Discovering tranquility at Luijoe meadow

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“When we are unable to find tranquillity within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Discovering a tranquil peace at Luijoe meadow leaves me energized and comforted. Luijoe’s grandparents named this “Luijoe meadow”, a playground to frolic at their mountain residence in Benguet. They had named this lovely meadow after their only grandson, Luijoe even before my son passed away in May 27, 2000.


Luijoe meadow somewhere in Benguet

It was Holy Week in 2000 when we all vacationed in this picturesque pine valley hideaway. My energetic young man wasn’t in the mood to have his photo taken by Luijoe meadow then but I insisted. He was in a hurry to run around and just be. That Holy Week was well spent talking about the death of Jesus on the Cross, the comfort of Mary by John the Apostle and more. I didn’t know my son was preparing me for his death a few weeks later.


Painting on the wall of Church of Holy Sacrifice, UP Campus

My son’s death reminds me that life on Earth is fleeting that there is far more meaningful tasks that need to be accomplished before the promise of eternal life. There are poignant memories that comfort me today. Luijoe often gave me a hug and reminded me before bedtime. “Mom you haven’t prayed”. I catch myself during chaotic situations, praying to God for serenity. I remember my son’s gentle reminder and lift my problems in prayer.

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Everyone is gifted – but some people never open their package

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““I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.” Albert Einstein
gifted-child1I had the chance to meet gifted kids from Philippine High School for the Arts (PSHA) when my two girls joined the Manila Children’s Choir in the late nineties. Among my daughter’s circle of friends was Jourdann Petalver and a couple of kids with powerful soprano voices. It was during rehearsal breaks that I got to know more about their life at this exclusive school for gifted kids in the creative field of music, art, writing, dancing and others. I often wonder what have become of them and even of PSHA. If there is one great thing that Imelda Marcos did , it is the promotion of culture and arts and the nurturing of gifted children. I believe parents should be aware of options of their gifted child and the road they travel as they hone their gifts.

The second part of the third part report on “Dilemmas on the ‘Different'”focus on the gifted child. (The first part was about Down’s syndrome.) Part 2 is authored by PCIJ Fellow Rorie R. Fajardo tells the story of the students of the Philippine High School for the Arts, a charmed circle that by all accounts belongs to the two percent of the country’s population that is deemed to be gifted.

Dilemmas on the ‘Different’

The Gifted Give Back

By Rorie R. Fajardo
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
Second of Three Parts

THE MOMENT they stepped into the campus of the Philippine High School for the Arts or PHSA in 1988, Roselle Pineda says that she and the other freshmen were made aware they were being trained to be the country’s future cultural leaders.

““Medyo mayabang pakinggan (It may sound like I’m bragging),” says Pineda, now 34 and teaching at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, ““but this makes you realize at the start that you are scholars of the people, the cream of the crop, and therefore you have the duty to give back something to the people.”

Then again, PHSA is no ordinary school. As its name implies, it specializes in the arts, and it takes as students only those who are deemed gifted in writing or in either performing or visual arts. It is, in fact, the creative counterpart of the older Philippine Science High School or Pisay, which caters to youths with ““high aptitude for sciences and math.”

Both schools are government-run, but they are certainly what most public high schools are not. Both boast of the latest equipment, well-trained staff and solid faculty lineup, and a healthy teacher-student ratio. There are no overcrowded classes in either school, and if there is a class that is held under a tree, it would be because teacher and students suddenly felt the urge to commune with nature or take in fresh air, rather than because of a missing roof or, worse, the sheer inexistence of a school building. Aside from free tuition, free board and lodging are available. Each student gets a monthly stipend as well.
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Don’t give up on the child

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Having Down syndrome is like being born normal. I am just like you and you are just like me. We are all born in different ways, that is the way I can describe it. I have a normal life. Chris Burke

special-childrenMy late father was quite active with St. Martin de Porres, a school for special children. As a young child, my dad often told me how much smarter these special kids (in comparison to regular kids like myself) are for maximizing their brain potential. Some of us are just plain lazy to actually maximize our true potential. I found that out myself as I got older and wiser.

Earlier today, Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism sent me an email about a three-part report on the dilemmas we face when dealing with ““different” children, or the ““special” and the ““gifted” ones among them.

