Family Rules

Being a father of five children (only), I realized the importance of family rules to manage if not control the uniqueness of each child. Perhaps, I need to recall how my father whipped me whenever I got overtime in my outdoor plays with my neighboring friends, gave me time outs, or have me grounded before. I remember the day when I joined my classmates before in going to the river and have our afternoon swimming without first going home from school. A passing neighbor reported us to my father. I got a fearful whip on my buttocks.

My eldest boy is now in his junior high school. He is doing fine though I can feel his needs to have more friends. Nevertheless, he enjoys his electronic games if not having his bike around.

But my second son is so fond of visiting his friends and going to parks where they can play. He seem to be more socialized among the five. But he lacks home priorities like helping at home or doing basic home chores on his level. There are times too that he came home quite late in the evening. And most of his reasons in he just stayed downstairs with his playmates.

I have no objection to their physical and social needs. I have passed those in my years.

But there are some priorities in them. Their homework, their learning and training to do basic house chores, their openness to cooperation, to teamwork,to self-realization on significance and importance in life are at stake.

My third boy is well objective and attentive to his homework. He now joins a baseball club together with his elder brother. Nevertheless, there are times too that he is emotionally disturbed. Perhaps, he needs to balance too his social affairs.

My two girls are both aggressive in and out. There seem to be no problem with them except on their self-control. But they are loving girls.

How about, if they are giving more their time in watching TV. Their mother is so strict on that. Yet the children are so fond of animation and cartoon programs. I need newswatch as well.

AS we only have one TV set, then here is one family rule: No Homework done, no TV-viewing!

This is fair so that they can prioritize first their school exercises before they learn too from TV. I consider TV as an educational instrument. That is AV.

During weekends, I want the kids to be cooperative too. So htey have house assignments like dish-washing, table cleaning, room cleaning and the like. I asked them too to make sure that they put-off all tissue paper from their pockets before they put all their dirty clothes to the laundry box. Their mom becomes so rough once tissue papers are in at the washing machine. It destroy all the washed clothes practically with those torn to pieces of tissue papers connecting to the washed wet clothes.

And how about if the rules are violated?

Learn lessons! Warning on first offense. If curfew is broken, parents become so disturb and concern of their kids outside. More on me as we are foreigners in this land. Sermons on second offense and a time out. A parent put his child on a cahir and dont allow him to go out for an hour. I have heard that a Korean father would give a time out to his kid by putting and locking him inside the toilet for at least 10 minutes. Japanese parents locked their children outside if ever they have made violations of family rules. For grown up teens, violators are grounded and have to stay home during their free time. They cannot go out for a week-long to learn lessons from their mistakes.

Well cultural differences are in it. But family rules are common. Parents wished to make their children grow up with proper discipline.

2009 International Leadership Conference in La Union

Bauang, La Union- La Union UPF of Northwestern Philippines is conducting today the International Leadership Conference at Don Eulogio de Guzman Natl High School in Bauang La Union. This conference is spearheaded by the Universal Peace Federation with its chapter coordinator in La Union Engr. Felix Sanchez, a Peace Ambassador awardee in Thailand few years ago. He is to give the opening remark in the conference too.
The conference is lead by the Provincial Acting Governor Eulogio Clarence Martin de Guzman III together with local government officials, the Dep Ed Officials in the region, high school Principals, educators, businessmen, community leaders, barangay chairmen, teachers, high school and college student leaders and representatives and parents at Don Eulogio Amang Rodriguez National High School in La Union. About 200 delegates are joining the ILC with the assistance of the previous ILC delegates particularly the high school principals in La Union. Architect Alfon Buyayo and his wife Dulce, the Northwest Cluster Regional Executive Director of UPF are also joining the affair.
Dr Julius Malicdem of UPF Philippines is going to be the main speaker to give the peace message with the theme, " New Leadership Paradigm for Good Governance".
Mr. Froilan L. Matbagan Jr, Engr Rosendo Anin and Mrs. Alma Degamo are frontliners in the ILC conference mobilization and preparation. (with reports from Heidi Matbagan, and Augie Sanchez)

Otanoshimikai in Day Care (Hoykuen) in Nagano Japan

Day Care and early childhood education in Japan poses a unique system and way of bringing up the young children to sports, cultural and academic affairs from age 2 to 5 years old.

