Mommy Plannerista

6 Suggestions to Help Your Kids Sleep at Night

February 3, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Sleep is important for everyone, especially kids. A child who sleeps well has many advantages to the sleep-deprived one. Since good sleep helps them develop well physically and mentally and are energetic enough every morning to face their day. However, it is not enough knowing that your kids require to rest well at night. Nonetheless, it is important to have a schedule or plan that will help you achieve this. Below are some suggestions that can help your kids rest better at night.

1. Have a plan

Having a plan and implementing it is one way to ensure your kids sleep well. Create a bedtime ritual for your kids and you can ease into it yourself. For instance, sing a song to an infant and switch on the white-noise machine. Read a book with a toddler or ask them what they would like to do before they sleep and help them choose as well. Put this plan in a sequence trend like freshening up, putting on pajamas, reading and lights out, ending with sleeping. There are many ways to handle this and make it fun for your child. Try one with pictures where they get stars once they progress to the next level of the plan among others. Practice the new sleep plan daily until it gains momentum. This will eventually become the norm once the kids internalize it.

2. Respect the routine

Having a sleep routine is essential if your kids are not getting enough sleep. However, respecting the sleep routine by sticking to it is what is most important. It also helps them feel secure as it is predictable. Although it will not be as perfect throughout. It can have a give or take of 30 to 60 minutes without fail. Where possible, the routine should be followed during weekends as well. This is to avoid any disruptions of the circadian rhythm. Also, it helps to avoid the struggle of waking up Monday morning as it drags through the week messing up the routine. Therefore, allow young kids to hit their Sealy Posturepedic before 9:00 p.m. so that they sleep enough hours. Plan the routine minding the hours that are enough for their ages for a full night’s rest.

3. Be positive

When your child can tell time it is easy to share with them the sleeping time and help them follow through. However, kids that are still young are best helped with charts or special clocks that change color when it is sleeping or time to wake up. Also, keeping the mood positive while establishing a routine can be quite a challenge. Therefore, reward kids for following through with the sleep schedule. This makes it fun and it is a win-win for everyone involved. During the initial days it will seem like a never ending struggle. Thus, it is important that you don’t show your frustration to maintain the positivity. This will avoid any negative experiences linked to sleeping time and it will help you and them in the long run.

4. Give some attention

Since all kids are different and are bonded to their parents on different levels. Introducing a routine or plan that has to be followed for bedtime can make them unsettled. Therefore, if you are used to spending time together before bed. Keep doing it and withdraw from it slowly one night at a time. Especially, if you work the whole day and in the evening is when you get time to stay with them. This will require sacrifice on your end by arriving early to satisfy their longing for attention. This also applies to parents who are home throughout and the kids are used to their presence. Starting a different plan will be a challenge as they have to separate to sleep at a certain time. Therefore, as part of your plan and sleep routine have time to talk about their day and having a healthy snack as a relaxing activity you do before bed.

5. Switch off electronics

Today, kids are too familiar with different electronics. Hence, just as the adults it takes away their sleeping time and keeps their brain alert making it difficult to fall asleep. Therefore, try to power down an hour before bed to boost the production of serotonin and melatonin that are hormones that help with sleep. Also, having control over their screen time will help them in other ways not only sleep. Such as, it makes them more keen on following through and also they do not become addicted to the screens. Keep the circadian rhythm in check and power down to switching of the light for the body to rest easily.

6. Practice without fail

Practice makes perfect. This works in everything including practicing good sleep hygiene. During the first week of practicing your new plan. Most parents give up as the kids get fussy and throw tantrums as they do not want to sleep early. However, if you stick to your plan and practice it every night with love and no harsh words. After a few days, you will be able to witness positive results as they will follow through. Also, ensure that your child’s bedroom is associated with sleep only and not with doing homework and as a playing area. Since this will make it difficult to sleep. Practice more to get their minds to practice relaxing and falling asleep in their room for it gets easier with time.

In summary, it is the responsibility of the parents or caregivers to help their kids to sleep. Although it is quite a challenge especially for children below five years old. Getting a routine in place, listening to them, helping with their fears among other things will help them follow through. However, helping out with sleep is just a phase that shall pass like any other. All in all, if you have done all it takes to get them to sleep and it is not working. There is no harm in contacting a sleep doctor to help you through this process and get other suggestions that work.

Monthly Planning Routine (Tips and Tricks)

January 31, 2020 · Leave a Comment

How do you start off your month?

