School is Cool, My Toddler is Now Ready for School

Part of being a mom is to be the first teacher of her child. It was a fulfilling experience to teach your child and witness every milestones of her life.  From teaching her how to talk, walk, dance, sing, and give you hugs and kisses, we should also prepare her how to be independent once she's ready to wear that backpack and meet other children of her age, which usually happens in her nursery school.

My child is already three and a half years old. I decided to enroll her to a summer class, not to push her to learn letters and numbers or be academically superior, but to improve her social skills and give her the freedom that she deserves. Leaving her in her classroom is not that difficult, because I can see how she prefer to be with other kids than to stay the whole day at our house with her nanny alone.

The summer class is a one month program for kids below four years old to prepare them for the coming school year. I am so proud that she was able to finish it without any absences. Her teacher told me that my little toddler enjoys school so much. I am now sharing some of the things she learned from school:

To TutorBright is to prepare for your child's brighter future.

 1. On her first day of summer class, she learned how to become independent. Being able to finish the two-hour class without crying is a big accomplishment for my little one because it is a good sign that she is ready to face the world.

2. She learned to be confident. My daughter is a shy type girl when it comes to strangers and other people. Schooling helped her boosts her confidence and overcome her shyness.

3. Having perfect score in her school activities is what I don't really want to instill in her, but to know that nobody is perfect. I am proud that she is doing well in school but I always tell her that I am still proud even if she's not perfect as long as she's doing her best and the right thing.

4. Becoming patient. Toddlers have a very short attention span. My daughter gets easily tired of doing things repeatedly. School activities practices her patience. She also learned that there is reward for every hardwork that she did.

5. Last but not the least, she learned the value of friendship. The most important lesson she learned is how to value other people, to share what she have and to enjoy school with them. The greatest reward she received is the friendship. :)

Every parent asks themselves what should their little one should learn in their preschool at their young age. For me, these are the priceless things that contribute to her childhood. She may not still mastered the numbers or the letters, but I believe that every child has their own pace of learning. They will able to learn numbers and letters later as they grow. What I don't want my child to miss are the childhood memories that will help her develop her emotional, physical, social and intellectual skills. Play is an important part of their life. That is why I am glad that she enjoys going to school, and for her, school is cool. 

Sharing for Make My Saturday Sweet , Five Minute Friday & TutorBright

Importance of Having Pets At Home

We have a new puppy at home. It took us a week to think of its name. We tried to call her with the names of popular women since our new puppy is a female puppy. But then, our little toddler called her “Chavit”. Although it sounds like a male name, our little puppy responds with that name whenever our daughter calls it.

My officemates are hesitant to have a pet at their own homes because of the fear that it might bite their children. But for me, I think pets can contribute to a child’s development. Kids learn the sense of responsibility by taking care of their pet. Whenever parents are not around, they are the one responsible to feed and clean them. Having pets at home develop also the social interaction of children. As everyone knows dogs are man’s best friend; usually our kid’s first friend is their pet dog. Dogs teach our kids lessons in life, like the concern for everything that has life, and the sympathy for animals. Even movies’ featuring famous dogs teaches them moral lessons. That is why I let my little toddler interact with our new puppy with our supervision. I can see how happy she is whenever they play together.

Whatever kind of dogs it is, any type of breed or size, what is important is we should be the role model to our children on how to be responsible with our pets, how to take care of them and how to treat them just like our own friends.

Toddler Parenting

Being a mom is the greatest privilege I love. Time flies so fast. The little one I used to cuddle one is now a very active toddler. I know it’s exhausting since she enjoys exploring the world, but her hugs, kisses and not so clear words of love inspires me to give her the best parenting. I admit I am not yet an expert in giving parenting tips since I am a first time mom to a toddler, but I hope these simple parenting tips I learned through time and shared by other moms I know will help you too.

1. Show Her Your Love By Giving Her Time

As a working mom, it is very important for me to spend quality time with my toddler. Whether I have rush reports or I have to meet deadlines, I make sure that I will go home early to let my daughter know that she still has a mom who love her so much. I used to be a career woman, but when I became a mom, everything changed. I know more than anything else, it is my family that I should prioritize.

