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Practical Parenting Tips On Teaching ABC

You know, as much as possible I make our own ABC.. why? aside from I enjoy doing it, most ABCs that can be bought is not good for me..

Take for example alphabet chart with Ice cream on letter I.. in basic phonics, it’s the short I first, only later that the long I sound is taught.. so how can you explain an Ice cream on your alphabet chart?

Another thing, some words on most Alphabet Chart are too complicatd for the kids.. you know like Xylophone or Monkey or elephant.. there’s just too many letter on it.

I want my ABCD chart to be simple, with images/ things that my kids can easily recognize and a chart that I can use while I teach phonics to them.. and that’s why I make my own ABCD..

Actually a few years back, my only requirement for creating ABCD is that the images/ photos is simple enough or that they can easily recognize it. I made an ABCD where the V was represented by VICKS! that’s the only word/ thing I can think of that my boys would recognize.

Here’s a sample of what I did a few years back (Ondoy‘s not familiar with the alphabet yet so he took this chart hehe).

Now that I will be seriously teaching Chico and Sati.. might as well make an ABCD chart that will also be helpful not only in alphabet recognition but as well as phonics.

And so far, here’s what I got:

Ant for A.. which I still have to figure out how to draw a rally nice ant. I can’t use APPLE, though easier to draw, it will be harder for them to read when we start phonics. Ant is the best word I can think of.. if you know an A word that’s very basic in terms of phonics, let me know.

Bed for B (or bag or bus) these words are very basic.. it would be very easy to use it when we start learning the middle sound, the beginning sound and the end sound.

Car is for C, Dog is for D (duck is easier to draw but that would be harder for me to explain why there is a c and a k there), Egg is for E (I find this one a bit challenging as egg though easy to draw, hard in terms of giving life to it).

Fan for F, Gem for G (it took me an hour or two to find an easy and basic word for G, I’m not yet satisfied with Gem, so if you one, again hit the comment button). Hat for H, Ink for I (another case like A and E), Jar for J, Kit for K (here’s another one, I’m still looking for the best K 3 letter word, know one?). Log for L, Mop for M, Net for N, Oven for O, Pen for P, Quarter for Q, Run for R (I want to avoid action words but I can’t find a word for R). Sun for S, Ten for T, Up for U, Van for V, Watermelon for W (though I want to limit my words with 3-4 letter words, I just can’t find a word for W that will be easy for phonics). Xray for X, Yoyo for Y and Zip for Z.

So there.. it took me a whole day to fill it up, maybe next week I can finish making the alphabet and will show it to you.

Now for our Practical Parenting Tip on Teaching ABC or the Alphabet, here’s what I have learned so far..

Charts do half of the job. If you can place alphabet posters/charts on your house, do so. If you can’t make a personalized alphabet chart, choose a chart where the objects are familiar.
Start it by teaching them the objects, since they are familiar with some, it would not be that hard.
When they are ready to learn the alphabet, they will start questioning you.. and you can teach them slowly by asking the letter of the objects that they are more familiar, like ask them where is letter A (with emphasis on LETTER) and give a hint by saying that it can be found next to Apple (if that’s the object in your chart).
Don’t force your child. A two year old baby who knows the alphabet is cool but a 3 year old or even a 4 year who does not know the alphabet is normal. Don’t worry too much, they will be the one to say that they are ready. Of course early exposure can be helpful (you can start posting charts as early as your child starts to see, like 3 or 4 months…don’t put it up early as it can confuse your baby’s developing eyesight)
Recite the alphabet everyday and let your child recite with you. Music is very helpful too, so if you have educational CD’s let them hear it.

How To Start Your Vegetable Garden

I want a vegetable garden with my favorite vegetables on it and I admire people who can do it. It was always like that, dreaming to have a bigger land so I can have my own garden.. and I thought it can only happen in my dreams (or if I choose to live in the province). I was too afraid to start my vegetable garden but when a fellow blogger showed her harvest from her garden, I was encouraged to start my own.