It is by now de rigueur, and politically correct, to avoid referring to them as ““abnormal” — a word laced with the bias of the majority who are supposed to be ““normal.” Societies in both the developed West and the developing East have since launched programs and services catering to the special needs of these children. However, if a nation has only limited resources, should the community devote more to the special children, or to the gifted? Indeed, how could we know how best to care for them?

But more than just a question of logistics, to the families who nurture and care for these children, many other dilemmas unfold daily – burden, blessing, joy, pain all the same most of the time. And in between, too, these families have to contend with people who respond differently, sometimes harshly, to children who are “different.”

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Seemed like yesterday when UPCAT and ACET results came out

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update January 3: UPCAT online posting will start at ten pm; posting of list at admissions office will come later.

Update 2: UP Officials say UPCAT results will also be posted outside the UP Diliman Office of Admissions before 12 midnight. (via GMAnews)

Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it. ~William Haley
up-diliman

For some reason, I am getting referrals for ACET ( Ateneo College Entrance Test) and UPCAT ( UP College Admission Test). Then now I recall at this time seven years ago, it was a nerve-wracking moment for my eldest daughter, wondering if she made it to the better universities. Well, daughter number 1 made it to Ateneo de Manila. My last experience with college entrance exams came when my daughter number 2 passed UP Diliman in 2005. Waiting was agonizing. What made it worse was the servers often crashed making it a more frustrating experience. My daughters felt that their future seemed brighter if they studied either in UP or Ateneo. Indeed, studying in Ateneo or UP opened doors for them and it was their choice to enter it or not.

I bet most parents are facing the same uncertainty as I once did many moons ago.

I visited the UPCAT Results site and found out results will be posted at the Office of Admissions tomorrow, January 3, 2011. UPCAT Results on the web can be viewed through the UPCAT 2011 Results Online or its mirror sites(s) below:

STICKBREAD SOLUTIONS
MVS
PREGINET

ACET ACET results

La Salle test results – DLSU Freshman (Applicant) Inquiry Form http://enroll.dlsu.edu.ph/dlsu/freshmen/freshmen

UST results– http://www.ust.edu.ph/index.php/admission-in-ust.html

It can be heartbreaking not passing your first choice but you will still do good given the opportunity to do your best in another college.

Just remember that “an educational system isn’t worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn’t teach them how to make a life.” The object of education is to prepare you to educate yourselves throughout your lives.

Good luck to all those that applied to UP and Ateneo. Congrats!

Azkals brought football to our nation

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Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority. Vince Lombardi

Congratulations Azkals. You made every Filipino proud because of your perseverance and heart towards the sport. We are still proud you made it to the Semi-finals despite the challenges in the training. Congratulations Indonesia.
azkals-celebration
Photo credit:firequinito.com

The Philippines’ magical run in the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup came to a halt Sunday night after falling prey to Indonesia, 0-1, in the second leg of their semifinal clash at Jakarta’s Bung Karno Stadium.

Defeated but unbowed.

Thank you for finally bringing football to the Philippines. There are more football lovers now. It all starts here, so keep going and continue on. We’ll keep on dreaming.

Like @aupijuan said in Twitter, “Azkals Christmas gift to us was giving us hope that Filipinos can truly be good at FOOTBALL. Thank You Azkals!”

I admire the discipline it took to get this far and I agree with @hotmainila in Twitter that even “Note: with no tradition, no record and not even a frigging stadium to call its own, PH made it to the semis”

Perhaps it is time to encourage football starting with our kids.

Finding the right school for your child

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“No one school is right for every child. When searching for a school for your child, the question is not whether a particular school is good or bad, but whether it’s the right school for your child. You might ask the school, ‘What is your definition of a successful child at this school?’ or ‘What kind of child would find success here?'” David Harris

school-dayIt must have been two years ago that I told my daughter to write a guest post in my blog on bullying. She didn’t hesitate to share her experience to my readers because doing so will raise awareness to parents that their kids should never ever be bullied at school.

