Summer in this part of the world is in full swing and I’m sure a lot of children are busy. Whether they are having summer enrichment or summer fun activities, I still see a lot of children “busy” with their gadgets like tablets, hand-held game consoles and smartphones. I’ve heard that ipad accessories are bestsellers these days.

What summer fun activities can parents do to make their children busy with other things than will make their summer vacation worthwhile and fun without exactly paying for these programs?

• arts and crafts. There are a lot of ideas available in the web and these do not just mean buying all those new materials because there is such a thing like recycling crafts
• cooking-related stuff. If your child is interested in cooking and baking, then it would be a good idea to have a young apprentice in the kitchen, right? No need to enrol in “cooking” schools because they can learn this and more within the comforts of their home
• swimming lessons. If you know how to swim well and there’s a pool nearby where you can go, then by no means give this a go.
• entrepreneurship training. Do you have a small business? Does your child show interest in starting his own business? You too can help him and you can both engage in the arts and crafts and cooking-related stuff for business purposes.

Of course, there are centers that offer much more than these activities and it is important to choose well to get your money’s worth.

Remember though, the above suggested activities will foster more family bonding time

Summer vacation is in full swing and once again, our house is like an empty nest with the children spending Holy Week at the grandparents’ homes.

This is that time of the year when we parents think about the tuition fee payment schedule for our children. With three children in school, this is a very big financial responsibility for me and my husband. If only schools have structured settlement payments maybe, a lot of parents will go for that.

I have teased the children that if we can’t afford private school fees anymore, I’d bring them to the nearby public school where students excel and their teachers’ salary grade is high. This means the quality of the school is better than other public schools, I guess. I’d then be free from paying their TF and they can have the school supplies they want. “No can do” is their reply because they love their school so much they didn’t even complain that they just started their summer vacation this week whereas other schools had theirs as early as the second week of March.

It is no joke that some parents would tell their children that their education is perhaps the only legacy they can pass on to them. With sky-high tuition fees, there really is no way the working class/middle class parents can save for something they can give to their children once they pass away. Unlike some super rich families.

My youngest daughter got so sick last week she had to stay home for a week. I’ve had several sleepless nights monitoring her and helping her blow her nose, wipe her with wet cloth among others. Apparently, she suffered tonsilitis and she was given antibiotics. She also had her ears cleared because of it.

I probably was so tired I was a bit sick during the weekend. We were still able to go to to church though I preferred to stay outside than sit on church chairs just in case I feel sick again.

This week, our son was down with fever for two days but he was able to take the third trimester exams. He need not take two major subjects, Math and Social Studies because he got exempted.

It was now my turn to be officially sick: fever, chills, headache that seemed like it was splitting my head in two, dizzy spells, dry and parch throat and general lethargic. continue reading this entry »

Are you done with your Christmas shopping list? I’m not done yet. I have some gifts that need wrapping but I am still uninspired to start maybe because the second trimester exams are coming up next week and I know I will be swamped with reviewers to make.

The Christmas tree still needs to be taken out of its hiding place and decorated.

What do add to the list? leather backpacks? new shoes? wait we got those for the kids two weeks ago when we braved traffic to go to a sale. Do these count as gifts?

I think not.

My thought on gifting? As I have written in this post, “…expect me to wish you happiness and joy, without a gift tag”

Now, please excuse me while I help one of my children finish a book report and polish a poem with lots of rhyming words at the end of the lines for another one.

We didn’t have a router before but the techie hubby tinkered with my laptop and made it the “router” where everyone can connect to the internet. This gave me a bit of a headache because there are times when I myself can’t connect whereas they are still connected through me. So I had to wait for them (all other three of them) to logout just so I can restart my laptop. Argh! isn’t it?

Anyway…

Now this all changed because we now have a Cisco LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N Router with Parental Control settings, thanks to Mommy Mundo and Cisco.

What is Linksys E1000 Wireless-N Router with Parental Control all about?

The LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N router package consists of:

1. Power cable

2. Quick installation guide

3. CD for installing the router and its settings

4. LAN/Ethernet cable

5. LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N Router

The LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N Router work can be easily installed and here’s a step-by-step instruction (please click on the photo to see a bigger resolution):

After inserting the CD, you need to

Set the parental control with the different gadgets you have in your home. You can set the time for the internet access to be made unnavigable to the gadgets you choose. Keywords can also be set for more parental control.

Personalize the settings according to what you feel should be for your family/home use:

Set the password and if you plan to stick to your settings, do not share the passwords with the children

This is what the page will look like when your internet is blocked:

More Photos here.

You can win a Cisco LinkSys E4200 Wireless-N Router with Parental Control by answering the survey questions below.

Specifications:

• Simultaneous Dual-Band N (2.4 & 5 GHz)
• Gigabit Ethernet 4-port switch
• Maximum speed up to 300 + 450 Mbps
• USB port for shared storage
• Built-In UPnP AV media server

If you want to win the Cisco Linksys E4200 Wireless Router worth almost P9,000 by just answering these questions:

• Just answer the survey questions in the comment section below from October 17 – October 24 and you get a chance to win that wonderful router.
• Write your full name and email address so I can contact you just in case I get the most number of respondents and get the chance to raffle off this device (please see below)
• You should have an NCR address (a relative’s or a friend’s NCR home address would do!) where the Cisco Linksys E4200 will be delivered by Mommy Mundo if you win

Please help spread this contest because if I get the most number of respondents to the survey,  I get the chance to raffle this off to the lucky respondent* and I also win a gadget! Woohoo! Come on, let’s help each other

*There are 10 9 other mommy bloggers hosting this giveaway.

Let’s all help each other by spreading this good news.

Thank you all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I got an email from Mommy Mundo yesterday and there is good news and bad news:

Bad news: if you posted response in any of the 10 participating mommy bloggers, you don’t increase your chances of winning because they will count the first comment as the valid one. So, if you answered my survey questions after you answered another blog’s, that comment counts as the other participating blog’s point. Buhuhuhu for me.

a) Readers may post only once and only in ONE (1) participating blog. Duplicate responses are not allowed. Only the survey response posted earlier will be counted.

but wait there’s more from Mommy Mundo:

Now to make things even more exciting, Mommy Mundo is also giving away a Linkys E4200 Router (worth P8,995)! So if you want to double your chances of winning, simply:

1) Join the CISCO LINKSYS Router BLOG CONTEST by following the mechanics above.
2) Leave a comment on this post along with your name and email address.
The winner of Mommy Mundo’s own Cisco giveaway will be announced on Oct. 28 as well!

Reminder: Only those who have commented/answered the survey in any of the 10 participating mom blogs can win in this Mommy Mundo giveaway so make sure to read the instructions very well! If the same winner is drawn for Mommy Mundo’s giveaway as for the Blog Contest, another name will be drawn for the prize.

“I’m JUST a stay-at-home mom”.

“What? You are JUST a stay-at-home mom?”

We often hear other people say this to moms who decided to leave the corporate world and be a stay-at-home mom. In fact, to the stay-at-home moms I know, they often had to defend the main reason why they have decided to be stay-at-home moms: be able to personally take care of their children.

How noble. I mean it. They are noble enough to be with their children 24/7, well not really 24/7 especially if the children go to school the whole day, but almost practically “a mom on call”.

I don’t see anything wrong with putting the children first, above all corporate financial rewards, against leaving the children under the care of the nannies. Not that I see anything wrong with leaving the children under the care of nannies, especially if these nannies are (almost) heaven sent. What if she is a nanny from “hell”? *shudders at the thought*

Not all stay-at-home moms become couch potatoes and watch tv series all day long.

continue reading this entry »