A Crafternoon Party (An Arts and Crafts-themed Birthday)

It was a dear friend's birthday celebration on May 16. But she celebrated her birthday early. And we're fortunate to be there.

Me with the pretty birthday girl

It's on the invitation - Crafternoon Party. Two words that set the theme for a unique birthday celebration.

60th Birthday - Ideas and Preparations

If you are going to hold a surprise 60th birthday party for your father, what would you do?  I'll share with you what we have prepared for our Tatay Dan three years ago.

1. Select a theme.
Our Tatay like watching movies.  We opt for a movie-themed birthday party.

Our main decors to set the theme

Letter of the Week Curriculum - Letter B

Teaching your kids at home can be tedious.  But hey, it's always fun.  I'm teaching S some lessons and anchored most of them with the letter B. Let's play and learn!
 
Language Arts
ASL (American Sign Language) - Letter B

Letter of the Week Curriculum - My Attempt at Homeschooling

I would love to be a preschool teacher.  I love kids.  I love teaching them. Then my reality sinks in, I don't have much patience.  At the first sign of a tantrum, I would retreat.  Then, I would return the kids to their parents, and that's about it.  So much for my preschool teaching dream.

Then I had kids of my own.  My teacher instinct kicked in.  I would read stories, sing, dance and play with them.  I wanted them to learn their letters, numbers, shapes and colors from me.  But I wanted more.  I wanted to bond with them so they could associate me and Ramir to happy, positive learning experiences.

I attempted homeschooling with R.  But a first time mom wasn't really sure what to do.  I wasn't able to find a good source of information about homeschooling.  So I entrusted her to a school at the age of 3.  I would follow her school's curriculum and re-enforce lessons at home.

My second daughter S is now 3.  And although she goes to school two times a week, I'm more inclined to supplement her education with a homeschool curriculum that would interest her.  I feel that if I piqued her interest, I'll engage her more and lessons would be stickier.  But I don't want to be her teacher.  I wanted to be her playmate. I believe that kids learn more when they're enjoying. So I think, if I give purposeful activities in guise of play, they'll likely to absorb better.

I browsed the net.  And found two very good and useful sites - http://www.letteroftheweek.com and
 http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com.  I made them my default resource.

My top priority is reading. I wanted to be S's first reading teacher.  I learned from R's experience that reading isn't just about memorizing letters, it's also about committing to memory each letter's sound - phonetics.  So with this in mind, I injected activities that would enhance her reading skills.  I also would like to teach values and bible lessons. Since S loves music, I made sure that this is a part of our curriculum.  Mathematics and a little Geography would also be taught.  I also find it necessary to improve her motor skills. And the medium of "instruction" should be bilingual. But everything is freewheeling. S would dictate her pace, she's also expected to direct me as to how she wants to do each activity.

Honestly, I feel that a traditional school scenario isn't quite attractive to a three year old. So I set-up a school of my own.  Only, I have S as my only student, our whole house as our area and everyone in our household, especially R, as my assistants.

I also came up with our own lesson plan. I decided that we would do a letter theme per week. Since it's our first week, we had the Letter A to start with. All "lessons" on the subject areas we identified above started with, you guessed it right, Letter A.

Let me share with you our lesson plan for LETTER A.

So far, I'm very happy with the results. I hope to post our lesson plans as we go along. As a working mom, my time with my family is very, very important.  I would want to spend it with them, the best way I know how.  I hope they'll cherish every minute as much as I do.

Teaching Tips and Tricks:
1.  The following materials are useful to us... papers, index cards, pens, coloring materials, scissors, glue, strings, popsicle sticks, double sided tape.
2.  The web has tons of free materials. Research on Google images.
3.  You may use Youtube videos to teach songs.
4.  Try not to spend much on materials.  You may utilize whatever it is that can be found in your home.
5. Let your child do all the activities.
6. Try to "test" the lessons even outside the home.  This may be a nice Q&A game any time, any day.
7. Play. Have fun.
8. Be creative. Explore. Vary your activities.
9. There's no right or wrong way. Be flexible. Adjust according to your child's competency.
10. Seize opportunities to discuss related topics. Example, APO Hiking Society has several songs, instead of introducing just one happy song, you may listen to other songs with similar tempo.  You might be learning the lyrics of The Ants Go Marching, but you may also discuss in passing how ants prepare for rainy days.
11. Let kids ask questions.  And please, answer them.
12. Prepare in advance.  Have all your materials ready before you start.  This way, activities will play out smoothly.