I, for one, like starting off a new month prepared. Usually, I take a few days before a new month starts to sit down with my planner and map out several important things. This way, I always know what to expect and what to prepare for. At a glance, I will already be able to see how busy I will be.

Since I’ve been doing this for years, I already have a routine in place for monthly planning. Having a routine is very helpful because it helps me not to forget things.

My Montly Planning Routine

How exactly do I plan my month?

I started by choosing a monthly insert for my planner. I did this at the start of the year. Let me show you my monthly calendar for this month, January.

As you can see, I am using a Month on Two Page insert in my ring planner (by Peanuts Planner Co.) to map out my month. I chose this particular insert because it has enough space for everything that I wanted to jot down. It’s so functional that I plan on using the same insert every month for the rest of the year.

As soon as my monthly pages were in place, I jotted down all the important dates I already knew were fixed such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. I did this for all the months. This way, my monthlies are already semi-ready when I start planning for each month.

Once I start planning, that’s when I plug in the following things:

Goals for Work, Home / Personal, and Homeschool
Hubby’s work schedule (This varies every month.)
Events we plan to attend (school, work, parties, etc)
Deadlines
Bills Due

When I’m done with this, I then set up my monthly calendar for work, as well as all of my monthly trackers for health, finance, and chores.

Of course, it goes without saying that my monthly calendar looks this way because it is customized to my needs. Once you set up yours, it may or may not look different.

Monthly Planning Tips and Tricks

I’ve been monthly planning for many years. Over the years, I’ve already learned what works for me and what doesn’t. With that said, allow me to share with you some of my tips and tricks.

It’s helpful to first list the items you want to track on your monthly spread even before you purchase a monthly insert or planner. This way, you’d know exactly how much space you will need and what layout would work for you.

Keep your list in your planner. This will help you remember what else you need to jot down on your montly spread once you start planning. Looking at this list while you plan becomes part of your routine.

The most common monthly layout is the calendar view. It’s what I’ve used many times in the past. However, don’t get stuck using that if it’s not enough for what you need. There are many other layouts out there such as the one I’m currently using.

It helps to have a layout that will let you separate items into categories so that you can easily view them. If not, you can color code each category instead. I use both of these techniques.

If you decide to color code, keep a color coding guide in your planner as well so that you won’t forget what category each color is for.

If there’s an item with a date that’s not yet set in stone, consider writing it down on a Post-it first and stick it on top of your monthly insert. That way, you won’t need to erase anything and make your monthly calendar messy. Alternatively, you can use a Frixion pen too so that you can actually erase your writing if you need to.

Make time before each month to sit down and actually fill up your monthly planner. If you’re not used to this, it might take a while for you to get into the habit. However, it’s one worth keeping. As with all habits, it’s just a matter of discipline.

Monthly planning can help prepare you for the month ahead so that you don’t need to go into it not knowing what to expect or to prepare for. Just remember that there’s no one size fits all in the world of planning. Don’t hesitate to try new systems if one doesn’t work for you.

DIY Chinese New Year Unit Study

January 24, 2020 · Leave a Comment

As you can probably guess from my surname, I come from a family with Chinese blood. To be specific, my dad’s father was Chinese-Filipino while his mom was Spanish-Filipino. My mom’s family, on the other hand, is Filipino. That made my childhood quite interesting because I grew up exposed to a mix of three cultures.

While I would mostly identify as Filipino, having been born and raised here, there’s a lot about the Chinese culture that shaped our family life. I would remember frequent trips to Binondo with my dad because their family businesses were there. He would take me to Ongpin. We’d try all sorts of authentic Chinese food. We’d receive ang pao during special occasions. There’s always tikoy especially during Chinese New Year.

Those are all memories that I treasure and I wish to impart at least some of those experiences to my kids. With that said, I teach my kids certain aspects of Chinese culture every so often. Now, that the Chinese New Year is happening tomorrow, I decided to put together a short DIY Chinese New Year unit study for them.

Our Chinese New Year Unit Study

I decided to share with you what we’re using this year in case you need them in your homeschool too. I found most of our resources online. Most of them are FREE too. They’re composed of books as well as worksheets and activities.

E-Books:

I usually try to find actual books for our homeschool but in this case, I opted for e-books instead because they were easier to find that way. I linked where I found them on Amazon in case you want to check them out.

