Last week, my students and I did something different. For one session, my two young guys and I baked banana bread. We did it the easy way because it was their first time to bake something with a non-HE teacher so I used a ready mix-just add bananas, egg, oil, and water type of mix.

Here was the finished product (with watermark of my food blog, Tummy Fillers):

We had three of those mini loaves and ate two. The third one, we cut in half and they brought home for a taste test with their moms.

One of them even joked that if he is able to bake well, he will probably put up a bakeshop complete with high-tech baking equipment and even POS systems.

For another student, we did origami of a basic boat and a cat, which turned out to be a bit difficult for her. And me too, lol.

Here is a video of the origami cat that we did:

This week, we will do more origami for Mother’s Day.

I recently had the little room where I teach renovated. And I discovered some little things I have already forgotten I have.

Some are:

• art kits which include lacing materials as well as beads for bead work art (I wish these were Ocean Fossil Jasper beads though and not the plastic ones, lol)
• storybooks I have forgotten about
• school supplies like crayons, pencils, scissors and glue (it hardened already, argh)
• toys that needed a lot of cleaning

Some children will be happy using these art kits for our arts and craft activities for the remaining summer days.

Decluttering takes us back down memory lane. I know because I did that with the home library and though it was hard to get rid of things I haven’t used, I had to do it mercilessly.

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

My eldest daughter took the National Career Assessment Examination last year. She scored high in the academics part and got a grade of 98. She could have gotten a higher grade (hello Tiger Mom!) but one of the subjects had a significantly lower grade than the others. Reason? Because she said she was too lazy to read the entire reading selections because these were too long.

I told her she could not, should not and must not do that again when she undergoes another educational assessment procedure. Plus, getting this grade does not guarantee that she will get a similar grade when she takes her college entrance exams.

There are several ways student readiness can be achieved before taking major educational assessment like college entrance exams or even high school entrance exams and here are a few tips: continue reading this entry »

If you are a college student who has a great idea on health and wellness that will help transform communities, then Unilab Ideas Positive is for you!

Unilab Ideas Positive believes in the youth’s ideas that will make positive difference to the communities they have in mind. Unilab Ideas Positive is a social marketing clinic and competition that gives the youth a place where they can share innovative and sustainable ideas concerning the health and wellness of their communities of choice. These ideas are given the chance and platform to be a reality.

How can Unilab help the youth make their health and wellness ideas in Unilab Ideas Positive as concrete programs that will help communities?

• 3 day marketing boot camp to learn from experts the current social marketing approaches and relevant case studies
• seed money for the implementation of their program which will run for six months

College students from North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao can now join 2012 Unilab Ideas Positive. More communities will now benefit from the health and wellness programs the youth have as ideas because fifteen, yes, 15 teams will each be given Php100,000 seed money from Unilab Foundation for the implementation of these social marketing programs. This means a total of Php1.5 million seed money will be for these health and wellness programs.

This is an opportunity to give back to communities and help them be healthier through these health and wellness programs. Healthier people means healthier nation.

Now on its third year, Unilab Ideas Positive gets even better with a focus not only on positive ideas, but also on positive outcomes—creating a difference where it matters, in partnership with the Filipino youth.

We all want a healthier nation, right? Start sharing your idea by visiting www.unilabideaspositive.com

Children are drawn to horses and they would love to try riding on one or even riding in a calesa being pulled by a horse. There is something about horses and children that just click and it is not just a phase they go through because if this phase was encouraged, I’m sure these children will even grow to love the sports connected with horses.

According to Franklin Levinson, an authority in natural horsemanship training:

Horses, being naturally social and inclined to appropriate interaction with whoever is with them, are a perfect manifestation of nature for children to interact with, become empowered by and have an experience that expands their world immensely.

My children are no exception. When the nearby city park still had horses for horseback riding, we used to bring my then only child eldest daughter to experience riding on horses. We seriously considered enrolling her in horseback riding lessons but we didn’t have horse equipment.

I got some photos of them on a horse (but I think it’s in the EHD already) and they said they can’t wait to be on one soon. I hope we can grant their wish to ride on a horse again soon.