Mommy Plannerista

Planning. Passions. Parenthood.

6 Suggestions to Help Your Kids Sleep at Night

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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.

Highlights and Lessons: The Past 10 Years of My Life

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It’s the last day of 2019. Tomorrow will mark not just the start of a new year but also the end of a decade.

As I was thinking about what my One Word for 2020 will be, I found myself reflecting on my life not just this past year but for the past 10 years. I thought it would be nice to go down memory lane and list down the highlights I’ve had each year.

2009:
This was the year that Jon and I decided that we wanted to create a family, and so we decided to move in together with my daughthers.

I had been working part time during the last half of 2018. In the beginning of 2019, the job became a full time one. I was able to do a lot of local travel for work this year. This included my first trip to Davao and Bacolod.

This was also the year I made a major decision to let go of my legal responsibilities to my dad.

2010:
I became pregnant with Ziggy. It was a delicate pregnancy, with me having to go on bed rest twice. This prompted me to leave my job.

This was the year I started this blog, which I first named Roller Coaster Ride.

2011:
I gave birth to Ziggy in February. I attempted to go back to a full time job in November but was forced to leave it come January of the next year. It was a challenging year financially. Nevertheless, I enjoyed being a fully hands-on mom to my son, something I never got to do when my daughters were babies because I had to go back to work just a month after they were born.

2012:
I was a stay-at-home mom for the first half of the year. Thankfully, I was able to get hired for a writing gig and that kickstarted my career as a freelance writer. A few months after, I was also offered a gig as a virtual assistant working mainly on article writing and social media management.

2013:
2013 was the year that my blog really started doing well. I started being offered more campaigns and the income, although not huge, became more consistent.

This was also the year I accepted another virtual assistant job. This time, it also involved helping operate an online shop.

We took the kids to Canyon Cove during the summer. It was Ziggy’s first trip to the beach. Sadly, we haven’t been back to the beach as a family since then.

This was an especially emotionally year for our blended family. This was a year that our girls, Zoe and Ziya, decided to live with their dad for good.

2014:
This was the year my freelance writing gig was truly on a high. I had an opportunity to have two articles published on SmartParenting.com and I also worked for most of the year writing for The Asian Parent Philippines.

This was the year we also started homeschooling Ziggy independently at the age of 3.

2015:
2015 was filled with more new writing gigs. Most notable were my experiences writing for the now defunct Raket.ph and IndigoMemoirs.com. Writing for Indigo Memoirs was such a highlight because it was a London-based lifestyle online magazine.

One of the biggest highlights this year though was my discovery of the planner community worldwide. This prompted me to start a second Instagram account solely for this purpose, then called Planning for Pleasure. This eventually made its way into this blog too.

2016:
I got pregnant and gave birth to Zander. This was also the year I started working for Weddings at Work as a virtual assistant. WaW was my main client until 2017.

2016 was also the year we first enrolled Ziggy under a homeschool provider.

I started working for planner shops all over the world as part of their PR team, which helped me further my skills on content creation for Instagram.

2017:
This was the year I started becoming more active in posting videos on YouTube channel. However, it wasn’t as consistent as I wanted it to be.

My stint ended for WaW in May. I started working as a freelance writer again. I started working for a client whom I have worked for in the past. I still work for her as of this writing.

2018:
I changed this blog’s name and branding from Roller Coaster Ride to Mommy Plannerista.com. Admittedly though, this was also the year that I started becoming less active in blogging.

However, ironically, I also got my first offer to join a National Bookstore campaign that involved a video shoot. (You can see the video on the right sidebar!). I almost said no but ended up having a blast although I was SUPER anxious about it.

Zoe graduated from 10th grade this year and started Senior High!

2019:
It was our first time to use unit studies in our homeschool this year and we totally love it! We plan on doing more next school year.

I was also given more opportunities to work with some of my favorite planner shops as part of their PR Teams this year.

Ziya also graduated from 10th grade this year and started Senior High.

