Parenting Archive

My thoughts on parenthood, and what it's like to be a mom in the Philippines.

Responsible Parenting: What Is Right And Wrong On Child Photography?

I am not talking about what is right and wrong in terms of photography as arts, I am talking about photography in terms of the right of the child. I am not saying I am an expert on this subject as I have know little about rules in photography. All I know is,

if it is in public place you can take photos of it,
if it is in private place, it is the owner’s discretion if they want to photograph it or not (as in the case of malls etc)
you can take photos of public places though, as long as you’re in public place (or I maybe wrong with this)
that law enforcers has no right to take your camera

When it comes to photographing people, it’s vague for me, all I know is, if it is an event, it’s OK to take photos of anyone present during the said event (please correct me if I am wrong).. when it comes to posting or publishing the photos, I think that’s another case and another set of rules. Asking permission if it is OK to post/publish it is I think the rule of thumb.

When it comes to our kids, what is right and wrong? can we post almost every cute photos our kids have?

I think not. As a responsible parents, we have to choose what we post and what we should NOT post specially on social networking sites. This is my opinion and some of you may agree and some may not (and I do welcome your comments and insight on this topic), but here’s my rule of thumb when posting photos of my kids:

Nudity is a N0-No may it be the boys and specially my little girl. I do post photos of my boys on trunks and other swimwear but never post any photos of them showing their private parts. As for my little princess, I am more careful on posting her photos.. any pose that looks suggestive or any pose that might expose a bit too much of her body is a no-no (the last two piece she had when she was a year old, after that, no more 2 piece for her)
Insinuating and Suggestive pose (as mentioned above) is something that I will not pose.. now how do you define a suggestive pose? well I think it is up to you as a parent to determine that.
10 years from now? what? before I post photos of my kids, I usually ask myself that question.. I know they’re cute and adorable specially on wacky pose but 10 years from now, would they hate me for posting their photos? or would they thank me for not flaunting it?

Somethings are really cute, specially when captured, but we are not just after on cuteness.. as parents, it is the welfare of our kids that is the most important.

How about you? What’s your limitation in taking photos of your kids and posting it?

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.

Hot Parenting Tip: Great Summer Fun Ideas

Our summer days started a day after recognition/graduation last week. As soon as they woke up and realized there’s no more school that day, they started wondering what they can do this summer. Oh, I wanted to sing Phineas and Ferb theme song to them:

Theres 104 Days of Summer Vacation,
And School comes along just to End it.
So the Annual Problem for our Generation,
Is finding a good way to Spend it.

and I would want them to be creative like Phineas and Ferbs, but I don’t think I can handle a rocket or a mummy or Nanobots! So before our kids start building their own rocker or climb up the Eiffel Tower, let’s share great Summer Fun Ideas that our kids can do this summer.

Swimming Party!

of course.. summer is all bout swimming, schedule a playdate where your kids and their friends can have a swimming party on your backyard. And that’s what we did last Sunday. We had a Halo-Halo/ swimming party. And the kids had so much fun, good thing Levy brought another pool 🙂 (hindi sila nagkasya sa pool namin!)

Swimming party is a great way to enhance your kids’ social skill and locomotion. The fun in swimming can keep your kids busy for a day or two as the experience gives them a lot of things to talk about.

Board Games

Board games were popular during our time.. we used to spend hours playing scrabble or monopoly and I wanted my boys to experience the same. A few months ago we bought them board games (chess and scrabble) and so far, it’s making them busy for an hour or two. Scrabble also help them enrich their vocabulary while chess makes them think more.

Arts and Crafts

Buy some paper and some paints and brushes and let them “paint” all they want. You can also encourage them to create post card like art works that you can send to your relatives abroad using international parcel delivery. You can also teach them to make dye shirts since it’s a perfect shirt for this season. Here, almost every Saturday we have our art session and it keeps them busy for the whole afternoon.

Summer Classes

It’s another way to spend summer. Enroll them on Summer Clinics such as MILO Summer Sports Clinics, perfect for kids ages 7-16 years old. They offer 10 different sports: badminton, chess, football, gymnastics, karatedo, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, and volleyball.

You can find a Milo Summer Sports Clinic in different parts of the country:

NCR Milo Summer Sports Clinic (Caloocan, Manila, Makati, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Pasig, Quezon)
Luzon Milo Summer Sports Clinic (Baguio, Binan, Cavite, Dagupan, Lucena, Malolos, Naga, Tarlac)
Visayas Milo Summer Sports Clinic (Bacolod, Iloilo, Tacloban)
Mindanao Milo Summer Sports Clinic (CDO, Davao, Gensan, Koronadal, Zamboanga)

Milo Summer Sports (Caloocan, Manila, Makati, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Pasig, Quezon)
Luzon Milo Summer Spor

Milo Summer Sports Clinic Promo: Participants will get a discount of P100.00 on the registration fee when they submit a 1kg MILO^® pack during registration.Visit http://www.milo.com.ph or call (02) 353-5090, (02) 966-6333, and (0917) 589-9880 to register for any of the sports clinics this summer of 2012.

You can also enroll them on art classes (Global Art) or dance studio if your kid is not into sports.