Cure for Mondays


I remember when I was in grade school, our father brought us to the Philippine leg of the Royal London Circus. I can vividly remember it was set up at a huge empty lot along a famous long road in Iloilo City formerly known as the West Jaro Diversion Road. Now that space is buzzling with commercial establishments, but once upon a time {and for only a couple of days}, a gigantic tent was set up there, and what happened inside that tent changed my life forever. The dazzling lights and the shows were something that I'd remember for the rest of my life. 

It was a long two-hour drive from where we lived, and I'm so grateful that Tatay never failed to gift us with such heartwarming memories . Tatay is long gone now, but whenever I'd go through an amazing exerience, even ones that don't have anything to do with a circus, it brings me back to that one wonderful memory and it ties me back to our original amazing man -- our Tatay.

who is the amazing bubble man?

Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man, is in Manila and you should really go see his show. We went to his 7PM show last night and the kids are still bubbling about it. I don't know anyone who is not made happy by the sight of bubbles. Even the bubbles coming out of our teething eight-month-old nephew excites me, seriously.



The Amazing Bubble Man has been touring around the world for 30 years now. At the beginning of his show, he talked about his passion for toys, the toy company he established in 1980 and how he became the famous bubble man that he is today. 

He reminded us about one very important thing: "You should never stop playing!" 

In this day and age of the Internet, it's scary how kids can sit in  front of the computer longer than CEOs can in a business meeting.


What I love about "The Amazing Bubble Man" is how Louis Pearl incorporates scientific explanations about bubbles in his spiels. He tells his audience facts on what bubbles are made of, why they're round and that square bubbles are also possible, what makes bubbles pop, how bubbles can be made colorful and what happens when you put helium in a bubble. It really is an amazing 75-minute show for many reasons. A lot of the kids from the audience {and one adult, who did not mind getting his shinny bald head soaked with bubbles for the sake of science because the bubble man was, well, making a point about bubbles not popping on hair which he demonstrated on his own hairy arm} were asked to participate, and that made the show doubly fun. I should mention that besides Louis Pearl being the god of bubbles, he is also very funny. 



"The Amazing Bubble Man" will be running until September 27, 2015 at RCBC's Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, 4th Floor, RCBC Plaza, Ayala Ave. cor. Gil Puyat Ave. Makati City. Get ticket prices here.

For other kid events, go here. 

More of the amazing bubble man!

Aaah. The smell of weekend. A friend once asked me if weekends still excited me after being home-based for quite some time now. The answer is: yes. I'm just another human being programmed to look forward to weekends even if our everyday feels so much like the weekend. The boyfriend works from home, the kids are homeschooled and I, the mother, hangs out while trying to find my way to zen one chore at a time.

If you feel like doing something more than just hitting the playground with the kids this weekend, I have a few suggestions that I'm sure will be worth your while. I also looked up the list of plays for our monthly field trip and my oh my, what a joy to discover that there is quite a number of plays running beginning this September!

WHY YOU SHOULD BRING YOUR KIDS TO LIVE THEATER

Watching live theater does more than just entertain.  A study published in Education Next showed that students who watched high-quality theater production of either Hamlet and A Christmas Carol enhanced the students' knowledge of the plot, increased their vocabulary and showed an improved ability to read the emotions of others. Professor Jay Greene who specializes in education reform said, "What we determined from this research is that seeing live theater produced positive effects that reading a play or watching a movie of the play does not produce."

But what about the movies? Movies are good, too, but they don't engage viewers the same way, according to Greene. You can read more about the positive effects of live theater at Science Daily. There are also hundreds of sources if you want to know more about the positive effects of theater to young people.

Check out these events that I think your kids would enjoy. I'll be doing a monthly post of plays and kid events, so remember to come back for more. Do let me know if you want anything included on the list. Shoot me an e-mail at cure4mondays@gmail.com.

Tickets are from PhP522.50 to PhP731.50

The best place to take the kids for an elaborate palate experience!

Cure for Mondays

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Lang, Andrew, ed. The Blue Fairy Book. New York: Dover, 1965.

Hansel and Gretel was one of the stories that enchanted me when I was little.  The story goes that Hansel and Gretel found a house in the forest made of bread (and sugar?) owned by a very old woman. The old woman, was in truth, an evil witch who pretended to be a good old dame to lure the children into her house.

