Short, Shorter, Shortest!

I have to make an apology.  Not to anyone in particular, or maybe to the administration of our school or whoever writes up the list of materials that each student is required to submit (for the preschoolers) or to have ready in their bags.  When Benjo was in YS-1 (Prep), the list had 10 #1 Mongol pencils and I can't remember how many boxes of crayons.  My first thought: "Ano???  Kinakain ba nila ang pencils?" ("What? Do they eat the pencils?").  I couldn't picture how 5-6 year olds could use up 10 pencils.  Now in YS-2 (grade 1), the materials are not submitted to the teacher, but are kept by the learners and helped maintained by the parents or guardians.  We are only half-way through the school-year and Benjo has already used up around 10 pencils.  Some were lost, some he found again, but most he actually used and used until they got too short, and I have evidence of how short the pencils actually got.  I had to "graduate" these pencils though they are still usable, it's becoming a little hard for Benjo to use.

I didn't realize how much writing the kids do and how many pencils are actually consumed.  So, yes, I have to apologize for being skeptical at first and even suspicious.  It did cross my mind that maybe the teachers had a side-line job of selling school materials.  Now I feel ashamed of such a thought and realize how hard it was for the preschool teachers to maintain the materials, especially with some students breaking pencils and crayons or else taking them home.

My KAB Scout

Written in Benjo's Kab Scout notebook, but I copied from another site (because I couldn't read Benjo's handwriting :)...

Ang Pangako ng KAB Scout:

Ako'y nangangako gagawin ang makakaya:

Upang mahalin ang Diyos at ang aking bayan,

Gumawa nang mabuti araw-araw at

Sumunod sa Batas ng KAB Scout

Ang Batas ng KAB Scout:

Ang KAB Scout at sumusunod sa nakatatanda

Ang KAB Scout ay tumutulong sa pagsulong ng Kawan

Ang KAB Scout ay nagsisikap upang maging kapaki-pakinabang

KAB Scout Motto: Laging Handa (Be prepared)

KAB Scout Slogan: Gawin Ang Makakaya

Oink, Oink!

This is related to my previous blog on Benjo's farmville project. Jojo was almost headed out the door to go to Quiapo and look for this certain store that sells costumes, including animal masks. It was a Monday and the costumes were to be worn on that friday. So, I get all my materials together to start with the paper mache project. Good thing that Jojo waited when he saw how the pig mask was taking shape.


I followed the instructions on the website I found. We had most of the materials on hand, except for the paint. I had thought we were out of paper plates, but luckily we kept a few in the cabinet. It was a little thin, but I figured it would do for this project. We also had small plastic paper cups (smaller than the ones used for drinking, these were used for desserts like fruit salad), newspapers we had aplenty. Jojo wanted to buy some gawgaw material to use to stick the newspaper, but I told him we had some flour. We used 1 cup flour to 1 cup water (had a lot leftover, so half a cup would have sufficed).

Materials used:

• Paper plate
• Small plastic cup
• Newspaper
• Tape (for the ears)
• Tissue paper (for the cheeks)
• Flour and water
• White and pink paint
• Scissors

It was simpler than I had thought. It took probably around 1 hour to make both masks (I made an extra one in case one of Benjo's classmates or Joselyn wanted one). Only 4 layers of newspaper did the trick. We dried it under the sun for about a day and a half. I retouched the masks where it needed more newspaper. Then Jojo cut the slits for the eyes. We went out to buy the paint, firstly thinking that we could buy it at Ace Hardware, but they only sell them in big containers, the smallest one they had was still too big for this project. So we went to National Bookstore where they had paints in smaller containers. One big container of white paint and a smaller one of pink. We only used a dab of the pink and mixed it in the white. Jojo tried his spray paint on the one, with white as the first coat. We then put in the pink for the next coats.

Benjo helped with the painting (he also got his hands sticky with putting the newspapers on the mask). I had thought that he didn't want his pig mask to be too pink, but he preferred it to be pinker than I had wanted. I had wanted to add a mouth, but I think the mask looks better without one. A black elastic was in our container of sewing materials, just right to attach the mask by simply stapling it on the sides. I'm happy with how it turned out. He didn't win in the best of costume contest, but at least we didn't have to go out to buy a costume or mask (which some parents did) plus we had fun and learned a new craft in making our own pig mask.