Family
Family life, parenting, school days, and celebrations.
Nine O'Clock
How we stayed close to our children through college, and how they took the driving over from us Every Saturday morning, for years, I cooked before the sun was fully up.
The Answer Is Still No
Tantrums in toddlers: why they happen, why they work, and why they stop The child is on the floor of the candy aisle or a toy store, and the whole store has gone quiet to see what the mother will do.
Questions at the Door
Vitamins, water, and a daily bath: what I tell mothers about the first year The most important questions in my clinic are asked standing up.
I Never Spanked My Children
Discipline by dialogue, and why the hand was never needed I never spanked my children. Not once, in all the years they were growing up.
Let Them Play (Part 2)
Race cars on the floor, a screen at the table, and what a child loses when someone else does the imagining The yaya of this generation does not sing, does not scold, and never gets tired.
Let Them Play
Why my children had time to study and time to play, and why I would do it the same way again In our house, play came after homework.
The Worksheets Came Before Play
Why I enrolled my children in Kumon when neither of them was struggling A medical representative told me about Kumon, and I enrolled my children that same week.
The Piano Could Wait
What I learned standing next to my father at the stove, and what my sons took with them I was the kind of child who left things unfinished.
Three Encounters
What I taught my children about studying, starting from the week they entered school I taught my children how to study before they had anything worth studying.
Sixteen Years Later, I'm Writing Again
Sixteen years is a long time to be quiet. When I last wrote here, my children were still children — school uniforms drying on the line, homework spread across the dining table, someone always needing something from me before I could finish a sentence.
Finally, it’s over!
Ever since my child was born, he had this deformity (sorry, he does not want me to say it) that went with him.
Post-lenten thoughts
During the Lenten celebration this past week, I noticed that many of our neighbors were noisy. They shout when they wanted to, sang with their karaoke, listened to loud music even on Good Friday.
Modern toys for modern boys
When I was a child, my parents do not spend too much (or nothing at all) for my toys. I remember spending most of my free time in our backyard playing with kids my age.
Project: Making the vine climb the trellis
The arbor is made of metal. This used to be covered with net housing the orchids underneath thus giving them shade and protecting them from the sun’s heat.
An issue on sexual harassment
I have been teaching for 11 years now in the College of Medicine. Within those long years, it did not enter my mind that I will take part in uncovering the bad practice of a colleague.
Setting Priorities
I remember when me and my husband were just starting life together. I was responsible for everything in the house from cleaning the house and the backyard, doing the laundry, cleaning fishes freshly bought from the market, cooking, and all the little things.
Its discipline
After the first quarter grade was released in my kids’ school, many who used to be PHLs (Principal’s Honor List) did not make it.
Long Pause
July has been the busiest month for me every year. But this year’s has been so far the busiest. It is evidenced by the long pause in blogging I had for this month.
It’s Medicine again
When I started teaching in the College of Medicine (that was ten years ago), there were around 80 students (foreign and local) in the first year.
Speed stacks, computer games, and savings
Days before school started, I already told my kids that computer games will no longer be allowed once school start, and that they can only play such during weekends.
