Reading

My kids grow up with books. Just this week, my daughter bought her first novel. It was her pick. One thing I learned as a mom and a teach…when the child gets the interest in reading, do not discourage her and insist your own genre for her to like… I do not like Hannah Montana but I think for now, I can let her buy those… I believe it will not damage her morality and values… But I hope she will learn to like Nancy Drew or other classics or at least read the Chronicles of Narnia. I would love her to read those.

Here is the book she bought…

Young lady

My daughter went to the beauty saloon sometime last week. It was the birthday of Kyla (one of her best friends)…. Kyla decided to have an intimate birthday celebration with her closest friends…instead of throwing a big party… they had a parlor party (make-over party) instead…

Yanni’s best friends are like my daughters… Whenever I buy little things for Yanni… I cant help it but buy for these two girls too… It’s like the three are triplets—though Yanni is just 10, Kyla is 11, and Danni is just 8 years old (turning 9 this November though).

Anyway, I’m just so happy how these girls are bonded.

Life Academy Season 5

Our church runs the Life Academy every summer. It’s been 5 years that we have done this… and this is the 2ndth time that Jason joined for drum lesson. Last year, he only did a minor drum exhibition with his coach and two of his classmates.

But this year, Jason’s recital was a full length song with the guitar ensemble. They played Speak Now by Taylor Swift…

Here are some of his photos:

Jason’s Drum Recital VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Done Her Best

Last April 2, 2011 was Yanni’s Recognition Day. She garnered the 3rd Honorable mention ( I’m still confused with the names of academic honors like 3rd honors and stuff ) not just in the class but for the entire grade 2 level. As you may know, this is Yanni’s first time to attend regular/traditional school. She has been homeschooled since she was 6 years old. She learned to read and write with me that includes her basic mathematical skills (Hubby is in charged of teaching their values class and PE). Given the choice, I would love to homeschool Yanni until highschool. But since I need to go back to work (After 5 years of staying home, but hey I got an online job on the side)--- make use of my profession as a teacher (honestly speaking, Life is hard nowadays, couples need to work hand in hand to raise a family and give kids a better future--- but hey that is not what this blog is all about)… But anyway… we never pressure Yanni to excel— like a never-ending yapping about “you have to have an accolade in school” or “I want you to be the first”… or anything of that sort of nagging and pressuring…No we do not do that to our kids… We have other way of telling it… LOL.

Seriously, we just tell the kids to do their best…and we encourage them by sharing that Mama and Dada used to get awards too while we’re studying… We also give extrinsic rewards to our kids, like treat them whenever they get perfect score or whenever they have done their best… In our family, we define best as having done their task at their utmost inherent abilities and or maximum potentials… Best to us is not being on top of others…but squeezing the last drop of what they are capable of doing. I don’t know if that makes sense…but that’s how it is in our family. We always rejoice whenever our kids achieve something, even the simplest tasks.


All Praise and Glory belong to God for the good things that Yanni did in her school. We know with or without the award, she has done her best…She pulled through the school year despite the odd transition from homeschool to traditional (public) school (well, talk about adjustments and stress... and her being different from most kids in her class- so blessed that she has done quite a great job back there. God is good, right!).


N.B... a due recognition is credited to my husband who never grows tired of doing bible study with our kids, and is encouraging them to live life for God!

Tweens: On Calf Love

Preteen, tweenager, tweenie are some derivatives of tweens. The termed is coined for females mostly. This demographic has the age bracket of 9-12 years… and right now… I have a 10 year old daughter… like most girls, they like to keep diaries (I for one). Well… before I would scribble (which is more of encoding) my thoughts… lemme clarify that the circumstance was never premeditated. It just happened.
So…as I was saying, my daughter is keeping a diary, which one time she carelessly left in our bedroom. My husband was working in the computer, and saw her dairy lying on top of the cpu. Out of curiosity, he took it, not with the intention to read what’s inside but because the design, the color and the mechanical buttons drew his attention in. Now go figure! ---- If you think he was playing with the locks and opened the diary (by the way… there is no imprint that says “ D-I-A-R-Y” …my husband found his excuse @.@ ) … YUP! Lo and Behold, t’was already too late when he realized that he cracked the code and opened that forbidden notebook. I wonder if he would open it if the notebook has a print that says “READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!” … because what he discovered in that diary really balled him over. My husband found out that his daughter begins to admire boys at her age… I think that thought gave him a headache… prolly someone gave him a left hook.
Things such as those are expected… kids grow. You can never stop it. It is just a matter of guiding the children. What are parents for? So how would you deal with that? You see, we are practicing Christians. As parents, my husband and I desire for our kids to follow Christian courtship. Have you read the book “I Kiss Dating Goodbye?” by Joshua Harris? We want our kids to practice that by heart. It is hard to just preach to the kids and bombard them with set of rules and the WHAT-NOT-TO-DO LIST. That will not simply work. Right now, the best thing to do is to safeguard them in our prayers… train them to righteousness while we still can. We have weekly bible study at home. My husband leads the kids… One thing I see that is very crucial is not to scold them when issues like these come. These are real situations, and should not be considered as a taboo subject. Kids should know that they can confidently come to us and share to us their thoughts, their struggles, and their frustrations.
If I can only program the life of my kids, I would. But like how God created us… He gave us the freewill… One day…my kids will exercise that God-given gift. But when they are being taught to love God… and when they know that loving God is to live a life that will bring honor and glory to God… then they will surely do that. My kids are very expressive with their love towards us. My kids are not perfect… but they will surely follow God.
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." ~ Proverbs 22:6

YANNI~ THE ARTIST

My daughter Yanni has the skills in drawing, painting, and sketching. We saw that while she was still very young, prolly around 3 years old. She might not be as great as others but hey! No comparison needed. She’s unique and an individual… anyway, in her class, her teacher is counting on her in helping the teach with her visual aids… prolly the teach is just like me~ not good with drawings.

Anyway, here are some of Yanni’s drawings.

 

Yanni VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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Raising A Child With VSD : A Coup d'Oeil

My firstborn was diagnosed with Ventricular –septal defect (VSD) when he was just two months old. When I learned about his condition (t’was only me who went to the Pediatrician that time because Jason had a cough), it felt like a bomb just exploded before me. Nurturing him then was so difficult, the hospital was like part of his daily routine. He went in and out. We were told to have him operated on by his Pedia, but we went to see other doctors for their 3rd or 4th opinion. There was one pediatric cardiologist who told us that there was a big chance for the hole to close as he grew up. So we were really hopeful that natural healing would happen to our eldest son, as it was explained that his heart muscles might cover the hole in his heart, by the way the hole was around .45+mm. And it was only in the later part prior to his major heart surgery that we learned that his case had no chance of closing up.


While growing up, Jason had limited activities. We tried to shield him from the worst possibilities that might happen to him. He grew up not being able to experience the fullness of being a toddler and being a young kid. He turned 6 years old and the hole was still there. He was homeschooled because when he attended grade one, he got very ill. He found it hard coping with the hectic schedules – like waking up early, then doing lots of assignment, and other school work. Then he turned 10 years old… opportunities came for him to get operated on.
September 12, 2009, around 10 am in the Philippine heart center. T’was also our 10th year wedding anniversary by the way. We thought things would be better then for Jason…but then life wouldn't be the same for him. He would forever be careful of his activities. It was an open heart surgery, so we were told that Jason had to make sure that he would prevent himself from getting stumble and or avoid any hard fall that would hit his chest since it would cave in from the hard impact.


Almost 2 years have passed… Jason’s heart is better now…but still we continue to live life making sure that he is well-cared and is safeguarded from any harm.