An Unforgettable Time in Guimaras

We had a very lovely trip to Guimaras. Guimaras is a province near Iloilo. Since we visited my cousins in Iloilo, they took us to the beach where we went swimming and we ate very yummy food like fish and rice. After that, we went island hopping to the nearby islands such as the Turtle Island where we saw a snapping turtle. Then we went to a souvenir shop of the Trappist Monks. We took a pumpboat to go back to Iloilo. I had a very fun time in Guimaras. I hope we go there again. -Isabelle

Teaching Children Honesty In These Dishonest Times

Just yesterday, Ilysse overheard me and my mom talk about the Php 6.9 million caught by the Russian government from a retired comptroller of the Philippine National Police, Eliseo De La Paz and our acerbic remarks on the incident. I think she became interested in our conversation when she heard the word 'caught', and relentlessly pursued the topic by asking questions like "Who was caught?", "Why was he caught?", and "What did he do wrong?". I had to explain the matter to her in as simple as I can thinking the topic is something a child at 4 would have difficulty to understand.

I told her that the man was caught with lots of money which he did not report, and so he was being dishonest by keeping the money and not telling where it came from and who gave it to him. Ilysse retorted by saying that what the man did was stealing. I had to explain to her that it is possible that the money could have been given to him so that could not be stealing. I had to contend with the next trickier question, "So, why then was he caught if he did not steal anything?" I had to explain to her again that the wrong he did was not telling the truth of why he had the money with him. Ilysse quickly replied, "I know what he did wrong, Mommy. He lied. Mommy, you always tell us that if we tell the truth about something bad we did, you will not get mad at us. He should just have told the truth so he would not be caught."

That has been a remark of a 4-year old child who is still learning to read, who is unaware of the reality that is slowly destroying our values as a people. But, what about the millions of Filipino children around the country who are older, more aware of what is happening around them, those know how to read, those who watch and hear the daily news, those who know the Hello Garci scandal, the ZTE-NBN deal, the Court of Appeals fiasco, and an endless string of other indignations. What do all these illustrations of dishonesty that this government has blatantly displayed and paraded for the last 4 years teach our children? That it is ok to lie as long as you are in power, as long as you are rich or simply, that there is nothing wrong in lying and at the other end of the spectrum, if you lie, you will get richer; if you lie, you will be more powerful.

What can we do to protect our children from this distorted sense of values? We cannot, obviously, shelter them perpetually from the evils of society and government. But, we can arm them with a good sense of what is true, noble and just not only by example by also by actually teaching them these values. However, teaching children the values of honesty, courage, self-discipline and moderation, justice and mercy, among others, is not an easy job as these are abstract concepts. Fortunately, we have parents, like Linda and Richard Eyre, who have shared their wisdom in parenting and child-rearing to the world. Their book, "Teaching Your Children Values", is one book that I will surely cherish for years to come. The book is divided into values such as those I mentioned above and there are activities for pre-schoolers, elementary school age, and adolescents pertaining to each of the values. I got this book in 2007 from Books for Less and it continues to teach me and my kids the values that our government has seemed to have completely forgotten.

A Passion for Reading

Notwithstanding contrary views on early reading in children, I have personally seen the positive effects of reading early in my children, Isabelle and Ilysse. Isabelle started reading at 3 1/2. I also started Ilysee on the same track at the same age. I do not attribute their reading readiness to a gifted mind but to a set of books my Aunt Sally gave me, the Phonics Ready Readers by Scholastic. This comes in 6 boxes with 12 short books each. The books are arranged according to the complexity of words and sentences and are short and interesting enough to keep a child's attention.

I only devote ten minutes a day for this activity. I would usually bring one or two books in the car for Isabelle and Ilysse to practice and read while on our way to school. While Isabelle has finished the set before she turned 4, it is Ilysse' turn to finish the set of 72 books. We are halfway done and I can say she is enjoying every minute of it. She gets the thrill when she gets to read books having simple stories and would brag to Isabelle that she can now read.

Isabelle is turning 6 in December and since she started reading at 3 1/2, she had devoured every children book in the house and elsewhere. Last year, she started reading chapter books and had recently finished reading Blizzard of the Blue Moon by Mary Pope Osborne of the Magic Tree House series by herself. She never fails to amaze us with her vast knowledge of animals which she gets to read in Grolier's I Wonder Why books and Time Life' A Child's First Library of Learning. When we were studying about animal's habitats for a school assignment, I asked her what the habitat of a hippotamus is. She replied water and land while I said that its habitat is just land. She countered back by telling me, "But, Mommy, hippos give birth in the water." I was flabbergasted. She was right. There was also one time when she asked me if there were any fish that could live on land. I told her that there were none. She again replied with confidence oozing that there was such a fish, a mudskipper. Since I did not believe her, she showed me a volume of the Time Life books and correctly pointed out to me what she was talking about.

Reading has brought wonders to my children, brought them places they have never been to, widened their knowledge of the world around them, and on my part, it has brought me great satisfaction that I were able to share my passion with them.