LETTER A: Letter Theme for the Week

Language Arts
- Sound
- ASL (American Sign Language)
- Theme words for sight reading:  Astronauts, Ant, Alligator, Apple
- Literature (Storybook): Aladdin 

- Literature (Poetry or Nursery Rhyme): A’s EVERYWHERE
A’s, A’s everywhere,
“I see A’s”, said the Bear.
A’s on the curtains.
A’s on the door.
A’s on the table.
A’s on the floor.  

Teaching Tips and Tricks: 
1. You may print out coloring and tracing worksheets from Google images.
2.  For theme words: Using an index card, paste an image of the theme word on one side and print the word on the other side.  Do a guessing game. Lay out the cards.  Let your child read the word, then let her flip the card to find out if she got the word right.
3. For reading longer stories like Aladdin, you may engage your child by acting out some scenes.
4. Short reading materials like Everywhere A's is an opportunity for sight reading.  This may also be a "Find Me Game".  Stick the letter A on a curtain, door, table and floor.  As you recite the poem, you may ask your child to look for the letter As.

 
Music

- Song/composer – Apo Hiking Society (Jim Paredes, Buboy Garovillo and Danny Javier)

Teaching Tips and Tricks:
1. Print out a photo of Buboy, Jim and Danny.
2. Sing the songs of Apo Hiking Society.  My child's favorite are: Panalagin, Ewan and Dobidoo.

    
Religion and Values Formation

- Bible Story/Values – Creation/Adam and Eve (Attentiveness) 

Teaching Tips and Tricks: 
1. Print out a mini book of Creation. Show and tell the story to your child.

2. Let your child arrange the Creation's sequence of events.

3. Introduce your child to Adam and Eve.  I browsed some images then printed these out, cut them and using a double-sided tape, I stuck the cutouts to popsicle sticks.

4.  I let her hold the sticks as I narrate the story.

 

Math

- Counting 1 to 20

- Addition (plus 1) - to introduce the next number

- The Ants Go Marching (Barney's version)

Teaching Tips and Tricks: 1.  We have a number board (1-20) that we used for counting forward and backward.  We also used this in introducing addition (plus 1).

2.  I printed a sheet of ants with numbers 1-10. I cut this individually.  I punched holes on each paper then I handed a string to my child.  I instruct her to string the ants chronologically.  While we're doing this, we sing The Ants Go Marching.

 

Geography

- Flags of the World: Algeria

Learning Tips and Tricks:

1. I printed a colored flag and an outline.  I asked my daughter to copy the colors. 

SOURCES:

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/alphabet_station03/a_activities.shtml 

http://www.letteroftheweek.com/letterA.html 

http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/letters/activities/a 

P.S. My attempt-to-homeschool story and my initial teaching tips and tricks can be found here... http://www.superwomom.net/2013/08/letter-of-week-curriculum-my-attempt-at.html

Let's SPArty! - R's 8th Birthday

R wanted a spa treatment for her 8th birthday.  Massage, foot spa and Hairstyling - the works.  The first time she had a taste of these was about 4 years ago when we brought her to Little Lamb's Spa in Fun Ranch near Tiendesitas.  It was her 4th birthday.

We have already decided on going to Little Lamb's Spa in Timog when R requested that her first cousins go with her.  I was suddenly facing a blank wall. If we bring them to Little Lamb's in Timog, we would need to prepare food for the kids and treat their parents for lunch or snack. Not that I dont want to, it's just that were on a tight budget. Ramir and I were racking our brains the past weeks. We want R to have a grand time on her birthday but we wouldn't want to burn a hole in our pockets.