Not long after, Hansel and Gretel found out that the witch had viciously planned to eat them so they fled her sacchariferous house unharmed.

How they outwitted the witch and how that story really ended escapes me now. All I remember is how amazing that hardbound book was with all the colorful pictures in it.

Whatever I know about Hansel and Gretel at this age come from faithful translations of Grimms’ Fairytales. We all reach an age when we discover that so many of the fairytales we knew as kids were sugar-coated and far from their original version.

One of the required readings in Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World, an online course that I took up last year, was Children's and Household Tales by the Grimms’ brothers. What got me thinking was whether to let our children read the child-friendly versions of Grimms’ fairytales or let them wait until they’re ready and allow them to enjoy the English translations of Children's and Household Tales.

My husband and I decided that introducing them to a few chosen original Grimms’ tales was a good idea as we cherish genuine literature. We’re saving Jacob and Wilhelm’s other dark tales for when they’re older.

Musicals: Moments When We Embrace Happy Versions of Grimms’ Fairy Tales
 

Lyric Opera of Chicago

Watching musicals is certainly delightful and educational. They are also the kind of entertainment that we want our children to indulge in. Musical theater productions for children are created to fascinate and stir the imagination of young minds. 

Children also develop appreciation for theater if they are adequately exposed to it. In an  article at education.com, it interestingly mentioned that theater plays a major role in global literacy. (More on the positive effects of theater on children later.)

Although we want to remain faithful to the original version of Grimms’ fairytales, the whimsical, colorful and gleeful presentation of Grimms’ tales in musical plays should be embraced by families. There is so much about theatrical interpretations or adaptations of stories that open wide, shimmering doors into a magnificent world for children. The story itself is just a part of an entire magical world that they become a part of, so yes, Grimms’ fairy tales in musical should not be missed.

Hansel and Gretel: A Children’s Musical




Director Luigi Nacario and Musical Director Eugene Belbis will be presenting their interpretation of “Hansel and Gretel” in a musical on June 8, 2014 at the Eastwood Mall Atrium at 3 p.m. The musical will feature the CampArt Kid Actors.

Nacario’s “Hansel and Gretel” won the 26th Aliw Awards for Best Production for Children and the 2013 Broadway World Philippines Awards for Best Book, Lyrics for a Filipino Musical.

For details, you may contact Megaworld Lifestyle Malls Concierge at 709-9888, 709-0888 or 0917-8380111.
 






kids acts philippines children's theater eastwood city campart kids hansel and gretel grimm's fairytales homeschool event awards musical

Organization is the key to everything in homeschooling. Before we begin a homeschool year, we (try to) put together everything that we need such as books, various reading materials, binders or notebooks and art materials.

And by we, I mean me.

If say,  I don’t get to fill up our school supply/craft cabinet before the start of the year, I’d just collect other needed materials as we go along the way. But then I have this thing for supplying supply cabinets with a lot of supplies, so you can come knocking on my door for anything from scratch paper to sponge paper and I’m ready to supply you with those.
 
There is, however, another kind of organization that calls for a lot of attention: the planning and managing of weekly or monthly lesson plans, activities, presentations, discussions, field trips, etc.

On our first three months back to homeschooling, the load of work drove me up the wall—and I don’t mean that in a cute way. Cole was five years old when we first homeschooled him so we relied on what was around us—we counted cars, watched birds and their colors, listened to sounds of animals, etc.  Click here for a portion of our homeschooling story.

Now that Cole’s 12, we’re following a more structured curriculum which my husband and I prepare on our own.
 
My Ultimate Virtual Homeschool Organizer

I discovered that so many homeschooling parents around the world were just as addled as I was when they started homeschooling.

Am I doing things wrong? Is there something wrong with how I sequence my lessons?
 
Those were just some of the questions that bugged me every single day. And of course, there were the perpetual questions on record keeping, grading, compiling study materials, and a long list of everything else.

I constantly searched for help on how to organize everything until I found Homeschool Skedtrack, a free online lesson planner, scheduler, and tracking system in one. It was a bit confusing to use at first but they provide comprehensive video tutorials every step of the way. With a bit of diligence on my part, I was able to fully understand and appreciate how HS worked.

