Cure for Mondays

Testing My Survival Skills in a Mosh Pit of Selfie-Crazed Parents

2018-05-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

My daughter just concluded her first ballet recital for the year. Ballet Philippines kept it short and sweet this time—showcasing only excerpts from The Nutcracker. For me, there is nothing more adorable than ballerinas in their tutus. The sight of them simply fills me with joy. And envy. I dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but my mother never found sense in pursuing something that would not tie you behind the desk for eight hours and getting a fat paycheck at the end of the month. I’m now tied to my desk, alright, for about 10 hours a day even, though the fat paycheck eludes me to this day. I’m just happy that my daughter was already en pointe when she came out of my tummy.

I know joy and envy are emotions like water and oil—or spaghetti and rice, which for some reason many Filipinos love to put together on their plates. They never go well together, but then you can trust my hormones to wring reality out with shameless intentions. I’ve stopped taming them for years because I have succumbed to the fact that, like kids who have left the nest, you lose complete control of your hormones when you hit a certain age. I’m trying my best to befriend them nonetheless by chugging homemade kombucha.

Rules in Theaters that Should be Carried Out in Many Other Places

Attika’s first recital was at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) where they strictly implement a long list of house rules that include: no parents in the dressing and holding rooms, and no cameras inside the theater, among many others. My favorite rule is not allowing anyone to take photos during the show because it lets you enjoy the full show sans strangers’ arms from the back row reaching out for a good photo (there will never be a good photo) and resting their arms on the side of your face as if you didn’t exist.

So after call time, you bring your ballerina to the door of the dressing room and the next time you see her will be at the end of the show. You’re instructed which side of the theater to collect her after the performance. She was only five when she experienced her first big show, so I’m not going to deny going through separation anxiety when I kissed her goodbye that afternoon. I expected whining and tugging and not wanting to let go of mommy’s hand out of fear of whatever was there behind those grand drapes. But I was so wrong. She hugged and kissed me lightly and said goodbye—brimming with confidence that I was not ready for. She turned around and walked gracefully towards the theater assistant who was waiting for her. I watched her disappear behind the drapes, amazed and a bit sad (see first paragraph for a quick guide to my hormones) that my little girl already showed a “world readiness level” that I didn’t feel I had until I turned 30.

Her first recital went to our invisible scrapbook of vivid memories, and some to social media (yes, we’re humans who succumb to temptations after all).

Before Camera Phones, There was This

Moving forward, the minor recital was held at the activity center of SM Aura last week—and boy, mall shows are fun as much as they are a test of your survival skills as a parent. Before social media, parents relied on hired photographers to take perfect photos of their kids before, during and after a performance. The parents get to sit to watch and enjoy the show—the reason why they came in the first place.

There’s a waiting time of one week for the photos to be ready. A photographer’s assistant visits you at home or at school so you can collect and pay for your photos. If you’re a young person opening your mouth in disbelief, yes, that’s how it was done in a period my daughter refers to as “the olden days”. And close that mouth. It’s a long-lost art that deserves a lot of respect. There was a lot of thrill that went into waiting for your pictures not knowing whether to be happy or disappointed with the outcome. There were no editing apps, no turning back. There was only the “claim your photo and accept” option. This is the inspiration for Facebook’s Throwback Thursday—the virtual display case for big hair, bangs and all sorts of embarrassing stuff.

Test Your Survival Skills—Pit Against Parents During Photo Op

When the Directress announced that there would be a photo opportunity with the dancers, that was when the parenting maelstrom started to happen. The storm actually started brewing while the show was ongoing. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and the yayas were all set to fight to get a good spot for the photo ops.

“Dancers, please come up the stage for your photos!”

A woman with a video camera pushed me from the back, while a big man made sure to block my way while everyone was moving towards the stage. Another lady pushed me from the side and about a dozen yayas fought their way to the stage—a mosh pit of screaming adults without the music.

You could see the kids getting confused where to look, holding their smiles for a long time until it hurt their mouth. They also had to make sure that their faces fit the frames perfectly when their parents held the phone up for a “selfie”.

“Look here! Here! Here! Here!” They all screamed, and the kids looked to the left and to the right with their heads looking like bob heads going the wrong direction. A woman who was trying to take a photo of her daughter turned to me with an angry face and screamed, “I hate that Indian girl!” She was blocking her daughter’s view.

I politely said, “Okay.” It’s not the most appropriate answer, but there is no way of consoling a woman whose cataclysmic reality was having nothing to feed her social media pets later on.

Failing at the Mosh Pit and Quite Happy About It

I was squished and pushed and shoved for a long 30 minutes, so I snaked my way out of the mess and reunited with my coffee. I managed to get “UnInstagramable” photos for which I was ready to forgive myself.

Phone cameras now dictate our lives. No photo, no eat. No photo, no move. No photo, no life. We want to put everything out there for the world to see. The word privacy is unbeknownst to us. I don’t lose sleep over 50 photos of the same face on a person’s page because there is a solution to that, and that is not to look. I’m getting a bit worried though that we may be raising young people who think that taking selfies and posting your face all over social media is a mé·tier to aim for.

Tips on How to Enhance Your Homeschool Curriculum with Media

2018-01-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited that you found us here! Please read this article in its new home. Click here.

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EVO 3D Books Make Learning Fun and Beneficial for Kids

2017-07-26T06:33:00.001-07:00

Remember the very first time you opened a pop-up book? There are times when memories of those books would come to mind and remind me how magical the experience was. It still is. So when I go to bookstores {I especially like those hole-in-the-wall book shops with old, old books} I still scan the shelves for aged books. I had Three Little Pigs and Cinderella, but my favorite was Little Red Riding Hood. One of the pages had a tab you could pull on the side if you wanted the big bad wolf to stick its tongue out. I’d skip all other pages to get to that one first.

The concept of moving books had been around for a very long time. Mechanical and movable books were first used to illustrate concepts in Astronomy and were designed for the purpose of teaching. It wasn’t until the 1700’s when pop-up books for children were created and started becoming popular.

Today, books continue to change in beautiful ways. The EVO 3D Augmented Reality Books are bringing us a unique experience in reading and learning. My daughter calls them her “phone books”. If you come from a generation where phone books were still relevant and useful in people’s lives, you’d understand why the comment is quite amusing.

You need to download a free app to enjoy the 3D aspect of the EVO books. Attika says she loves how animals in her books come to life. She has both the EVO Birds and EVO Ocean and more than just the joy of being able to see animals in her books move, they are also interactive. You can control them and let them move around, learn about the food that they eat, their environment, their skeletal structures and the sounds they make.

Here are ways 3D Augmented Reality Books Make Fun Learning and Beneficial for Kids

Complex ideas are made easier.

My daughter is just learning how to read and these 3D books are helping her appreciate and learn concepts that are a bit too complex to learn through reading for her age. For example, an interactive tool of EVO teaches her what certain birds eat and how they move.

Visual learning is engaging.

Young learners are stimulated by movements, colors and sounds, so kids don’t get bored and even enjoy repeating information, thereby allowing them to absorb the information faster.

There is control in the use of technology.

Unlike other learning tools or games online, kids cannot just skip to other activities that are not related to what they’re currently learning. They can repeat parts of the book that interest them and they learn faster that way.

Attika can tell you more about the EVO books in this video. You might need to use a headphone for this one though. We're still working on our video editing dexterity (wink, wink!)

You can find EVO books on different topics, coloring books and learning cards from Kidoozi. They also have a wide range of high-quality toys, top products that will make your parenting journey memorable. They are an online store, so you can shop for your kids’ toys from home!

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Why You Feel Like You Never Have Enough and What You Can Do About It

2017-07-11T00:55:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm so glad you're here! Please read this article in its new home. Thank you!

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On a Tight Budget this Summer? 10 Tips for Moms

2017-04-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

There are so many things that you can do with your kids this summer. I looked up activities, events, workshops, camps and lessons and there is an endless list that cater to all kinds of interests. The camps are particularly exciting since the summer provides campers the perfect weather so they can make the most out of their time away from home learning new things and meeting new friends. I remember the bonfires we had as kids and those still top my list of the most exciting experiences I had living in the province as a young person. The beach was nearby and some of my friends had huge backyards where we built bonfires, shared ghost stories and successfully did not burn down a house.

While the articles you see online about summer activities are very helpful, I found that most of them come with a hefty price. Summer sports and music lessons can be anything from PhP3,000 to PhP10,000 depending on the location and the person or company giving the training. A two-day teen camp I was eyeing for my son costs PhP15,000 (around USD302) and although I understand the value and worth of the camp, it just might be challenging to put together the funds for that one camp especially that both our kids are also enrolled in other classes. My 15-year-old son is taking up a two-year course in Fine Arts and our five-year old daughter regularly goes to ballet school. Until it rains cash on my side of the town, we would have to plan our summer wisely so both kids can enjoy the season without missing out on other things that they want to do.

