CatheKids - Fun Learning About God

So you probably don’t know what “Cathekids” is about. Well, let me tell you that Cathekids is about teaching kids about God (from the combined words of Catechism and Kids).  Yup, its listening and learning about our God in the bible. By the way, the bible has many pages but I like it that way anyway.

Cathekids also have activities for the kids like dancing to songs about God, watching videos about God doing things to change the hearts of humans. After the video watching, the catechist asked questions to see if everyone listened to the video story.

 

Last June 5, 2022, we finally met for the first time after many months of online learning after the 9am Holy Mass. Before starting, we introduced ourselves. Then, we played some games before eating food. Some of the games we played are “Hep Hep Hurray”, and “Say The Thing I Say and Do the Things I Say” (a pretty long title for the game wouldn’t you say?). After the kids play it was the adults turn to play the games but the games for the adults are different. Their game was a game of Question & Answer. My mom and I won in most games.

After the games, we ate some yummy food on the table after blessing these.

 

Finally, after eating, it was time for Phoebo and Yvonne to share their short stories about a flower, a cactus and palm tree. The lesson we learned is that we must not judge anyone by their looks only. After that, we then said our good-byes before parting ways.

 

I enjoyed our Cathekids meet-up very much especially meeting my new friends Aqui and Thor.  I hope we all meet again soon. 😉

Me, my mom and Tita Betty, our energetic catechist

 

Farm Visit

We woke up early to go to Tagaytay. We went to Our Lady of Lourdes church to pray for our safe travel and then we continued our journey towards the Gourmet Farm.  

When we arrived there, we ate breakfast first and then we decided to tour around. That is when things started to get more interesting.

So, the tour started and we saw a civet cat that is really cute and kind of looks like a small fox that can climb trees. Civet cat’s poop is one the most expensive coffee beans and it costs about 1,350 pesos per cup. But I don’t think I will ever want to drink a cup of that expensive poop.

The next thing we did on the tour is that me and my brother poured some coffee beans into the sucking machine.

This machine sends the beans into the other room for cooking, grinding, and finally, for packing. I kind of like the surrounding smell.

After that we went back to the plantation and we saw multi-cropping that has a lot of plants in different rows. Forme the purpose of multi-cropping is to plant multiple plants at the same time so that you have many plants to harvest once they grow. This is a soil-friendly method.

We were walking to the plant nursery when I decided to walk on the side of the rocky road and I saw some plants and chickens. The chickens were really noisy even if they are really far because you can hear them even from their restaurant.

We continued the long walk and again we saw Ashitaba, a plant that smells nice so we decided to get some samples. I also noticed that many trees are planted on the border line around the farm.

Manong planting seeds

After that the next thing we were going to see is the plant nursery. That’s where the baby plants are taken care of and that’s also where they grow them. And once they are big enough, they will be re-planted outside for their final growth (that’s where I’m standing on, but of course I’m not standing on the plants!).The baby plants in the picture are cabbages. And like I said before, they’re still growing so they have to stay there for now but once they grow big enough there’re going to be growing at the multi-crop section with their other cabbage buddies.

And this is me in a nipa house in the middle of the farm. I was in there because I wanted to rest after walking a long distance. Looking out the windows, I noticed that there  were more cabbages than any other plants. I guess the Gourmet Farm needs more cabbages than the other plants they have.

And then we went to a facility that cuts, washes, and boxes the plants inside the facility. The boxes behind me are the boxes that the cabbages are packed in for exports in different areas of Luzon. Who knows, maybe they are even exporting in different countries of Asia.

There is an info-banner outside the facility on the wall that shows the plants that they have. And they are all organic and healthy whether packed or cooked in their restaurant.

We also checked out some accommodation rooms. These were nice and clean.

But when we went out of the room, there was a duck standing right there in front of the room we were in. I was surprised by the duck because the duck blends in with the rocks, rock towers, pebbles, and the pond. Not far, we saw another duck with its young ducklings.

   

And the tour ended so we started to go back to the restaurant where our car was parked. But We wanted to say goodbye to the goats and the same to civet cat which didn’t want to be pictured. My dad was like ,“Oh come on, let me take a picture of you!”. Finally, the civet cat showed its face for the camera.

And this is me standing at the company board. So really this the end of the story of our Gourmet Farm visit. It was really fun and exciting and I learned a lot there. I hope I can visit this place again.

