3 Things to Consider When You Move Overseas with Children

A move overseas is a big step for any family. Adults can struggle with the move to a new country and there are big costs to consider. Before anything else, you should visit https://farnorthdallashomes.com/north-dallas-closing-costs to work out all of the hidden costs that come with moving abroad that you may not have thought about yet. Moving abroad, whilst tough on your finances, can be even tougher on your children. That’s why it’s important to make some big decisions before you go. Here are some things you’ll need to consider when you make a move:

1. Is it a good time to move them overseas?

Timing is everything when it comes to a successful move overseas. Many expats will tell you that the younger your children are, the easier it’ll be. This is because children are more adaptable at a young age. They can easily pick up the local language and make it easier to make friends.

If you have older children, there’s no reason why you can’t still move abroad. Older kids will often find the move exciting, as they can appreciate the cultural differences and enjoy the experience of traveling. However, a move can be more difficult if they’re at a stage where they have exams or have only just settled into a new school. You’ll need to consider how to keep things consistent for them.

2. Where will they go to school?

Expats have a number of schooling options, such as:

  • International/British/American schools
  • Local schools
  • Home schooling
  • Hiring a private tutor/teacher

The option you choose will depend on the area you move to. In areas with lots of expats, there are usually more options. For example, you can find an international school in Bangkok, which can give your kids continuity in education. In contrast, it is possible not to be able to find an English-speaking school in some rural areas.

Local schools can vary in quality, depending on the country and location, and if your child gets their qualifications there, then they might not be recognised in your home country. That’s why it’s better to use an international school that follows a standard curriculum.

3. What will they like about the new country?

If you want to get your child enthusiastic about a move, you’ll have to find something that they’ll love about the new place. Your child will be leaving behind their friends, hobbies, and life, so it’s important they have something to look forward to in the new place.

Do some research on your destination. For example, if you are relocating to the Maltese islands, along with looking to buy a property in Malta, you may also want to see if there are local clubs your child can join? Will they be able to enjoy the beaches and the countryside? Can they go swimming several times a week? It’s important that your child knows there are going to be fun things to do when you move overseas so that they have something to look forward to. If you are looking for a place with lots of outdoor activities and water sports, Andorra may just tick all the boxes. Besides, the country offers a solid education and health care system. For better clarity on how things actually are over there, however, you could check social media for expat groups, or contact real estate firms like Relocate to Andorra.

Moving to a new country can be much more complicated if you have children. You want to ensure their lives aren’t disrupted, especially their education, and you’ll want to ensure they have something to look forward to when they arrive. If you do your research before you move and have everything in place, the process will be so much easier.

Beautiful or Bloodthirsty?

These plants that I will show you are quite BEAUTIFUL,

but BEWARE!

They are POISONOUS as well.

The Deadly Nightshade

Deadly Nightshade, or atropa belladonna, is a very poisonous plant. The leafage and berries are extremely deadly when consumed. The leaves are usually green or purple, and the berries black or green. They are very dangerous to children because they look rather tempting and have a luscious taste. However, oxen and rabbits can eat this without dying.

The Rosary Pea

Rosary pea, or abrus precatorius, is a suicidal plant that is part of the bean family. Just one seed can kill both adults and kids. These are made as native jewelry, and the most common one is the red one with a black eye, but there are also different colors.

Wolfsbane

Wolfsbane, or aconitum napellus, is also a very fatal plant. It was used on arrows to kill wolves.  Dark purple is the usual color of the plant. Sometimes it is also red-purple. It can also be a pale lavender.

Midnight Ruffles

Helleborus, or Midnight Ruffles. This plant is used for decorative purposes. Helleborus have many different colors, like green to purple, and the hybrids can be slate grey to yellow to white to green. My favorite is the near black Midnight Ruffles hybrid (see picture above).

All helleborus plants and parts are toxic, despite their beautiful colors. The poison outside the plant will cause inflammation and prickling sensations. Eating helleborus will cause pain in the mouth, vomiting, and diarrhea. Eating significant amounts is fatal.