A friend of mine is a bit worried that they might have to “skip summer” this year. Her family is going through a mild case of financial crisis and said they might not be able to afford going to events and attending summer activities this time. Sometimes we go through unexpected twists and turns in life and might have to realign our finances. Is this entirely bad? Of course not. There is no such thing as a permanent experience, and experiences make people better -- if they know how to caper around a bad situation, that is. When I reminded her that the best summers of our lives were spent climbing trees, reading books in hammocks and going to fiestas and getting our fill with all the free food, that put a smile on her face.

We may now be living in a marketing-run world where you feel compelled to have money and pay for everything to be happy, but happiness is still a very subjective thing as it is a choice.

So if you’re a mom on a tight budget, please know that skipping summer is not an option, but making it fun for your kids is.

Do volunteer work for neighbors in need or organizations that accept volunteers with little or no experience. Helping others is an opportunity more than anything. It will help the kids have better understanding about important matters in life, have a sense of responsibility and develop a deeper understanding of humanity. Organizations like Kids International Ministries and Gawad Kalinga are in need of people who want to offer their time regardless of age and experience. All you need is a big, big heart to help those in need.

Soak up on a lot of reading in public libraries. Why not? It’s about time we tell our (non-bookworm) kids the truth that reading is not only for school. It should be a continuing affair with literature. Here is a list of public libraries in Metro Manila. There might be one near you.

Hold a garage sale. Summer is a good time time for you to clear out those cabinets and closets. You won’t only be decluttering your house, you will also be earning from all the dust magnets you’ve been keeping. You will be surprised at how much you can earn from a garage sale. I joined one in our condo when we moved here last year and I earned PhP8,000 from old clothes, bags and shoes that were just collecting dust in our house anyway. I sold a lot of our stuff for only PhP10, and the lowest I got paid for an item was five pesos. That sounds like a giveaway, I know, but the smile on the yaya's face was priceless. She said she'd send it to her apo in the province.

Sell ice candy. You will need very little capital for this. Everyone loves ice candies and everyone needs them in this heat. But more than an entrepreneurial venture for you and your kids, selling ice candy is fun and fulfilling. You won’t need to leave the house and you have the neighborhood kids as your captured market. When I was pregnant with Cole 16 years ago, bored and had read up all the books in my father’s old house, I decided to sell ice candy and earned a net of P100/a day. It wasn’t much, but it also did not require any effort. I still have a good laugh about that until now and I always share that story every chance I get.

Encourage your kids to learn a new musical instrument. You might have one that’s only been lying around unnoticed or you can borrow a musical instrument from friends or cousins. There are countless YouTube instructional videos on different instruments for beginners. If they go online, it better be for a good purpose such as this.

Give your home a makeover. This is one of my favorite things to do. We have done this with very little budget. Read Decorating your Home on a Budget here.

Spend time in the pool. There are inexpensive pools in Metro Manila, if you don't have a neighborhood or private pool. Here’s a list of some of them.

Do origami or learn it if you haven't yet. The art of the paper is one of the most engaging activities known to man. You can do it anywhere and you can put to good use those pieces of scratch paper lying around while you’re still practicing.

Turn to good old classic board games. Young people are spending too much screen time these days. You can always borrow or exchange with other families so you get a load of fun from different games every time.

If you have other ideas, I would love to hear from you and include your suggestions on this list. Hope you all have a fun-filled summer this year!

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An Early Summer Treat for All Young Scientists!

2017-04-16T02:52:00.001-07:00

Get the most out of your summer by making new discoveries and doing exciting experiments! We want you to learn while you're having fun this summer that is why we're giving you 5% off on Jeepneed's Lab in a Box. All you need to do is to e-mail us to get your discount voucher. Don't wait too long. We would love to hear from you!

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Jeepneed Brings Labs to Home Schools

2017-04-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

Science -- from grade school through high school you were either in love with it or were terrified by it. We find out later in life though, post terror Science teachers and all, that every moment you spent in all those Science classes did not need to be scary. No information could be too big nor too small for a curious learner. There’s you and all the amazing things in the world that surround you. Learning Science is fun and should be engaging for both the learner and the teacher. But sometimes this is easier said than done. When we started homeschooling years ago, one of the first few challenges that my husband and I dealt with was becoming the Science teachers that our then 10-year old son would not fall asleep on.

One study conducted in Indiana University High School concluded that in a class 30% of the students demonstrated boredom because they said there was a lack of interaction between them and their teachers, and 70% said the materials their teachers used were simply not interesting. This is a situation that could be true across classrooms in different parts of the world.

Through Makerspace Pilipinas and Jeepneed, we were so glad to discover during their event at The Mind Museum that homeschooling families like us have better, more creative and definitely more engaging ways to teach Science classes. You just can’t toss a book to your kids and tell them to learn and remember as much as they can. It is not enough to show them pictures of microscopes, science laboratories and what’s inside them, etc. Experiments and various activities help them understand facts, theories and concepts better and help them retain knowledge through their own discoveries. Science materials available in bookstores though are a bit too pricey or are not that easy to source. So if you are planning a series of activities for a school year, it could bore a hole in your the pocket.

Photos courtesy of Jeepneed

4 Reasons Why Homeschoolers Should Know About Jeepneed’s Lab in a Box:

1. Jeepneed’s goals are aligned with the common goals of homeschoolers. Two of these are “to build observation skills and creative problem solving skills essential beyond Science as a subject”; and “to get kids off the screen and on to discover the world”.

2. Affordable Science Kits and Lab in a Box. You get materials for four or more activities for every box. The longer your subscription is the cheaper it will be for you. The price for their experiment boxes are way, way cheaper than the ones you will typically find in bookstores. And yes, it is done by subscriptions, so they bring the lab to your door!

3. It’s not just school work, it’s a fun family activity. Everyone in the family can share ideas and discuss facts while doing the experiment. Bigger siblings can assist the younger members of the family, so they get to discover processes and results together.

4. Lab anywhere! As homeschoolers, we enjoy the benefit of being able to “work” anywhere. The Techie Microscope and the Pocket Microscope are certainly fun to have when spending time outdoors.

What my kids think about Lab in a Box:

We were given the opportunity to try the Electronics Kit and the Biology Kit. I can’t remember the last time I peeked into the wonders of the world through a microscope, so it was a whole new experience for me. I confess I had to try very hard to patiently wait for my turn to use the Pocket and Techie Microscopes.

Cole on the Electronics Kit: Papa has taught me a few things about electronics and I believe it's one of the very important things to learn. During the Makerspace event, it was so much fun learning how to create a circuit board. It helped me understand electricity and basic electric circuitry faster than just reading them from the book.

Attika on the Biology Kit: I wondered why a microscope had a glass in front of it. I liked it so much because it's like having super powers! I could see tiny things. My skin looked strange under the microscope!

Jeepneed is Driving Education. Learn more about them here.

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Homeschool Classroom: Decorating Your Home on a Budget

2016-12-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

The moment we get settled in to a new home, the first thing each of us does is to find a spot we strongly connect to. Mine would always be by a window, while my husband needs the most quiet corner because of his virtual meetings. Both kids, although they have their own rooms to mess with, share a common learning area. That way they can share ideas, and Cole, being the older sibling, can read stories to Attika and give her painting lessons from time to time. The bickering may not stop on some days, but for as long as they hug and say their “I love yous” before hitting the sack, I’m fine with that.

We are a home-based family. We homeschool, we work from home and run a business from home, so we need functional spaces where we can do our responsibilities without feeling like everything is work. People get curious when we say we homeschool and want to know how our “school” looks like. I’m giving you a glimpse of our working spaces at home, but first, I’d like to answer some of the questions I have been asked recently.

Is it important to have individual working spaces at home?

Yes. It is important, although you should not let the idea of creating work spaces at home intimidate you. The idea of spending time together at home is wonderful, but we all work on different things and projects, which all require a physical space where we can accomplish them.

Do we need to personalize work spaces?

The choice is yours. We encouraged our kids to personalize their desks to make them feel comfortable and so they can claim a space that they can call their own. Deciding what to put on their desks and decorating them was a jolt to their creativity.

Cole painted an old teapot for Attika's pen organizer

It is also easier to keep track of their learning activities and having their own desks means having the responsibility of cleaning up and making sure things are in order. Seeing neat desks most of the time though is being too optimistic in our case because Cole paints and Attika is a very “busy” five-year-old girl.

I like to work on a clean desk and my husband gets more creative with mess and creates more with the mess that he makes. My best friend OCD is not friends with him, so we have to have separate working areas where he won’t constantly be battling with my nosy friend.

Does it mean we have to spend more for home improvement?

Definitely not! We put the reduce, reuse, recycle principle into practice. Unless you want to and if you have squeezed it in your budget, you don’t need to hire people to create your work areas. Any home improvement project that does not require the expertise of carpenters, electricians, plumber, etc., is a good way of spending quality time with your family. Take time to plan specific projects with them like adding shelves in a corner or painting old desks. It would help to create a timeline. If the kids are old enough to take on small home improvement projects, discuss who will be responsible for what. This is a good way to teach kids basic project planning.