We have two scenarios.  If we're going for the Little Lamb's Spa, it would just be a Cruz family affair. Massage and foot spa for all 4 of us. Then hairstyling and pedicure for R. Then lunch or merienda treat for our families.  Or we can look for a spa near Malabon, treat all the kids to a spa treatment then have lunch at Nanay's place so we wouldn't need to spend for a lunch treat since lunch is prepared there every sunday anyway. Good thing R's birthday falls on a sunday. Option two is more viable only if there's a place that would allow us to have their spa closed for two hours to accomodate us, the other thing is, I'm not sure if there would be any place that would cater to an all-kids clientele. I texted a family friend who owns a Templora Dermatologica, a spa and beauty center very near my parent's house in Santulan, Malabon. When she told me that they can do it and  can even serve some milk tea for the guests (since they also own a milk tea place), i was in cloud nine. Everything that R had in mind, would happen, and most importantly, we would be able to stick with our measly budget. Everybody happy.

We agreed to the 10am to 12nn slot because the center opens at 1pm.  We had the entire place to ourselves. The 2-hour period was just enough time for everyone to have their treatments.  We arrived around 9:30am.  While waiting for her guests, R had her massage.

By 10am our little guests started arriving. So how did the party go?  Just as planned.  Below are the details of our DIY Sparty.

Theme: spa party "sparty"
Color motif: pink and black
Key art: silhoutte of a pony-tailed girl

Invitation
Even if there were just 6 participants, we still made some invites.

Food
Kids' Lunch
We prepared some spaghetti and chicken for the kids. We just printed something similar to the invite to personalize the packaging.

Finger foods
We felt that some finger food are necessary to tide hunger pangs while the kids are having their spa moments.
We just bought some chocolate covered pretzels, stickos, mini cupckaes and chips.

We ordered some milk tea from My SerendipiTea for the kids' beverage. We also bought some bottled water. We just made a label to personalize it.

Decoration
For the decors, I just made a letter cutout of R's name and stick them on the wall. Buti na lang hindi ako masyadong nag-abala. Im very happy with how they spruced up the place. It was very thoughtful of them because we never really agreed on anything. They just did it and it was very nice. We were very satisfied.

Foot spa and Hairstyling
They had four foot spa stations. They were treated to a foot bath, foot scrub, short foot massage and a pedicure. After they were through, they proceeded to the hairstyling station. Hair braids were done and colorful hair accessories were provided.

Bracelet-making station
The owner told us that they can only accommodate 4 foot spa clients at a time. So I knew before hand that there would be some waiting time. I thought of an activity that would be interesting for kids so they wouldn't feel bored while waiting for their turn. I just bought some beads and stretchable clear strings from our palengke and voila, a bracelet station. We were able to churn cute pieces and the kids really enjoyed doing them.

Loot bag
We were looking for some bags to put in some pink goodies. Most of the stuff we saw that we like were out of our budget. So I just bought some pink cartolinas and turned it into a paper bag.

After our stint here, we transferred to Nanay's place for lunch. We would like to thank our guests for being so supportive and Templora Dermatologica for taking care of us.

To you Rainie - You'll always be our precious panganay.  Your birthday will always be a reminder of God's love, grace and generosity. May you grow up to be a happy kid, after our Lord's heart.  You've been one of the many miracles of my life. Thank you for the pleasure of being your mama.  Mahal na mahal. Mama

The Yellow Party

Our DIY Invitation

It was my youngest's third birthday and we couldn't let it pass without a celebration. Even if it's just a small gathering of about 15 cousins and neighbors who live within some 500 meter radius from our house. So how did we spruce up a home-based birthday party without really splurging? We decided on a theme. It's going to be a yellow party. Let me share with you our party details.

Decors
Crepe paper for the curtains, art paper for the banderitas, Japanese paper for paper pompoms, sticker paper for the letters and photos. I got the idea of the paper pompoms here...http://www.polkadotbride.com/2013/05/diy-tissue-paper-pom-poms-tutorial/

Party decors

TATAY'S CARD TRICK - Teaching Kids Numbers and Spelling

When me and my siblings were still young, my Tatay showed us a card trick.  At that time, we thought it was magic.  But as we grew older, we realized that the secret was in the sequence of the cards. He narrated a story using the cards then he spelled each number through a shuffle.  It's really difficult to explain it here so I made a video.  I recently thought this trick to R.  And I would like to share it with you. Although I made some modifications, the essence and of course the sequence is the same.  The video would show you how it is done. 