Giving her the time does not mean I am physically present but not attached to her. Giving her the time means I have to take care of her, read her books, play with her, cuddle her and feed her.

2. Action Speaks Louder Than Words

Parents need to set a good example since their kids always watch his parents closely and learn from them. Doing it yourself is the best way of showing your toddler the correct way to behave. For my little toddler, I am overwhelmed whenever she repeats the word “opo” when I say it to my mom. I and her dad shows her how we love each other so she will know how to love also. Through simple things such as sharing, giving kindness and respect, our little ones will learn from us.

3. Positive Reinforcement

I witness some parents who successfully raised their children as disciplined individuals. I have observed that positive reinforcement works far better than punishment. My father is a disciplinarian but that made me to follow him because I am afraid. For my little girl I want her to follow what is right not because she is afraid of the punishment, but because she know what is right. I want to reward and praise her for doing something right rather than focusing on those things that irritate me.

Of course in disciplining my little toddler, I have to ensure also that I will set rules that are simple, easy to understand and consistent.

4. Toddler Tantrums

I have noticed that my little toddler is starting to throw tantrums whenever she wants something or when she can’t do what she wants to do. Since my heart melts whenever she cries, what I do is divert her from her original intention to another alternative. Since she is on her stage of exploring and learning, the easiest way to stop her tantrums is giving her something she can play with and learn on.

5. Child-Proofing Home

Since my little toddler started to walk, she began exploring the world and never stops running around the house, climbing on furniture and putting on her mouth everything. To prevent her from being hurt, I make sure that we childproof our home by blocking off stairs so she can’t climb and fall down, bought safety plug covers for electrical outlets, keeping sharp objects, medicines, poisons and household cleaners out of reach and keeping away toys that might cause her choking hazards.

6. Stimulate Toddler’s Development

As parent, I want my little one to grow at her best. I want her to develop self-esteem and self-confidence even at her young age by developing and discovering her special skills. To be able to do this, I guide and support her in everything that she does. I read to her daily, have her practice naming body parts, give her educational toys and encourage her to pretend play or dress-up. It is important at this age to give her the right toys that will help her stimulate her mental, social and motor skills.

This is my share to Mommy Moments Parenting Tips

Dengue Epidemic: Prevention Better Than Cure

Since the news declared the outbreak on dengue, I was in paranoia on how to prevent this deadly mosquito bite. Being a mom, my heart breaks whenever I see on tv the reports about the number of children killed by the dengue virus. Various news and articles can be found on the internet informing us to be aware of this killer mosquito. 

Dengue Hemorrhagic fever is an acute infectious disease manifested initially with fever. A day-biting mosquito, Aedis aegypti, is the transmitter of the disease. According to news. these mosquitoes usually bite at 5am to 7am and 5pm to 7pm (sunrise and sunset). They love dark-colored clothes, they lay eggs on clean stagnant water, they rests on dark places of the house and they need at least 3 bites for them to lay eggs.

I searched online for mosquito repellants that I can give my toddler in order to prevent being bitten by the killer mosquitoes.  I found out that it is best to apply no-DEET mosquito repellants for toddlers which are safe for babies.  I bought mosquito repellant stick-on patches in drugstores. I prefer these patches since these are made up from natural ingredients such as citronella and eucalyptus oil. For us adults, the Baygon Electric Mosquito Killer Mat I bought is only switched outside our room to prevent my daughter from inhaling it.

Caring My Toddler's Teeth

Who does not want her baby to have that beautiful smile? Of course, all of us moms want our baby to have those beautiful teeth. Since I was not able to take care of my teeth when I was young (the reason why I don’t have healthy teeth), I want to train my baby to take good care of her teeth at her early age. I want to start with her milk teeth. Although these milk teeth will be replaced by her permanent teeth, it is good to take good care of them since the position or alignment of her milk teeth will determine the placement of her permanent teeth.

My Baby's first teeth

I started cleaning her gums from the time she was born with cotton swabs (I don’t use cotton balls since I noticed that the cotton fiber sticks to her tongue). Her first tooth sprouted at fifth month- that’s the time I started cleaning her delicate new teeth and tender gums using a silicone finger toothbrush with Sans Fluo toothpaste (toothpaste with xylitol for babies without fluoride which is safe to swallow). Whenever a new tooth is sprouting, I am applying Xylogel (natural teething oral gel) to soothe her swollen gums.