All of the carpentry work at home were done by Alex and Cole. Alex started teaching Cole basic carpentry at the age of 10. The paint job in their study area were also mostly done by Cole.

Remember that the word is "personal" not "grand". It's a space that grows with you, a space that says you.

What if we don’t have enough space at home?

The kitchen is always a good area to study and do projects. Or the living room. Or the floor somewhere. No matter how small your home is, there will always be that spot where you can study or let your creativity flow. If you have to share a common space, just remember to keep the place tidy so the rest of the family can also use the space without wasting time tidying up. Remind the kids to keep the house in order because studies show that a tidy, clean house attracts more positive energy.

We have also worked and studied in kitchens and hallways and it doesn’t matter. Don’t let 'not having enough space' stop you from being productive and from creating memories in that beautiful space you call home. Still, the most important thing is the abundance of love and support that we give our children. I like being best friends with my family, and even if it means not being able to control half-screams sometimes -- because we’re humans in a real world -- we know that we have each other’s backs at all times.

Our "classroom", our home, our playground

Welcome to our “classroom” where everything is refurbished, reused, recycled. The old jars sitting in our storage have become pen holders; old frames (which we bought from a flea market seven years ago) have been repurposed into cork board frames; boxes of sorts were made into paint brush holders. Other things you might find here are repainted letter holders, chipped-off teapots, organizers made from old newspapers, Attika's old boot-turned-flower-vase, old shoe box repurposed as desk organizer and curios that we have collected over the years.

Cole's and Attika's desks used to be our old dining table, which the boys cut in half and turned into study tables. A little bit of carpentry work and viola!

Cole's Corner

Attika's Corner

Cole and Attika's shared space

The "classroom" occupies the space under Cole's customized loft bed (meaning, it's also DIY). Alex thought it would be great to hang a hammock that can be easily detached on one side and hung on the other side (like you would a shirt) if not in use, for anyone who wants to read, watch the sky or just lie around on lazy days. We sometimes miss life on the island and this is the closest thing that brings us back to that time when we lived and homeschooled in Boracay Island for a year.

The stairs leading up to Cole's bed is our old aluminum multipurpose ladder that also doubles as a book organizer. The ladder is still being used around the house for the occasional lightbulb changes and other purposes.

Alex's Nook

Alex's desk, storage, man cave and sometimes Attika's "playground"

Alex converted our old bench into his desk. I love all the accents that he used for his nook. We have an obsession for house decorating, refurbishing and repurposing old stuff, so we only throw away things that can't be saved anymore. We may argue and fight a little about nitty-gritty details of how to decorate our house, but we always end up compromising and being happy with the result of our projects.

Meet our old friend, a leopard named Tiger

My space

The old-ish mommy nook

My desk is one of the antique panels with Capiz shells that have traveled with us to many different houses. Alex attached it to a tree trunk, yes a real one, that our old neighbor in Antipolo cut from his backyard and was about to send for garbage disposal. Our heads popped up behind his backyard fence and asked him if we could have it instead, without the slightest idea what to do with it. I like keeping knickknacks within my reach, so I have a plate of stones that friends picked up for me from different places. Alex picked up interesting looking stones from the beach in Brighton, UK, for Cole and I asked if I could use them to decorate my desk. Most of the things that you see on my desk are gifts from different people.

The only novel item at my nook is the bar chair that we had customized. I have gotten the "but how can you stay long on that chair when it doesn't look that comfortable like an office chair?" reaction from guests. I tell them I did that on purpose to remind me to take a breather and do stretching as often as I can.

One more thing in the kids shared space is Attika's ballet bar for home practice...and for momentary sampayan (clothes rod).

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Sea, No Evil: Mommy Beach Break

2016-12-10T01:07:00.000-08:00

I had this mommy break in mind, and I am so glad that I just went ahead and took the plunge.

The long walk from the lighthouse to the quiet and secluded beach was a great way to catch up with a friend who cleared her busy schedule (on a Wednesday!) to make sure I could tick Guisi off my 2016 bucket list. Love and light to my dear Tippie!

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Announcing the Winner of Ticket Giveaway!

2016-12-07T02:23:00.000-08:00

A warm thanks and congratulations to Mr. Allan Sarion for winning one ticket to "Building Blocks of Homeschooling" happening on December 9, 2016 at the Sunlife Center Bonifacio Global City.

Allan wrote...

"The article "What is the Best Homeschooling Approach?" which was published last September 11, 2015 has been helpful to me because the time when I came across that blog post, it was when I and my wife Lyn were asking ourselves if homeschooling will work for us. The article served as a primer for us on how we will go about our HS journey.

This year, my daughter Eana is on her Kinder-1 level. Looking at how she gain knowledge and learn new skills so far kind of affirmed that HS is something that our family can pursue.

But we still feel that we are on our square one stage. As the saying goes, "Marami pang kakaining bigas" or "Papunta pa lang kami". We still need to attend seminars and read more materials on HS. And of course, visiting websites like Cure for Mondays is a good habit to have for added guidance from HS parents who have "been there" already.

I hope we'll be lucky enough to win the ticket to "Building Blocks of Homeschooling" Seminar.

Have a nice day!"

Who doesn't have a soft spot for hands-on, homeschooling-enthusiast dads?

It was a heartwarming experience to read e-mails from readers and to know that we have somehow helped people in one way or another throughout these years. I got the hubby and the kids involved, so it was not just me who decided who the winner should be.

I would like to sincerely thank all those who sent e-mails. A lot of moms also expressed the desire to go to the event, but their tight schedules just won't permit them. Let's just continue inspiring each other. Light and love to everyone!

CURE FOR MONDAYS IS A WOMEN'S BLOG, BEST HOMESCHOOL WEBSITE, FAMILY ISSUES BLOG, HOMESCHOOL PROBLEMS, SOCIALIZATION, INSPIRATION, MANILA MOMMY BLOGGER, SAHM, ASIAN HOMESCHOOLER, BLOGGYS 2015 WINNER, BENEFITS OF BEING A STAY-AT-HOME-MOM, WORK FROM HOME, BEST JOB, HIGH-PAYING JOB, TOP CAREER, TICKET GIVEAWAY, MANILA HOMESCHOOL SEMINAR, MARICEL LAXA-PANGILINAN, PRACTICAL GUIDE TO HOMESCHOOLING, ticket giveaway winner

Homeschooling Seminar: Ticket Giveaway!

2016-12-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

Beginning a homeschooling year sounds like a colossal mission -- and it is. If you haven’t started homeschooling yet and are planning to do so in the near future, you have to know that through and through it will be challenging and fun and tiring and exciting. The best part about it is getting to spend more time with your family and being there for your children as their main influencer.

There are several different approaches to homeschooling and you can find some of the most popular ones here. Whichever approach you think best suits your family, and whether you choose to do it independently or enroll in a homeschool-affiliated program, it is best to keep on learning and to keep on finding inspiration as you go along the way.

I have been getting messages from dedicated moms who are interested in homeschooling, but don’t know where or how to start. I was exactly at the same point five years ago. One way of preparing yourself is to do in-depth research (I mentioned that in the article “Working Mom to SAHM to Homeschooling Mom”) and interview homeschooling families and know more about their personal experiences as a homeschooling family. Another way would be to attend seminars that will help you learn from experts.

The Master's Lighthouse Foundation headed by Mr. Anthony Pangilinan invited me to a public seminar called Building Blocks of Homeschooling happening on December 9, 2016. After five years of homeschooling we are continuing to reap the benefits of educating our children at home, and we want nothing more but for families to experience the same.

That is why I would love to take you to...

Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan

Learn from no less than homeschooling experts Dr. Donna Simpao and Ms. Felichi Buizon, with the special participation of Ms. Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan. This is a rare opportunity for us to know more about foundational and practical guides to homeschooling, so make sure you mark this event on your calendar.

The registration fee to Building Blocks of Homeschooling is PhP 2,500 and I’m giving it to you for free! Just e-mail me and tell me which homeschooling article at Cure for Mondays has been helpful to you and why.

I will pick ONE (1) winner between now and Wednesday, December 7, 2016. Announcement of winner will be on December 7, 2016 at 5 P.M.

Waiting for your e-mails! You can keep your e-mail either sweet and short or long and engaging. You decide. I'm just here to find the worthy one. Blessed be!