WHAT YOU NEED:
Cards of the same suit - Ace to King
 
THE STORY:
In the year 387, there lived 1 great queen.  In her kingdom there were 6 farmers, 4 fishermen and two soldiers - jack and King. They defended the kingdom against 10 thousand 95 enemies.

HOW TO DO IT:
Every letter of the number corresponds to a shuffle. Like this...

O-N-E - 3 shuffles
T-W-O - 3 shuffles
T-H-R-E-E - 5 shuffles
F-O-U-R - 4 shuffles
F-I-V-E - 4 shuffles
S-I-X - 3 shuffles
S-E-V-E-N - 5 shuffles
E-I-G-H-T - 5 shuffles
N-I-N-E- 4 shuffles
T-E-N - 3 shuffles
J-A-C-K - 4 shuffles
Q-U-E-E-N - 5 shuffles
KING - only 1 card left

I hope you'll enjoy this as much as we did.

Unleashing Her Martha Stewart - My First Published Article in Working Mom

When I got married, I always have a stash of mommy magazines.  I thought they were helpful and for some reason I felt that my concerns were being heard because the magazines featured my current state of mind.  Probably because of magazine addiction, I imbibed the vibe.  The writer in me dreamed of writing something for magazines.  I pictured my name and my work being published.  But, it didn't happen.  And I didn't have the guts to present myself or my work to anyone.  Rejection phobia, you know.  So I just parked the dream in the deeper recesses of my mind.  Not forgetting it but preparing for it.

I put up this blog to document my mama adventures.  But I realized that on top of the "preservation", it also hones my writing skills.  When I joined an essay writing contest some months ago, I was just hoping to win an iPad for my daughter.  I won second, good enough for an iPod Touch. But it also paved the way for another dream to happen.

The managing editor of Working Mom, Leah Nemil-San Jose, apparently read my essay.  We knew each other way back in college.  She was an editor-in-chief at the Scholastican, St. Scholastica's College official paper, while I was a start-up literary writer.  Leah congratulated me for the win and told me that I should write for Working Mom. My heart leaped.  It was like my dream seeing a ray of sunlight for the first time.  I told her I have a blog and gave her my web address. To my delight she found some things interesting.  She told me to write about our do-it-yourself party ideas.  Which I did. And here it is... my first published article on the October issue of Working Mom, with Daphne Osena-Paez on the cover.  It's titled Unleashing her Martha Stewart.  It featured some of the details from the 3 parties we did for R and S - The Rainbow Sister Party, Sa Aming Bakuran Pool Party, and the Artsy Crafty Party.

I read somewhere that luck is a dividend of sweat.  The more you sweat, the luckier you get.  It's true, dreams do come true, but, it will never be just about luck.

May all your dreams come true.

I Love You - In Different Languages

Out of nowhere, my head started playing Leah Navarro's song Isang Mundo, Isang Awit.  For those of you who are not familiar with it, you may refer to the lyrics below.  
 
Ngayon mundo'y gulung-gulo

At lahat tayo'y litung-lito
Pag-ibig sa kapwa tao
Sa daigdig dapat ituro
Kung bawa't puso ay marunong magmahal
Kapayapaa't kasiyahan tiyak na makakamtan

Lahat tayo'y pantay-pantay
Sa biyaya ng Maykapal
Lahat sana'y akbay-akbay
Handang tumulong kanino man
Kung bawat tao ay marunong magmahal
Ano mang kulay o salita
Tiyak na makiki-isa

KORO
Je t'aime, te amo, I love you
Watashi wa anata o aistomasu
Ich liebe dich, iniibig kita
Gua ay di
Paano man sabihin
Ang mundo'y turuan natin
Tanging lunas ang pag-ibig
Isang mundo, isang awit

Isang sigaw, Pag-ibig.