Needless to say, so much has happened in my life this past decade. There have been several major things that have given me a life I never expected I’d have, that of being a mom in a blended family, working from home, being a writer and content creator, homeschooling, and blogging. Those are the 5 main things that make up ME now.

These changes come with their share of lessons, of course. Here are the 10 main lessons I’ve learned:

1. I learned that I’ve amassed a lot of skills during my twenties that actually serve me well now that I’m freelancing. They are skills I acquired because of career decisions I’ve made in the past. They turned out to me smart ones. I’m learning I have good instincts and that I should trust myself more.

2. It’s a challenge parenting teenagers. Parenting from afar makes it even harder. It makes me worry all the time, but again I know I just have to have a lot of faith in HIM to be there for them when I can’t.

3. It’s a lot of work managing a blended family. However, having one now has helped me come to terms with my own experience growing up in a broken family. I now understand that everything that happened in my life had to happen to prepare me for this.

4. I’ve learned to love again and to recognize what true love is and what it is not.

5. I’ve learned that it’s okay to accept help from time to time. Not everyone who offers help has an agenda. Sometimes they just have a good heart and sometimes you need to throw pride out of the window. Kindness goes a long way.

6. I may suffer from anxiety and it may be crippling from time to time. I’ve learned though that I can power through them eventually.

7. I’ve learned who my real friends are. The past 10 years I’ve witnessed friends who have come and gone. Those who remained are the ones I know always have my back even if we rarely see each other.

8. I’ve learned that it’s easy for some people to paint a picture-perfect life. I’ve realized it’s what I hate the most. I’ve learned to stay away from people and situations that are not truly authentic.

9. I’ve learned that I’m strong enough to survive life’s challenges. I’ve learned that heartaches are painful but that I’m strong enough to be healed. I may have been broken, and will probably break again in the future, but I now know that I’m strong enough to pick up the pieces and move on.

10. I have learned that if I want to change things in my life that are no longer working out or no longer serving it’s purpose, I need to have courage to let it go. Life truly does shrink or expand in proportion to one’s courage.

On that note, I hope you’ve also learned a lot this past decade. Now that we’re about to start a new year, I leave you with this message:

You can make all the plans you want for your life but things will inevitably happen that you never planned for and that’s okay. God’s plans are always better than your plans for yourself. Prepare all you want but don’t forget to have a lot of faith in HIM. 

Happy Eclectic Homeschooling: Realizations after the PHC 2019

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It has been a month since I attended the Philippine Homeschool Convention 2019. I was planning on blogging about my experience immediately after, but I decided to take my time and really think about what I learned or realized that day.

As usual, I enjoyed going to the convention. I especially enjoyed being with my long-time friends that day. One of them is a newbie homeschool mom while the other two are private school owners who are thinking about offering a homeschool program. I also enjoyed seeing my other homeschool mom friends who I rarely get to see these days. I only wish I had more time to talk to them that day.

Anyway, back to my realizations….

Several months ago, I mentioned in this blog that we’ve been incorporating more Charlotte Mason methodologies in our homeschool with the intention of slowly transitioning to full CM. I’ve been researching a lot about CM from experts and other CM families here and abroad.

I’ve been watching lots of YouTube videos on how families incorporate CM in their homeschool. I stalk tons of CM families on Instagram. I’ve learned a lot from them, and I’m inspired by all of them. At the same time though, there was still a part of me that was hesitant to go full CM.

The Dilemma

The thing is, I’m also inspired by other styles of homeschooling. Right now, we use different ways of teaching depending on our subjects. Our methods are a mix of CM, Montessori, Unit Study, and Traditional. You can say that we’re actually more of eclectic homeschoolers.

Ziggy and Zander in our homeschool room…. We do a lot of playing.

We’ve been enjoying what we’re doing so far. I actually can honestly say that this is the most fun we’ve had homeschooling even though it’s more challenging now that I’m teaching two of my kids. Still, there’s that nagging thought that I’m not doing things right because we’re not sticking to just one style.

