Summer Break Activities

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My son’s summer break this year is so laid-back. Yes, he just laid, on his back, on the bed for the most part of his summer break. He wanted to go to the beach but the summer heat is just so – well, HOT! And the humidity is not tolerable. Going out under the heat of the sun Ra (bear with me, I’m in the middle of finishing up The Kane Chronicles book) is just not my thing.

He didn’t want to play with the guitar anymore, such a waste of money because we just bought him his third guitar. But he did enroll in basketball camp, learned how to code in javascript and practice his drawing/ sketching skills. So it’s not that an unproductive summer after all.

Summer activity: Learn Yoyo Tricks

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To steer him away from computer and online games while on vacation in the province, I made sure my son's yoyo is inside the luggage bag. I promised him that he'll get a Chinese Yoyo or what's also known as diabolo once he already perfected the basic yoyo tricks. But he has been ignoring his yoyo because he's still busy with his guitar lessons.

Next time I hear him say, “I’m bored!”, I’ll ask him to just play the yoyo.

have basement, no heat stroke

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It’s more hot this year than the previous summer. This time last year it was already raining everyday. May was wet last year. Dry, hot and very humid this year. Our house is concrete, except for the separate dirty kitchen which is a nipa hut, so I can stand staying in the living room without the electric fan turned full blast.

But I have this one solution whenever the heat becomes unbearable, I stay in the basement. The architect who designed the house is a genius when he included a basement in the blueprint. i should buy bean bag chairs  next time we go to the mall. My son and niece use the extra mattress from my mom’s room whenever they want to stay in the basement. They be more comfortable sitting on small chairs when they are in the mood to paint or draw.

behind is stairs leading to the basement

So if you want to not feel hot during summer months, add a basement room in your house next time you renovate. It should be a spacious room with lots of windows though.

summer activity for kids: guitar lessons

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RJ is again taking guitar lessons this summer break. He finished a few days of piano and guitar lessons last year. But completely forgot everything he learned when we got back in Manila. He doesn’t have a piano in the house and he only learned a few basic chords in guitar so it was understandable that he lost interest and didn’t even tried to practice those few chords.

So this summer break I asked him if he wants to enroll in piano, guitar or both. He chose guitar lessons.

He can now play “I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane”. Although he’s still a bit slow in changing chords, I’m glad that he’s not wasting his summer break by just playing computer and handheld games.

Photography for kids

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It's summer time once again. Time for kids to develop more skills and talents. Because in school, especially in "traditional" schools like where my son is enrolled, more time is focused in academics.

I'm planning to look for photography classes where I and RJ can be classmates. I have to buy another camera, preferably a DSLR, so we don't have to borrow from each other during class. I have to call this art school near our place also, I might enroll him there as well if it’s not as expensive as the other art classes that I’ve inquired in on the past. I have to ask him what other sports activities he wants to enroll in as well.

Moving Up Day

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When he was in preschool, my son had this end of the year school activity called Moving Up Day. Now that he’s in Grade 4, moving up day is non-existent in his school. They don’t even have the so-called Recognition Day that is usually practiced in public schools. The awarding of medals and certificate of honors for the non-graduating students are usually done during the first week of the next school year.

Tomorrow is my son’s last day of quarterly exams. The stress during this quarterly exams week is all in the past now, at least for me - his tutor, he still has one final exam to deal with tomorrow. I bought him gifts already as a congratulation for moving on to 5th Grade, I hope so - report card will be distributed by the end of the month. Instead of buying his current favorite books, the Harry Potter series, I bought the books with him yesterday at National Bookstore. Quite expensive but since I can’t think of any other gift that will make him more happy at the moment, than the Harry Potter books, then I just closed my eyes while paying at the check out counter.

Summer is here

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It's just the first week of March but the summer heat is very much present already. Time to bring out the shorts and sleeveless tops. Time for me to look for fun summer activities for RJ. Swimming should be first on the list. He really ought to swim again. He always have continuous sneezing in the morning because of allergic rhinitis. He never had that problem when he was still a member of his school's swim team.

And speaking of swimming, I should also learn how to swim.

Summer vacation in the province

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The last family trip that we had was last summer break. We had a two-month vacation in the province. RJ was able to get to know and play with his cousins. I was able to have a stress-free life for two months, well almost-stress-free.

 

Life in the province is so simple. If there’s a school there that’s as good as the school’s here in the city, I would definitely prefer living there. But the education system, even the private school’s there, are not as advanced as the RJ’s school here in Manila.