Then I realized that I can actually teach "I love you" in different languages to R, through it's chorus.  And since we just have the conversation over breakfast while we're preparing for school, I decided to write her a note. I wrote the chorus and gave a pronunciation guide plus the language. 

I hope she'll have fun learning it as much as I enjoy teaching it.
 

7 Activities For R's 7th Birthday

Birthdays, in our family, is that one day in the year when you can expect your wishes to be fulfilled.  For R's birthday, things happened the way she wanted it. 

OUTREACH ACTIVITY
1. Held a simple party for children with cancer
Two years ago, we did an outreach activity for a Ramir's birthday.  We started with a Gawad Kalinga Community.  The year after, we did it with Kythe (an organization for cancer-stricken kids) at V. Luna Hospital.  On both occasions, R was an active participant.  She sorted our gifts for the kids.  For her 7th birthday, we threw her the idea of celebrating her birthday with orphaned kids.  She told us that she preferred to go back to Kythe again.  So we did.  We prepared around 30 gift bags for the kids at Kythe.  We also bought them Jollibee snacks.  I did two storytelling sessions and gave out some prizes.  R didn't just sort her gifts to the kids, she also distributed them and gave out the snacksand prizes to the kids.  I realized how she have grown.  I don't need to give her instructions she just knew what to do. 

Inside the V. Luna Hospital

With Ms. Aida and the kids

The kids of Kythe

What's in the bag?
We gave them a set of toiletries (plastic glass, towel, toothbrush, hair combs, soap dish, soap, alcohol, powder, toothpaste and tissue roll), some toys and some candies.

Bag it!

BIRTHDAY AT HOME
Just like S's Sa Aming Bakuran Pool Party, we did The Artsy Crafty Party (sa aming bakuran style).  R has a penchant for anything art-related.  Ramir and I sourced all our materials in Divisoria Mall and National Boookstore.  And for a tipid-mode Nanay and Tatay like us, we can say we got some good and affordable materials.  Thanks for all the resources we've found, the kids were all very excited, participative, happy and proud. Below are the arts and crafts activities we lined up for the kids. 

2. Painted a mask
We saw this masks in Divisoria at 18 pesos each.  We bought a set of poster paints at around P150.  I also purchased a paintbrush for each kids at P7.25.  I thought this activity wouldn't fly, but it did.

Un-Masked!

3. Colored a mural
In one of the arts stall in Divisoria Mall, we saw this color your mural type of art activity.  It also came with a set of 5 coloring pens.  We thought it would interest the kids.  Luckily, it did.  24 pesos a piece. 

Color me bad

4. Decorated a cake
700 pesos for a set of 12.  12 marble slices, 12 toppers, 12 packs of sprinkles, 12 boxes and 24 mini bags of icings (in pink and blue).  I pre-ordered this over the phone at Goldilock's Quezon Avenue.  I paid half to confirm my order and pick it up the day before R's birthday.  The kids enjoyed their being a pastry chef for a day.

Having your cake and eat it too.

5. Made a personalized bracelet
We wanted each kid to have a personalized bracelet but buying a serious looking kind would be quite expensive.  Divi Mall to the rescue.  I saw a personalize-your-own-bracelet toy in one of the stalls.  I purchased 12 pieces, cut all the letters and sorted each letter accordingly and put them in a "tray."   When the kids arrived, they picked the letters of their name and string them in their rubber bracelets. 180 pesos for the set of 12.

What's in a name?

Other party details

FUN AT THE MALL
R said she wanted to go to Active Fun on her birthday.  So when I saw a discounted rate of Active Fun at SM Annex (North EDSA) in one of the coupon sites, I purchased 6 immediately. All R's first cousins would be invited in this Active Fun birthday-after gathering.

6. Had fun at Active Fun
We were there around 11.  The kids left at 12:30.  Went back at 1:30 and left by 3pm.  If we allowed them, I knew the kids could stay there for eternity.

7. Spent time with family
Family lunch at Savory.  R wished to have lunch at Max's but it was full to the brim.  I haggled.  She was convinced the moment I said Savory has fried chicken too.

