Thinking for the country

My country is on its way towards the right path. A year down his 6-year presidential term, P-Noy performs satisfactorily in my opinion. His first SONA speech boasts of accomplishments that the Filipinos have been wanting to hear. Yes, there are still a lot of work to do and it is not good to be satisfied at this low level. Yet I understand the mess of the whole system that merely six years may not correct.

Will be continuously praying for P-Noy and the Philippines.

Nursery 2 reading skills
A month after formal preschool, I find my 43-month old boy still struggling to wake up early in the morning for school. His teachers say he listens to them and has learned to open up with his classmates. I noted an eager inclination to count things, but Carlos still interchanges numbers after 12.

I came across this online pre-reading screening test to gauge kids' readiness and found Carlos to be on the second tier. So he's average.

I'm happy. I admit feeling stressed when hearing about preschoolers taking on all sorts of extra-curricular activities - martial arts, music, sports, tutorials. I haven't sent Carlos to any other schooling but I plan to enroll him to Wushu lessons when he turns four.

Walking to school on PE day

I remember that we enrolled Lois to swimming lessons when she was this age. It has been our family goal to learn a new skill every year and for this year it will be:

1. Daddy - Teaching license
2. Mommy - Driving
3. Lois - Piano
4. Carlos - Wushu

Improved cognitive skills
I checked on how Lois was doing in class, with new classmates and earlier schedule and her teacher said she behaves like a big sister, helping out classmates if she can. She also admitted that she belongs to a class with has improved cognitive skills.

My dream for Lois - and Carlos too, is to learn as much as she can so that when she is full grown, she will help a lot of Filipinos. I tell her this, but her young mind seem to not grasp it. Her face turns sour whenever I bring it up, I feel the 20th century mom reaching to a 21st century kid in action.

How to complement little girls
Read this agreeable thought from Baby Center's Violet's Mom blog - Don't complement little girls on how they look, instead choose to talk about skills.

I totally agree. With younger and younger girls getting their period, we do not want to raise little girls who would turn out to be just bomb shells in the looks arena. We want to have girls who would become achievers in all sorts of endeavors - math, sports, engineering, design, teaching, science, you name it.

How do we do it? Lisa Bloom says, "Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become the new normal, American women have become increasingly unhappy. What’s missing? A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments."

Hinilawod
Hinilawod, Philippines' pre-colonial oral literature treasure, considered the longest epic in the world is set to be staged on September 3-4, 3PM and 8PM at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

My kids are encouraged to watch with their families. I have invited some family and friends, but since it is still several months away, they do not want to say yes yet. Just the same, I am excited to have my kids watch this. I'm sure I would enjoy, but I don't think they would endure two-hour plays? Got to ask their classmates' moms when they are watching for better chances of good behavior.

Grammar quirks
Lois: Why aren't you lookating at me? (Why aren't you looking at me?)