UPDATED! Announcement: ROCKERs November 4 Meet-up / All Saints' Day Celebration

The monthly meeting of ROCKERs for November will be in celebration of ALL SAINTS' DAY.  
We highly encourage the kids (and even parents too, if you like!)  to come 

as your favorite Catholic saint or "icon." 
(For ideas, you can go here).

This is our contribution towards keeping the HALLOW in Halloween. ;-)

The venue for Nov 4 is CONFIRMED to be at our usual meeting place, i.e. 

the MEDELA HOUSE (not Gymboree).
(The complete address of the MH is No. 29, 1st Street, New Manila, QC. 

It's beside 8 Gilmore Place.)

PLEASE COME PROMPTLY AT 3.30 PM. :-)

Below is the program of activities: 
3.30-3.45 pm Arrival/Registration 
3.45-4.00 pm Prayer / Introduction to the program / Brief All Saints’ Day explanation 
4.00-4.30 pm Games 
4.30-4.45 pm Storytelling session with All Saints' Day theme 
4.45-5.15 pm Snacks 
5.15-5.30 pm Time for a short ROCKER parents’ meeting  / Kids Free Play 
5.30-5.40 pm Closing Prayer

IMPORTANT! Things to bring:
- Yourself and your kids dressed up in Saint / Catholic-themed costumes 

- Food to share (pls. see form below) 

- Your own cups, plates and utensils (so we don't need to use disposable stuff) 

Please confirm your attendance for the All Saints' Day Celebration by filling in the form below:

More WONDERFUL All Saints' ideas from Catholic Icing!

I have really got to hand it to Catholic Icing's Lacy - when God created her, He must have breathed an extra dose of Catholic creativity into her soul!

Meet Catholic Icing's Lacy, with her 3 kids Lydia, Julian and Violet! God bless you abundantly for your amazing contribution to Catholic families everywhere! ;-)
*Photo from  http://catholicicing.blogspot.com

Check out her latest posts on making All Saints' Day fun and exciting for everyone, especially the kids!

Ideas for crafting an All Saints' Day bucket (a wonderful alternative to the Halloween pumpkin buckets)

Easy food party ideas for All Saints' Day - something I hope we'll be able to use for our Nov 4 ROCKERs All Saints' Day party

Saintly soda for All Saints' Day - Lacy is totally AMAZING! She thinks of everything! ;-)

Printable All Saints' Day games - I want to do this for Nov 4 too! ;-)

Cutest All Saints' Day cookies - Makes me want to go out and buy an oven so I can try baking these! hehe! ;-)

I really hope and pray that more and more Catholic families would make being Catholic FUN and EXCITING for their kids, especially here in the Philippines! ;-) Thankfully though, God placed Catholic moms like Lacy in the world, who are willing to share their ideas for free on the Net! ;-) God bless her and all other moms like her! ;-)

How to keep the HALLOW in Halloween AND Ideas for All Saints' Day

This post is inspired by one of my favorite Catholic mom bloggers of all time (Lacy of Catholic Icing and Catholic ABC's preschool curriculum - just got our copy a few days ago, the same day we had our first official field trip to an exhibit on Blessed John Paul II!).

That's me holding our copy of Catholic ABC's! Yahoo! Praise GOD after 1 month plus of waiting!  ;-)

Halloween is just around the corner, and I hope to be celebrating it with our kids in a more meaningful way, compared to last year.

Last year we celebrated Halloween for the first time in the Philippines and the kids went trick or treat-ing at Valle Verde 1, where hubby's aunt lives. ;-) 

Tim was dressed as a knight (I kept telling him he was St. George, but  he didn't quite appreciate it. This year though, he is excited to be dressed up as the dragon-slaying saint, so we'll just be recycling his costume and adding a few more touches. Like a sword and shield maybe.
Rysse was dressed as an angel upon the request of her aunt, hubby's sister (she bought everything!). :-) Don't know if she'll be the same this year BUT if I have my way, I want to dress her up as one of those saints who were royalty. She is after all very fond of princesses now. If not, I would love to have her dressed up as her patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux!

