The issue on melamine-contaminated milk products coming from China has prompted neighboring countries to conduct milk products’ recall in their respective markets. As a consumer safety move, the Philippines, through the Department of Health’s Bureau of Food and Drugs has recalled late last week, milk and milk-containing products which are now subjected to testing for melamine content.
As of yesterday, BFAD has already removed four popular dairy products from the initial list of food items to be tested for possible melamine contamination. Manufactured in New Zealand and distributed locally by Fonterra Brands Philippines, these four products include Anchor Lite Milk, Anlene Milk Low Fat, Anmum Materna, and Anmum Materna Chocolate.
The delisting of the four milk products leaves 52 more that are to be tested by BFAD for melamine contamination and partial results of the tests on some other milk brands will come out hopefully this week.
This latest product recall has created somewhat of a puzzle yet to be resolved and for some panic, especially to mothers, who, according to latest market researches and studies, are said to be the most powerful consumers of all time considering their decision-making power as far as buying consumer products are concerned. And milk, being the food staple of non-breastfeeding kids is definitely one of these products.
In situations where product recall is happening, what is the best to do? How do mothers take on the issue? Debbie LaCroix, a parent and proactive consumer advocate gives us a handful of suggestions and tips on what to do if products that we happen to buy for our kids gets recalled and how to avoid buying items that may be recalled in the future: Read the rest of this entry »
That is, the Philippine Blog Awards 2.
The year’s premiere event for bloggers was held on Sunday, September 21st, at One Esplanade.
The best Philippine blogs across 36 categories were recognized on that night, and the FMB moms (minus Lynn - we missed you!) were there to support their favorites. TeacherJulie was a finalist for the Best Single Post on Family and Living Category, and our dear friend Rachel for the Blogger’s Choice Award.
The special guest of the evening was Senator Mar Roxas, whom we successfully ambushed for photo opps and chit-chat. The senator blogs too, by the way. Read the rest of this entry »
It is this time of the year again. Planning time and then budgeting for next year. They go hand in hand so imagine how busy we are at the office at this last leg of the third quarter.
Almost always the planning session lasts for three days and out of town. It is to give the participants the time to focus and deliberate on their programs. We are scheduled to have our planning next week. I am so glad it will only be for two days and the venue is quite near, only an hour drive from Manila.
Even so, it means I will be out of the house for two days - away from my daughter. I have been doing this since I started working, one would think I am used to this by now. I don’t think I will ever be used to staying out of the house for days. I have “interventions” to make my time away from my family more bearable. I have provided myself three simple checklists - pre, actual and post-trip activities.
The previous years my list is up to the minutest details but I have to give credit to my husband and my daughter and our help. They are able, functioning human beings as my husband says it perfectly. Don’t sweat the small stuff so to speak. For one thing, my husband and I see to it that our schedules complement. We cannot have trips at the same time. That is a cardinal rule.
My pre-trip activities include two major things. I check the school work of my daughter for the next days that I will be out. If there are projects for submission, I note them down so I can call her. This is not breathing behind her neck but just asking how she is progressing with her project. A little help from mommy, even if she’s away, won’t hurt in case she finds something hard to do.
Read the rest of this entry »
I have always dreamed of having a flower garden. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up to colorful blooms everyday? What about butterflies and birds merrily playing in the garden amidst the flowers?
I started having a garden years ago when I started to collect orchids and indoor ornamental plants. But alas, my thumb wasn’t green enough to sustain the life of these unfortunate plants. These all died after a few months. Or maybe even weeks.
I have tried again, last year. We got several grown plants with blooms but the dog thought these were toys and managed to uproot several. So the plans to have this flower garden was botched again.
My husband has been talking about having our own farm and planting plants that will yield fresh produce for our own consumption. A vegetable garden in one area, some fruit-bearing trees in another, and maybe a few chickens that will bring fresh eggs. A part of the plan will be an area for dog breeding, if it is still possible. He said a flower garden would be nice but for what purpose since we can’t use those flowers anyway.
Ok, now I am starting to be convinced to start a vegetable garden.
Read the rest of this entry »
This is the part 2 of the Homeschooling in the Philippines post.
Socialization. This is one of the foremost questions that people ask to families who decided to go the non-traditional way of educating their children.
I want to ask one question: How many of you here are still friends with or in touch with your elementary or high school friends? I would even like to proudly say that our batch was a closely-knit batch for we have been classmates from Kindergarten to High school. We are still in touch with each other. We communicate through our Google group, we see each other during holidays in the province or maybe once or twice a year for reunions. But that’s about it.
Through it all, I have learned to socialize, learn manners and unwritten friendship rules and just be myself and enjoy the company of friends.
Socialization does not just limit itself to one’s peers. It goes beyond dealing with other people. Socialization in my case is not a real problem since I bring my children with me to work, twice a week. They have seen and met my husband’s friends and my friends. They are learning to (even briefly) socialize with people from different walks of life, like those food servers in the mall where we wait for my husband to pick us up before we head for home, the Kuya and Ate at work where they are being asked to request for things that I need and even socialize with my colleagues.
There, in my workplace, they have forged friendships with other children and they look forward to seeing them and playing with them. They do not really mind if at times they have difficulty having conversations with some of them.