 

How I miss life in the province.

 

A Day At The Beach

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We went to a beach resort, 45-minute drive from our house, last Saturday. May is a rainy month on this island already but it was surprisingly very sunny that day. Swimming on the beach and building a sand castle are included on RJ’s to-do list this summer break so he was very happy that day. The water was so clear and there were small fishes swimming near the shoreline.

I was the official photographer slash videographer of the group. I was planning to upload everything that I took while we were still in the resort so everyone who wasn’t able to come can see how the kids had a great time at the beach. But aside from the fact that I forgot to bring the laptop, the resort does not have an internet connection also.

RJ wants to spend another day at the beach, a different beach. But he’s the only one in the family who’s still on vacation. The school year, in most school’s in the country, has officially opened yesterday. RJ’s school opening is on June 15. He has to wait for a school break, and for the rainy season to end -maybe in November, he can have another fun day at the beach.

summer activity: piano lessons

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Today is my son’s first day of piano lesson, together with his cousin Ms. F. The piano teacher is my friend’s dad who’s also the organ player in church every Sunday. My friend is a priest but he does not play the organ on the church he’s in.

 practice makes perfect right ms. F?

Learning how to play the piano is a great way for them to exercise their fingers. But my son said that it’s more fun and more effective to just play DS all day long. He also said playing computer is good too. But in my opinion, computers and handheld games only destroy a person’s eyes. I only like it when he uses the computer for blogging, researching, creating home videos or creating and editing pictures on photoscape.

I hope he’ll become a great piano player. Maybe some day he will even become famous!

*My son wrote this by the way.

long airport queue, i don't like

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I was planning to spend Holy Week in the province. But the thought of going to the airport 3 hours before the flight, to avoid the long queue at the entrance and at the check-in counter, made me decide to just buy a ticket for this coming month. People in Manila are taking advantage of the weeklong celebration of Holy Week to go home, visit their families and relax in the province.

onlinehiatus

I learned my lesson when I went home during Christmas break. That's the first, and definitely the last time, that I'm going to book a flight during a holiday season. The flight was even delayed!

Hopefully we don't experience that on our flight in May. RJ is looking forward to one more month of fun before classes begin in June.

my son's summer activities

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My son's school was one of the earliest to end school year 2010-2011. I made a list of summer activities for him but just as the saying goes -the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. These are his daily activities:

I bought a table easel, poster paint and lots of bond papers for him. He has a boxful of watercolors, colored pencils and crayons. I have been buying second hand art books for kids, so he has lots of those also in his bookshelf. I enrolled him in an art class, at Museo Pambata, last summer vacation but I wasn't satisfied. Although RJ did enjoy making arts and crafts, the lessons were appropriate for preschoolers and he 's already 8 years old at that time.

I've noticed that he sneezes nonstop  in the morning and easily gets cough and colds since he stopped swimming June 2010. He started swimming when he was just 2, trains with a swim team daily and has been joining swimming competitions. I didn't want him to hate swimming so I allowed him to have a swim-break for a year. Since the start of summer break he's been swimming daily again.

Basketball during weekends.

Running at night.

And we watched Kaos. If you haven't yet, do watch it. My son had so much fun watching the acrobats and magical illusions. I'm 101% sure your kids will love it too.

We will have a one month vacation in the province next month. Hopefully I can find a good tennis coach and will also enrol him in guitar and piano lessons.

 

perfect cartoon show for summer vacation

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This Disney show is one of RJ's favorite. Mine too! I'm talking about Phineas and Ferb.

We usually watch this during weekends because it's scheduled at around 9am during school days. Since RJ's off from school, his summer vacation officially started last week, we now regularly watch it everyday while eating breakfast.

Not familiar with the show?

 

Phineas and Ferb is an American animated television comedy series. Originally broadcast as a preview on August 17, 2007 on Disney Channel, the series follows two kindhearted suburban stepbrothers on summer vacation. Each day the boys embark on some grand new project, which annoys their controlling sister, Candace, who tries to bust them. The series follows a standard plot system; running gags occur every episode, and the B-Plot almost always features Perry the Platypus ("Agent P"), acting as a secret agent to fight an evil scientist named Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. The two plots intersect at the end to erase all traces of the boys' project just before Candace can show it to their mother. This usually leaves Candace very frustrated. ~Wikipedia

summer break activities

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My son's summer break has officially started this week. Here's a list of what we're planning to do during the three-month vacation. He's always bored so I have to make sure he has something to do everyday.

