Archives for January 2011

Benefits Of Being Your Child’s Tutor

I just spend almost 3 hours writing about cool, tool, good, es and the likes. It’s exam week and as I have mentioned, I am the one reviewing the kids. It really is tiring and time consuming. Imagine having to spend 3 to 4 hours reading about animals and the number of their legs or what are the national symbols of our country. But of course, the benefits of being my children’s tutor is all worth it.

For one, we were able to spend more time together. Before I used to hire a tutor. The idea of teaching them again (we used to home school) was not that appealing anymore. I thought, I would just expose them to the irate mommy. Last grading period was an eye opener. I was able to control my temper and did great in teaching them. In fact my first born even wrote a letter for me. A letter that expresses his gratitude for teaching him and his younger brother. That’s the best thing I have ever read. I learned that teaching them (even though I raise voice at times) assures them more that I love them.

Secondly, and because they are just too excited to spend more time with mommy, they are more enthusiast with their study. We can spend hours and they wouldn’t be bored with it. That’s another reason, mommy can make learning fun and creative in the most possible way. And the proof that it was really beneficial was the increase of grades they had on the second grading period.

Lastly, teaching your kids and not hiring a tutor can save you a lot of money. Though it is not easy, you just need to manage your time better in order to do it. The chores can wait, the laundry can smell bad as much as they can, the dishes can be delivered and even the plates can stand in the sink as much as they want, but the kids can’t.

How To Deal With Children Saying Bad Words

We cannot help it, sooner or later, they would learn the word F or in Filipino, the word P. It is everywhere. Even the movie that won Best Picture from the recent Metro Manila Film Festival is ambiguous with relation to the word P (agree?).

So how do we deal with it? What we should do when we suddenly hear our kids saying the F words or other words that are use for cursing?

I guess the best way to handle this is not to over react. Some parents when they hear their kids say words like that, reacts as if their kids did something terrible. Of course, those words should not come out of our kids mouth, but we do not know where and how they learned it or heard it. So, keep your reaction simple, ask your kid if they know the meaning of it and ask them where they heard it. You have to explain in e very polite way that those words are not for kid’s language. You know how some kids are really clever, they would question you why adults speak those word. And when they learned it from a playmate, that would be really tricky. It would be a bit hard to explain to them why their playmates are saying those words, so in this case, you just have to tell them the meaning of the word and why it is bad.

In every situation with our kids, the key is not to over react, of course except when you have to praise them or proud of them, in that case, be as OA as much as you want.

The Men In My Life

Whenever I look at them, I’m always high. These are the men in my life (with an extra boy.. my nephew). At night, when they are all sleeping, I wonder how I was able to take care of them, yup starting from my husband. These men have different personalities and I haven’t perfected the art of dealing with each of them yet but mommy is trying real hard.

My oldest son, my husband. I know it’s a joke around every household, to call their husbands their oldest son, why? Oh well it seems that men, even at that age (and after having 4 kids) still acts like a kid. You have to constantly remind them of the things that they should do, like socks on the floor, turn off this, turn off that. And you have to prepare the things they need. Though to some wife, it is a problem, not to me. It’s how we thrive. He feeds us, I take care of him.

My real oldest son. He is a cry baby, yup at 7 years old, he still cries at the smallest thing. He even cries at night out of no reason at all. But without his tears he is a very clever boy. And he is a very responsible kuya too.

My second Mico who still thinks he is a baby and acts like one. I could not blame him, he was our youngest for the longest time. But he loves his younger brother and younger so much. You cannot trace any single jealousy or envy on him.

Chicolet as we fondly call him, our third boy. He is the most playful of them all and the most charming too. And though it was too soon that he was the youngest, he loves his dear sister the most.