From 7:30 am, the hoykuen is open to recieve the young children from parents who brought their children from Monday to Saturday. They are fetched back in the afternoon until 6:30 pm. or else, an overtime payment will be charged to the late parents.
Children brought their pajamas, unduku or sports wear, toiletry and a small or slim futon (sleeling bag) for their nap time. They have their lunch in the hoykuen, nap time, indoor and outdoor games, children's book-reading, paper-folding, drawing, singing, coloring, to the advancement of writing and reading the basic hiragana of the Japanese language. Their curricular program seem to be good and effective as it exposed the young children to the fundamental education starting from arts, culture, sports and academe.

Today, for the third year, I witnessed the cultural show or o-tanoshimikai in the hoykuen where my youngest daughter Julie is studying.

She was with their class doing the skit. She was given the first recital part of a story taken from selected children's books like the Peter Pan and the like. They also have other numbers on singing and palying some basic musical instruments like the tambourine, bells, chimes, bamboo-tik-taks, lyres and drum and others. Teachers were so good in developing the stage props from scenes one to the end.

Moreover, I observed the presence of a few special children who need more special care and attention. Amidst that case, teachers manage to bring them as part of the team in the stage plays and were given fitting roles to participate and act with the whole group.

Costumes were paper-made, props were from boxes but were all brightened to great compatible colors. Kudos to hoykuen teachers and staff!

I reflected that most mothers in the Philippines have difficulty to go to work because of the small children they take care. Japan has a good answer to that with the nice program in early childhood education. Toddlers from 1 to 2 year old are accpeted in the nursery where care-givers attend to them with the bottle milks and diapers. From 3 to 5 years old, the chidlrne are brought to their early educational program making the parents free to go to work for livelihood. They have their monthly payment for all the services from the hoykuen.

Filipina mothers are used to hire a yaya for their small children if they go to work. That needs monthly wage for the yaya. This time is cost P2,500 now aside from the food and shelter that they have with the family. But not all yayas are good to bring and expose the child to the field of art, sports, culture nad academe in the early years. Basically, the yaya became a mere "tagabantay" and nothing more.

Well, Day Care Programs in Philippines is under the DSWD yet the program is not a whole day but mostly from 2 to 4-hour program only in the Barangay halls usually. After that, mothers have to again take care of their children from lunchtime to the rest of the day.

From a Distance

From a distance, you can see in a broader view and general picture of a whole.

From a distance, not only a song, is a strategic way to view and to have the whole scope of a dream, your dream, like the vision of your organization or your family.

If you imagine your self on top of the mountain like the pictures above taken in Cavite and Davao, you can see down below the whole sorroundings and consider every angular view as part of the whole; every side as part of the dimensional picture of the whole.

Having a new year is just good to refresh ourselves on our dreams and take a look of the whole picture of it to make us closer to a realistic way of achieving our dreams.

Although I am far from my mission country the Philippines, I always take a look of what is going on in there in both external and internal ways. From where I am, I also study the good things that can be applied too to my country like the sports system in Japan, the hoykuen and youchein systems or early childhood education system of Japan and how it can be possible to do it successfully in the Philippines. These are two big examples from a distance. They have the nursery, todlers, kindergarten and day-care programs which are good enough for working mothers and fathers as they dont have domestic helpers here. In the Philippines domestic helpers have pros and cons. Which one is much better to apply? There are lots and more from this distance.

But looking the internal of the Philippines from a distance is much deeper as you dont have a direct or first hand information on why or how things happened to the recent trends and/or changes.

There are national, regional and local programs and projects in our NGO centers. One of it is the 210 local and regional GPF festivals for this year 2009. Local GPF's will be purely under the planning and financing of the local centers and members who dont have any resources but purely fundraising. And there are less than 50 centers in the Philippines right now. Hence, each center should have at least four to five GPF festivals per local center to conduct this year. Am I right from a distance? There are lots more in the inside.

Well, I asked since as I have said, it is too difficult to get direct information from the inside of my mission country. Communication is always a two-way communication and if one does not reply, stil, there is no communication even if one has raised or shouted his message/s or question/s from a distance.

From a distnace, there are people who wish to reach and be there in a specific place they saw. He may have admired and dreamt of being a part of that beautiful scene he has seen from a distance. But how can he be there?

To participate to local projects and activities in our local centers while being in a distance is not impossible. You can shout from a distance and perhaps your voice will be heard in that far place you want to be.

The internet, the cellphones, the radio broadcasting and the modern technology are good bridges for people from a distance to be closer.

We only pray and wish that people in our country will also have their internet, their phone loads, and their heart to also communicate and give essential importance to communication for people based from a distance.

New year, new communication system from a distance. May it be done according to His long awaited plan.