My 2022 Holy Week Offering

At the school Seven Pillars, we were trained for the Easter Vigil Sunday in our parish because we were going to sing three songs “Regina Coeli”, “Magalak Tayong Lahat” and “Ang Pagkasalubong ni Hesus na Muling Nabuhay”. All songs are somewhat hard to memorize but we practice again and again and started to memorize the three songs. 

When Palm Sunday came, we needed to parade for the church while holding the two palms and the parade has the church members, as I call them, parading with us. I did good and I had fun doing it. My family were able to attend the 6:30 am mass. After the mass, I was asked by my friends at the church to play tag with both of them and so I did. They were like, “why is he so fast?” because they would try to get me but I was too fast for them.

We repeated this parade but inside the church only and without palms on Maundy Thursday after the night mass.

As a member of Kid’s Feast, I was also asked to play and record the piano and sing the song

“Here I Am to Worship”. It took me five tries to record the song. Somebody else did the editing and it took long but the video finally got released on Maundy Thursday too. The link was sent to us so that we can see the finished video. 

                               

On Good Friday my brother needed to attend the Seven Last Words presentation because he has a role as the father of a daughter in trouble. He actually did really good and the acts they were doing were about the words, for me, of Jesus which happened at the cross.

Then, there was the procession that my father is going to lead. It ended and we talked to some people while we’re there. We saw the youth ministry members and they gave me a snack to eat, I did and it tasted nice. I needed to practice for Easter Sunday because I was going to sing a solo which is hard to do but I needed to go anyway. I will try to memorize the one song and I don’t have the best memory. I’m starting to feel nervous but when the time comes, I have to be ready and prepared.

The procession took really so long that we got hungry at the time we got home. I ate so much pasta and after I ate so much wanted to rest but since I was full I needed to wait for a while, and then I was finally able to sleep.

On Easter vigil mass started at 8:30pm which was weird for me but it started anyway. I was holding again a basket with flowers and I was like, “why am I holding basket with flowers?” But then I was told that it was for the stage that we were going to sing on but first is the mass. We were holding another flower as we walked to the front of the altar and we gave the flowers to the church members and then walked back to our seats. The mass continued until 11:00pm. After that we practiced again, this time on the angel choir stage. It was good to be prepared.

                  

So, we practiced the three songs and I practiced my part of the solo. It took a while but I got the hang of it but got a little hungry. Me and my mom went back to our car so that I can eat my snack but, a little later, I was called by my brother because the Salubong was coming and I was needed at the stage. But actually it was still far so I just stayed on the stage anyway and until the moment really came.

At the time we were on stage friend Roxelle, another angel soloist, was wearing an LED lighted halo and wings. It was very nice to look at and some of us made jokes that Roxelle was going to fly into the sky after singing. That was funny.

That’s when things got a little harder. When the time came I was so nervous so I kept telling myself to stay calm and I did. But I still made a mistake when I sang my part of the solo but my mom said ,“It’s ok because they don’t know the lyrics anyway” and I felt good. After the singing, I talked to my friends and took pictures before they left. It was already past midnight. We all felt energetic like as if we were not tired at all.

And so this is me with my good friend Roxelle and our parish priest Father Edwin who was leading the mass celebration of Easter Sunday.

But a little later I was starting to feel really tired so we went home.

Happy Easter to all.

Metal Battle

 

It's no secret that our kids love Lego's.

Both Matt and Aim have been at it since their hands started gripping those squares and pegs and since their sights and mindss conjuring up those figures in the boxes and building manuals.

Matt, now turning 17, has started to move on from Lego though he still has his collection display. So now it is mostly Aim's turn.  

For this blog, I am proud to feature Aim's mix-up Lego creation of one of his favorite weekend gadget games - The War Robot.

I know 😉.

Our kid rocks 👍💪😍

Kindness Forward

 

 Dear Rowin and Menchie,

When I was in Shekou last Sunday for Mass, Ellen told me after mass of the heartbreaking news of the sudden death of your dearly beloved daughter and the illness of your son...your agony at loss and of consolation. She mentioned that your hearts were even more heavily burdened because there was no Church people nearby to assist you. I immediately mentioned, although I had no way to contact you directly, that she tell you to contact Fr. Manaldo or Fr. Passeporte in Macau...Filipino Fathers of St. Paul. They could reach Zhuhai quickly and may be of assistance. I asked her to contact you that I would be offering my Mass for the the repose of her soul...although my prayers are mostly that from her place before the Throne of Another FATHER she would be praying for us who remain "on the way". How privileged you are to have your child in eternal glory before God! There, time is no more; there, heartaches cannot enter, there,  sufferings are unknown. We ask her prayers that you, her mother and father, and us, her brothers and sisters, might achieve the same glory!