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The Little Match Girl: Study Guide and Activity

2016-12-01T23:19:00.002-08:00

The Little Match Girl

Author: Hans Christian Andersen
Study Guide and Activity

Learning Goals: Improve writing skills and vocabulary, encourage self expression and creativity, encourage and develop appreciation for literature and important authors

Give a synopsis of the story “The Little Match Girl”

II. Answer the following questions:

What themes are present in the story?
How does Hans Christian Andersen present the main character of his story?
What do you think of the title of the story? Would you change the title of the book if you were given a chance?
What is the most important message in the story? Does it have relevance in your present life?
Did you expect the ending to be such? How would you like the story to end?
How essential is the setting of the story? Would the story work in a Philippine setting? Why or why not? What elements would or would not work?
The girl sees different things whenever she lights a matchstick. What do those scenes mean? Why do you think those scenes are important in the story?
What symbols have you noticed in the story? How important were they in the story?
What types of conflict are present in the story? (physical, moral, emotional, intellectual)
How would you convince other young people your age to read “The Little Match Girl”? What would you tell them about it if you were only given a few minutes?

III. Vocabulary Check: What is the meaning of the underlined word or phrase?

She was hungry, freezing and dejected looking.

pale
angry
sickly
sad

2. In a corner between two houses, one of which stuck out into the street further than

the other, she sat down and huddled up.

arms spread
lying down without cover
curled up
shaking in the cold

3. And she quickly struck the remnant of the matchsticks in the bundle.

the longest one
the smallest one
remaining
one end

4. The poor little thing lost her slippers as she scuffled away across the street.

ran
struggle
crawl
Walk

5. From all the windows the candles were gleaming.

dying light
shining brightly
unsteady light
Burning and melting fast

IV. Draw a picture of a part in the story that made the strongest impact on you. In a few sentences, explain why you chose it.

V. Research on the life of Hans Christian Andersen. Use the encyclopedia in our library. Write an essay about the Danish author. Make sure to include his most important work, his cultural influences and what you think were the most important events in his life.

This lesson is part of Cure for Mondays' Freeschool Project. Please click link to know more about it and to contribute lessons. Thank you!

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Working Mom to SAHM and Homeschooling Mom

2016-12-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

Glad to see you here! You can read this article in our new home.

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History of the Brassiere: Knowing Mary Phelps Jacob

2016-11-18T09:20:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of RetroWaste

Where there’s coffee there’s good conversation. Or a healthy argument. Or an odd song to sing. Or there’s the brassiere to talk about.

Your little, not-so-little, and even big girls might start asking you where bras came from.

Here's a good place to start to understand a bit about the history of the brassiere.

So...

My friend and I were sprawled on the floor one lazy Sunday afternoon about 20 years ago, enjoying good coffee that came straight from a fellow writer’s pantry, when he suddenly asked, “What on earth are the wings for in sanitary napkins?” The day was just another one of those sweet, slothful moments we’d have especially on Sundays. That’s how the talk about bosom started.

“They save women from accidents.” I told him.

I had my back flat on the floor trying to relax when my Rainbow Bright man-friend persisted in stirring the conversation towards women’s stuff. “So what did women wear before the invention of bra?” I knew he’d never stop so my mission for the day was to answer his bosom queries.

The revolution of the bosom
One of the most interesting part of history happened in 1913, when New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob realized that she needed something that did not poke out visibly from under her silk garment and the plunging neckline of her sheer evening gown. The corset was the only acceptable undergarment that time and all the inconveniences of wearing one pushed her to create something that women would be thankful for in the next centuries. (I, however, was saved from all that because I was told I was a male Indian warrior in my recent past life.)

The backless brassiere was patented sometime in 1914. Surprisingly (and like most women who get bushed easily), Jacob got tired of her business and sold it to the Warner Bros. – the bra-makers, not the movie-makers (as strongly pointed out on the article on “The History of the Brassiere”).

Although it was Jacob who revolutionized the brassiere, some interesting things about bosom supporters have already started happening way before her time. In 1875, a no bones, no eyelets, no pulleys and no laces or under-outfit was manufactured. Everything they removed from that undergarment made it a little less barbaric, however still crude.
So, from the no-more-menacing-attachments called the “union under flannel”, it improved to the “breast supporter” in 1893. This time it came with the less complicated hook-and-eye for a lock.

Union under flannel

Finally in 1917 during the World War I, the War Industries Board called on women to stop buying corsets. Halleluiah! It was the time in history when 28,000 tons of metal were saved, and women actually started to breathe properly.

If you're a female reading this, consider yourself lucky now that brassieres are pretty things not made from bones.

Cafe Latte--The Devil in My Cupboard

2016-11-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of The Coffee Compass

I have a lover. He lives in my cupboard. His name is Café Latte. Instant. Cheap, huh?

My husband had always contemplated on buying an espresso machine for me so I could have my caffe latte anytime I wanted it. He’s happy with the coffeemaker because he likes his coffee black and strong, while I like mine laced with milk and in the same room as the word “yummy”. But the problem is, “having it anytime I want it” means adding more inches around my waist and making friends with more fat and the deadly sugar. I told him maybe it’s not a good idea so he let it go after I said no… many times.

A coffee shop opened very near our old place. It had such a lovely sunset view, I remember. The last rays of the sun would be replaced by a sea of splendid lights at night covering the buzzling part of Taguig City where Venice Piazza at McKinley Hill sits.

Having Somi Café just a few steps away from me was just like having my own espresso machine. I just needed to go through my front door, walk to the other side of the hallway to get my coffee and pay P90 for a good cup of caffe latte. The proximity of this coffee shop has opened for me my personal underworld. And when temptations come, they come like crazy. Coincidentally, after the opening of the coffee shop in my neighborhood, a deluge of instant white coffee and lattes also started filling up supermarket racks. “Gourmet coffee” now comes in small packets that you can purchase in stores at a very cheap price.

I love anything that’s creamy. I’d eat and drink anything that promises cream in it and yes, even my coffee has been demonized by creamers. This love affair with sweet creamy coffee began right after I gave birth to Attika. There were some things that my pregnancy did to me and some of them stuck with me to this day.

Creepers in creamers

With every cup of instant caffe latte that I drink, I know that I’m getting too much cholesterol, fat, and a combination of ingredients that are harmful to my health, maybe including transfat hiding behind another ingredient’s name. According to accomplished nutrition expert Gloria Tsang, RD, you’re getting 40 to 60 calories for every two tablespoons of creamer. With a promise of more creamer for a yummier drink (in three-in-one and white coffee variants), I just know that I’m in some kind of an unpalatable trouble.

The problem with creamers is that they are made from ingredients that we should not be feeding our bodies with. I flipped a sachet of my favorite brand of instant white coffee, looked at the list of ingredients and found everything to be mysterious. I researched these ingredients and was not pleased with what I found out. And yes, if it has too many of those stuff you can’t read and pronounce, it makes sense to run away from it. “Artificial flavors” may be your nemesis in a mask.

Back to black?

Certainly so. But a heavenly habit like sweet creamy coffee is hard to break. I’ll start with cutting it down to two cups instead of four a day. Then slowly move back to my old lover’s place. We all know that black coffee is still highly recommended for its antioxidant properties.

Or maybe… I should just stop being silly and ask for my espresso machine again. I learned that a large caffee latte is equivalent to ten rashers of bacon. It’s not a very sexy thing, I know, but at least with a real latte you use real milk and not sodium caseinate like they use in instant coffee.

Here’s what cafe latte lovers get from their daily fix:

12 oz. – 16 grams carb, 120 – 200 calories

16 oz. – 21 grams carb, 160 – 260 calories

20 oz. – 27 grams carb, 210 – 340 clories

How about you, what’s your coffee like?

When Life Gets Too Serious: The War Against Early Christmas Decorating

2016-11-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

~~It’s mid-October and it’s already the unofficial second month of the Christmas season in the Philippines.~~ It is November. I started writing this a few weeks ago and obviously didn’t get around to finishing it. Busy is good and busy would not leave my side lately.

My family and I have yet to decide about buying a Christmas tree this year. We’re a family that moves around a lot, so a Christmas tree for us has been out of the question. We once bought an eight-foot tree which ended up rotting after staying too long in storage. We could not fly the tree to the island, and we had rentals that did not have enough space. It was a tall one and more than a meter in diameter. Now I’m asking myself, what were we thinking? Then I remember that it was Cole who asked for it. He was around eight that time and wanted a brightly-lit tree in our quaint home for his birthday. It was an old but well-maintained, oddly-shaped apartment quietly tucked somewhere in the Teacher’s Village -- just a few years before Maginhawa became famous for its food festival and living there was not all too hyped up (and expensive) yet. We left our decorations hanging the entire year and packed them all up when it was time to move again.

Cole was born on December 24, by the way. {I had quite an eventful albeit “laborsome” Christmas eve once upon a time.}

As if on cue, our five-year old daughter asked us to play Christmas songs on the first week of September and the music hasn’t stopped since. I’ve found myself mumbling around the “12 Days of Christmas” song, taking quick breaks from my chores to check the lyrics online and see what it was that ‘my true love gave to me on the fifth day of Christmas’. The song never ends inside your head. You get to the 12th day of Christmas and you’re back to wondering what it was again that you got on the seventh day. And if milking maids still exist.

Do You Say ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ or Happy Halloween, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year?