Celebrating Chinese New Year: A Rich Tradition by Rachel Zang (Kindle version)

I love this book because it gives a simple but informative explanation on the traditions involved in celebrating the Chinese New Year. The book is very colorful too which kids can really appreciate.

The Fateful Race: The Story of Chinese Zodiac Animals (Kindle Version)

This is my son, Ziggy’s favorite. It tells the famouse tale on how the Chinese Zodiac Calendar started with an animal race. It’s a short book but the story is fun and the illustrations are really nice.

Chinese New Year with Nathaniel by Charlotte Edwards – Zhang (Kindle Version)

It’s a true short story of how Nathaniel, a five-year-old Chinese-American boy, celebrates Chinese New Year with his family. It’s interesting because it features actual photos of Nathaniel and his family.

Worksheets and Activities:

There are so many free resources online when it comes to Chinese New Year worksheets and activities. Here are what I decided to use this year. Again, all of them are FREE.

Chinese New Year Activity Pack by Salthouse Prairie

This resource gives a great background about Chinese New Year including information about the zodiac and several worksheets for your kids.

2020 Chinese New Year Write and Draw by Pursuit of Joyful Learning

This is a really fun activity pack that gives an explanation on the Chinese zodiac calendar, as well as what the Lucky Red envelopes are for and what the Chinese Good Luck symbol is. Your child gets to learn how to write the good luck symbol in Chinese and also how to draw a rat.

Chinese Zodiac Mask: Year of the Rat by Education.com

This is a printable rat mask that is easy to cut and use.

Chinese New Year Red Envelope by Innovative Teacher

This is a one-page printable of a Chinese New Year red envelope that you and your kids can print, cut, and use to give money to family and friends.

How to Draw A Rat by ArtProjectforKids.Org

This is an easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorial on how to draw a rat. I really love this one because I’m not good with drawing.

My Chinese Zodiac Animal by Education.com

This is a unit study that teaches the kids about the Chinese Zodiac Calendar. I love that it comes with an explanation for each zodiac animal and what characteristics they possess.

Aside from this, I try to incorporate actual Chinese New Year experiences as well. Last year, we went to a Chinese New Year display at the Bonifacio High Street and ate Chinese Food at Tim Ho Wan. We also try to buy my favorite tikoy.

I hope that these resources will also help you teach your kids about Chinese New Year. Gong hei fat choy!!!!

Living with Anxiety: 10 Ways I Cope

January 21, 2020 · 2 Comments

I have a confession to make. Most of you don’t know this about me but I think it’s time I put it out there in support of mental health awareness. I suffer from an anxiety disorder and I’ve been suffering for years.

I hope that with this post, people will understand more about what anxiety really is. Most of all, I hope to be of help to others like me by sharing the different ways I cope with my condition.

What is Anxiety?

For those of you who don’t know, anxiety disorders are different from your usual feelings of nervousness or anxiousness. Here is the definition by the American Psychiatric Association.

Anxiety refers to anticipation of a future concern and is more associated with muscle tension and avoidance behavior.

Anxiety disorders usually involve excessive fear or anxiety that is out of proportion to the situation. They can be debilitating, which means it hinders people’s ability to function normally. It can even affect many aspects of one’s life including school, jobs, and relationships.

There are several types of anxiety disorders. I won’t tackle them here but you can read more about it from the APA website. My sister-in-law, who is a psychiatrist, has told me that I have a hodge podge of symptoms of more than one type of anxiety disorder. However, they’re not enough to fulfill exactly one diagnosis although it presents more like a Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The APA definition for GAD is this:

Generalized anxiety disorder involves persistent and excessive worry that interferes with daily activities. This ongoing worry and tension may be accompanied by physical symptoms, such as restlessness, feeling on edge or easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension or problems sleeping. Often the worries focus on everyday things such as job responsibilities, family health or minor matters such as chores, car repairs, or appointments.

There are many things that can trigger my anxiety and each episode doesn’t look exactly the same all the time. This is how it usually looks like for me:

Difficulty breathing
Racing heart
Cold sweats
Nausea
Upset stomach
Non-stop thinking
Insomnia

Needless to say, it’s not fun. There are episodes that are worse than others. There have definitely been days that all I wanted to do was hole up in a corner and cry. Sometimes all I want to do is stay in bed all day. Contrary to what others think, it’s not just something you can snap out of easily. However, I’ve learned how to deal with these episodes over the years and so it has been a while since I had a really bad one.