There is no shame in being broken hearted over your lovely daughter's death. Even God expects that as a sign of our love of His Will (which is always for good) love for those He created. I am sure you will appreciate that one day when you meet God and your daughter again in Heaven. Our existence is not a "grin and bear it" existence...it is an existence that Christ indicated by His life on earth and His beckoning: "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all graces will be given to you!" 

My condolences, Rowin and Menchie, and prayers that the Lord grant to your daughter that eternal glory for which she was created, and to you and to you wife, consolations and graces abundant and divine! All of us of the Shekou Society pray for you.

 Father Adam Gudalefsky

 

 For the past 12 years, our family has been a conduit of small acts of kindness and gestures of charity to the less fortunate. With the loving and generous support of our families and Brgy China OFW community, the purpose to bring smiles to others as our beloved Maia has done for us in her short lived life. Her death signaled the birth of Maia Outreach Program.

 

Yes, 12 years ago, our family was the one in deep despair and unfathomable pain after the sudden departure of our beloved Maia. It was a faith-shaking and life-changing moment that we could have not come through without the divine hand of God reaching out to comfort us in the form of families, friends and even from total strangers whom we have never even personally met. 

 Yes, we received so much love in our lowest moment and these love is simply too hard to be contained and not shared. The kindness we received then became our inspiration to be also the extension of God’s charity to others for the rest of our lives.

 We miss and love you always, Maia !

 

Homeschool Journey Re-visited

It has been a long while since we updated our kids homeschooling page.

But last Saturday, June 13, my wife and I had such a great time in an interview by Ms. Christine Plata of South Pinanays group with Ms. Laksmi Maluya of Go-Pala Homeschooling that we are taking a few Q&A excerpts from the interview.

Disclaimer: This is not a verbatim transcription of the interview because we added some more ideas and clarity to hopefully guide those parents who are contemplating about homeschooling their kids due to the uncertainty of the education system in the on-going pandemic.

So here goes.

How many children do you have and what are their names and ages?

We have 2 sons. Our eldest is Matt Ezekiel who is now 16 y/o and the little guy is Mark Ephraim  who just turned 9 y/o.

Have your children always been homeschooled or have they at some point attended a private or public school? How was the adjustment like?

Both our sons are homeschooled since pre-school. Matt upon reaching 7th grade transferred to the traditional school in Laguna and Aim, now on third grade, is still is ongoing home-schooling.

For Matt's case, his main adjustment was unfortunately quite difficult in terms of peer group pressure. At the time of his transfer, his Filipino language is not yet proficient and, being the new kid on the block experienced bullying. His moral compass was also challenged by other kids who opposed him in words or by actions. (For example, we have taught him that lying is not OK and yet his classmates says it is OK. Playing gadgets inside the classroom is not allowed and yet he sees most of his classmates doing it). In time, though, he slowly adapted to the campus norm and is fine now.

Why did you choose to home-school your kids?

Since year 2000, my husband's work was China-based so our whole family was also with him there.

When Matt reached 4 y/o (yr 2008), we started looking for a Chinese school to enrol to but we never felt comfortable all along. Being both Catholics, we know for a fact that a communist country like China will never teach children about God and morality. The other option which is for me and Matt to go back to Philippines and be separated from my husband is also off the table. So then we started to look at the concept of home-schooling. 

           

Meanwhile, Bro. Bo Sanchez of the Light of Jesus and founder of "The Feast" community, has started his own home-schooling provider called Catholic Filipino Academy in year 2005. And being readers of his write-ups and oversea followers of his Kerygma Family, we came into conclusion that this is it for our Matt. So we enrolled him there and, as they say, everything is part of our family history.

Now comes pre-school Aim in the year 2016. We were thinking of directly enrolling him in a traditional

school since we are residing already in Laguna. However, knowing the fact that Aim is G6PD deficient, his health can be easily compromised by his environment and surroundings. So after some discernment and consultations with other home-schoolers like Ms. Laksmi, we finally decided to choose to home-school him "independently".

You see, Matt was enrolled with a provider, which was in a nutshell, like transferring the whole classroom set-up into our homes - there are lessons plan to meet, scheduled quizzes and exams to take and projects to complete. We have good support system from parent-coaches but it was still stressful and ultimately not fun in the long run. We accepted the fact that that kind of track learning was not suitable for our family.    