Not everyone around the world share the Filipinos’ enthusiasm for a (very) long Christmas season, unfortunately. Campaigns against premature Christmas decorating are quite baffling for the rest of us who enjoy the lights, the colors and the seasonal effect of Christmas. I don’t mind seeing brightly-lit Christmas trees {or zombified Santas} around me the entire year although I also delight in the thought of being followed around by zombies or Regan McNeil in the dark. My enthusiasm for things are mystifying, so I’ve heard.

So, is it a call against excessive use of electricity because we’ve gone far from the simple old stocking to 3D tech-y trees? Is it a cultural cry, or a religious one perhaps? What is it that make some people tick and hold up signs against early Christmas decorating? It could be one or all of that, but it seems like the war is targeted towards retailers who send off a sense of panic to consumers once they start putting up huge holiday sale signs even before Thanksgiving. In the U.S. people hold their breath and tighten their belts for the Black Friday sales. But if madness sales begin even before Thanksgiving, the “pressure” and “stress” related to shopping also affect people prematurely. Not everyone is happy about that, so to lessen the impact of the so called shopping rush and the negative association of the retail madness to Christmas, giant retailers started saying ‘happy holidays’ instead of merry Christmas’ to address the concern.

I know, I know.

A petition to Stop Premature Christmas Decorating was posted at Change.org and got the support of 12 very unhappy people. And because I find it entertaining, I’m sharing the petition here with you:

Every year, millions of Americans watch in horror as stores around the country start selling Christmas decorations before October has even arrived. This is a tragedy that must be stopped. Innocent Americans are subjected to endless hours of agonizing advertisements for christmas sales. Somewhere right now, a small child is writhing in agony as his eyes are assaulted by QVC Christmas sales. Help stop this madness. Think of the the children.

My son and I were walking inside the mall last October 28 when he suddenly said, “This is very confusing. Christmas songs are playing and there are Halloween and Christmas decorations everywhere.”

“Welcome, once again, to the ever so wonderful country called the Philippines where entertainment is at its best. Make sale, not war,” I told him.

One of life’s valuable rules: Wait until you get to the other side to decide whether life should be taken too seriously or not.

We don't have Black Friday in the Philippines, but there is crazy day sale every single day. The possibility is endless when it comes to shopping. Even a tight budget is not a good enough reason not to hoard because clothes can go as low as PhP 50 (less than a 1 USD). The sales are everywhere and they happen all year round. You just need to know where to go and who to take with you.

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7 Life Lessons You Can't Miss in "Train to Busan"

2016-09-20T02:45:00.002-07:00

There are lessons to be learned out there. Photo courtesy of Rajkamal Singh

There is that one train that everyone is going crazy about, so I hopped on it and found myself gladly entertained, especially since the latest season of “The Walking Dead” is taking damn too long to reach our spectrum. I find myself in a very hypocritical position saying this because generally I’m not the kind who likes zombie movies. However, I came back from a weeklong out-of the-country mommy trip to a family that had to be peeled off The Walking Dead TV series. I did not succeed with the peeling, but they did a good job at getting me stuck. Now I want to have Morgan’s skillful but unaggressive fighting skills with the bo, Michonne’s arms, Daryl’s fearlessness and former-delivery-guy-turned-zombie-killer Glenn’s mettle.

The last Korean movie I watched was Miracle in Cell Number 7, which, like this train, stirred up my curiosity. How, in my vulnerable humanoid existence, would I not be intrigued by all the talk, the memes and the references to “Train to Busan”? I found myself almost asking our Korean clients what the trains to Busan are like, but shut my mouth for the good of all.

“Train to Busan” (written and directed by Yeon Sang-Ho) is well laid out -- formulaic, as Mr Young liked to put it, but with a few good surprises in all the right places. I like how it’s fast paced. There was no stopping from the first bite and there was no waiting -- something that I’m not willing to do in a zombie movie. My “morning after” realization of the movie included the fact that I did not know anything that pointed to the history of the virus. I initially thought that I just got lost in translation, but found out that the answer may be in the prequel “Seoul Station” also by Yeon Sang-Ho released in August this year.

While I’m still trying to decide if and when I’m going to watch “Seoul Station”, I can’t help but think of the life lessons I picked from the sequel’s eventful train ride. You can’t have possibly missed the glaring realities yourself.

1. Being too hardworking may be counterintuitive.

One Wii per household only please. Photo courtesy of tiffanyyong.com

We all are zombified by the idea that we have to kill ourselves to earn, often forgetting that the ones we’re working hard for suffer from our absence {whether it’s physical, emotional, psychological, or worse, all of that.} Hard work is good, but it becomes pointless when it does not serve its purpose, unless you’re just another masochist who can’t find better things to do with your time. For instance, parents are oftentimes programmed to think that until they sweat blood, they’re not being parents enough. Stop for a moment and think about what time spent with your loved ones can do. Once the biting starts, all that money you’re working so hard for will be nothing more than useless junk.

2. Selfish people are like Pokestops.

He who shuts the door dies last. But dies unhappily nevertheless. Photo courtesy of heavenofhorror.com

They color the map. {I’m apologizing as early as now to Pokemon fans who might find this statement blasphemous}. You can’t make it your mission to eradicate them since that will be such a waste of your lifetime {you only have less than 120 years, remember?}. It is how you react to bad people around you that matters. They work very hard at making you unhappy and if you let them, you’re good as dead. Fate takes care of what needs taking care of.

In your life story, it’s not how fast you ran to get to the last train of salvation that matters, but how strategically you ran to make it to the end.

3. Be appreciative.

Be better than this. Please? (Photo courtesy of hdonline)

Of course we like to think we all are. However, we oftentimes put a price tag on our appreciation. How about the little things? I don’t mean it about something that you can put in small boxes. Be grateful about that smile on your kid’s face because that too, like everything else in the world, can change.

4. Help others as much as you can.

Not all important meetings require you to wear crisp, clean shirts. (Photo courtesy of Joys of Asia)

You never know who’s going to lend you a hand in times of adversity. You don’t want to paint that pretty face of yours with shame one day.

5. Maintain a good sense of humor and save the world.

We all have a favorite guy in every movie. I'm so favoriting this one. Photo courtesy of askkpop.com

When you read or hear people say that you’re taking the world too seriously, they may be right. If you can’t at least make one person smile every day, rethink how you want to be remembered, in case you’re the first to go in a zombie apocalypse.

6. Love. Just love.

Photo courtesy of flickeringmyth.com

Love, let it be known and don’t take time for granted. We don’t have that much time.

7. Sing.

The best way you can. Photo courtesy of popinquirer.net

Learn how to sing. Don’t sing all the way to American Idol -- that can be traumatic. Sing your way through life no matter how many times it changes its tune. You have no idea how much stronger you get by simply listening and learning the rhythm of life.

More importantly, sing...because it’s what makes you human. Until a new breed of singing zombies come along, singing will save your life.

“Home” is a very strong theme in Yeon Sang-Ho’s stories -- whether it’s getting there or finding where it is. What I think resonated with the viewers is not so much that it was a zombie movie, but the subliminal suggestion that in one way or another, we’re all trying to get home. To someone. To something.

And sometimes we need to be chased to get there.

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Humer Me! Decongest the Natural Way

2016-08-11T22:05:00.004-07:00

Whenever my siblings and I would have the sniffles, our father would take the time out of his busy schedule to drive us down to the beach. We lived in a coastal city, and as kids, we were taught that there was nothing that the sea could not cure -- and that a clogged nose certainly had no power over seawater. Relying on sea breeze to relieve my asthma attacks and the seawater to make colds go away was something we got used to growing up. It is a kind of natural remedy that we would want for our kids today, if only we were not living in the big city and many, many hours away from the nearest swimmable beach.

In the last two years, my husband and I made the big move to go natural with our choices in food, skincare and supplements. It was not easy when we started out because not only years of relying on chemically laden products made it convenient for us since they were easily available in groceries and stores, we also inadvertently became creatures of habit. We would rely on over-the-counter medication for coughs, colds and allergies. It wasn’t until my husband and I came across several researches on the potential dangers of using cough and cold medications (especially on kids) that we hit the brakes real hard, rethought our choices over and decided that there was no other way but to go the natural way. We also realized that the decongestants we relied on over the years did nothing for us, but pushed us to the sack only to wake up the following day with a cold worse than ever.

Our Search for the Best Natural Decongestant Ended with Humer

There are several nasal decongestants available in the market, and we have tried a couple of those brands. When we stopped giving our family medication for colds and allergic rhinitis, we turned to nasal decongestants for relief. They worked just fine, but as a mother, I am always in search for the best one out there.

My kids and I were introduced to Humer during its launch in Makati recently. I could not be any happier when I found out that Humer is a non-diluted formula, which means that all the natural elements from clean seawater and mineral salts have not been stripped off through any kind of mechanical processing. The seawater from Humer is sourced from a protected site in Brittany, France, and is rich in trace elements such like copper, manganese and sulfur and all of them helps to protect, to strengthen and to regenerate our nasal mucosa.

