A Celebration of Life

October 3, 2008 · Filed Under general, relationship · 1 Comment 
Heaven’s greatest gift to me just celebrated his sixth birthday yesterday. Children really grow up fast. I can’t believe my dear Marcus is already in preschool and oftentimes speaks to me as if he is more than my age. Needless to say, I am one of the proudest, if not the proudest, mother in the world. My son is my life and so far, he has done a pretty good job filling it with joy and love.

A Celebration of Life

In my memory, it’s still very clear how Marcus came into being. I delivered him through cesarean operation, a fairly big boy who weighed 7.3 pounds at birth. I was only able to see him on the second day because the nurses won’t allow him out of the nursery and I wasn’t fit to walk before then. He was so cute wearing a pink pranela. Why pink you’d say? The ultrasound result declared we are going to have a baby girl and we actually picked a name for her already — sophia andrea. We were very happy nevertheless, my husband and I have always wanted a baby boy. It’s as if it’s destined that our first son would be a boy. I have always felt it in my guts that my child would be a “him,” an evidence of what they call a woman’s intuition, and more.

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Technology, Parenting, and Classroom Management

June 20, 2008 · Filed Under education, general, relationship, self-help · Comment 

Last week, I met with of my high school teachers. It was a happy reunion and after some time, we discussed the kind of students she encounters these days. She told me it’s totally different now with kids bringing their iPods, PSPs, cellphones and other gadgets in school.
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Summer Activity For The Family

April 9, 2008 · Filed Under relationship · Comment 

There’s one thing summer is good for aside from planning and going on vacations: putting House Plans into action. This is specially so if you have a lot of grown-up kids on their vacation, this is the time to give them a project that would make them busy and productive as well as would work on enhancing camaraderie for the whole family

Making Home Plans are very important in order to organize and ensure that what your kids will be doing are correct as well as with aesthetic value so you will have no doubt displaying it or showcasing it which in turn would make the kids feel proud of their accomplishments.

One good project also that is surely a hit for children is Log home plans which would work best if you have a spacious lawn. Making a log house (bahay kubo in Filipino) is definitely fun and would be finish easily since each member of the project team would look forward how the log house would look as well as spending time in it. You may check out the website www.houseplansandmore.com for ideas in designs, furniture and other needs in improving homes.

Below are some tips on how to make this home project truly special:

- Make sure there’s a plan. It need not be a detailed one. It should describe the plans for renovation as well as the task of every member of the family.
- Ensure the safety of the working members. A home project will be a zilch if someone would get hurt.
- Don’t be too pressured and output-oriented that you would yell at the kids and the kids would fight each other in ensuring quality and productivity. Remember, one of the goals of this project is to develop relationship, not wreck it.
- Recognize the effort of each child. Congratulate and give them praises for working hard so they would be motivated to finish the project. It would not harm also to prepare prizes or any sort of rewards to further motivate them. Examples of these are preparing good meals, ice cream or dessert treats.
- Make the experience really memorable by creating games that would motivate them more to work hard. For example, you may buy inexpensive toys or educational materials that you would display in some corner of the house or the working stations which can be redeemed by points. Points will be gathered by finishing or accomplishing some tasks.
- Whether or not they have created a masterpiece, display it, flaunt it. Do not leave unattractive work behind because you are not proud to show it to others. It would hurt your child’s feelings.
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Sibling and Parental Modelling in Children
Parenting and Behavior Modification 101

February 29, 2008 · Filed Under general, relationship, self-help · 3 Comments 

How significant really is sibling and parental modeling in forming and developing a child’s behavior? Let me illustrate to you through these examples:

  • Case One: High Performers Versus Low Performers

    Betty was a single mom with three sons: Pol (the eldest), Chad (the second) and Mon (the youngest). When Betty came in this morning, she was narrating how Chad told him this: “Ma, come to think of it, It seem I’m actually the best student among the three of us (siblings) because I was the only who finished elementary and high school without repeating a level.”

    The sad thing about this story is that Chad’s brothers are all low performers academically and he was comparing himself to them and actually feeling good and proud about his “supposed accomplishments” because the brothers are worser than him. Chad was also a low performer in school, he seemed bright but was a totally lazy student. He only graduated from high school because of the persistence and help of his mother who researched and accomplished all his assignments and projects aside from asking (and sometimes, begging) his teachers to pass him.

    On the other hand, most Filipinos would remember how the son of infamous Senator Miriam Santiago, Alexander Robert (AR), committed suicide where some speculators believe it may be because of his feeling of failure to measure up to his mother’s achievements and expectations of other people of him to be like his mom.

    In the case of Betty and her sons, it seem that Chad and probably, in the long run, even Mon, would not even try hard or maximize their effort to do good academically because their model,
    Pol, was a low performer. In the case of Alexander, his mother was such a high-performer that the expectations set for him by others and probably, by himself, was too lofty.

  • Case Two: Positive Behavior Versus Negative Behavior

    Let’s take as an example the story of Ned, the husband who beat her wife when he’s mad or very drunk. Ned was reared by a father who’s also a wife beater and who somewhat molded him into believing that women are inferior than men, therefore, they have the right to do whatever they want.
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    Is There a Guide for WannaBe Parents?
    A Crash Course in Parenting

    February 14, 2008 · Filed Under general, relationship, self-help · 3 Comments 

    Funny that while many of my friends’ ultimate dream were to get married and have kids, I was thinking otherwise.

    When I was still single, I had a very close male friend who would go to the extent of writing notes in my school notebooks the words “no to PMS.” PMS is pre-marital sex and he was doing that to urge me change my mind on my view on marriage and relationships.

    Although I was quite a liberal, my being liberated goes to some extent only and even if I was vocal about my being a pro-PMS and no-to-marriage gal, I was afraid of actually having sex. (Don’t worry, this post is not rated R.)

    I guess that among the factors why I was afraid of it was my fear of getting pregnant. I’ve always thought it would be very difficult to be a parent, lot of responsibilities and… lots of everything actually. I’ve always said, “I’m not ready to be a wife, nor, a mother.” But really, is there a course where we can be emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, and financially prepared to become a parent?

    What I’m sure right now, after being a mother for five years for Marcus, is that my mom was right: “You’ll never really understand being a Parent until you BECOME ONE.”

    To all Parents out there, Happy Valentines Day! I have surprised my Nanay and Mommmy (my mother-in-law) with sweet cakes this morning. For you guys, here is my gift — a funny but heartwarming and inspiring Resume of an Applicant for a Wanna-Be Parent from the book One Day at a Time by my favorite motivator, Francis J. Kong.

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