Interactive. Learning should be interactive. Questions should be asked and answered. Answers can vary too, and the way these answers were found should vary too, for there are different sources where answers to questions can be found.
How?
Read the rest of this entry »
This is an easy recipe. I used to do it with whole chickens, but I realized my kids and husband would attack the thighs and leave the breast to me. Nobody wants the white meat in our house.
Chicken thighs, contrary to what you may have been led to believe, are healthy (remove the skin if you must). According to Women’s Health Magazine, dark-meat poultry like chicken thighs are rich in iron, zinc and B vitamins, while having lower fat content than red meat (such as beef).
Chicken thigh meat is juicier and doesn’t dry up the way white meat does after it has cooled. So it’s ideal for school (or office) lunch too. I’d marinate the chicken at night, throw them into the oven the following morning. And, voila! A superb school lunch that your kids will be proud to share with the class. 
Read the rest of this entry »
Can your child jump, hop, skip, and gallop? Can your child button, zip and snap snaps on clothing? Can he/she tie his/her own shoes? Can he/she cut a paper with scissors with ease?
If your child is about three to four years old and your answers to the questions are mostly yes, then your child is on the right track as far as fine and gross motor skills are concerned.
Those mentioned are just some of the things that most preschoolers can already do. Activities which may sound so simple to do, yet many don’t realize their importance.
When my four-year old son was seen by a neuro-developmental pediatrician for assessment, one of the activities she asked my son to do was to cut a shape on a piece of paper using scissors. But because my son wasn’t familiar then with using scissors, he failed to do what was asked by the DevPed. “Naku Mommy, mukhang hindi pa yata nakakahawak ng scissors itong anak nyo ah,” I remembered these were the very words that the DevPed remarked while doing the assessment.
But it’s so true. My son never really got a chance to hold and explore scissors if not for that assessment. At home, scissors are just like knives that are kept away from him because of our fear that it might hurt him. And in his former school, scissors are strictly a no-no too for preschoolers as the school viewed scissors to be dangerous for kids.
But what we didn’t know was that, our seemingly being overprotective of our son deprived him to develop his fine motor skills. And so now that we are aware, we’ve erased the wrong notion and let our son use scissors, guided of course, as we do arts and crafts activities every now and then.
Aside from cutting with scissors, there are a lot of activities that we can do to help our kids enhance their fine and gross motor skills. My son’s occupational therapist handed me a checklist of activities that we can to do to develop the skills. Here’s a run down of those: Read the rest of this entry »
As I was flipping channels yesterday evening I chanced upon a local show that was talking about the role of a yaya (nanny) in helping raise a child. This caught my attention because I, admittedly, have never known how life is like without them.
I grew up raised by a whole slew of family members. Weekdays were spent with my grandparents and weekends were with my parents. Sounds a bit dysfunctional but it was actually a very happy childhood. The one constant presence in my frequent relocation was my yaya.
Still, I wasn’t one of those kids who had the misfortune of not having enough PG (parental guidance) and GPG(grandparental guidance) to see me through. They were still my main source of caring and love. From the very start my yaya was really someone to help my parents and grandparents in taking care of me. Somewhere along the way, though, a familial bond developed between me and my yaya and I looked upon her as a member of the family as well. Despite this, my parents made sure that they were still the ones I turned to for affection and for guidance.
Read the rest of this entry »
I am a special education teacher and I have three children. My eldest daughter goes to a non-traditional school. My two younger children are being homeschooled using a regular Catholic curriculum.
Homeschooling is a relatively new idea of educating children in the Philippines. There were those who scoffed at our decision to home school. The first questions we encountered were: “What about socialization?” “What about building friendships?” “It is not all about learning the academics, you know.”
Yes, I know.
Primary reason why we decided to homeschool my son Julian is because he gets easily tired and is prone to asthma attacks. For him to not miss out on learning opportunities, we decided to homeschool him until he gets stronger. He loved homeschooling so we decided to have him enrolled again this school year, along with his younger sister, Tania.
So, what are the different issues that may come up in the years that a child experiences when he/she goes through the process of being educated?
Stress. Stress comes early in the lives of school-aged children. Exams, quizzes, projects, getting up early to catch the school bus are just some of the stresses that they encounter. What about bullying? Not being to understand what the lessons are all about because the teacher talk fast? What about stress from their parents to study better because their education is expensive? There are so many different stresses that they have to go through. At an early age.
Home schooling is not that stressful when proper preparation and mindset are both done. Sure, it can be stressful too, especially if the parents-teachers are tired and not feeling well or the children do not readily comply. Otherwise, it is a wonderful learning experience for both the children and their parents.
No need to wake up early to catch the bus or avoid traffic. No need to panic when a project due today was forgotten at home. No need to panic when the child got sick or hurt at school.
Read the rest of this entry »
We moms are known to be great at multi-tasking. We accomplish a lot in a short time, but that also makes us more prone to stress than most people.
We also know that there are many ways to reduce stress. We need to exercise, and eat right and get plenty of rest and recreation. We need to de-clutter our mind of all that negative energy.
But do you know that there is another way to keep stress at bay that is easy, quick, simple and costs nothing?
Grab your honey and smooch away the worries!
Read the rest of this entry »