R obviously had fun.  The way she hugged us and said thank you.  It was amazing how time flew so fast.  Parang kailan lang, we're lighting candles every month.  Ramir introduced me to the idea that we'll be fairy parents for our kids' birthdays.  We'll make their "reasonable" dreams come true. And every time we see how happy and giddy they are, we knew it was such a lovely idea.  Partida, we have to hurdle the rains and the flood for R's birthday this year.  No complains. Everything was worth it.

P.S. To R., just like what the kite runner said, "for you, a thousand times over."  Happy 7th.  Mahal na mahal.

Art Day Saturday - Girl-bonding Painting

The garden (with a rose and a butterfly) by R

I said Saturday is activity day.  And she picked the perfect activity.  Acrylic painting.  I've been aching to paint for months now but I couldn't find the time.  We're swamped with a lot of things to do and our weekends are booked solid because my parents-in-law came to visit from the US.  So when she said acrylic painting, even if it meant that it would be messy, I said my eager yes.  So what happened?  I think it was a great girl bonding activity.  She did a garden.  I did a sunset after a drizzle (or so I thought this is how it would look) and a lady on bended knees, which I press released to be R in prayer. I think I saw delight in her eyes when I said it was her. I don't know what we'll do next Saturday but I'm still excited.

sunset just after a drizzle by moi

lady on bended knees (moi take 2)

S's 2nd Birthday - Backyard (Bakuran) Pool Party

It's S's 2nd birthday.  And we can't possibly pass on this one.  We need to prepare something.  S knew what she wanted - a pool party.  As parents, Ramir and I believe that our kids' wishes should be fulfilled on their birthdays. So for S, wish granted. And since we're on a budget, we already know what to do. Pool party, only this one, is just in our bakuran.   We sent out last minute invitations to ensure that there would be kids to pool party with us.  We're expecting around ten kids aged 7 and below to arrive.

Superwomom's PREP LIST for 

SA AMING BAKURAN POOL PARTY

1.  INVITATION
 I scoured the net for inspiration.  I did the layout in Photoshop.  Then printed it in photo paper.  We just bought a pack of envelopes from National Bookstore. This is for formality.  Although, pasabi can work especially in our neighborhood, we felt that an invite would give the idea that our Sa Aming Bakuran Pool Party is THE event for that Saturday afternoon.

2. INFLATABLE POOL
We borrowed the inflatable pool from by brother. And it was big.  Big enough to fit all the kids and a teenager (she's our designated lifeguard). This, I think was the best decision we made.  This saved us a few thousands.  We started filling the pool the night before.  When S woke up, we showed her the filled-up pool and she's warmed up.  And it was easily packed away after the party.

 3.  FOOD
 We cooked tuna spaghetti, fried chicken and hotdog.  We bought powdered iced tea for drinks. R and I did the buko pandan.  We also bought puto from Malabon Central Market.   Every birthday girl should have her cake. We bought S's from Goldilocks. 

 4. DECORS
I did some crepe paper buntings to decorate our kubo since it was our assigned place for eating and cake blowing.  One kid said "Wow!" Another said, "Gusto ko din ng ganito sa birthday ko." 

 5. LOOT BAGS
The night before, I did 10 origami bags.  Since they don't have handles, I improvised.  I cut some strings and tied it on the bags.  I also got some stickers to decorate the bags.  We just filled these with candies and other sweet goodies.

6.  PHOTO and VIDEO
After the party, these are the ones that will be left behind.  So there should be a designated person to take photos and video the whole thing.  Ramir and I, juggled between preps and being photo/video guys.

We had a blast and I think S too, and so did her guests.  Kids should be happy, especially on their birthdays.  I think we did good on the "making-the-birthday-girl-happy" department.

P.S. To S., it was a joy to see you, to be with you.  You make our sunny days happy.  Even the rainy ones. May you grow up to be the person God wants you to be.  Hugs and laughter are important.  And "kwentuhan" with me or with Papa or with Ate can result with a lot of those.  Mahal na mahal.  Happy birthday.