Dave Perianes, Humer Country Brand Manager

Humer does not only offer a decongestant, but also specific solutions to certain kinds of nasal problems. They come in easy-to-use bottles with nozzles that break down the seawater into gentle micro-droplets, significantly decreasing battle time with your more sensitive little ones whenever you need to administer it. I certainly had problems using other nasal sprays that would drip and could not be used while my toddler was lying down in bed all fussy and sleepy.

Nasal Hygiene Introduced by Humer

Has anyone ever asked you if you cleaned your nose? That would sound odd, right? But that person certainly knows something we don’t. Dr. Kristine Gutierrez discussed the importance of nasal care for a better breathing experience during the launch. I could not help but think how we could be religious in cleaning our other body parts and forget about our noses when they’re doing the vital job of filtering the air that we breathe. Living in the metro definitely doubles the hard work of our noses, and it’s just about right that we give them proper care.

Cleaning our noses should be a part of our daily routine, and if you’re not sure about how to do it like I was before, the easy and convenient way would be to use the Humer Nose Hygiene. It is an isotonic nasal spray that does the job of cleaning and moistening the mucus membranes inside the nose. A quick spray on each nostril and you’re done.

Bringing Home the Goodness of Seawater

The most important addition we made to our medicine cabinet a few weeks ago are the Humer Nose Hygiene and Humer Blocked Nose. I have been using the nose hygiene regularly and I swear by its high marine salt concentration. After I use it, I feel {and sound} like I just came out from sea swimming, only better. Attika, our four-year-old daughter has been using it for two days now and she would tell me, “It does make me feel better. Later again please.” I tell you, this feisty one does not lie.

Am I a Humerific Mom? I definitely am!

If symptoms persist, consult your doctor. ASC Ref. No.: U050N072216H

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Unbeaten: The Triumph of Heather Von St. James Over Mesothelioma

2016-06-22T03:35:00.000-07:00

Heather Von St. James, mother, pleural mesothelioma cancer survivor, advocate.
Photo courtesy of fredhutch.org

Where we are is an amazing world -- yes, often a chaotic place, but the presence of some people in it defies everything that makes us feel we’re all just in one big ball of a mess. Some of these people extend a hand to make sure we make it through hurdles, and some live to inspire us -- reminding us never to give up and just fight because sometimes, that is the only option left for us.

The magic of the internet paved the way for Heather Von St. James and myself to “meet”. I’m telling you her story today because I have committed to helping her spread awareness about a disease called mesothelioma, and because hers is a story that could spark hope in places where there is none.

Everyone is living on a fast lane, and when we experience shortness of breath and fatigue and we look back at a pale person on the mirror, we shrug it off and say, I’m okay. Heather, however, wanted to know what was causing her to be sick and went to see a doctor. After a series of tests and biopsies, she was later diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Meso what? Exactly Heather’s thought when she was told she had mesothelioma cancer, because it is a disease that rarely affects women. What had caused it? She was only 36 and was told that she had only 15 months to live.

Heather was not only young, she had also just given birth to a beautiful baby and wanted nothing more than to dedicate her life to raising Lily, and to continue living the life that she and her husband Cameron had been building together. That had to change -- a battle was heading her way and she was determined to win it.

Cameron, Lily and Heather. Photo courtesy of cancerclub.com

Why should we be concerned about asbestos exposure?

Heather’s father would come home with a jacket covered with asbestos. She had no idea that by simply being near it would have a serious impact on her health many years later. She was only nine when she was exposed to asbestos, so why was she diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer more than two decades later? The microscopic, fibrous mineral could remain dormant in the human body for up to 30 years. Sadly, the damage that asbestos does to the body is often not detected until it has reached a later stage. According to mesothelioma.com, “The relative five-year survival rate for mesothelioma is about 10 percent, a number that is significantly higher than it was a few decades ago.”

Asbestos is a substance that was once considered ideal for construction because of its low cost and availability. It was prefered because it was effective for moisture, acoustic control and thermal insulation. Asbestos was not only cheap, it was also a “versatile” substance that was mixed into paints, adhesives, appliances and metal ware. Basically, there was a time when it was everywhere.

A campaign against the use of asbestos was launched worldwide 20 years ago, but unfortunately, the substance is still being used in most countries today. In Asia, there is still a huge concern over possible asbestos exposure because of the vibrant construction industry. In the U.S., the use of asbestos is still legal.

What do we need to know about mesothelioma?

I have not heard of mesothelioma cancer until I read Heather’s battle with it. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that is specifically caused by asbestos. It affects the membrane lining of the lungs and abdomen. There is no known cure for mesothelioma, but treatments such as chemotherapy and surgery could help increase the life expectancy of a person affected by this type of cancer.

Heather had to go through extrapleural pneumonectomy, which meant that her affected lung, as well as the left half of her diaphragm, the lining of her heart and her sixth rib, had to be removed. The greatest concern prior to her surgery was the fact that she had just recently delivered a baby.

Fast forward today, Heather is celebrating her 10th year as a mesothelioma survivor. She is a mesothelioma advocate who has actively been working on campaigns to raise awareness about asbestos exposure and mesothelioma. She has engaged people in spreading this awareness, and has tirelessly been empowering and inspiring other mesothelioma survivors and their families around the globe.

I am hoping that in my own little way, I can help in making people aware about the presence of this invisible killer in our environment. Please join Heather Von St. James in spreading awareness about mesothelioma and her call to ban the use of asbestos completely. Learn more about her and mesothelioma at The Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance Blog.

Heather’s story has inspired me to pay tribute to other cancer survivors who have made an impact in my personal life. Read that story on my next post.

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Cure for Mondays' Freeschool Project

2016-06-15T02:24:00.001-07:00

It is the beginning of the school year for most private and public schools here in the Philippines. School kids are embarking on a new journey {gladly, I hope} and I wish for all of them to make the most out of this academic year. May they have the insatiable thirst for learning; create healthier relationships with people at home, in school and in the community they revolve in; be far from sickness so they can enjoy a great balance between academics and extracurricular activities; have lots of time for play and for exploration. Most of all, I hope that parents and teachers will allow these young people to stop and smell the flowers from time to time, go stargazing at night, eat meals together away from the television or any gadget {with or without wifi}, gravitate towards books and move away from social media; go walking with family and friends to explore new things and places as often as they can, and find the real meaning of love {the one that doesn’t come with a price tag}.

May they be taught that learning is not about going through books in haste and memorizing loads of information all at once, and that it is about taking bite-size information, processing this well and learning the practical application of this knowledge in real life. If they ever get to Stochastic geometry and realize that they will have no practical use for this later in life, may they still appreciate the opportunity to exercise their brains, as we all need to do that to prevent cognitive decline.

Opening speech for SY 2016-2017 ends here ~ Principal of the Two-Desk Home School

The Freeschool Project

Whether our kids are attending traditional or progressive schools, or are homeschooling like we are, we as parents are always on the lookout for age-appropriate learning materials and activities to supplement our kids’ learning. The web is a wonderful place to find free printable lessons, curricula guides and lessons for all subjects in all levels, but the load of information could get overwhelming sometimes. Some free printables also get squashed in a page full of advertisements. We are lucky there are other homeschoolers who offer free lesson guides online to support other homeschooling families like us.

As part of Cure for Monday’s project for the year, we will be sharing free printable lessons and study guides in the hope of reaching those who direly need them. A couple of moms emailed me asking if it is possible to homeschool with a VERY tight budget. I told them that the web is a good place to start if enrolling at a homeschool provider or buying books is impossible for now. We have been independently homeschooling for years and have informally created our own curricula, and I know that the internet is a rich source of information when it comes to creating lessons. It is challenging, but not impossible.

This time we want to help in our own little way. However, since I’m mostly a one-woman army here at Cure for Mondays, the curricula, guides, projects, lessons and activities that I will be able to share here will be ones that we have created for our own homeschooling program; thus, they will be for 8th grade and Kindergarten this year. We will try to build it from there.

The Department of Education has the complete K to 12 Curriculum Guides online. It is a comprehensive guide and it will really be helpful for those who are exploring homeschooling independently, but want to adhere to the curricula offered by DepEd.

Again, everything is challenging, but not impossible. And, sharing is quite a fine, fun thing to do!

You can find the printables at the lessons+artwork+projects tab on the upper left corner of our page.

Join Us!

We would be very grateful if you could share with us and our other readers lessons, lesson plans, study guides or learning materials on any level {K to 100-year-old learners}. Please submit only ones that you have personally created, and we will make sure that you will be credited for your contribution.

The project is young and so are we! E-mail us at cure4mondays@gmail.com for your contributions.

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FREESCHOOL: Free Printable Kindergarten Lessons

2016-06-15T02:06:00.000-07:00

Find out more about the Freeschool Project here.

Click the lesson and print!

A big, big thank you to Irene Erasga for creating these wonderful kindergarten lessons.