Managing My Anxiety

Here are 10 ways I cope with my anxiety.

1. Isolation

Sometimes I just need to take myself out of the situation and be alone. This can be hard to do at our house because it’s not exactly big and I don’t usually get any of the rooms all to myself. However, I take that time when I need to just to give me that space to clear my head.

2. Read

I love to read but don’t get much time for it. So, whenever I do it’s like an escape for me. It takes my mind off things that are making me anxious. Just make sure to read something that will not make you even more anxious, like a self-help book or a devotional.

3. Vent

I find that having a trustworthy vent buddy is a must. Find someone who understands what you’re going through. If not, at least find someone who is logical, non-judgmental, and willing to just listen. Often times, I just need to let all my emotions and thoughts out. I end up feeling better afterwards. I’m just lucky to have a sister-in-law who’s both my psychiatrist and vent buddy. I honestly don’t know how I could have survived the past several years without her.

4. Write

If you can’t find someone to talk to, just write in a journal. Pour your heart out there. No need to worry about grammar or handwriting. No one is going to read it anyway. Sometimes the act of writing and seeing your thoughts on paper afterwards can help you process things better.

5. Watch TV or YouTube

Sometimes all I need is a distraction, so I find something fun to watch. I have go-to YouTube channels that I love watching. It helps me to watch shows about people whose lives are totally opposite of mine. However, there are also times when watching people with similar lives also help me gain a better perspective of mine.

6. Focus on my Kids

Sometimes the easiest distraction are my kids. I just shift my focus on them, assuming they’re not the cause of my anxiety (‘coz sometimes they are!). I try to do something fun with them to get my mind off things.

7. Say “No”

Saying “no” used to be so hard for me. It took years of practice before I learned how to do it without feeling guilty. These days, when I already feel anxious when someone asks me to do something or go somewhere I’m not comfortable with, I just say no. No need to stress myself even more by forcing myself to do something I don’t want to do.

8. Hugs from Hubby

Many years ago, whenever I had really bad episodes, getting a hug from my hubby was the only thing that could calm me down. His presence has always been calming for me. Of course this doesn’t work when he’s the source of my anxiety (which happens too, to be honest!). When he’s not though, just his presence means a lot.

9. Cry

When all else fails I just cry. It helps release all the pent up emotions. Ironically, crying also helps remind me to breathe. Difficulty breathing is my top symptom. Sometimes, I literally have to tell myself to breathe because my body would just stop doing so when I’m anxious.

10. Plan

People often marvel at how I even find the time to use a planner and make it as organized as I do. What they fail to see is that planning and organizing helps calm me. Whenever I feel overwhelmed with a project or task, I write down everything that needs to be done and when. Doing so makes things clearer in my mind and helps me map out a strategy on how to tackle things. Preparing in advance makes me feel more in control of a situation and less anxious. Planning helps me do that.

There are many things you can do to manage your own anxiety from breathing exercises to medications. These are just the things that work for me. Some of these may work for you and some may not. However, I hope that this encourages you to find what works for you.

Don’t be ashamed if you have an anxiety disorder. They are actually very common and are treatable. Don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it. There’s no shame in that. You owe that to yourself.

Curriculum Review: Introduction to Energy by The Good and The Beautiful

January 17, 2020 · 2 Comments

One thing new we did in our homeschool this year was to try doing unit studies. After researching on how to start and what to use, I decided to start with one subject first – Science. I came into this decision after watching so many videos on the Science unit studies by The Good and The Beautiful (TGTB). We did Marine Biology first for the first quarter of the school year and Introduction to Energy for the second quarter. Today, I wanted to share with you our review of the latter.

The Good and The Beautiful

First, let me tell you about TGTB.

TGTB was launched by Jenny Phillips in 2015. She’s a Christian singer-songwriter and homeschooler who decided to create her own curriculum because she couldn’t find one that she really loved.

According to the T G TB website, she wanted to create a curriculum that:

“Used completely clean and powerful literature
Combined subjects for more meaningful learning and shorter school times
Was completely open-and-go
Was academically strong and very thorough
Emphasized God, nature, and high character
Was visually beautiful, engaging, and meaningful”

TGTB is Charlotte Mason-inspired and that’s what initially drew me to it. I wanted to incorporate more Charlotte Mason teaching strategies in our homeschool this year (without necessarily being a purist) and TGTB sounded like the perfect curriculum to get our feet wet, so to speak.

