It’s now or never — at least when it comes to teaching children the value of time and the discipline of time management.
“Parenting experts have said it time and again—childhood is the best time to ingrain the skill of time management,” points out Kelvin Ngo, Operations Manager of Kids Watch Central. “Studies tell us that 80% of a typical workday is wasted on unimportant tasks and wasted time – a statistic that could have been prevented if only these adults had been disciplined early on.”
To help raise awareness on the importance of time management among children, Kids Watch Central will be holding Kids Watch Central Family Fun Summit 2009 a parenting seminar on time management that takes this issue head-on. “It may sound like a cliché, but now’s the right time to do something about it;
Real Mothers, Real Lessons
“What makes Kids Watch Central Family Fun Summit 2009 different is that the lessons from it are not textbook-based. The insights that will be shared are from real-life mothers who actually had to experience teaching their kids first-hand,” notes Ngo.
My son and I went on a playdate with other mommy bloggers and our kids, at Active Fun SM North Annex, late this afternoon. Too bad the other mommies got caught in the terrible Metro traffic that was brought about by the most anticipated long weekend. My son had no less than 3 hours of fun, to say the least. And if I wouldn’t call it a day, he wouldn’t have left the place at all. Putting it simply, it is a child’s wonderland.
my son, Jed, having the time of his life at Active Fun SM North Annex.
This afternoon, mommy bloggers were given the privilege by Red Ribbon to savor and taste the soon to be released White Forest cake. While it looks strikingly familiar with its inspiration, the Black Forest cake, it can easily stand on its own by its very distinct taste. I love that it is not too sweet and the burst of yummy cherries complementing the shaved white chocolates makes for a perfect dessert.
Red Ribbon’s White Forest cake consists of three main ingredients, namely: long stemmed Maraschino cherries, white chocolate and white chiffon. White Forest was inspired by the famous Black Forest cake which originated from Germany and has become a famous cake variant worldwide. Although Black Forest is not exactly my kind of cake, this white counterpart certainly did its trick on me. I love it to bits. In fact, I was the first one who finished the slice from the bunch of mom bloggers I was with yesterday, but ever so discreetly. The sweet tooth in me just couldn’t resist the fusion of cream and white chocolate flakes, the juicy cherries bursting through my every bite. It was so good, I just have to give my take home White Forest cake to my folks. And without me asking for feedback, Mama, who was never a cake person, called to tell me over and over that it was the best cake ever.:-)
It is always a joy for me to join Jeff, whenever I get the chance to, when he goes to minister to the youth of Makati. Here, he is in action. In the very high school I graduated from. Although it isn’t quite the same since I graduated some 10+ years ago. Senator Salonga no longer owns it, for one. The first time I visited, it was almost nostalgic. Even though I studied there for only a couple of years, it still amounted to something. Because the few good friends I have, I found there. The main building was still there and few others mushroomed, plus the few nice facilities to boot.
It has been more than 2 weeks since I first started making kefir smoothies for our family. The introduction was not hard, especially with my son. But after the first week, when I gradually thickened the concentration of the kefir milk, I got a sour face because of the little- too-sour-concoction, from my dear husband. Although he would always finish the smoothies anyway, I solved the problem by adding a little more honey. I stuck with the thick kefir milk concentrate, though. It worked. There was one day I ran out of fruits, I experimented with this strawberry jam from Baguio and my son loved it. Apparently, it is only I who can drink it au naturale. And I wonder, really. It tastes just like yoghurt. If people can eat yoghurt without fuss, then drinking or eating kefir shouldn’t be a problem.
Time. This is what I have been hoping to have more of. More time to be able to squeeze everything in my schedule. After having met with five of the girls that I disciple in church last Sunday, I still have a few that I wasn’t able to catch up with. Being online most of the time, I encouraged them to update me via email and so far this is also working for us.
While it is a given that there is no way that I could extend an hour to my day, I know I should get better at juggling my time to be able to do everything and be effective while I’m at it. I honestly cannot help but feel tired sometimes. Being a work from home mom is never walk in a park. What, with the things I do from homeschooling, article writing, the endless house chores and things in between. I pretty much have a valid reason to go nuts, but I choose to enjoy and love what I do.
