Did you take photos while your kids were opening their gifts?
Their smiles were immeasurable!
I often play the moment back in my head (in slow motion and with background music) when kids rejoice and jump in excitement at the sight of a toy peeking out from the wrappers. It is so beautiful I sometimes wish it’s Christmas all year! Okay, maybe not. Haha. It’s not a very relaxing month for parents to say the least. I actually wish we could get what we’re hoping for too. Rest and alone time maybe? Right, not happening. LOL. Okay, so while our kids are busy enjoying their new toys, I hope you’ll join me in unwrapping another gift before the year ends.
I am actually very happy I am posting this topic this Yuletide season.
Our children are our greatest gifts aren’t they? And because they are, we try our best to get them what they wish for. But have you ever thought that alongside Frozen dolls, talking Ninja Turtles, and Adventure Time toys, another great present to give is to help them discover their gifts? By that I mean the ones they already have in them. Their innate gifts.
I have recently attended a seminar-workshop hosted by Chi Sigma Iota entitiled Counseling the Gifted and I am so excited to share to you all the valuable things I learned for the whole day I was in UP Diliman for it. It was such an eye-opener and I wish I could write everything down without turning this into a 20-page post! So I guess I would just give out the points that struck me the most.
To start off, this post is not limited to parents of gifted kids. I believe the wisdom that resource speaker, Dra. Leticia Peñano-Ho shared would benefit every parent, every family, gifted or not.
In fact, you might actually discover that you (and not just your child) are possibly gifted too. You might actually wish your parents knew so you could have possibly done something about it.
Up to this day, many are still unaware of what giftedness is all about. People (teachers included) only pay attention to “intellectual” ability i.e. very young children identifying the flags of the world, naming countries’ capitals, or reciting the periodic table of elements backwards (what?! haha). So let’s do some quick descriptions to understand it better.
What exactly is Giftedness? Continue reading…
Babies cry a lot and we often need to guess why. Do they want more milk? Do they need a diaper change? Is it colic? Are they too tired? Are they feeling sick? If only they could tell us! Well of course, they won’t start talking until they’re about 8-10 months old, and even then, their words still won’t be as clear as we want them to be.
In our country, many parents “baby talk” their kids thinking they are not capable of understanding adult conversations yet. I don’t blame them. Even I thought kids could only start saying understandable words by age 3 or 4. But Mia proved me wrong. Continue reading →
To begin, we never intended our daughter to read early. I didn’t see the need for it. I always thought that reading is something we learn in school and not before school. However, all this changed when I caught her trying to read the word LIGHT. This was at a time when she already knew the sound of each alphabet letter because of the phonics videos we let her watch. I’ll tell you more about how she had early exposure on that in a little while.
Anyway, I was working online one afternoon, she was holding a book, and she said, “La – I – Guh – Huh – T”. She was trying to sound off each letter from the word LIGHT. She had a questioning look Continue reading →
I honestly believe that all kids are smart. Just in different ways. And given the right nurturing, they will shine in their own ways. Oftentimes, parents we come across with would ask what milk our daughter drinks or what shows we let her watch, believing that these products do the magic on kids. While I agree that what they take in and what they view have significant effects, I sometimes wish I could tell them more! Continue reading →
