Life Discourse » Discipline

Cleaning our Homes

Alma — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:16:33 +0000

No amount of ‘tricks of the trade’ will avoid the need to set some sort of priority when allocating one’s time.

John Harvey-Jones (1924 – )

British business executive and author, “Making It Happen: Reflections on Leadership”

One of the things that I still have to learn to follow by heart is not to be to harsh on myself. Sometimes, I get too strained because I wanted things in order around the house– at all times. But having children– all below 8 years old, makes keeping in order a tall order. My eldest daugther likes order. An attitude she has learned to love since I have always preached that physical order reflects alot on our mental order. I think I was too harsh on her growing up, but how else can you try to keep order in a househelp where household help was always around? My husband used to get angry with me when I tell the children to keep their rooms in order especially their beds and their study table. His reasoning was that getting things in order in the house was the job of the maids, and my take on that is that the children are old enough to take small tasks like cleaning their beds. When are we going to teach them how to straighten their rooms? When they are out in the dormitories in college? Too late…

Now that I do not have extra help here in the house, I expect the children to pull some cleaning and tidying around. Our small house has three bedrooms. First room– we made into our sleeping area. Second room– our dressing area. Third room– the play room. I had also included a spare bed on the third room so the children can play on it since it does not have any other furniture except for a closet where all the toys are supposed to go when not in used.

Having limited time to clean every room everyday frustrates me sometimes. I get antsy when I see clutter and I have to literally count to ten to keep myself from shrieking. Crazy, I know, but I like everything in order. It took awhile for me to forgive myself for not having a very clean house. I think our culture has alot to vouch for that attitude as most Filipinos would expect a home to be in order or they’d say “she must be one lazy woman…” or “house so filthy then, she must fail to take showers everyday…” But how can we say that to single parents like me? Or to people who dies not have extra money to pay for maids? Or for people who have so many children? I think we need to be more considerate of others especially to single parents around us.

After all the hassle of everyday living, and making ends meet, I think we should be more concerned about the quality time we have spend with our children– that can be spent eating together, watching a movie together– or cleaning the house together…

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Exam Time

Alma — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:43:57 +0000

Yesterday was the beginning of exam week for my children. I actually like studying with them except that I think I give my eldest daughter too much pressure. Math was yesterday and it was a breeze, I guess since she did very well in the “dummy tests.”

Here are some tips in studying with your toots:

1) Prepare for the exam two weeks prior.

2) Prepare notes for all major subjects in case she needs to familiarize and memorize alot of facts. This is actually important. I have actually started to teach my daughter how to memorize important facts for example in science, by using mnemonics and acronomyms for easy memorization.

3) Make dummy tests. In my case, I like to prepare 2-3 dummy tests. Mostly I use the first dummy test to check the readiness of my daughter. From there, I tailor the second dummy as a review and ensure I include the ones where she can get high scores to encourage and boost her confidence. Once she is confident, I can give her the hard dummy test.

One of the things I have learned in school through the years in UP is the wonders of simple note taking. I started teaching my daughter the habit of making her own notes rather than copying her teacher’s board work. I have also taught her to study and read ahead, then make notes so she can familiarize hereself and perhaps memorize the important facts as she go along.

However, one of the most important studying style that I found effective with the children is the intermingling or inclusion of important topics in science or whatever subjects into daily conversations. My daughter, I found, seem to retain more information this way.

For more information about studying and helping children improve their habits, click here.

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Project: Potty Training, Day 1

Alma — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:15:36 +0000

We have all passed a lot of water since then.

Samuel Goldwyn (1882 – 1974), Polish-born U.S. film producer.

My toddler is ready for potty training. My eldest daughter was potty trained at one year and 5 months, while the next a little over 2 years. Now, my one and only boy is going to begin his potty training today and I am honestly scared and not looking forward to it.

I have been meaning to begin his training months ago. However, since we have moved house 2 months ago, it is rational for him to familiarize himself with the house first before we could begin potty training as potty training has alot to do with confidence, awareness and anxiety to children.

We are more or less settled here now, and I am honestly tired of changing diapers and is looking forward to some savings since his nappies cost an arm and a leg. Having moved and changed lifestyles eversince we left abroad and settled here, I have not changed diapers since the children are very sensitive and when I did try to downgrade the nappies to those cheaper ones, their bottoms became riddled with rashes that I declared it not worth it to change their nappies. The children’s comfort and sanitation should remain a priority, I surmised.

So, after reintroducing the mighty potty to my boy and I explained to him that he needed to inform Mommy if he wanted to do a pee-pee or poo-poo so we could do it together at the potty. Then I realized that I have never potty trained a boy and I thought there might be some confusion with the urination side since my boy has only seen and been aware of girls ever since we left his father last year. No role model…

I have read in one of those i-village articles that boys are sometimes easier to teach how to urinate by teaching them to do it sitting down. My sister who has a son swears by it also… however, I hesitate to take her opinion to heart because her son still continue to pee on the bed even at 5 or 6 years old! My daughters has never really given me trouble with bedwetting…

Anyway, my boy used up 6 briefs and 2 pants already. Since this is the first day, I tried my very best not to be mad and to be encouraging especially after his accidents. I still praised him for being a big boy for using his briefs and potty. At least everytime he pees on himself, he would ran to me and say, “potty now.” Then he would ran to the potty after he had informed me. At least I am happy to know that our problem just sequential. Any potty stories to share?

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