiscing how long I had to endure the labor of giving birth to my little one. She's not so little anymore. In fact, it is only sinking in to me that my baby just turned 6! I remember my younger sister told me she's not a baby anymore when she turned six. I was tickling her and she stopped me and told me I shouldn't tickle her like that because she's a big girl already. Now, my baby girl is also growing. Whatever! She's gonna be my baby girl no matter how old she is.

Aya's 3rd field trip

We chose not to hold a party, no food preps, nothing of those sorts. She had her cake though from her aunt, and dinner from her grandma. My husband and I decided we should have a field trip for her birthday. Since we're studying Marine Biology as part of her Science lessons, we decided we go to Manila Ocean Park. One of the things I enjoy in homeschooling is that we get to organize our own field trips and we have the choice to sync them with our lessons.

And I saw that was a good decision because it shows with the way she smiled and jumped from one exhibit to another how happy she was to be there. We have just started the book and have just discussed the different zones in the ocean though we've touched a bit about the animals that live on each zones. It helped that we have talked about the different groups of marine creatures because she was able to identify each of them as we went along. It's also a good thing that Tatay also loves watching documentaries about marine life, he was able to have a lot of teaching moments with her.

Since I am her main educator in our homeschooling journey, her father needs moments like this so that they could still have enough bonding moments with each other. They have playtime together, they have reading time together, but it's always good to have extra bonding time together while she's young because time flies so fast! Next thing we know she'll be going to college! T_T

My husband's bestfriend joined us together with his family. It was a good catch up too since the two of them hadn't seen each other for a long time. And we also got to meet his family. My daughter had lots of fun with her newfound friends. Which is really a rare occurrence since she's not very keen on making new acquaintances let alone new friends.

There are several attractions that not only will amaze the kids, but are very highly educational. When you visit the place, the signs and the informationals on the sides of some of the aquariums are a great help in appreciating the marine life on display even more.

Presents!

We try to make sure we don't skimp on gifts for our little one. But we also don't want to over-indulge her with too much gifts. So we opted to go for quality for our gifts this year. By quality, doesn't mean we chose expensive gifts, we just chose those that would give for more quality time with her once she opens the wrappers.

Binoculars

Part of our Science lessons is Nature Studies. We have been studying the insects in our mini farm at our terrace, we wanted to also be able to observe the different birds that perches on our plants from time to time. It turned out to be a very timely gift because just outside the Manila Ocean Park is the Manila Bay where several ships dock at all times. She had fun peeking through the binoculars and seeing the ships up close.

Building blocks

My daughter is now 6 years old but she's still enjoying playing with the big versions of lego building blocks which her uncle bought for her on her 4th birthday. Her father decided he would buy her some of these but a lot smaller, and with the option to build ice cream trucks, hotdog stands, and a burger shop.

I am a very patient person but when it comes to building those small things, I just don't have the heart to do it. So this toy became another father-daughter bonding moment. The two most impatient persons on earth, patiently building those tiny little blocks. What a sight.

The Furry little thing Called Sasha

And just like that, we became a fur family. My daughter has been wanting to have a pet for quite some time now. I am not completely against it, but I always tell her that she will have to learn how to handle responsibilities first before we start to look into having a pet inside the house.

To test the waters, I created a chore chart for her to complete everyday for the last few months. She will have to tick on each box per chore per day as soon as she finished them. At first, (for a few weeks) I have been constantly reminding her, asking if she has done her chores. Then it happened. One day, she just started doing her chores on her own. Yes, without the need of any reminders or any nudge telling her to finish her chores before she preps for bedtime. From then on, she has been performing her duties everyday, with very little guidance from me or her tatay.

Since I saw a positive outcome with our little responsibility experiment, I went ahead and looked for a kitty to adopt. It didn't take too long to look. Apparently there are many PusPins around, ready for a fur family to take them in. We got our fur baby last month, a few weeks before Aya's birthday. And I can see that she really is feeling the big fur sister vibe. Our little kitty needed to be bottle fed for a few weeks and our responsible big fur sister is very helpful in every way. She's actually excited for the time when she's going to be the one to fully take care of our little furbaby.

Judging from the amount of smile and laughter my daughter had during that day and the days after (since we already got Sasha at home), our birthday celebrant is very much delighted with how we celebrated this special day. Cheers to more non-extravagant but extra-special and educational way of celebrating birthdays!

PS.

Wishing my dear friends @themanualbot, @ybanezkim26, and @markjason a happy happy birthday. Sorry for the late greeting, but I didn't forget about your special days. I just was so busy irl. It's always better late than never. Know that I love you always. :)