Here is our 4 year old Jed reciting Psalm 100. It has been a while since he last recited the chapter and he has kind of forgotten some of the verses, which explains the “and thens” in betweens.
Psalm 100
1Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
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.
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 »
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.
“Welcome to the Magical World of Story Telling where legends and myths of pirates and princesses, tales and chronicles of fairies and fantasy will come alive in Manila!”
I feel very grateful for having a husband who I am a team with when it comes to parenting. Some have to do child rearing by themselves. Through past mistakes and sometimes no fault of their own, a handful of adults have to parent their child without a spouse’s help. While we see it as a challenge to train up a child, it is even doubly hard for a single parent.
While this is not the picture that God has planned for a child to grown up in, we have to remember that ours is not a perfect world. Wiser single parents will thrive and still teach their children the same godly principles in bringing them up even without a spouse present.
I may never know how it is to parent a child single handedly, but this much I know, honesty and integrity should be a priority. As a child grows, he or she will be driven to ask why the other parent does not live with them. Make sure to emphasize that even as you admit to your child that you committed a mistake in the past, that he is NOT a mistake. If you happen to be divorced or separated, emphasize as well that God’s plan is for husband and wife to remain married to each other for as long as they live. This is an important foundation you will be teaching your child. In the event that you fail to mention this to him, he may grow up thinking that the default of married couples is the same as your situation. Never speak evil of your former spouse. This will prove to be a challenge especially if you think you have enough reason to hold a grudge against him or her. Allow your child to form their own opinions of both his parents as he matures.
Here is another valuable parenting insight that we can use in our homes.
One of the roadblocks to harmony in family life is when siblings act foolishly and end up hurting or offending each other. Foolishness may be demonstrated by teasing and playing around beyond what’s appropriate or wanted. Usually one person wants to stop before the other. Angry words and tears often bring an end to what started out as fun. Incorporating a “Stop Rule” in your family will help children, and parents for that matter, know when to quit.
Even before my son started showing his first tooth at 7 months, I had him use an infant oral brush to take care of his gums. Prior to that, I used to wipe off milk off his mouth and gums with a wet washcloth. It will not just eliminate decay causing bacteria but will also prepare his mouth for the later introduction of toothbrush. I have seen far too plenty of kids all over who have dental caries and end up losing majority of the teeth they have even before they are ready to fall off and have their permanent teeth. I knew from the beginning that I am not going to allow that to happen to my son. This is why I think it is very important that we encourage our children the habits that they form from the beginning.
Our son when he was 9 months old. It took me a while before I found this shot. It was in the Feb 2006 folder. I am really thankful I got all the photos listed by month/year album. Infant oral toothbrushes usually have this stopper that prevents babies getting the brush all the way down their throats. Read the rest of this entry »
As a follow up to a more recent article on Understanding Receptive and Expressive Language in Babies, I hope to share the things we have learned to encourage the development of your child’s language skills. It helped that my husband and I were right from the beginning a team with our desire to become pro active parents. We did not want to just stay in the sidelines and watch our child go with the flow. So far, in our four years, I can only say that we’re happy with the choices that we made.
When you are a brand new mother, there are so many things to learn about your child, one of which is the development of language. When I was a young mother myself, I am one of the guilty ones who bombarded themselves with information about the how-tos of taking care of a newborn. I always had a chart of the normal developmental stages of a child handy. We attended not just childbirth preparation classes but newborn care classes as well. To a degree, I even considered myself ready way before our son was born.
Jeff and I were thrilled over each and every progress our son would show. I remember this video that I took when Jed was a couple of months old. At three months, he was already mimicking the sound of the way we say “I love you” with ease and it was just one of the most unforgettable things.
It was like watching the clock when it came to how I anticipated my son to talk real words. We never encouraged baby talking. From all the studies that we have done, which were always careful to evaluate first, baby talking is not the way to go. Although, no one can really help himself when he’s faced with a baby. We always tend to don our softest voices and even sing-song tones when there is a baby around. But that’s entirely different from baby talking.
Although dogs are not exactly my most favorite thing in the world (it has something to do with the phobia I picked up when I was three), I am beginning to see the advantages of having one. They really can be good guards of your home, if we come to think of it. It can also be my son’s pet. That is actually the primary reason why I may consider. With emphasis on MAY, please. It will really take something for me to agree on us getting one.
This entry is the next installment to the article I wrote here.
The indicators of Autocratic Parenting as defined by Pastor Clem Guillermo during the Parent Talk 101 seminar :
Parent run roughshod over their children
Parents believe they know what is best for all.
Force their ideas on children.
Very critical, demanding, threatening.
Distrustful, manipulative and over-involved.
Daddy or Mommy knows best.
Given that this seminar was focused on teenage kids, I now tend to agree with what was expressed in this particular subject. But it is entirely a different issue if the children concerned are younger children. Babies and toddlers to be exact. My husband and I have believed from the beginning, children (babies and toddlers) do not know any better. This is why they cannot be given the freedom to just do anything they want, whenever they want. Freedom comes with responsibility.
utocratic parenting will not work for teenagers. This is why it is extremely important to parent the child properly during their formative years. Unlike with children in the younger years, reasoning with teenagers is already possible.Given that you have a good relationship with your child. A good relationship is always a non-negotiable if we want our message to go across. Like for instance, we cannot do “spanking” as a form of discipline if we do not have a good relationship with our child. This will result to rebellion.
This entry is the next installment to the article I wrote here.
The indicators of Autocratic Parenting as defined by Pastor Clem Guillermo during the Parent Talk 101 seminar :
*Parent run roughshod over their children
*Parents believe they know what is best for all. Read the rest of this entry »
Mommies very well know how babies and toddlers tend to smell rather sour after a few hours, or even minutes (during extra humid days) after we have given our little cutie pies their baths. I happily report that my son has been sweet smelling practically all day since he started using GIGA baby soap. He would still sweat all right, but nothing like how he used to. I love it so much that I use the soap on his hair too.
The GIGA brand has been a staple in our household since 2005. And I wouldn’t even start telling you about NO ITCH. It magically clears away any trace of itchiness. They both have a permanent place in my dresser. NO PAIN replaced my former pricier Origins’ Peace of Mind. When migraine attacks, my instinct would be is to grab NO PAIN.
I have recommended GIGA to friends and relatives.I remember getting hold of a handful of GIGA products for my bestfriend, Gina who is in London, a few years ago. This is just about the neatest thing so far GIGA has come up with. My baby and I love GIGA’s brand new baby line (baby soap, insect repellant spray, cold rub, baby balm, baby cologne and baby oil) Everything caters to pampering your baby. The cologne is formulated just right, with its own original scent. My son loves it, I do too.
It did not exactly occur to me that Parent Talk 101 was to focus particularly on communication with young adults/teenage children. But that did not get me disappointed. I think it is necessary for parents to be ready way ahead of the actual battle. This is what we did before I gave birth to my son. From learning how to be BabyWise to attending to childbirth classes. These helped us a lot to conceptualize the kind of parents we want to be. It is our first and we knew we had to start right.