Even though these plants are pretty, they are very dangerous as well. God our Father made these plants like this for special purposes, like to make sure animals and humans don’t eat them. These plants are also very beautiful because every plant God makes is beautiful, even the rafflesia.

Jade is an 11-year-old homeschooled bookworm. She devours books by Roald Dahl, Lois Lowry, Rick Riordan, and JK Rowling. She plays guitar, bakes goodies, and tinkers stuff when she has spare time.

Mga Kwento Ni Nanay: A Storytelling Workshop

Children love stories!  Undoubtedly, children love hearing stories in whatever form – in print, read to them, read on their own, on television, in movies, etcetera. It may sound surprising to some, but majority of children prefer listening to stories read to them by their moms.  They may not always enthusiastically show it but they do love it when their parents read them stories before they sleep at night.  Try to recall your own childhood. I’m pretty sure you treasure those bedtime stories your mom used to read to you.

I believe that all mothers are natural storytellers.  Some just need a little prodding to help bring out this gift.  This weekend may just be the right time to unleash the Mother Goose in you.  On November 24 and 25, the Gateway Gallery in partnership with Adarna House is holding the 2nd Mga Kwento ni Nanay: A Storytelling Workshop.  This workshop is designed to strengthen the reading campaign of the Gateway Gallery by involving parents, guardian, teachers and volunteers in the community.  If you want to learn helpful techniques to become an effective storyteller, this workshop is perfect for you.

This activity not only emphasizes the benefits of reading but espouses spending quality time with our children for their overall development.  We’ve often been told that the best gift we can give to our loved ones is time.  Well, what better way to spend that time than sharing stories with our children.

Mga Kwento ni Nanay: A Storytelling Workshop is just one among many programs of the Gateway Gallery that promotes the benefits of reading and the importance of literacy in our society.  Read on to learn more about this advocacy.

 

Press Release

The Gateway Gallery, managed by the J. Amado Araneta Foundation (JAAF) – the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the Araneta Group, strongly believes in the importance of reading and literacy. In June 12 this year, the Gallery unveiled its “Liwanag Reading Corner”, a 7-piece mobile wooden sculpture inspired by the story of the Lamp and the Moth told by Teodora Alonzo to the young boy Jose Rizal. This one-of-a-kind art piece aims to promote our Filipino heritage and encourage reading by showcasing select books on Philippine history, culture and arts for all ages.

GATEWAY GALLERY PROGRAM

Reading has insurmountable benefits that cannot be neglected. It fosters individual growth that can spur national development. Encouragingly, the Philippines does not lag behind on basic literacy. In 2013, 96.5 percent of 74 million Filipinos 10 years old and over were basically literate. Basic or simple literacy – is the ability of a person to read and write with understanding a simple message in any language or dialect. Furthermore, nine out of every ten Filipinos 10 to 64 years were functionally literate. Functional literacy includes not only reading and writing but also numeracy skills. The skills must be sufficiently advanced to enable the individual to participate fully and efficiently in activities commonly occurring in his life situation that require a reasonable capability of communicating by written language. A functional literate person is one who can at least read, write, compute and/or comprehend. Also, persons who graduated from high school or completed higher level of education are classified as functionally literate.

Though the statistics looks good, the number significantly drops when comprehension or higher level of literacy is considered. Only 5 out of 10 elementary graduates can read, write, compute and comprehend. While this number improves as the students reach high school, only about 60% of the population actually reaches high school thus, attaining this level of literacy. Employment/ looking for work (28.8%), Family income not sufficient to send child to school (15.7), and lack of personal interest (14.9) are top 3 reasons for not attending school/ dropping out.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVE

The Gateway Gallery Reading Program aims to foster literacy or love for reading and books among Filipino children. It supplements the current DepEd programs on improving the literacy rate in the country with emphasis on promotion of Filipino history, arts, and culture.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

Unveiled during the Philippine Independence Day on June 12, 2017, the “Liwanag Reading Corner” is a 7-piece mobile wooden sculpture inspired by the story of the Lamp and the Moth told by Teodora Alonzo to the young boy Jose Rizal. The one of a kind art piece aims to promote our Filipino heritage and encourage reading by showcasing select books on Philippine history, culture and arts for all ages in the gallery.