Borrowing from one of Lacy's posts about Halloween, let's check out what the word HALLOW really means:

Definition of Hallow: Hallow is a word usually used as a verb, meaning "to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate".[1]  The adjective form hallowed, as used in The Lord's Prayer, means holy, consecrated, sacred, or revered.[2] In modern English usage, the noun hallow appears mostly in compounds in Halloween and Hallowmas. Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is a shortened form of All Hallow Even, meaning "All Hallow's Eve" or "All Saints' Eve".[3] Hallowmas, the day after Halloween, is shortened from Hallow's mass, and is also known as "All Hallow's Day" or "All Saints' Day".[4]

Preparing for our "official" first field trip - “Beatus: Embracing the Holiness of John Paul II" Exhibit

I was so psyched when my friend and officemate Ate Alma (who also happens to be a food blogger) told me about this ongoing exhibit at the Gateway Mall in Cubao, featuring Blessed John Paul II. Entitled “Beatus: Embracing the Holiness of John Paul II" it features photos and certain relics of the late Pope, probably one of the most well-loved Popes of all time!


The exhibit opened on October 9 and will run until October 21 at the Gateway Mall Activity Area. Organized by the Diocese of Cubao and the Smart Araneta Center, it is part of the preparation for the celebration of the FIRST Feast Day of Blessed John Paul on October 22. 

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of St. Teresa (Therese) of Avila

Today (Oct 15) is St. Teresa of Avila's Feast Day. She was a Carmelite nun, like St. Therese of Lisieux. However, based on her biographies like this one from Catholic.org, unlike St. Therese, she did not have a fervent desire to serve God at an early age:

"..she led a fairly ordinary life, though she was convinced that she was a horrible sinner. As a teenager, she cared only about boys and clothes and flirting and rebelling -- like other teenagers throughout the ages."

(I see she and I had A LOT in common when we were younger, haha!) Nevertheless, despite all her faults and struggles, God blessed her immensely, and truly shaped her to be holy and a saint (something we all hope to be one day, right?)

To celebrate her Feast Day today, here is a round-up of ideas from other fabulous, creative Catholic moms, mostly homeschoolers:

1. Make a St. Teresa of Avila Prayer Bookmark from Paper Dali

Confessions of A Guilty Teacher Mama

Warning: This is a true confession. If you don't want your opinion of me to be untarnished, DON'T read this. But the truth sets us free, and I really need to be free right now. So I'm confessing publicly all my sins, though I'll be doing so privately to a priest soon too - through the amazing Sacrament of Reconciliation! Lord, have mercy on me!
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I just read this article about "Why Nagging Doesn't Work" (which I will re-post below) and realized that I have been doing A LOT more nagging than I should be.

People who read my blogs (this one and my main mommy blog) and posts on Facebook, and who see the "outer me" and my "outer life" probably think that I am a good example of how young moms should be - working at home (3x a week), homeschooling, breastfeeding, serving fulltime in a Catholic community, advocating several things, etc, etc.

Wordless Wednesday

ROCKERs Philippines October 7 "Workshop" with My Masterpiece Movement

Thank You Lord for the wonderful teacher-artists from My Masterpiece Movement, especially Mommy Anna, who offered to hold an interactive multi-arts storytelling workshop/performance for our small group of Catholic homeschoolers (ROCKERs!) We all had so much fun - praise God too for the generous Medela Moms Beng and Maricel, who hosted the activity (again!) at the Medela House.

The kids and I (and Ate Lyn!) went early so we could prepare the place. We rode the FX and LRT to Gilmore station and walked to the Medela House. It was pretty tiring because I was carrying a backpack with my not-so-light laptop in it, plus wearing Rysse in front with my Next 9 pouch (I SO love the convenience of babywearing! hehe!).

Anyway, we had fun setting up. I am/we are trying to teach the kids consistently about the concept of service / serving others by helping out, doing chores, etc.

