Parenting Archive

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

PAREF Woodrose (School for Girls) Family Day 2012

The air is filled with so much excitement.. you can almost feel the festivity that is about to begin.

That is exactly how I felt when we entered the gate of PAREF Woodrose at Ayala Alabang Village. We were invited to join and watch Woodrose Family Day SY 2011-2012 as well as take a look around the school. The school ground where filled with students in different but color coordinated costumes. There were those wearing red, green, blue and yellow. Later we learned, it’s like the houses of Hogwarts, 4 houses/ teams competes during family day. A student as they enroll were assigned a color, yup, just like Hogwarts, but sorting is done randomly. Of course sisters goes on the same color. Here are some of the photos I took during their cheer dancing competition:

Mommy bloggers who covered the PAREF Woodrose Family Day.. Miss Janette Toral and yes my fellow ranchers*

Oh, I said SISTERS a while ago.. well because PAREF Woodrose is an exclusive school for girls. After the cheer dancing competition, we went ahead to to their flea market area and got to see some of the items that parents donated for the said activity. There were clothes, household items, books, toys and a lot more.

After that, we had the chance to learn what the school has to offer and what makes them different from other school.

PAREF Woodrose, I learned, is the first school established by PAREF, a non-stock, non-profit organizations of parents. The school is centered on Christian education based on Catholic faith. Here’s a short overview of PAREF Woodrose presented to us:

During the brief discussion, there were faculty members present and parents and students from the 4 teams (yellow, blue, red and green team). We had the chance to ask the students and the parents questions about the school, their views and some issues that most parents and students usually face.

PAREF Woodrose has a mentoring system where in each students were assigned a mentor. Mrs Sharon Fernandez (a mom of 8 kids with 2 daughters in Woodrose) said that to them, parents, to chat with the mentor is a benefit. Mentors act like a friend to the students.

Karina Jalandoni, a Gold team member and third year student shared that even though PAREF Woodrose is an all girls school they had the chance to meet and interact with opposite sex through varsity and socio-civic activities.

Ms. Delia S. Udani, PAREF Woodrose Executive Director (photo courtesy of Miss Janette Toral)

Ms. Delia S. Udani, PAREF Woodrose Executive Director shared with us that the their Family Day started in 1983. She also mentioned that in mentoring system, a staff usually mentors 13 students (based on the number of students they have and the number of mentors).

If you think PAREF Woodrose is the school for your kids, here’s PAREF Woodrose Admission Procedure:

1. Submission of all required documents

Accomplished Parents’ Information Sheet
NSO Certified Parents’ Marriage Contract *
NSO Certified Student’s Birth Certificate *
Original and photocopy of Student’s Baptismal Certificate
Report Card
2 x 2 pictures (2 copies)
Recommendation form accomplished by the Guidance and Testing Office of the previous school
Recommendation form accomplished by the Class Adviser and Registrar of the previous school

* For foreign documents, Original and Photocopy of the Marriage Contract of the Parents / Original and Photocopy of the Student’s Birth Certificate. Original Documents will be returned to the Parents.

2. Parental Attendance at the Orientation for Parents

3. Interviews and Testing

Parents are interviewed by a PAREF representative
Student takes an assessment test
Student is interviewed by the Level Coordinator

4. It is following this procedure that a Letter of Notice is prepared and mailed to the parents

To know more about Activities in PAREF Woodrose, click here and learn how they train their students. For PAREF Woodrose Curriculum overview, please visit this link.

From what we have seen, from the cheer dancing competition to the short discussion we had, I can say that PAREF Woodrose is a very tight community. You can see from the students how close they are and the parents knows each other well. Aside from that, the students that was with us from the discussion were very smart and answers all our question with confidence.

More details about PAREF Woodrose:

PAREF Woodrose School briefing

*Ranchers is a group of mommies who loves lunching out while ranting about our every day lives. We usually spend Saturday afternnoon eating and chatting while the kids play in the playhouse.

Teaching Responsibility to Your Kids

Responsibility is one of the most important values that parents must instill in their children. It is also one of the hardest to teach. After all, the concept of responsibility is often an elusive one for toddlers and young kids, and our desire to raise them in a nurturing and caring atmosphere often precludes the trait from being adequately taught until the child is grown. How can this be corrected? How can responsible values be appropriately taught, even at a young age?