We'd love for you to contribute your own lessons, too! Lessons, activities and projects may be on any level. We want to reach out to K to 100-year-old learners. E-mail us at cure4mondays@gmail.com for your contributions.

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Homemade Orange Soda {Because Sugar Will Kill You Faster Than You Think}

2016-06-06T03:41:00.000-07:00

It’s a drink you can make in three minutes or even less. You can go ahead and make this refreshing orange soda right now, or you can read on before you hit the kitchen.

Soda. Soft drink. Fizzy pop. Did I make the last one up? Who doesn’t love the fizz it makes in your mouth followed by a burst of flavor that coats your tongue with sugar that won’t come off unless you brush it like crazy?

I used to really like soft drinks. As a kid, it was a part of most of our meals, and we regularly had five meals a day; six if you include midnight snacks. Allow me to refresh your memory: breakfast, mid-morning snacks (also called recess in school), lunch, mid-afternoon snacks (merienda), dinner and midnight snack -- just in case you think I’m going bonkers with the number of meals I just mentioned.

I have fond memories of all of those years of sugary (mis)adventures especially that our paternal grandmother baked the yummiest goodies day in, day out. My mother also filled our fridge with leche flan, sweet fruit salads and cakes. And, we had an entire fridge dedicated to soft drinks alone, and no, none of those were for sale. I cower in fear whenever I think about it.The sweet reminiscence will stay locked away forever as I’m not repeating that kind of diet with my family today. There is so much scientific and medical evidence pointing to sugar, and its other forms hiding in many different names, as human’s number one killer. Thank goodness mainstream media is picking these studies up and are beginning to talk about them. I hope they really pound on this one so that more and more people will listen.

If you think about it, a lot of the people you know may have religiously avoided fats, but not sugar, in their diets yet still suffered from diseases known to be “caused by fats”. I have lost family and friends mostly to heart disease, different types of cancer and complications caused by Type 2 Diabetes. My father suffered from diabetic retinopathy and went through six years of dialysis because of acute renal failure, secondary to diabetes. Most of them avoided fats, but were not wary of the sugar hiding in their favorite food and drinks such as powdered juices, ready-mixed coffee (the 3-in-1 variants), “juices” in tetra packs, ready-made iced “tea”, powdered milk and even “health drinks”, soft drinks, sugar-free drinks, just to name a few.

Some of the well-known effects of too much sugar in the body include obesity, diabetes, heart disease, accelerated ageing {yes, those wrinkles you see are not only from the sun}, disruption in the process of cognition in children and heightened stress and its symptoms. Sugar feeds cancer cells, too, according to studies. This is only a short list.

Good Health is a Choice You Make for Your Kids, Too!

But like I always tell people: your health, your choice. Your kids’ health? Still your choice, so why not make better choices for them? Nothing makes me cringe more than the sight of moms in restaurants drinking fresh fruit juices while the kids are given soda. Doesn’t that make you go whaaaat?!

No, kids can’t have as much sugar as they want just because they’re kids. Kids are human beings who acquire taste and develop diseases if we don’t train them early enough to stick to healthy options in food and drinks.

I know people who can’t live without soft drinks while also admitting that they know how dangerous these drinks are. A 12-ounce can of regular Coke, for example, has 39 grams of sugar -- that’s equivalent to 9 ⅓ teaspoons of sugar. You can ignore that, but consider also that that is way, way more sugar than you need for a day.

I admittedly have moments when I crave for a can of soda. It is, after all a taste I got accustomed to growing up. But ever since reducing our sugar intake at home for almost a year now, it has become so much easier to avoid sugary stuff. Our kids have never liked sweets, so when I came home with cupcakes one time, both kids took a nibble and said, “Sorry mommy, it’s too sweet.” Guess who finished all the cupcakes?

My cravings for sweet food and drinks have significantly decreased over the last few months. I now enjoy the natural sweetness of fruits, so the fizz and the burst of orange in this drink is truly heaven sent!

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Urban Jungle Bird Feeder

2016-06-04T04:23:00.000-07:00

We live amongst tall condominiums, corporate buildings and major thoroughfares. We are those people who live “in the hustle and bustle of the city” {an overused phrase and a true story in our case}. There is constant noise from beeping vehicles, wailing sirens, honking buses, and at night, there is music coming from the entertainment hub a block away from us. We won’t hear any of these if we keep our huge windows closed, but we like to keep them wide open for the breeze to come and keep positive {yes, positive!} energy coming. And I am comfortable with noise. It makes me feel alive and I like how it challenges my meditation time. The view of the mountains of Rizal on one side, where the sunrise can be seen, and the Makati horizon on the other side where we see gorgeous sunsets dipping behind the cityscape every day, help sustain a sense of calm within me. The opportunity to view sunrises and sunsets -- those are the only wealth we can claim, apart from the time that we are able to offer our children being a homeschooling family.

When you live in a place like this you want to have a feel of nature, even if it’s just a teeny-weeny bit of it. I was looking out the window one time and I saw a flock of birds flying over the building across us. At another time, I saw a few of them resting on our neighbor’s window ledge. I thought, maybe they’d want to rest on our ledge, too, and have food to eat and water to drink or bathe in. Excited, I told the kids that we’d put together a bird feeder with a bird bath.

We rummaged through our storage and found an old stoneware plant drainage plate that we’ve used for a lot of different purposes, but never as a drainage plate. Once again, we assigned it a different role, and it’s perfect. We also found a shallow stoneware bowl for the bird bath and an empty olive oil bottle to store water. The latter was mostly for aesthetic purposes. The finding and the putting together took less than ten minutes, and we were very happy with how they all looked together on our ledge.

The waiting is a different story. It took us three weeks of waiting before they finally found the place we created for them. Our new friends, as Attika calls them, never stopped coming since then. It’s pretty how pigeons in different colors would come. On the fifth week, a Maya came, but was too quick for a photo shoot. I said we would only take a few pictures of them and we will leave them be. They come early in the morning and then again at lunch time and late in the afternoon. One of them, I noticed, likes to come in our house once in a while and spend a few seconds with our reclining Buddha.

Why Should Parents Consider Having Bird Feeders at Home?

It is a great way to bring nature closer, especially at a time like this when children are wired and too connected with the virtual world.
While we are aware that the kinds of birds that will visit us will be limited because of our area, maybe even just the same ones from a flock, it still opens a general interest on birds.
Birds serve as an inspiration for the kids’ artwork.
According to Dr. Theresa Sull, early childhood educator, bird watching helps develop cognitive skills. In her article for Texas Child Care, Sull said, "Children can enhance thinking skills by learning to identify birds by shape and color. They can practice paying attention to detail by learning to identify differences in types of birds and even individual birds.”
It helps in the development of general interest in the natural world.
Seeing actual birds at home can be the best learning supplement for science learning.
Bird-watching is a relaxing activity.
Experience an overwhelming sense of accomplishment once the birds start coming. This is especially true when you live in a very busy city.
Birdwatching is one of the activities recognized by Alzheimer’s Australia as beneficial in keeping the mind and body active and healthy. It’s just as beneficial even if you’re just sitting at home watching them.
Birds are great coffee or tea companions.
The sight of them is very meditative.

I believe that having birds visit your home is a rare opportunity, and one that should not be missed.

Do you have a bird feeder, too? Tell me about it. My e-mail is cure4mondays@gmail.com. Share the love!

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Falling Out of Like: Why Losing Some Friends Could Be Good for You

2016-05-26T01:19:00.005-07:00

I met up with some college friends last weekend. The original plan for breakfast was moved to lunch for the obvious reason that this is the age of sleep deprivation and no one wants to leave the bed -- to eat -- very early in the morning. I don’t know what on earth breakfast is and I don’t know what it looks like, but when Mozghan said that she wanted to meet for breakfast at seven in the morning, I said “yes” without even thinking. I’m that kind of friend sometimes.

Friend: “Let’s sign up to become soldiers of the apocalypse.”
Me: “Yes.”

It would take a special friend to disengage my thinking brain from my actual body though.

When I told my family that I said yes to a breakfast date -- and at 7 a.m -- everyone looked at me. That’s it. They just looked at me and dismissed it as a bad attempt to make a joke. As soon as I realized what I did to the sane part of myself, I felt doom creep in instantly.

Breakfast has been a prodigious problem for me since the day I was born. To breathe the morning air and not fall back to sleep on the first few waking minutes is hard work enough for me. The act of chewing and pushing food to slide down my pharynx is inhumanely unthinkable if it should happen in the morning. This is where I horribly fail in my Ayurvedic practice.

{This article is not about breakfast. Or at least now I’m trying so hard for it not to be.}

We did a lot of remembering -- people we used to live with in a small, carefree, happy, tax-free community we called the ‘dorm’. {Sometimes we would struggle to remember. My favorite moment was when one of my friends thought that she had a crush on a guy, only to be reminded that she was talking about a totally different person.}

We all agreed how life was so easy then even when we were penniless on some days. Money was never part of the happiness equation and that made life wonderful. If we’re living life now the way we lived it back then, then everything would be just as blithe. But life has caught on and we have become older, hopefully wiser, and most of us need to take care of little people who can’t be fed on stories from our past no matter how awesome they were.

