WORK-AT-HOME KIDS

There are a lot of things that parents can do to keep their kids busy and productive at home during this quarantine period. In fact, kids can work at home and get paid, rather than just play. Just like adults who are happy for receiving their salary, my two nieces also felt delighted after receiving their monetary reward from me. Just a small amount for working on their “ special job”.

But does giving monetary reward to children really help?

My answer is YES. Giving kids money as a reward for a completed task has its own benefits and this is what I discovered.

Giving kids money as their reward for accomplishing a task can be used by parents as a way to teach their kids the value of money and work. Anyway, these two, money and work go together. If you want to earn money, then, you have to work. It’s a plain and simple condition. Even with children, young as they are, parents can teach their children the benefits of doing something productive at home in exchange for a monetary reward. Of course, I do not promote the idea of paying their children for doing the responsibilities that the kids ought to do at home, such as cleaning their room, washing the dishes and other household chores. It is only for “special job” that kids must be given the monetary reward. When I asked my two nieces to do some artworks for me, they agreed right away, probably out of obedience. Initially, I never thought of giving them money in exchange for the favor I was asking from them. It was only later on that I decided to give them their monetary reward because I thought,  they would probably be waiting for something from me. True enough, when I told them that I would pay each of them, their eyes grew big and smiled at me and they became more excited to finish their artworks. When they had finished , they showed me their output. With the Raine’s work, I did not see anything that needed revision. When the younger one (Camille) showed me her artwork, I told her that, she did it beautifully, but I saw something that needed to be improved. Upon hearing my comment, her impatience suddenly came out and told me, “Tita, pinapahirapan mo buhay ko.” (Tita, you are making my life difficult) Using my teacher’s instinct, since I did not like what I heard from her, I told myself that I should correct her misconception about my intention. Sometimes, we can discover a lot of their misconceptions on how they look at things, when we spend time conversing with the children.

Real-life situations and conversation with our children can be used as opportunity for teaching them the right way of seeing things.With proper explanations from adults, young people can change the way they look at things in a higher perspective. For my part, I told her that if someone, specially, an adult gives her suggestions on how she can further improve her work does not mean giving her additional burden, but it is a way to encourage her to do better and not to settle for less in doing something.

It is always in the quality of work that one can earn a better reward, not necessarily in the form of money, but it can be a good grade or praise in exchange of a job well done.

Lesson Learned:

The value of teaching the kids about the value of work and money is truly priceless and in teaching them, let us not emphasize the idea of just working for the money but rather it is the sense of fulfillment that a person can derive from using his or her God’s given talent that truly matters to achieve one’s happiness and contentment in life.

What Breaks a Teacher's Heart

Let’s have a quick survey. Just something to think about.

What do you think will break the heart of a teacher?

... an unanswered question?

… a not-so-good student’s rating?

… a messy classroom?

… a broken “house rule”?

How do you feel when school year is over?

Looking at one’s empty classroom after the students have left at the end of the school year will surely break a teacher’s heart. There is a natural tendency in any teacher to feel sad upon looking at his or her empty classroom with chairs turned upside down, the bare bulletin boards and walls, the deafening silence, and a picture of stillness inside. The classroom that was once full of life and laughter became lifeless in the absence of our dear students, and this is the same sad reality that any teacher has to face at the end of school year. When something comes to an end, there is always a sense of loss, even if it is something we actually wanted and hoped would end, like coming to school every day. The similar scenario of looking around and standing alone in an empty classroom creates a prick in my heart, a feeling that only a teacher like me can understand. But why do teachers feel sad at the end of every school year?

For me, the end of school year brings sadness and emptiness in our hearts as teachers because that marks the beginning of bringing up the memories of our students who are no longer with us and we will surely miss them. But we have to accept that in life, some good things never last.

...there is a time for everything

a time to be born and a time to die

a time to plant and a time to uproot...

a time to laugh and a time to weep...

( my version)

a time to say, “hello” and a time to say, “ goodbye”.

Lesson Learned:

Reminiscing the school year that has ended will always bring sadness in our hearts as teachers, but we have to let it go and let God set up for what lies ahead in the coming of the next school year, a new beginning.

The pandemic, corona virus, has caused physical distancing on people but it will never stop us from reaching out with our loved ones and friends. With the right use of technology, coupled with our creativity, we can improvise our own greeting cards for special occasions. Fresh from her sketchpad, a birthday card made by my niece.

“My Mom Is My Everything” was Metro.Style’s theme used last year for its poster making contest that would pay tribute to all mothers and mother figures on the special occasion of Mother's Day. The contest invited young participants to join where they could show their love and appreciation for their mothers. It was my niece’s first exposure to an art contest outside school. I knew from the start that such experience would become a significant part of her life from where she can draw out the motivation to trust her creativity. Though my niece’s artwork did not make it to the grand prize, to be chosen as one of the Top 10 finalists was more than enough to be joyful and thankful. Happy Mother's Day!

This is a drawing submitted by my niece to her CL teacher during their classroom activity in which they were asked to think of a drawing that would represent their idea of government/ politics and the text goes like this “ It may be confusing why I drew this, but I saw the politics/ government as a lion. It sometimes strike whenever they saw a problem lurking around the streets. But there is also a reason why they strike. They only strike because they wanted to remove the weeds and replace them with beautiful flowers.” I like the way she chose a drawing that would represent her idea of governance and she drew it very beautifully! The lion is an iconic representation of ferocity and in government, specially the government officials, need to be firm in implementing the laws with justice. This should be done to transform chaos ( the weeds) to law and order (the beautiful flowers). The drawing is not only beautiful, but also it makes sense to me. ( from a teacher’s perspective)