Kuwentuhang Adarna sa Gateway Gallery is a monthly storytelling session for community children. The activity aims to promote book enjoyment through animated storytelling and activities. The stories are told by storytellers from Adarna House using Adarna books. The session ends with distribution of snacks and educational gifts.

The Liwanag Reading Caravan is a storytelling – school campaign where celebrity storytellers visit nearby schools to promote the value and habit of reading. It also encourages the students to visit Gateway Gallery’s Liwanag Reading Corner for some “after-school reading”.

Mga Kwento ni Nanay is a one-day storytelling workshop designed to strengthen the reading campaign of the Gallery by enlisting parents, guardian, teachers and volunteers in the community. Participants are briefed on the value of reading and helpful techniques to become effective storytellers. The activity not only emphasizes the benefits of reading but espouses spending quality time with the children for their overall development.

In the last 5 months since they launched their reading program, they were able to reach 230 children, trained nearly 100 storytellers and distributed more than 150 books.

This November 24 & 25, as celebrate the National Reading Month, the Gateway Gallery is holding its 2nd Mga Kwento ni Nanay : A Storytelling Workshop in partnership with Adarna House. The workshop is designed to strengthen the reading campaign of the Gallery by involving parents, guardian, teachers and volunteers in the community. Participants are briefed on the value of reading and helpful techniques to become effective storytellers. The activity not only emphasizes the benefits of reading but espouses spending quality time with children for their overall development.

One Lemony Quarter in Our Homeschooling Journey

Life threw so many lemons at us on our second quarter  so we made use of them in our third quarter – figuratively and literally. LOL! (wink to my bez gen!)

Oh ok, it wasn’t a deliberate plan to make lemons the theme of our third quarter lessons but everything just fell into place and made it a wonderful lemony learning time.  This is the first themed quarter we’ve had so I’m sharing it with you! ♥♥♥

It all started with a lemon battery kit the kids have had for more than two years but have not been able to use at all.  Since their Science topic for the third quarter was Matter, Energy, and Electricity, we decided to try the kit out.  I was actually only interested in seeing whether it would really work but our special Science teacher this quarter, engineer Lolo Mel, had so much more to teach.  From a simple lemon battery kit, the kids learned about electricity (they now know more about positive-negative terminals, voltmeter, etc, than I do!) and how even common acids at home can power a simple clock.  Kids also learned how to use Lolo’s handy-dandy voltmeter!

Since Lolo Mel was helping the kids with Science, we thought it would be great to get the whole family involved and asked Lola Mira to teach the kids about common household uses of lemons.  Kids learned that lemon rind can still be used to clean and deodorize the house. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Then we asked Tita Lala to prepare an art activity using lemons.  She came up with an awesome invisible ink painting activity where the kids learned about “oxidation” as well.  That’s Science in Art! This is also very easy to do.  All you need is some lemon juice (any weak acid would work – try it with calamansi or vinegar), cotton buds, paper, and lots of creativity.  Draw on paper using the cotton buds dipped in lemon juice, wait for it to dry, pop it in a warm oven for a few seconds, and watch the magic happen.  (my kids would say though – “It’s not magic. It’s Science!”)

For Health, we researched on the health benefits of lemon and, of course, checked some recipes out.  Tita Che sent us recipes for Dory with Lemon Caper Sauce (which we weren’t able to cook) and Lemon Squares (which Jade can bake all by herself now!).

It was quite easy to integrate Science with all the other subjects this quarter.  For reading, we classified acids and bases and created a Pie Chart.  We made a Line Graph to show the relationship between the number of lemons and their total voltage.  We also made a Bar Graph to show the voltages of different acids.

Since we were also studying the different parts of a book, we made a “book” complete with Table of Contents, Chapters, Glossary, and Supplements.