1.   Hongkong Disneyland trip

2.   Holy Week vacation in Bicol

3.   karaoke every night (I recently bought a Magic Sing to distract him from playing video games)

4.   swim training everyday (morning)

5.   basketball in the afternoon

6.   enrol in soccer class

7.   taekwondo or karate class

8.   tennis class

9.   guitar lessons

10. painting and drawing lessons (I will also enrol so we're going to be classmates!)

11. weekend in Palawan

12. another weekend in Bohol

13. another weekend in Boracay

Hopefully we'll be able to check everything on the list before the start of classes in June.

should now plan for summer activities

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RJ's summer break will officially start three weeks from now. I have to start looking for summer activities that he can enroll in. Summer last year was extremely hot so I decided to not enroll him in any sports activities. Hopefully, the summer weather this year is not as hot as last year.

He did enroll in drawing/painting class at Museo Pambata but I think it was a waste of money. He was with the 6-9 age group and the lesson for that group was very basic. Imagine what preschool art is -that's what they did. It was easy peasy for RJ, altough he was just 8 years old at that time, he's always first to finish.

I'm planning to enroll him in art class again. Hopefully I'll find a class that will teach him more advanced painting and more complex lessons. I don't want another very expensive art class where he won't learn anything at all.

Swimming, soccer and basketball are on the list as well.

summer activities

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I can't believe that summer is just around the corner. Last summer, RJ enrolled in drawing class at Museo Pambata. Although the teacher was a very good childrens book illustrator, the class was not appropriate for RJ because it was designed for preschoolers. I want to enroll RJ in various sports, arts and other activities this summer vacation.

                                                                              nhlc

That was actually my plan last summer and I already started calling even before RJ's summer break began. The problem was that the schedule of classes, for the activities that RJ was interested to enroll in, were not prepared yet. When I was able to get the schedule, they all coincide with each other. So RJ ended up enrolling in drawing class only.

This early, I will try to find out all available sports and art schools near our house. I will try to fix RJ's summer activities well. I will have to practice driving because riding a taxi can be very frustrating at times.

how to vote on may 10

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Should I vote or not? Having second thoughts. I don't think they will be able to fix the PCOS machine problem less than a week before the elections. Need to be optimistic though. I might still vote.

Museo Pambata Art is Cool...the verdict

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My son attended the 8 (1.5 hours) days Basic Art workshop at Museo Pambata. The said workshop is for kids 4-8 years old.

My verdict: such a waste of money. He learned nothing at all, zero acquired art knowledge. This art workshop should be given to kids who have not enrolled in pre-school yet. Take note: HAVE NOT, which means from 0 to 2 years old.

That is an example of what the kids did. Folded a piece of paper and dipped it in different colors of paint. When they unfold it, ta-da! different patterns and designs.

I have yet to tell Museo that yes,  this is acceptable to parents of 4-6 year old enrollees. But for those who are older, even the kids say that this is boring! Will have to ask them to send the pictures during the workshop and culminating activities first.

The teacher though is good. He's a Children's book illustrator. 

Will not enroll my son in Advanced class next year.

do you want to have flawless skin?

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Because of the hot weather, RJ takes a bath 3-4 times a day. He fills up a big basin with water (our house is old, no tub in the bathroom) and soaks himself for an hour or two. My mom has influenced him in putting guava leaves extract on his bath water.

You say yuck? Read on because you're wrong.

"Guavas can help improve your skin texture and avoid skin problems more than the best of beauty creams or skin toner gels can do. This is chiefly due to the abundance of astringents in its fruits (more in immature ones) and in leaves. You can benefit from it either by eating the fruits (this help tighten your muscles apart from your skin) or by washing your skin with the decoction of its immature fruits and leaves. It will tone up and tighten the loosened skin. In addition to the astringents, guava is very-very rich in vitamin-A, B, C and potassium which are very good anti oxidants and detoxifiers and keep your skin glowing and free from aging, wrinkles and other disorders."

Guava leaves can also relieve toothache.

More health benefits of guava, go to Organic Facts.

what i want right now...

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Yes, I want rain right now. I want dark clouds to fill up the sky and pour down heavy rains. It is very very hot right now. I take a bath four to five times a day. And yet, I begin sweating the minute I step out of the bathroom.

Let it rain please, God!