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (Oct 7)

This year's Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary also falls on the First Friday of October - a double reason to celebrate! I am SO excited for our monthly ROCKERs meeting later at the Medela House! We will be treated to an interactive multi-arts and storytelling/ sing and dance along session c/o our friends at My Masterpiece Movement. Yipeee! Praise GOD ;-)

The kids and I will be going to New Manila by taking the FX to the LRT station, then we'll go by LRT (Light Rail Transit, or train in other countries, hehe) to Gilmore St. and walk to Medela House (the Medela Moms Beng and Maricel are Catholic homeschoolers! Awesome!). I'm sure we'll have lots of learning experiences along the way! ;-)

Since it's the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, we will also go to Mass at St. Pio Shrine (at least I am hoping we can!) and try to do one or two of the following activities (which you may want to do too, and don't forget to scroll down for some helpful videos):

- For TeacherMama: read and apply this article on "Exploring Mary and Motherhood"

- Do coloring of the Rosary / Mama Mary pages. The mom behind Family Feast and Feria has taken the time to scan coloring pages of the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries here, and provides the link to the Luminous Mysteries too, which you can go to directly here. There is also a coloring page from Domestic Church here. You can also take a look at the one recommended by Catholic Mom here, Waltzing Matilda here. (Lightbulb moment! We can do this while praying the Rosary too! hehe).

Play Pilipinas: International Conference to Tackle Issues on Children’s Play and Development this October 21 to 23

(I have posted about Play Pilipinas before here. I think it would be a great event to attend if we had the extra cash for it! hehe ;-) Anyway, I am sharing this article about it from Smart Parenting's website for those who are interested. You can also go directly to the Play Pilipinas website here.)

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Academic experts and child advocates will present the latest developments on the study of play as it relates to child welfare during a three-day international conference, Play Pilipinas, set from October 21 to 23 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Organization and consistency at the Kingdom-seekers Academy

If you've been following our homeschool daily lessons blog (Kingdom Seekers Academy), you'll see that I/we have been pretty inconsistent in recording our daily activities (my bad! huhuhu!) So in an attempt to be consistent starting this October, I've tried taking photos to record our activities.

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (Updated with NEW CARTOON VIDEOS!)

When I was younger, especially when I was still a single missionary for Youth for Christ, one of my "idol" saints was St. Francis of Assisi. Perhaps because I could relate to his "troubled" and sinful life as a youth, and later on, as a missionary who gave his all to God, not caring about the material things in life. (Much like one of my other "idols,"  Filipino lay preacher Bo Sanchez!)

However, I have realized since then that what matters most to God is my poverty in spirit and detachment from the material world, and that there is nothing wrong with wanting to be rich, if it is for the right reasons, and to glorify God by helping others. This is especially true if one has a family - there's nothing wrong with wanting to provide for one's kids right?

Anyway, St. Francis celebrates his Feast Day today so here is a round-up of ideas on how to celebrate:

1. Watch videos about his life - Watchknowlearn.org has a good list of videos here. Below is one of the videos, hopefully Tim won't be TOO bored with it as it's meant for 8 year olds and up. hehe! ;-)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk70JUT-QAU]

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux (delayed I know! haha) and the Feast of the Guardian Angels

I was supposed to post these ideas for St. Therese's feast day yesterday but didn't get to as my mom and I went to visit my cousin who just gave birth, and give some breastfeeding support to her. After that, we went grocery shopping with the kids. It was a very rainy Saturday in Manila yesterday, and I hope everyone's coping with the typhoon well. Let's keep praying for those badly affected though, and still in flooded areas!

Anyway, here are some ideas for St. Therese's Feast Day, as re-posted from other wonderful Catholic moms' blogs and Catholic websites! (It's never too late to celebrate and teach our kids about St. Therese, who is one of my personal favorites, as we sought her intercession when I was pregnant with our 2 kids on mission! That's why we named our first daughter, Alyssa Therese :-) hehe.)

P.S. Please also keep reading to the end for ideas on celebrating the Feast of the Guardian Angels (Oct 2)! :-)

Homeschooling A Reluctant Learner

What a beautiful inspiring post from one of my favorite homeschool sites: Simple Homeschool! :-) This Sunday morning, I am led to reflect more on why we are homeschooling and what I am doing "wrong" which may be more harmful than helpful to Tim (and Rysse)! :-)

Thank You Lord for articles like these, which help bring me back to the right path! I am sharing it below for you all. :-) You may also find these activities helpful: http://webmama-blog.blogspot.com/2010/05/activities-for-relunctant-learners.html. God bless us and Mama Mary, please continue to pray for us!

Teaching a Reluctant Learner

by TONI on SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

in INSPIRATION

Ihave a child who hates school.

This is hard for me to admit because it feels like I failed. I failed my son, my family, and the homeschool community.