One thing I do know is that a lot of the insecurities I have about myself is rooted in the fact that I got bullied a lot during my early elementary school years….they pass it off as play, or maybe an early life lesson: the world can be a terrible place filled with people who will treat you with undeserved cruelty. I do understand that kids have to grow up and learn that hard lesson someday, but I think anyone under the age of ten is too young to deal with that much reality. At that age, it’s important for children to learn to accept or at least respect people for exactly who they are instead of making fun of their differences. What kind of lesson will be passed on to them if their elders shrug off bullying as something totally normal?

Her reflection of her bullying experience just tore me apart. I felt so helpless because during those days, children just had to deal with bullies. I considered moving schools but all the schools in the nineties were just Montessori-imitations or the usual large traditional schools. Parents are fortunate these days because they face a wide range of options aside from traditional Catholic schools that I attended to. Take for example, homeschooling that my friends, Jen and Julie are doing to their young kids. Then there are the non-traditional schools , the alternative to traditional schools.

As a mom blogger, I get a chance to visit non-traditional schools and check out their curriculum and programs. This is an opportunity to share these information to my readers and for them to discern if this is the right school for their child.
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I Choke on Taglish

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I remember my first TV interview.

I was not prepared to talk in Tagalog. First of all, MOMS is an english word so I thought the interview was in English. When I saw the script, I was horrified.

I asked the writer: So I have to reply in Tagalog? I don’t speak Tagalog so well.

It can be Taglish. the production staff said

Taglish is just as worse. So throughout the interview, I struggled for the words, figuring out what the Tagalog word for grief….feelings…etcetera.

Suffice it to say, I had a Take 2.

taglish

It was a pain to speak in Taglish. My first language is English (Blame my parents) and spoke Cebuano with my peers. I spoke two languages as a child and never mixed cebuano and English in one sentence. When my daughter was once an active blogger, she received a deluge of criticisms for being more fluent in English. At least she can still speak in Tagalog. Shouldn’t we choose the first language that is best comfortable to communicate?

How come Cebuanos don’t mix Cebuano and English in one sentence? There is no such thing as ““Cebualish”“. People would gush with admiration at how we, Cebuanos didn’t have Cebuano accents whenever we spoke English. The Cebuanos from UP or Ateneo studied from top-notch high schools in Cebu with the same high standards as those of exclusive schools in Manila. So what made the difference? It was only much later that I found out that the taglish originated from the ““yayas”

Yet, I think it is really wrong to speak in Taglish so I forced myself to learn to speak Tagalog. So far so good especially if it is a radio interview since I have a cheat list in front of me and I can concentrate on my train of thoughts.

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Filipino Kids & Their Lifestyle in 2009

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Two years ago, Cartoons Network commissioned a survey on Filipino Kids and their lifestyle called “New Generations” because they believe that such study is an integral part of its on-going quest to learn about kids, their lifestyle , opinions and behavior. TV is the number one choice for kids among various forms of media consumption. Quite disappointing really. The 2009 survey does not differ much in TV consumption and preference.

survey-of-pinoy-kids

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Sex Education & The Reproductive Health Bill 5043

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“Doesn’t every woman deserve the right to have a safe pregnancy and a baby that’s born healthy? I believe this is a very basic human right.” Katya Matanovic

They say that it takes just one or two entries to bring hits to your blog. Three years ago, I wrote about Sex Education in the Philippines and to this day, I continue to receive search engine hits not from the keyword “sex education” but from the image keyword “sex”. I often wonder if Google had something to do with it, that they wanted people to read my entry first before jumping on to porn sites.

sex education

My stand on sex education is

We need to teach them responsible parenthood in consonance with the sex education. We don’t need to teach everything but at least give them the basic facts. Along the way, the children can do some more research on their own.

Three years ago, Phillipine Catholic Bishops Oppose Sex-Ed in Schools, Say it Should be Left to Parents. Sure that is true only if parents know how to discuss sex with their children. We can’t assume parents know how to discuss sex openly. Some might be uneducated to understand the anatomy of reproduction and thus fail to grasp natural birth control methods.

The schools together with the parents can bridge the gap of sex education but there seems to be a problem when the parents also have a lack of knowledge on reproductive health.