What I like about Homeschool Skedtrack


Writing down lesson plans could be a daunting and time-consuming task (I kid you not!). With the skedtrack I am able to put all our subjects (or courses as they call it in HS) in one place and create activities for each course. Cole has nine courses for 2014-2015, seven core subjects and three electives. 



The Activities page contain the lessons that we want to cover for a homeschool year. In my case, I only had time to prepare for two days’ worth of activities (or lessons) before we started homeschooling for 2014-2015, so I just kept adding lessons as we progressed. 

We’re on our third week now and here’s our Activities page for Grammar just to give you an idea of how it looks like.

I clicked on Predict Dates to see how much work we could finish at a given time and at what dates we could accomplish them if we stick to the lesson plan that I prepared without delay. Delays are okay, especially if it means sticking to a certain lesson if you think you need to.

If you’re not crazy about computing grades (I’m not!), the Homeschool Skedtrack provides that service as long as you provide them details of your graded activities. You can also go without a grading system if you choose to. That’s one of the beautiful things about homeschooling. If you think your child will soar higher without you giving him A's or B's and whatnot, then you can always opt for a hug rather than  a grade of A+ for a job well done. There are also kids who think of grades as their mini trophies, so give it to them if gives them motivation.

What’s great about homeschooling is that it gives you the opportunity to explore what type of learning works best for your children. It also allows you to find the kind of lesson planning that matches your creativity level as a teacher.

The Homeschool Skedtrack is just one of the virtual organizers that can assist you with your day-to-day activities. It works for me but other homeschooling moms think that it’s not for them. Keep in mind that a great part of the success in homeschooling comes from understanding by heart your goals and how you want to reach them. 

Cure for Mondays is a top homeschooling Philippine blog, best mommy blogger, top Asia women's blog, best homeschool website, family issues blog, homeschooling homeschool organizer virtual assistant homeschool skedtrack school materials courses study manila schedule home school lesson plans study materials

One of the perks of homeschooling is being able to work around a freer schedule. Of course, it helps to have a loose list of things to follow everyday but it doesn’t have to be monotonous that it would drive the kids to boreland  (and me to cuckooland).

A homeschooling activity that I would like to highlight for this month is the National Museum Week. I find that the best way to let Cole, my ten- year- old homeschooler, learn about the greatest Filipino artists written in our history is to bring him to the National Museum of the Philippines and allow him to immerse in the works of Vicente Manansala, Juan Luna and Fernando Amorsolo. He can have as much time as he needs to absorb their works and ask as many questions as he can. This way, he won’t be staring at a school book with small pictures of paintings printed on newsprint like most of us did in grade school and high school. It is the experience of having to see the paintings themselves that will allow him to appreciate the artists, their works and hopefully, details on their style and temper. For the latter, I’d have to take his lead to know if he’s ready to talk about such things. If not, the getting-to-know-you stage is already a giant step into both the Philippine arts and history. 

The other things that I can’t wait for Cole to see (I actually think “to experience” is a better term) are the sculpture gallery featuring the works of some of our National Artists like Graciano Nepumuceno, Isabelo Tampicino, Guillermo Tolentino and many others.

There’s also the “Kaban ng Lahi”, a gallery of archeological treasures and “Pinagmulan”, a display of items from pre-historic Philippines.

There’s a lot more to see at the National Museum of the Philippines. I confess, I have a lot of learning to do myself when it comes to Philippine history and so this trip will be parallel learning for Cole and me. I attended the Visual Literacy and Art Criticism Workshop in U.P. Diliman last summer. I obviously did not become a genius at it overnight (maybe never) but it did open gargantuan doors of learning for me. One of the requirements of the workshop was to write a review of an art work chosen from the Vargas Museum. Our mentors found it bizarre that I chose Severino Fabie's “A Man With a Newspaper" but it allowed me to sleep soundly on that decision. So mote it be.

The Philippine National Museum is located at P. Burgos Drive in Manila and is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm.  Phone Number: (02) 527 1215

Admissions are free on Sundays. However, in celebration of the national Museum Week, the entrance fees are waived for the whole month of October. Yes, everyone gets to go in for free!

Individual	Fee (PHP)
Student	30.00
Senior Citizen	80.00
Adult	100.00
Groups of 50 or more
Students	25.00
Senior Citizens	40.00
Adults	80.00