Then two-year-old Zander practicing how to “cut” vegetables and fruits. One thing we let him do to improve his fine motor skills.

There’s no problem in being ecletic, in my opinion. However, there are some people who believe that it is best to just choose one style of homeschool and stick to it in order to reap its full benefits. That idea somehow got stuck in my head these past several months, making me feel confused about how best to do things. Part of me wanted to go full CM but another part just wanted to continue what we’d been doing.

The Realization

So, what did I realize during the Philippine Homeschool Convention?

I was able to listen to stories from different types of homeschooling families. Their stories reminded me that each of us have our own homeschooling journey and that ours do not have to look like theirs.

Dawn Fung, homeschool mom and founder of a homeschool organization in Singapore

Dawn Fung, the guest speaker from Singapore, said something that really resonated with me. She said something like “the bigger the gap between expectations versus reality, the bigger the tension” and that “the smaller the gap, the more fulfillment.”

I couldn’t agree more.

The thing is, I know this already. I shouldn’t expect our homeschool to look ideal. I shouldn’t expect our journey to be the same as others. I shouldn’t expect for the results to be the same. I shouldn’t force myself to conform to other people’s ideas of what the ideal is. We don’t need that tension in our homeschool and in our life.

Building an atom. An activity that is part of our Intro to Energy unit study for Science

It’s just that sometimes I still can’t help but compare our journey to other families. Looking at the nicely curated Instagram photos posted by other homeschool families probably doesn’t help. I just need to constantly remind myself that there’s more to their story than what they show online. We can be inspired by them but that doesn’t mean we should be like them.

I also need to remind myself that what works for other families may not work for us. While some may choose just one style of homeschool (which is totally fine, of course), what really works for us right now is using different methods for different subjects. It may not be what some people consider “ideal” but the reality is that it works for us and that is what matters most. The reality is that we are happy doing this.

Snapshot of our family (by a fellow homeschool mom) during our homeschool co-op’s recently concluded painting class

Besides, our family is also not what you would call ideal anyway. Even the hubby and I are both more individualistic than most. We like doing our own thing and not conforming to the norm. We like being different. It’s just our personality. So, I guess it’s not really surprising that eclectic homeschooling is what works for us.

That realization (or reminder) made me feel a whole lot better about myself as a homeschool mom and about our homeschool journey as a whole. We are happy eclectic homeschoolers and we’re embracing it. I have the PHC to thank for that.

No Place Like Home: The Philippine Homeschool Convention 2019

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This year is our 6th year homeschooling. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long. I honestly didn’t think at first that we would last this long in this journey. The fact that we are still doing it and still enjoying it makes me so happy.

It hasn’t been a walk in the park though. There are definitely lots of ups and downs. However, I can honestly say that homeschooling has been a great experience for us.

Last year, I had feelings of overwhelm already and was questioning whether we should still continue homeschooling. What helped clarify things for me was attending the Philippine Homeschool Convention in September. (You can read about my experience at the convention here.)

As it turns out, all I needed was a little inspiration and a little reminder of WHY we do what we do. The convention renewed my love for homeschooling and gave me the motivation to make our experience better.

So, I guess it goes without saying that I do highly recommend attending the annual convention whether you are still thinking about homeschooling, a newbie homeschooler or even a veteran. It is my hope that the convention will help you in your homeschooling journey as well.

With that said, I am so EXCITED for this year’s convention coming next month! Here’s what you need to know.

No Place Like Home: The Philippine Homeschool Convention 2019

Educating for Life (EFL), the organizer of homeschool conferences in the Philippines since 2014, is proud to present the 2019 Philippine Homeschool Convention, “No Place Like Home”.

To be held on September 7, 2019 at the SMX Aura Convention Center, Taguig City, we gather in this annual event to further pursue our vocation as homeschoolers and celebrate the essence of home, of family, of this virtuous calling of educating our children.

The Convention’s theme is inspired by this quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “There is no school equal to a decent home, and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.”