With the yet to be approved Philippine Reproductive Health Bill 5043 , one of the provisions of the proposed law is mandatory imposition of reproductive health education

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Time Management for Mom and Kids

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Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life. Alan Lakein

My first job as a Production Supervisor at a candy factory was to undertake a study on the time and motion activities which I used later on for implementing a production schedule. The techniques I learned as Production Supervisor came in really handy when I became a parent 5 years later. As moms, we learned to multi-task and set priorities in our child-rearing activities not to mention work, couple and me time!

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff that life is made of.”

If there is one thing I am proud of my kids (even my departed son), they knew time management. Never were they tardy for school. Never did I ever have to yell at them “Come on, hurry up”. Sure, sometimes it was hard to wake them up but they knew the schedule of each school day and their play time. Their dad may not be a prompt person but you know the kids didn’t have to follow their father’s footsteps. There is no such thing as inherited trait of “being late”. Teaching my children the values early on in life , particularly the important lesson of time management was crucial part of their growing years. I prepared them for a lifetime of self-discipline helped them in their adulthood.

Time management is not necessarily about getting lots of stuff done, because much more important than that is making sure that you are working on the right things, the things that truly need to be done.

choir

During their pre-teen years, my two girls traveled twice to the USA and Canada through a children’s choir. This entailed discipline and time management skills when it came to costume changes that needed to be done in 1 minute. It also involved checking travel times and being prompt during rehearsals. I am proud to say that the two girls were never lectured by their choir conductor for tardiness. How did I teach my kids?

1. Set clear priorities on daily activities.

This means give a daily schedule. There was a time for schoolwork, naps and play time. By the time, the girls ate solid food, I gave them an hour to finish their lunch. If they weren’t done, I removed the plate. The consequence of getting hungry is not eating their lunch properly. They learned that one has to eat at the proper time. Bedtime was also strictly followed. No late nights for my kids up to their pre-teen years. As they reached their teen years, I gave more allowances for them to arrange their schedules but still the bedtime and waking up rule was followed.

2. There are consequences if time is not managed properly.

Of course they knew this very clearly once they were at school. Tardiness had consequences. In fact, I remember as a kid, the tardy were listed in the blackboard.

3. Give them an idea on the possible duration of an activity.

As young kids, I didn’t want them to study long hours so I told them that the maximum is only 2 hours, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. They had to finish their homework really quickly or their assigned tasks. It worked quite well and by the time they reached their fourth grade, the kids studied on their own. I reminded them though when bedtime was coming soon, “It’s almost bedtime. Ten minutes more so wrap things up”.

I learned to adjust the lesson of time management at every stage of my kids’ life. I gave them more leeway to make decisions on their own and handle their schedules properly. It helped that I installed time-telling tools such as clocks in every room of the house and gave them watches to monitor their time.

I often told them that if they didn’t manage their time well, they will be far less productive than they could be and get a lot less done. They will also feel much more stressed and overwhelmed, and struggle to find time to spend with the people they care about and to do the things they enjoy.

My two girls are not little girls anymore. In fact, they are adults, working and busy managing their work and social life. Lauren knows when to work hard, and play hard that she even took the time off to New York for a short vacation. M is devoted to her new job but takes the weekend off to socialize with her friends.

Without doubt, parents should give their children an early head start on the lesson of time management. With proper guidance and the right tools , kids will definitely learn this important lesson well.

As a treat, I am having a contest for mommies out there in cooperation with Kids Watch Central (KWC)

KWC Time Management for Mom and Kids

1. Please share the most effective time management techniques that you give out to your kids via the comment section below.

2. Share short anecdotes on how you implement these techniques and what was the outcome of these to your children.

Place it in the comment section.

Aside from managing your time for the different activities that they undertake, teaching kids how to tell time also gives kids a head start on the virtue of discipline.

The three (3) most unique and interesting comments will be given one (1) Kids Watch Central Watch.

Deadline for Submission of Entries is until July 20, 2009. I will edit this entry to announce the 3 winners. Please note that I reserve to change the winners if I find out that you also won in Teacher Julie, Imomonline, Yoga Jane or from Jenn Tan. Good luck!

Winners may claim their prizes at GeiserMaclang c/o Arbee Panga at Unit 7D Tuscan Building, 114 V.A. Rufino St., Legaspi Village, Makati City.