So for Aim, we chose to let him work according to his own pace and focusing on his strengths and

interests like creative arts and science projects in order to squeeze other subject matters. It's less

stressful for us and more fun learning for Aim.

What are your top 3 benefits of homeschooling your children?

Above all things, we are grateful that our children are growing up learning and nurturing our spiritual and family values inside our home. Hopefully, they will be able to absorb these into their hearts and be "strong" once they are finally on their own.

Next, the time we spent with each other is just super. In the traditional set-up, many parents leave

for work even before their child wakes up and get back home late when everybody starts to retire for the night. That's about an hour left a day for good bonding, if parents are not dead-tired from the long clocks at work and horrendous traffic. For us homeschoolers, we get to bond 24/7 with our kids. We mix family trips with educational trips. We serve in our spiritual communities that nourishes our kids social skills with the right crowd. We get to see our children smile a lot, get to affirm them of our love when they are sad, encourage them when they feel down, and remind them if misbehaving. Mushy as it may sound, our kids grow up fast and any lost time is irreversible. The next thing we know, they are grown ups and are off to their own lives.

Third, our children are enjoying their childhood. If they want to ride a bike, they can. If they want to go for swimming, why not? If they want to meet other home-schooling friends, it is just a schedule away. The kids today at a very young age is already exposed to such burdensome school requirements that they forgot what it means to be a kid, to enjoy life, to have fun in learning.

How does a parent become qualified to homeschool his/her child/children? Can anyone do it?

Honestly speaking, not anyone can do it but anybody can make it work given the right attitude and right conditions.

Right attitudes of any would-be parent-teachers includes:

1. patient – calm perseverance to teach their children even if their un-teachable mood. 

2. creative - a natural knack for different learning methods that matches his/her child's interest

3. resourceful - with endless stream of information, fun ideas and networks of support

Right conditions includes:

1. a designated learning area away from distractions like gadgets and TV

2. a flexible schedule and line-up of activities to avoid lull moments

3. at least 1 parent is full-time teacher

But above everything else, the parents unconditional and affirmative love for their child is the most important ingredient to have a successful home-schooling adventure.

What advice would you give first time parents who will be homeschooling this coming school year?

1.    Be convicted to succeed and be committed to the upcoming joyous learning experience with your kids.

2.    Turn your home into a fun learning school where both you and your kids are going to discover their potentials and learn their life-skills while bonding with you.

3.    Every child is unique so there is no one-solution-fits-all to begin homeschooling. Discover your child’s learning habits and work your way from there.

We wish all new first-time homeschoolers the best of luck and the best times you can have with your children.

Leader-what?

Aim, like his kuya Matt, is very much into Lego building. One playtime, he went for the space theme creations complete with the ISS (International Space Station), space explorers, satellites and lots of spacecrafts. Curious at his latest set-up, I started asking him serious space-stuff questions.

Dad   :   Aim, what is this space-craft?

Aim   :  That’s the rocketship that will bring supplies to the ISS.

Dad   :   Wow! And how about those ones?

Aim   :   Those are the spaceships that will fight the incoming enemies.

Dad   :   OK. How about that very big ship in the middle?

Aim   :   That’s easy! It is the mothership (obviously enjoying our Q&A since he can answer them all with ease)

Dad   :   That’s cool. So what about that ship in front of the other ships, what is it called?

Aim   :    (beaming with smile) That’s the leadership!

I love this kid :)

Summer Sportfest

That was fun!

Our KICC teacher Sir Joni invited us to join the Intra-Parish Sportsfest that was held in De Lasalle Greenhills. Other choirs and youth members joined too.

Me and other choir members met at the Edsa Shrine Church and instead of taking the car we walked so we can exercise already.

Before we played some sports, we have a mass with Father Aldrin. After the mass, our host named Ate Twinsy, explained how this sportfest came to be and what we will expect that day. After she explained everything, we have our national anthem and then we went out to watch the runners pass around the torch. After they run around then they lighted a bowl of coal or wood. It was like in the Olympics J. Then sportsfest officially began.

First, we played the novelty-game “Patintero”. This was how we played it. The yellow team was the “blocking” team who needs to block horizontally and vertically any opposing team member from crossing to and from their base. The blue team, that was us, is the “running” team. If one of our team member gets caught, then we lose our turn. The blue team becomes the blocker and the yellow will be the runner. Unfortunately, we lost that game.

