My Two Front Teeth...

... are gone!

Paolo's, that is. He has lost his two-front teeth and we're all now just waiting for his permanent teeth to grow. He's enjoying it though. He doesn't have that insecurity that grown-ups would probably expectedly have if they loose any of their front gates. Now Paolo's "sssss" sounds like "hissss" but he just laughs it off.

Recently, we just got his grades for the 2nd grading period. He had pretty good grades with 85% as his averaged percentile mark. Surprisingly, though, is that in spite of having English as his regular language at home, it was in that subject that his grade dropped 7 points. His teacher explained that this is because of Paolo's lack of interest in participating in activities and failure to comply with academic instructions during this grading period.

By all indications, however, Paolo will be recovering from this decline as his teacher said he has been improving in his attitude towards group activities. I guess we'll be finding out how close that is to what he would get when the 3rd grading period ends and we again see his report card. Hopefully, it'll be shining. By then, he should also must already something to smile with...his grown two front teeth.

"Hmm.. Guess What I'm Thinking.:

That's the look of a boy who always seem to have something up his sleeve. Or maybe something up in his head; a new antic, a new quip, a question that leads to another question. Sometimes it gets harder and harder distracting Paolo from going on with his questions, but it's all good. We have an explorer and at his age, that's a good thing.

Tell me, how do you answer a question as "Why do they call it Olympus?" referring to the mountain of the Greek gods. Fortunately, answering truthfully with "I don't know" is acceptable to him. At other times, I try to come up with an explanation, feeding his imagination some more and then seeing his eyes glow at the stories. But he's really a smart boy. He himself would put an end to the fantastic make-believe tales if it gets too much out-of-this world. Apparently, little kids also have a limitation to fiction.

Swim Class 2010

Paolo has enrolled again in swimming class and he's on his 4th day now of the 10 sessions he'll be having for this summer. Well, we have to "Thanks!" to his Lolo Felix for the sponsorship of his summer swimming class this year.
For this summer, he's being taught the backstroke and the butterfly. In addition to having a better form in swimming freestyle. I watched him today and it was apparent that he liked doing the backstroke. I asked him if he did and with a smile he said he did like it among all that was being taught to him so far. Paolo's 6 years old and this is his 4th summer of going to swim class. He enjoys being in the water though in between summers he's lazy practicing what he knows about swimming. Of course, he doesn't escape from us telling him to show us how he swims. He whines and complains and says he just wants to play in the water. But then, he's 6, what can we do?

Paolo is also going to his tutorial class in Math with Teacher Oliver. He goes every Monday and Wednesday at 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon. While other kids are enjoying their school vacation, we deem it necessary for Paolo to still have this tutorial class for him to catch up on his Math skills. Yes, and his teacher said it also, he complains about studying but that should not be surprising because he's only 6 yet by the next school year he's already in Grade 2. I am conscious about this which is why I ask him once in a while if he's still having fun in his classes. He still says "yes."

Ay phone!

I got myself an Iphone, courtesy of my sister who let me pay for it in installment. So now I know why others are all raves about it- it's because of the many games you can install in it... kidding.

Though partly true, it's not just the games that give the gadget its appeal. There are others, like the multitude of songs, videos, and other applications you can store in it, depending on the memory your Iphone has. But for gamers, like myself, what else would constitute most of the applications you'll see when you scroll through the screen but, that's right, games!

And if the fruit falls from the same kind of tree, it's not surprising either for Paolo to be using my Iphone more as a game console than it's principal function which is as a phone. He now easily flicks his finger through the screen looking for the Hidden Expedition or the Flick Fishing games. I really have to be cautious not to leave it anywhere or else he might be running outside the house with and inviting his playmates to try the games themselves.

Blame it on me, of course, and I cannot but take it. I introduced him to the PSP, the Playstation, the Wii, the PC games, that learning there are games on the Iphone is not something that intimidates him unlike some adults who would hesitate to press or touch the sensitive screen for fear of erasing a file. The difference, however, is that adults know that that could happen unlike kids, 6 year olds particularly, who still cannot fully comprehend the difference between saved files and saved games.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Paolo has had his exams and we've gone to the school to get his 2nd quarterly grades and now, in a couple weeks time, it's gonna be his 6th birthday. Those were what have happened since last time I posted.

It's not difficult to discipline Paolo. What's hard is for himself to remember the things that he has to do and those he has to do at a later time. But for us, we tell him what to do and he does it. I think from his point of view there is still no clear anticipation of the logical consequence of the choices he make at a given time. For Paolo what is important is still the "here and now."

Take for example doing his assignment after coming home from school. We've already told him that when he gets back from school he could either take a nap first or, if he doesn't want to, he could go ahead and do his assignment. That's before watching tv or going to the neighbor's house and playing with Amos. But over and over that's not what he does. When Paolo gets home at around 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon he changes out of his uniform and goes to play with the 3 year old boy neighbor, Amos. Later that evening, when I heard about that I punished him by spanking his hand. It was what we agreed on. Before I left in the morning I told he was gonna get it if doesn't do his assignment first before playing after coming home from school. He knows me that I keep my word especially when it comes to him getting some punishment for breaking a rule or a promise.

What's challenging me now though is that it seems spanking him is not as effective anymore as it was when he was younger. After getting spanked he was even proud to tell me that he wasn't crying even though tears were welling in his eyes. One thing I wanted him to learn is to control emotions, especially anger and to tolerate some hurt. And he has done that. The concern, however, for me is that I'm not getting the reaction I was hoping for. So what I did was I made him write in three (3) sheets of paper the rule, "I will study first before playing." Sure enough, after one page of doing that he broke and promised not to forget that rule.

Paolo doing Ice Ice Baby

Here's another video of Paolo, this time doing the hip hop song, Ice Ice Baby.

Pao at Play

I thought of putting this video up...