So, I realized what an interesting mix we were as people sitting together recalling the same part of our past. One confessed to having a cold relationship with culture albeit being well-travelled; the other one hates to travel and would rather stay in bed (but also still travels if anyone successfully drags her out of her queendom); the third friend does not have a Facebook account (yes, considered a rare species these days) and is expectedly sane and happy for being able to resist the vile “F”.

The only thing we all have in common is FOOD, friends and having lost some of them.

Everyone has lost a friend to death, to a fight, to time, to nothing. Sometimes we lose people... just because. What I thought was the worst of human experiences did not turn out to be so bad at all. I just needed to grow up a bit more and know that people will not be there forever, and that it’s alright.

There are reasons why not all friends stay in your life, and losing some of them could be good for you.

Friends acknowledge the existence of a two-way street.

There are people to whom you give much of yourself to in terms of time, love, emotional and psychological support, {and sometimes even forms of monetary assistance}, but don’t seem to remember to give back a little and appreciate your effort. While it’s true that it’s relatively not healthy to expect anything from others, it’s different when you’re doing it for a person you consider a friend. It’s a relationship, not a service.

When a friend deliberately drives through a narrow lane, speeds up, leaving you behind when you’re the one who needs a little cheering on, it’s best to let the person continue the journey on his/her own while you steer the wheel to a better direction.

Respect is the flame that never dies down in some places.

We all have that friend who likes to talk about us behind our backs. Sometimes it’s forgivable, but most of the time it’s just downright disrespectful. If a person can’t tell you to your face that your toesies look petrifying in those cheap sandals you’re wearing, yet have the audacity to provide such information in your absence, it means the flame has died down and it’s okay to let it stay that way. You deserve respect and you have no idea how many other people are willing to give that to you all because you’ve been cupping your hands on the wrong flame.

We’re preconditioned to think that people must permanently stay.

We have been told, taught, or it had been insinuated all our lives, that people -- whether they’re friends or family -- have to stay permanently in our lives or else we have failed them at some point. Anything that does not stick together is not always shoddy. If you think long and hard enough about friends you once considered special, but who are not part of your life anymore because you just naturally drifted apart, you don’t file them away under “former bad relationships”. We’re human beings and change keeps us living, and there is completely nothing wrong with that. We have friends from our past who make us smile from time to time, and they are not even part of our lives at present anymore. Memories keep our hearts beating, and that’s why we have friends who now belong to the past.

Tweet: Memories keep our hearts beating, and that’s why we have friends who now belong to the past. http://bit.ly/1sAtNBB (via @cure4mondays)

Support group, not zombie group.

Friends support our interests by being interested in our interests, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to have the exact same interests as them. However, it does take a special kind of friendship to get sincere support. If I only considered other homeschoolers for friends, I’d honestly have no friends left. I believe that there is so much to learn from other people, and that makes me sniff here and there to see what friends are up to at the moment.

There are friends who like club-like relations where everyone is required to share the same interest for say... telenovelas or baking or tennis or knitting. That is so 1983. If you can’t be yourself with friends, there are always other people who will let you be you.

Toxic friends are multiplying as fast as roaches.

Drama kings and queens, people who never run out of people to hate, and those who incessantly complain about their jobs, the world, the government... are multiplying. Even some of the most zen-like personalities you know may have caught on the theatrical unecessities of life. Being a good listener is an admirable trait, and one that also must have a limit.

I had a friend who hated everything in the world. I mean EVERYTHING, and that person had an intense aversion to anything positive. Youth makes you think that people like that are funny, even cute sometimes. Adulthood teaches you that life is better without them. My life has been better without that person, thank you.

Not everything in life can be fixed. Not everything should be fixed, as opposed to what the screaming voice within us tells us. Friends are part of our journey, and journeys are supposed to make us richer -- in knowledge and in experience.

Wrote this with Mozghan, Nadine, Belle, and, intermittently, with Janet -- the one who owes me coffee, in mind.

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A Note to Future Moms: If Motherhood Were a Job...

2016-05-10T05:01:00.001-07:00

As a mother, I have enjoyed my fair share of compliments, and even have shamefully hankered for more assurances being the dosha-troubled human being that I can be sometimes. Family and friends have thrown an imaginary ‘supermom’ sash on me for choosing to homeschool and for raising two young people away from the traditions of school. I blush when somebody pats me on the back for doing a great job, because I’m not sure if I deserve that. {Alterego:I want that!}

This is a responsibility where I perpetually feel like I’m not doing enough no matter how much my family tells me that I’m doing just fine, and request me to sit back and just enjoy the day without obsessing about the order of the house. {I believe this is for their own sanity, not mine.}

We recently celebrated mother’s day, and I’m writing today for future moms. You might often read or hear about how great/challenging/rewarding a job motherhood is, but I believe parenting deserves a better description than just... job.

So, if motherhood were a job...

It would pay a lot, we’d have a lot of money and it would be an occupation to die for like the other high-paying ones we find in the job market.

But it isn’t.

No educational degree is required for a woman to qualify for motherhood. It is not a form of career advancement, and all the more, it is not for financial gain. It is also not an opportunity you just stumble into and suddenly decide that it might be worth the try. If I ever am wrong and you tripped yourself into conception, it still was not an ‘accidental job’. After 14 years of parenting, I think that the word “job” does not come close to what a mother does to survive the demands for each day .

You would have written a resignation letter (or asked for a raise) a dozen times.

It is not easy, but you wouldn’t want it any other way. You’ll say you give up, but you won’t. You think you’re going mad; maybe you are. For all it’s worth, you’re sticking around not because you are expected to, but because you want to.

It would be easy.

I’m not saying all jobs are easy. I was once upon a time a nine-to-five employee, and I know what work does to a person’s system. There is nothing more daunting, however, than having the responsibility of nurturing human beings so they may grow up healthy, joyous, discerning, diligent, humorous, smart, conscientious and free from societal conditioning, among other things...fingers crossed.

You would be privileged to have private bathroom breaks.

Private bathroom breaks for mothers are a privilege like education is for people. The times when you go to the toilet without being followed and be asked questions like what you’re doing, why you’re doing what and where pee and poo come from would be rare. You might also find that in your 24-hour existence, your teen will find it imperative to ask a question while you’re in your five-second bathroom break.

The routine would kill you faster than a tall cup of latte would.

Kids are unpredictable human beings -- like chocolates in a box -- you never know what mood you’re going to get for the day, and you’re always in for a roller-coaster ride. I’m not saying this in a bad light, mind you. Kids have moods not because they are hormonally challenged or have issues from their past, but they are in the process of discovering themselves and are utterly expressive about it.

Understanding how strangely beautiful their minds work challenges stock knowledge. My 4-year-old daughter refused to do reading this morning because she had yet “to taste her thumb” and later asked “how come the thumb does not have taste?”.

There are questions to answer and they are not ones you have ready answers to. Yesterday, I scrambled to answer the following questions:

What makes blood red?

How do fans work?

Why can’t you see the wind?

It would be difficult to decide who the boss is.

I know of parents who jestingly call their kids “boss”. While the idea is cute, I’m afraid that it fosters a sense of entitlement that might hurt the development of a child’s EQ (emotional quotient), which experts say could be more important than IQ (intelligence quotient). It would be good to encourage your young ones the value of working with others and developing healthy relationships with people around them.

You can’t be the boss either because you’re loving, nurturing, selfless and do not constantly desire power, just because.

You’d be working your ass off for a raise or promotion.

In the world of motherhood, the only goal you have is to be the best mother that you can be, and that includes being cool.

There will be competition.

In the realm of parenting, the one thing that I don’t understand is the argument on which parenting style is the best and who does what best. If you’re new to the parenting world and you’re not sure about what to do in this crazy place, don’t fret. We all go through that. There are two things that you can do though. One, find a mother you admire and respect, study her parenting styles and see if you feel they’re workable for you. Or two, work on your gut instinct and develop a parenting style that’s suitable for your own family. Remember that each child is a unique human being and will require a different kind of approach from you.

You’d be the world’s top multitasker.

You could be typing articles for a center spread on one hand, feeding a child on the other, talking to someone with the phone stuck between your shoulder and your ear (I think it’s called a meeting), answering a persistent question about why pigs don’t fly (why the hell don’t pigs fly anyway?), while waiting for the soup to boil. Laundry’s also soaking and you’re thinking about doing that homemade scrub for your cellulite. Don’t argue, that’s my true story.

And so…

I don’t know what you’d like to call it. We like to bask in the the glory of having a 24/7 job as a parent, but you don’t do it for rewards, for promotion, for pay. I’m not trying to stupefy you, I just want you to consider not calling motherhood a job anymore. I know others have, but I think it would be nicer not to identify it with a word that makes a lot of people unhappy.

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