Believing that there is no place like home—especially when it comes to teaching our children—let’s equip ourselves so we can forge ahead in the difficult but extremely rewarding task of educating our children not just academically, but in other aspects too. Character. Virtues. Life lessons. Things that they don’t normally learn from textbooks and within classroom walls.

It is the essence of home, of family, of this virtuous calling of educating our children that we celebrate in No Place Like Home: the Philippine Homeschool Convention 2019.

Our line-up of speakers consists of both international and local speakers who will leave the participants inspired, encouraged, empowered, and equipped to start or continue their respective homeschooling journeys with even greater passion than before.

You can view all the PHC topics and speakers here. You can also view the schedule of the PHC here.

Right now, until September 1, you can avail of the Early Bird Rate of only P1000 for the All-Access Pass (access to all plenary sessions and breakout sessions, plus the PHC Expo featuring different products and services that are helpful to homeschooling families). To register, just go here.

If you have any questions about the PHC, please feel free to visit our website’s FAQs section.

Hope to see you guys there!

Raise Your Kids AQ with the ZooMoo Channel and App

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There has been a lot of issues lately involving kids’ safety on the Internet which has led many parents to ban their children from using certain apps. Is TV a good alternative though? Not so much because there are many TV shows that are unfit for kids to watch too. But it’s good to know that kids can now have access to an edutainment channel called ZooMoo.

My son, Ziggy, and I learned all about ZooMoo last February 9, 2019 when we attended the launch at the Zoo Cafe at Ayala Malls Vertis North. Zoo Cafe was the perfect venue because it showcases animals in their decor. ZooMoo is all about animals too. In fact, ZooMoo is all about animals, all the time.

During the event, Ziggy was able to enjoy a few activities including face painting (he chose a dinosaur), coloring and answering an activity sheet.

The parents in attendance were there to listen to a panel discussion, led by environmental advocate Gregg Yan and lifestyle television host and mom Kelly Misa-Fernandez, on the importance of teaching kids about animals and nature at an early age.

The ZooMoo Channel

Let me share with you what we learned about ZooMoo.

ZooMoo is an edutainment channel that aims to raise children’s Animal Quotient (AQ) by allowing the them to explore the animal world, develop knowledge and affection for animals, leading to a life long love of conservation. It is a collaboration between some of the world’s foremost wildlife filmmakers, early childhood educationalists, and technology developers.

The channel’s line up comprises 1500+ self-contained shows that combine spectacular wildlife footage with a range of puppetry, animations, and narrative techniques that makes for a safe and unique viewing and learning experiences for kids. They follow 5 themes namely Explore Time, Create Time, Play Time, Puzzle Time, and Quiet Time.

Some of the shows include Leo the Wildlife Ranger, Lost!, Clawdia’s Amazing African Adventure, Piglet’s Adventure Machines, and Ninja Pop. The channel is currently available to SKYcable subscribers as an add on. Just choose to add channel 120 to your channel line up for only P20.00 per month via SKYcable Select.

The ZooMoo App

ZooMoo is also the first channel worldwide that has its own fully synced audio App that is a key educational tool and extension to the channel. It enhances the kids’ viewing experience by engaging them in a world of games, puzzles and activities that teach them about wildlife and conservation. Kids learn about the animals’ appearance, their sound, habitat, level of scarcity, superpower, and diversity.

They can look after and care for 300 animals on secluded ZooMoo island by feeding them, keeping them clean, watching real life videos, taking photos and more. It also uses ZooSync technology when you run the ZooMoo app to collect content from the television. It even has a Parent’s Page where you can engage with your kids and learn together without the pressure of scores, time limits or stress. There are no ads and no wifi required to use the app. You can get it via the App Store or on Google Play. We actually have the app already on our phones and our two sons really love using it.

With ZooMoo, you can rest easy that what your children are viewing are not only definitely safe and child-friendly but also very educational and entertaining too. Learn more about it by visiting the ZooMoo website and follow ZooMoo on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

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