I started with nothing but small cups, soil less mixture and some seeds (egg plant, okra, sili and Chinese kangkong). My mom helped me since she’s the one who got the greener thumb (so green that even she just throw a seed and not plant, it will grow). She told me to soak the seeds overnight before planting it. We filled the cups (8 oz plastic cups that was used from our recent letson party) with soil, about half and then put the seeds on it. After 2 weeks, I re-potted the seedlings (with the help of my kids) and planted new ones (tomatoes, sigarilyas, okra, talong and Chinese Kangkong again)- that was March 3.

One month after, I re-potted the seedlings from March 3 gardening. I’m happy that the sigarilyas seedlings are getting bigger everyday..As I have mentioned before, sigarilyas is one of my favorite vegetable and I grew up seeing it on my grandmother’s house.. having a sigarilyas here will always remind me of my happy childhood with my grandmother.

Last March 24, we had our first taste of our veggies! Chinese Kangkon in Garlic and soy sauce.. and I can’t wait for the time that we’ll be having Pakbet right from our garden..

You want to start gardening too? Here’s some of the things I learned when starting a vegetable garden:

Seeds can be bought on Hardwares (ung sosi ha.. ung nasa mall.. like ACE, DIY etc) or at National Bookstore (yup they have some seeds there, I bought my okra, sili and talong seeds there)
You don’t need to buy pots, you can use small cups (or emptied ice cream pints or emptied Coke plastic bottle..) as your pot.. and when they grow bigger, you can use/ recycle big water containers (Absolute or Wilkins, it will work the same)
If soil is the problem, you can SOIL LESS.. mixture of organic materials that’s made suitable for plants.. there are different types of Soil less mixture so make sure you got the one for veggies. I use Enrico Soil-less mixture (around 75 PhP per bag)
I found that the best time to repot your seedlings is a month after you plant them.. and oh plant them 4-6 seeds per cup/pot so that it wouldn’t be crowded (like what we first did and what we did to our tomatoes).
After planting the seeds, you only need to water it 2-3 times, when it starts to sprout and have leaves water it 4-5 times a week. You don’t need to water it everyday not unless it is super hot and the soil dries up easily.
Buy simple gardening tools such as shovel. You don’t need to buy big tools and super sturdy kind, you can settle for smaller and cheaper ones.
Talk to your plants and treat them well.

You know what’s the best thing about gardening? it keeps me moving.. specially when I need to re-pot them.. watering them is an activity too.. it’s also a great way to create fun memories with my kids (re potting and watering).. and I got to enjoy the plants even though they’re not bearing fruits yet. It’s very relaxing to see how much greenery our little space can have.

Next month, I need to start making balag/ trellis for our sigarilyas or else it will start to climb on our gate.

Easter Sunday Activities, Games and Crafts

Our plan was so spend the Holy Week at my mom’s place.. but some unfortunate events made us stay and just spend the week here. It was such a disappointment for my kids. They have been looking forward to this out of town trip. To make it up to them, we had a swimming party yesterday and I also promised them a fun day on Easter Sunday. I was thinking of bringing them to one of the Easter Sunday Events near us (Fun Ranch or Eastwood) but considering the number of kids I have, it’s not practical. I think we’ll just stay home and make our own Easter Sunday Celebration..

THAT is WHY… I am hunting for Easter crafts for the kids as well as Easter games and Easter food..

Tomorrow, we will be making Bunny ears that they can wear on Sunday. And we will make Paper Plate Daffodil that we can put on our plants..ideas came from Kaboose (and the bunny ears photo)..I am planning to decorate our small front with flowers and bunnies.. which will serve as the eggs’ hiding place for the egg hunting activity I am planning. We will be making bunny cups too and bunny toppers for cupcake.. I hope someone will bring a carrot cupcake on Sunday (eherm eherm)>

Our activities on Easter will include egg hunting (now, I have to hunt for eggs first!), egg decoration activity as well as some fun Easter games (egg relay and put the bunny ears).

As for the food.. oh I might try Devilled eggs.. but still not sure with it.. I am still looking for Easter food that I can prepare easily.. any idea?