Just beautiful teeth!

When she turned one, I switched to fine toothbrush using also the Sans Fluo toothpaste. I noticed that she has perfectly aligned teeth! And I want to maintain those until she grows up. There are times when she does not want her teeth to be brush, so I do the brushing of her teeth with fun (I sing the toothbrush song and sometimes I brush my teeth in front of my baby for her to imitate). Every 3 months I replace her toothbrush and I make sure that it has the picture of her favorite cartoon character for her to enjoy brushing her teeth.

Just beautiful smile!!

Teaching our children good oral hygiene is so much fun. Healthy teeth are needed for efficient biting and chewing vital in the ingestion of food nutrients. It does not only help them to develop consciousness for their body, it also helps them have confidence and most of all a complete teeth help them with their language development.

This is my share to Just Beautiful

My Baby Celine Can Read (Volume I)

Since I noticed that my baby prefers books and DVDs rather than stuffed toys and Barbie, I tried to buy online last January 18 this Your Baby Can Read Program which is composed of flash cards, flip flap books and DVDs. After ten days of watching the DVD and reading to her the flash cards, Celine was able to recognize words and commands easily thru this learning kit. It is the her rapid development motivates me to further develop her language skills. I can see it really works. She can even follow the dance steps on the

music portion of the DVD. She makes us proud always. May God continually bless her for us. (^^)

I was not able to post this video which I took last January:

My baby Celine @ 13 months

Preparing Your Child for a New Sibling

One day while playing with baby Celine, I tried to see how she will react if ever I cuddle another baby. This is to prepare her for her coming sibling. I was cuddling the doll and she grabbed it from me, bitten it and threw it away. I see, she’s jealous with the doll, what more if her little sibling has arrived. She will feel that the little baby will get her Mommy and Daddy’s attention from her. I have been with that same situation before with my siblings and I know how hard it is to have sibling rivalry. It bothered me that I searched thru the internet for tips on how to prepare our only baby child for the coming of a sibling.

I merged the tips I had read online and repost them here to remind me how to prepare myself, my hubby, and my first baby for the coming new baby:

1. Go through his own baby pictures with him and tell him how excited you were when he was born. This will be fun for him and remind him how special he is to you. It will also help him to prepare for what a newborn looks like.
2. If your child wants to know why you want another baby, tell him as honestly as you can. But don't claim that you're doing it for your child's sake—so that he'll have someone to play with, for instance. In the first place, your child probably doesn't want what you're offering. He'd rather make friends and arrange playdates. In the second place, it's misleading, because your baby won't be able to do anything even approaching play with your child for many months after the birth. And in the final analysis, it's probably a lie. Though you certainly considered your child's welfare in choosing to have another baby, it probably wasn't the decisive factor. In the end you made your decision for your own reasons.
3. In talking about the coming baby, try to give your child a sense of ownership. From the beginning of your discussions, refer to the new baby as "your brother" or "your sister" or "your brother or sister."
4. Let your child know too that this helplessness will not last forever. It may help to begin telling him stories about things—especially funny things—that he did when he was "just a baby." Try to bring alive his own infancy for him. Pull out the photo albums and show him pictures of his first year. Get out the crib a little early and remind your child that he used to sleep there when he was little, but that now it's for the new baby.
5. Encourage your child to express any feelings he has about the new baby—including anxiety and even outright anger—even before the baby arrives. By giving your child permission to voice the unpleasant feelings he has about the baby, you may help him to "make room" for warmer feelings (excitement, pride, and so on), too.
6. Before the new baby is born, buy a doll (or human-looking toy if you don’t like dolls) for your first child.  Call the doll “little sister” or “little brother” and explain to your child that soon a little sister or little brother will be arriving, and that he can use the doll to practice how he will play with the baby or help take care of the baby once it arrives.  This gets him used to the idea of having a little bro/sis around, and provides an opportunity to start teaching him that he has to be gentle with the little baby.
7. Around the time you (meaning, your wife) are expecting to give birth, get a gift for your first child that is “from the baby.”  This will help your first child to feel more like the baby is her friend.  Lets face it, most children are around the age of 1-4 when their younger sibling is born.  At that age, right or wrong, kids love getting new toys and tend to like the people who give them the toys.  So, a gift from the baby will increase the chances that your first child will take kindly to the baby.  Keep reinforcing the fact that the gift is from the baby.  This gift is also helpful because if it is really something your child enjoys, it gives him something to do while you are looking after the baby.  We got our son a marble run from our newborn daughter, and he still loves playing with it.
8. Get some books about being a big brother or big sister and read them to your first child.  This one is kind of a no-brainer.  It reinforces all the usual ideas about being an older sibling, being proud about it, looking after the baby and being gentle with it, etc etc.
9. Get a T-shirt that says “Big Brother” or “Big Sister” on it (not for you, for your child – if you are interested in T-shirts for you, check here ).  This will help to make your child proud of the fact that he/she is a big brother/sister.  It can also help him/her to get into the role a bit more.  It will also give you a chance to wash your child’s other favorite t-shirt.
10. When your newborn arrives, take time to reinforce your love for your first child.  This can be a challenge, because a newborn is so time consuming, but it is the most important thing you can do.  Do your best to spend some good quality one-on-one time with your first child every day.