As a mom with children of my own, I have asked myself these questions numerous times over the past couple years. While I haven’t in this span found a perfect solution to my queries, I’ve still been able to devise methods and approaches that, hopefully, will ultimately serve to make my kids more responsible people in the long-run. Here’s what I’ve been trying to do:

Instill Healthy Eating Habits

We go to the grocery store for a variety of reasons: we need eggs, we want to stock up on organic makeup, or perhaps the bathroom has run out of toilet paper. And, when our kids are still young, we will likely bring them along each and every time. I think this makes for a great opportunity to teach both responsibility and healthy eating habits. I’ve devised a system: I tell my kids they can buy four food items of their choosing. These products need to hit certain nutritional requirements for fiber, calcium, and vegetable content, but otherwise they are free to make their own decisions. While my kids will always select one unhealthy food among the four, the requirement have made them more aware, discerning, and hopefully responsible. They have even found healthy foods that they enjoy.

Give them Jobs

Some parents give their kids chores and expect them to be done without any sort of compensation. Other parents won’t assign chores, but will instead try to teach responsibility by handing out a regular allowance. While you should certainly stick with whatever approach works best for your family, I’ve found that a combination of chores and compensation (i.e. an allowance that is paid after chores are complete) is a great way to teach responsibility. If my kids don’t feel like doing chores, that’s ok – they just won’t get paid. Conversely, if they want to buy a new toy, they might need to do more chores in order to gain the appropriate finances.

Let Them Fail

We certainly never want our kids to fail, and there are areas in which we will work hard to insure that they don’t. But there are other times where a failure has consequences only as a learning experience for a child. Sports and extracurricular activities are a case in point. If your kid doesn’t show up to practice or doesn’t prepare appropriate for the dance recital, there are real (although not harmful) repercussions, and there will often be an outside authority figure who gets angry at them. As a parent, I’ve decided to let my children fail – and, in the process, learn from their mistakes – when such situations are in play.

These are just a few ways that you can endeavor to teach responsibility to your child. None of these approaches are particularly difficult, but since the trait is a particularly challenging one to master – even for adults – its’ always good to make a concerted and consistent effort in following these techniques through.

This article is a guest post.

Teaching Your Kids How To Talk

My first born started talking when he was less than a year old. My second born started blabbing when he was one and only later that he was able to speak clearly (he is turning 7 this March). My third son speaks clearly when he was two but now that he is three, he baby talks a lot. My youngest girl started talking when she was a year old too. Now that she is 2, she can clearly say almost every word. Yesterday she said to my husband: “Daddy, tingnan mo nga ung Mommy ko.” (- I slept the whole afternoon and she was already worried about me)

When I gave birth to my first born son, I talked to him in the mornings, evenings and as while I was feeding him. It must be the reason why he learned how to speak clearly at an early age. With my second son, I did not got the chance to to talk to him as much as I did to my first born. And it must the reason why his speech was delayed. As I read articles from articles about speech and based on my own experience, I learned that a child develops differently from other child and as parents, the most we can do is help them and not force them.

So what can we do as parents to help our kids in the speech department? How can we teach our kids how to talk?

Learning how to talk starts with the sounds the kids can hear. It starts even before they are born. And as most of you will remember, we were advised to talk to our babies while they were still in our tummy. It doesn’t stop there, as your baby is born, learn the habit of talking to him, updating him what is happening around him. You can also make a recap of what he did the whole day. You can ask your baby what he did, answer it for him.

Always tell your baby what you are doing to him (and yes this applies to older kids too). If you are bathing him, tell him you’re shampooing his head, if you are doing it. Tell him his body parts as you soap it. This way, you’re not just helping your baby to speak but also teaching him the basics of human body.

Reading to your baby also helps a lot. Take 30 minutes or more off your time and read to him. You don’t have to read stories or a book, just get something with pictures on it and point out the pictures as you go on. Saying out loud the name of the things on the photos. You can even take out your albums and let him see his your family pictures and tell him about your family. The key here is that he will learn how to associate words with photos. Another great way to help your baby learn to talk is to sing to him.

When talking to your baby specially if he already trying to talk too, always repeat the words and also let him repeat it. Every time he says a word, repeat it clearly and ask him to do the same. Never use baby talk when talking to them. He wouldn’t get it for the first or second time or even for the third time but eventually he would learn. You have to remember though that you must not any signs of frustration or impatience with this activity.

You also have to know that babies learn in two different ways. There are those who learn visually and those that learn through auditory or hearing. If your baby is a visual learner, more often than not, he would have a delay on speech. If you’re baby is an auditory learner, most likely than not, they would speak early. Based on my observations, most girls are auditory learners hence they speak earlier than boys.

But talking aside, it is more important that your baby learns to communicate. Talking and knowing how to communicate is two different thins. Sure a baby or a toddler can talk non stop, telling stories but till it is how they tell their feelings or how they tell what they want that matters.

So if you are a mom who worries that your kid/ baby is not talking or his/her speech is delayed, don’t stress yourself, worry if your toddlers does not even know how to ask for milk or ask for his mommy.