To learn more about TGTB, please visit their website.

Introduction to Energy

This unit is just one of their many Science units available. This one is supposed to be a prerequisite unit which will provide a general overview of all the other energy subjects such as Heat, Light and Sound, Gravity, Forces and Motion, Simple Machines, Electricity, and Magnetism.

All of the TGTB science units are designed for K-6 with extensions for grades 7 – 8. They are written from a Christian, Bible-based point of view. At the time of my puchase in August 2019, it was available in both Printed + PDF version or PDF (printable) version only. I chose the PDF only at $11 because I knew shipping from the US would cost me a ton.

Take note though that as of this writing, TGTB has apparently decided to combine the Intro to Energy plus their Energy: Heat, Light, and Sound units and this is currently being developed. Nevertheless, I decided to still write this review to give curious parents an idea about the TGTB Science units and how it worked for us.

The Introduction to Energy unit is actually quite short, only consisting of 6 topics as you can see below.

It comes with all the lessons as well as printables that include vocabulary cards, flash cards, games, etc. I chose to display most of them on our Science Wall.

What I didn’t include on the Science Wall are these mini books that come with the unit as well.

Below you can see some Unit Information which explains to you what teaching this unit will entail as well as a list of all the supplies you will need per lesson so that you can prepare them in advance. The Science Wall is actually something that TGTB suggests you put up when using their Science units.

Here’s a sneak peek of Lesson 1. As you will see, the lesson starts with an objective as well as a short list of what you need to prepare.

Each lesson varies in terms of activities. However, there’s always a lesson to read to the kids, various activities, and in some cases, experiments as well. Everything you need to say to the student are right there on the page. Each time you complete the task you just check them off and proceed to the next one.

Our Thoughts

After completing this unit, I thought of the things we liked and disliked about it.

Likes:

The lessons are easy to follow and understand. You literally just need to read the lessons as well as the instructions and then let the child complete the activities. My son is 8 years old and in 3rd grade and he had no trouble with the unit at all.

We did this unit during the second quarter of the school year which is the shortest. It was perfect for that because it only has 6 units. We could have finished the entire thing in less than a month. I just chose to extend it a bit to last 6 weeks.

I think the lessons do provide a good overview of all the other more advanced energy topics.

I like that there is always some activity to reinforce the lessons. The variety of activities is what makes TGTB Science interesting for me and my son. The games are the ones my son enjoyed the most. I had my 3-year-old join us in some of the activities as well and he also enjoyed them even though he couldn’t really understand the lessons yet.

I like that they have a list of optional read-alouds that you can find from the library or bookstore.

I also like that there are extension lessons for grades 7 and 8. We didn’t need them yet but at least we have them already when the time comes that we’ll need to review this topic again in a few years.

*An activity about the different forms of energy*

Dislikes:

I would have preferred to use something that is ready-made already. However, since I chose the PDF option, I had to print everything, punched the pages and placed them in a 3-ring binder. I had to cut and laminate the vocabulary cards, flash cards, etc and that took some time. So in that sense, it’s not completely open and go. However, once you’ve done this prep before you start the unit, it becomes pretty much open and go already. I don’t regret getting the PDF because I plan on using this again when my youngest is a bit older, so I can just reprint it then without purchasing again.

It’s fun but not as fun as the Marine Biology unit. However, I know that’s only because this is just an intro unit. Marine Biology was super comprehensive and colorful with lots of experiments and other activities (full review of that coming soon).

There wasn’t a lot of work involved. This is not a bad thing. However, our homeschool provider requires a good mix of both written tasks and performance tasks (recitation, hands-on activities, experiments, projects, etc). Since this is a short unit, there weren’t a lot of those so I just had to supplement a bit.

*An activity about the transfer of energy*

Some parents are concerned about TGTB being created by someone who’s from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Being Catholic myself, I also wondered whether some of the contents will contradict our family’s beliefs. However, I didn’t find anything like that at all in this unit (or in the Marine Biology unit). Mostly, they just mention every so often how amazing God is for creating the world and other similar sentiments. So, I think anyone regardless of religion will find this unit suitable but of course, it’s up to you make your own judgments as well after you try it out.

Overall, I think the Introduction to Energy unit is a good one to try. It’s fun on its own although maybe not as engaging as the other TGTB science units but my son learned what he had to learn. I definitely recommend it.