I got these tips from the following sites: Baby Center, Family Education and The Dad Jam Blog

Thank you Nanny..

One of the most important things to consider by a working mom is to whom will she trust her most precious one while she is away from home. In my case, I am lucky enough that my Mom is available to look after my baby while I am on work. The only problem is, she cannot carry her because of her age and my baby is weighty. That is why, I have to hire a babysitter who can take care of my baby and assist my mom while I am away.

When hiring nanny, I see to it that it is recommended by our relative and we know her residence for security reasons. That is why, when my hubby’s relative recommended Rose (former nanny of my hubby’s nephew, Carl), I did not have a second thought hiring her. Rose is still single, of my same age, and has an ambition to be a mom also someday. She took care of my baby since she was just 3 months old. And that time is long enough for her to be attached to my baby and love her like her own daughter. Last Tuesday, she has to leave my baby because her mom is scheduled for a major operation on her gall bladder. In case like this, I have to be considerate and understanding. I have to treat her as a person and respect her family life.



Celine @ 4 months with her Nanny Rose



14 months Celine with Nanny Rose

Rose was a bit emotional when she left. I could feel her hurt when she bid goodbye. She told me it was hard for her to leave Celine because she knows she will truly miss her. But she has no choice. Her mom needs her care after the operation. I showed my appreciation to her. I thanked her for giving the care and love to my baby, for taking care of my precious one while I am away, for being patient when my baby was having tantrums and for tolerating her weight when she carries her almost the whole day when I am at work especially when my baby is feeling bad. Being a nanny is a fulfilling job. I could see how much love Celine feels for her too. I can see it how she lights up at the sight of her nanny.

I have nothing to worry now. Celine has a new nanny named Allona. And I hope God will guide her while taking care of my baby. She was recommended by Rose and we already know her since she was the former helper at the apartment next door. To be sure that my baby has a good nanny, the followings signs from Baby Center Medical Advisory Board may help to determine which is:

~       Your child lights up at the first sight of her

~       Your kids can't stop talking about all the wonderful things she says and does.

~       She comes up with creative solutions to problems and works with you to provide the best possible care for your child.

~       She arrives on time.

~       She makes an effort to stay connected.

~       Your child volunteers new songs and words and shows off his many projects.

~       Your child's room is clean, and so is your child.

~       Accidents are infrequent.

Celine with her new Nanny Allona

Now that I’ve found a new nanny, I also searched online on how to keep a good nanny. I had already applied the following tips, and I want to share them to the readers:

Some pointers from Baby Center Medical Advisory Board:

~       Offer a fair wage.

~       Provide good benefits.

~       Treat her like a professional.

~       Lay down ground rules and respect them.

~       Show your appreciation.

~       Be flexible.

~       Be communicative.

~       Back her up.

~       Be concerned about your nanny as a person, not just your employee.

~       Respect her privacy and teach your child to do the same.

But of course, there is no one in this world who can take my place as my baby's mother. That is why I see to it that even though I do not have much time taking of her the whole day, I give her the quality time to let her feel that she is my number one priority.