Our Buwan ng Wika Activities 2014

We have just celebrated Buwan ng Wika in our homeschool. It was nothing fancy. I just thought of activities that my little ones would appreciate at this time.

Let me share what we did:

1. We bought Filipino books for the boys that feature things about our Filipino culture and read these books to them repeatedly in the past week. The two books we bought were Si Jepoy Dyip and Ang Barumbadong Bus. The books were instant hits to my boys! I wasn't surprised because boys usually like things that go. We especially liked Si Jepoy Dyip because the book comes with a DIY project that can eventually become a toy for kids. You can make a toy jeep and a toy police car with the cutouts included in the book. At first, my eldest didn't like us to read the story in Filipino. He preferred the English version. But last week, I insisted that we try reading in Filipino for a change. I'm glad he agreed eventually. The boys liked the book very much and they liked playing with the toy jeep and toy police car with the book. The toys fit the illustrations in the book so the kids can pretend that they are actually driving the toy vehicles on the streets of Barangay Pag-asa just like in the story.

We bought our copy of Ang Barumbadong Bus last Saturday only. We've been trying to get a copy earlier but it was always out of stock in the bookstore. Good thing we found a copy at National Bookstore's Sucat Branch. I was very glad that we bought a copy of this book. Through it, we discovered that our eldest son can already read Filipino well. He read it while we were waiting at the doctor's clinic (for my monthly ob-gynecologist check up). He was reading if fast as if he has been reading Filipino in years! That was one pleasant surprise for me. I have tried many times to teach him how to read Filipino books but he wasn't open to it in the past. So he read English books only in the past years. They also do not have any Filipino books except for the beginner board books that we got years ago in the Manila International Book Fair. The only other time I heard him read in Filipino was a couple of years ago when we were in the car traveling. He read a road sign and asked, "Bakit bawal tumawid?" That also surprised us because he was still learning how to speak in Filipino then. We did not expect him to read in Filipino. This discovery and milestone make our Linggo ng Wika celebration this year extra memorable for me/us.

The other thing that I liked about the book Ang Barumbadong Bus is that it teaches my boys to be extra careful with their toy vehicles and it reminds them to be careful with their actions so as not to endanger themselves or others around them.   

2. I also taught the boys how to count in Filipino. Both of them know how to count in English but they are not yet well-versed in Filipino. I used this opportunity to teach them this.

I also taught my five-year-old son how to add using Philippine currency coins and bills as our Math homeschool lesson last week.

Our little genius listening
to the original Pinoy Henyo.

3. I spoke more to them in Filipino and patiently answered their questions or clarifications whenever there were words that they did not understand or that they asked me to translate in English.

4. We scheduled a field trip to Museo Pambata last Sunday as part of our celebration. My husband and I already brought our eldest son to the museum when he was still almost two years old. But it was our two-year-old's first time to go to this museum. Our eldest got to appreciate more our visit this time because he can now understand more of the things that he saw in the museum and because he can already read. Our two-year-old enjoyed the visit as well because he saw many things that he liked in the museum. We spent the whole afternoon in the museum. The kids got to explore all of the exhibits except for the exhibit on the human body, which was currently under renovation. But we got to check it out when we first visited years ago.

5. We ate Filipino food for merienda last weekend to cap our Linggo ng Wika celebration. We bought cassava cake and suman. My husband and I had halo-halo after our field trip and I had pancit luglog. 

Halo-halo to quench my thirst after walking around the museum.

Our activities were very simple but I believe that they still helped our kids appreciate and learn more about our Filipino culture, not just the Filipino language.

Strolled at Manila Bay after eating merienda.

How did you celebrate Linggo ng Wika this year? Do you already have a copy of the books we read last week? I recommend these books to parents of little boys. Si Jepoy Dyip is only P149 while Ang Barumbadong Bus is only P75. You can buy these books at local bookstores or from The Learning Basket.