Our next game was Dodge ball and this was how we played it. The “throwing” team will have 5 members on each opposite sides and the “dodging” team was composed of 10 members in the middle. Our blue team was the throwing team and we threw the ball against the members of the green team until all of them were out. Each time a member of the dodging team catches the ball, the team can add one more player. The team with the most number of members in the middle after a given time won. Again, it was not us.

Our next game was chess and this time all teams are allowed. This was also an elimination game contest.

There were other games like basketball and volleyball but these were mostly for the young adults.

So far our EDSA team lost a lot of games but even though, we still have a lot of fun. We even get to eat lunch in the big school canteen.

After the sportfest ended, one by one, the people left with smiles on their faces.

Midweek Camp-In

What a blast!

The Seven Pillars school hosted a 2-day camp-in last March 16-17 about survival in the forest, desert and other difficult places.

On day one, I arrived in our school and unpacked my stuffs. After that, I went to the gym for the students grouping. They used the planet names of the solar system to name each group and the name of our group was Team Venus.

Our first activity was to pitch a tent. After they taught us, they made a challenge how fast we can pitch our tent. We finished in last place.

After that we had a break for a few minutes and then we went down to learn how to go to a location without a compass using only a watch. This is how you do it, first find the sun and then use your watch to point it your time is 10 to 12 find the middle which was 11 so that’s south. That’s your quide-direction to find north, east and west.

And then they taught us how to capture, kill ,clean, cut and cook the piglet. It was kinda sad killing an animal.

We prepared our breakfast using fire, coal and some papers, same thing in breakfast lunch and dinner,

Afterwards, we played “Capture the Flag”. We needed to be stealthy if we want to win this game. Our “enemy” were the girls and we captured a lot of flags so the boys won.

It was night time but before we slept some of my classmates and even our teachers told stories. We slept and woke up at 6 am for day 2.

For breakfast and lunch my group-mates and I cooked some food outside the school after we made fire.

 On day 2, we jogged and have a little break when we went back. And then they taught us how to use arnis to defend against an enemy.

Lastly, it was treasure hunting. Well, it took two or more hours to find all the clues and to figure out the riddle before finding the item. It was pretty exhausting.

 Finally, we all went back to our homes.

Awesome Holiday

We started our school vacation on Dec. 16 at the start of Simbang Gabi.

On Dec 17 we went to the Lego competition to try my luck to win another Speed Lego competition but I lost to another kid. Better luck next time for me but it’s a good thing that others have chance to win.

On the next day, I went to the Awesome Kids Christmas party. We ate there and have some activities and even met new friends. I joined the AK choir that sang during the mass for the Feast. After that I got to meet Bro. Bo Sanchez’s friend and Feast builder Brother Arun. We have photo together.

After we went to the church, we went to the Jollibee to join the youth party. In this party we sang to the Lord and prayed. It’s like the youth party is a place to worship God, but of course we also have activities such as shooting the marble in the small cup and another is bringing the small chocolate candy in the cup using straw and the prizes are a couple of sweets. These activities reminded me of the show called “Minute to Win” cause these are activities are challenging also.

After the youth party we bring our mother to the WFMA party while my father, brother and I watched the latest Star Wars movie – Rogue One, that was just released on Dec 15. The movie was kinda cool and sad but I don’t wanna spoil the movie so you’ll have to see for yourself. It’s a surprise.

I recently joined the Bosconian Voice Chorale (BVC) and we had a mini concert at the Vista Mall where we sang many Christmas and other love songs. we sang for one hour and its kinda cool too cause at the end we have free food The BVC is a group of teenagers that sing in the Don Bosco church every Sunday mass.

On December 24, we went to Malolos to visit my grandfather’s house to hold and join the Christmas party arranged by our Maia Outreach Programs. There were so many young and less-fortunate children. There were fun games such as “drinking soda” race, “passing around this item” and tongue twister words. There were also two performances. First was a song number “See You Again” by myself with my father and my cousins. Second was a magic show. And then we have a raffle where the grand prize was a rice cooker. Of course the little kids ate and I helped by passing the food to them. After the party, we went back to my grandfather’s house to celebrate our own Christmas party.

At the rest of the Christmas season, we visited our relatives and have a party too. My father’s relatives live in Malolos and my mother’s relatives lives in Paranaque. All my cousins were there too so we played games, performed songs, received gifts and of course ate a lot.

This was our busy happy holidays.

Thank you Lord, it was awesome!