What alone gets me going, is my daily time with the Lord, get that out of my schedule and I’m out of sorts. Although I happen to believe that I have valid reasons to get worn out, I would still find myself drained and even fuss over petty irritations. It is my default when my heart is not in tune with God. Everyone around me suffers too. Fretting and toiling over things that don’t really matter and the unimportant cares of this world can easily get the best of me, when I don’t spend time with my first love.
Yesterday, my son and I wrapped up our first quarter of homeschooling. I cannot be more proud of him! Right from the time that we started, how he memorized the visualized instructions by heart, which is foundational to every pace that we use for every single subject of every single school day. I never had a hard time getting him through the homeschooling routine, to start with. I cannot be more convinced that this is exactly what I should be doing. My heart is full and I am overjoyed as I see right before my very eyes how his eyes light up as he learns new things and all the developments! How he associates everyday things with the new learnings. How he can locate countries and places around the globe and to think that it has only been less than 3 months!!! I can go on and on about these things, but here’s one thing for sure– in my heart I know that this is exactly the place that I should be and not the sidelines. Read the rest of this entry »
Our son, Jed took his third unit test last Thursday and passed with flying colors– concluding our first quarter of this school year. He is now able to follow through the stories, instructions and all, his fine motor skills have improved significantly, too. We will officially start with the second quarter this coming Tuesday. Monday, being a non-working holiday.
“close your eyes”(this is what we always have him do to get him ready for the surprise)
It has been a while since we got him a real surprise. This time he totally did not see it coming. We got him a more durable RC. All his previous ones are now broken and dysfunctional. He so loves cars and there is nothing that will overwhelm him more than this. So we figured to get him something that he really wants, this time a more durable one. It helped too that it was 50% off from the time we last saw it.
Last August 20, 2009, dear hubby joined the Honda Challenge Cup, Drive Every Drop and landed first in their category. The category being, 1.3 A/T Honda City. I honestly was not surprised as I have always seen my man to join every game to win. From soccer to the ministry, he is a very driven man.
1. I feel exited and blessed about the hubby’s upcoming 34th birthday.
2. Celebrating birthdays is always fun.
3. Right now, I can hear these things: my son chattering away as he brushes his teeth.
4. Jeff is turning 34 years old on Sunday and I’m glad to celebrate another day in his life again.
5. The last time I cried was last week.
6. We hope to go to the park this Labor day weekend.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to sleeping early (t’was a real long day), tomorrow my plans include finishing up some articles and Sunday, I want to enjoy celebrating with the hubby on his birthday!
A follow up to Parent Talk 101 last April is Parent Talk 102: Developing Responsible Teens. With Pastor Clem Guillermo. This will be held on October 17, 2008, Saturday, 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. at Cinema 11, SM City North Edsa. Tickets at P200 each.
The schedule of a homeschooling mom who happens to also work from home is not exactly stress free, to say the least. Ever since we started with our homeschool classes more than two months ago, I find myself getting taxed, especially during the first few weeks when I was still trying to grab a hold of the of the curriculum. It can be crazy, I tell you. So cut homeschooling moms some slack when it comes to homemaking. Obviously, this has taken a backseat since we started with our curriculum. Except that, effective last week, my weekend girl, Mariet, called in and told me that she is available to come report every week. Yay! Such blessing! I trust her and could even leave the house with her on weekends. When she became unavailable for months, I had to hire some random help, who never got me satisfied. Mariet isn’t just reliable but an expert also in cleaning my bath tub the way I wanted it done and even the ceramic tiles. She’s an angel. So, as she takes care of the general cleaning, I get the easier task of just maintaining the house on weekdays. To keep my sanity intact, a weekend girl became a necessity, when we started homeschooling.
The sweet tooth in me just couldn’t resist the fusion of cream and white chocolate flakes, the juicy cherries bursting through my every bite. It was so good, I just have to give my take home White Forest cake to my folks. And without me asking for feedback, Mama, who was never a cake person, called to tell me over and over that it was the best cake ever.:-)