For Language, Bible, and Character, the kids wrote short stories about a “lemon character” who learns about the importance of Obedience and Self-Control.  They wanted to make just one story book but I told them they had to make separate ones so I can include the books in their respective folders.  They still collaborated though so we have volume 1 and volume 2 of The Lemon Rascal. 🙂

For AP and Filipino, the kids also wrote short stories. This time about a “calamansi character” who shows people in the community how they can help protect the environment. The kids wrote the stories all by themselves.  It may be barok but I’m glad that they both tried their best and managed to write in Filipino.

There may have been days when we were unproductive, days when I felt like giving up and just sending the kids back to school, days when the kids seemed to have conspired to go on a school strike…but, overall, I think this is the best quarter we’ve had so far (we’ve only had three though, tee-hee).  What I love most about this quarter is that the kids were also able to spend time with and learn from other family members.  I’m hoping we could have more of these as we continue our homeschooling journey.

Image result for franklin teach me and i forget

 

Fun Programs at The Galileo Summer Learning Camp 2017

Still in search for summer activities for your kids?  Check out the fun programs at the  Galileo Summer Learning Camp.

 

(Press Release)

Importance of Summer Learning

Galileo Summer Program 2017

The summer vacation has arrived and students are all very excited to hit the beach or go out of town. After spending ten months inside the classroom, finishing projects, doing homework at night and weekends, and studying for examinations, students definitely look forward to taking a break during the summer time for play and fun with their friends.

For teachers, the break means an uphill battle with the “summer slide.” Studies show that students could lose up to 2 months of literacy and math skills throughout the summer season, especially that the preschool and grade school years are the crucial stage to develop foundational skills needed in the long run. To solve this problem, enrolling kids in a Summer Program that runs for an hour or two per day answers the learning gap.

We at Galileo acknowledges the different learning pace and style of each child, taking into account one’s need for an encouraging and positive learning environment. Our organization aims to improve students’ academic aptitude by cultivating mastery of Math and English skills in a fun and meaningful way, thereby making them lifelong learners.

This summer, Galileo will be offering programs that will help prevent summer learning loss in an exciting ways. These innovative programs tap into the interests of the students while at the same time teach them with essential and practical learning skills.

The Galileo Summer Learning Camp (SLC) is a summer program that taps into a child’s interests while exposing him to a wide range of activities, preparing him for school, and further enhancing his social skills. This year, the Galileo Summer Learning Camp brings the fun and learning to the streets through its theme: Celebrating Filipino Games and Culture. This module celebrates the Filipino culture of connecting with friends through games, while at the same time strengthening body coordination, strategy, and skills.

The two-module Summer Learning Camp features well-known Filipino games for children and bring it to the classroom. These games will be integrated with other activities unique to the Galileo Summer Learning Camp such as art activities, creative storytelling, interactive songs, and cooperative playing.The SLC focuses on bodily-kinesthetic learning enriched with cognitive- related learning because the toddlers’ age, (1.5- 3 y.o) is the time when they need to develop motor skills, along with their thinking and perception skills.  In addition, some learning concepts such as shapes, colors and few letter recognition will be introduced.

The Wikang Filipino is a Filipino Reading Program — students will be reading Filipino texts to develop their reading comprehension and vocabulary in Filipino. Explore the world of wonder and discover what it means to be a child in a Filipino culture.

The two-module program offers local titles from Adarna Publishing House that not only teaches students to comprehend Filipino texts, but also increases their appreciation for the Filipino culture.

The Summer Math Club is a program integrating Math concepts to real-life situations, it aims to enhance student’s mathematical ability, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

The two-module program aims to teach money management and entrepreneurship along with the Math concepts essential to each lesson such as basic operations, percentage, decimals, measurement, and graphs.

The Junior Robotics: Creative Engineering is a theme-based program which uses LEGO Education’s WeDo materials and activities. It encompasses specific subject matter such as Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Language.

Based on case study, each project task will eventually lead the students of all ages into the ability to acquire new knowledge. Being well-equipped with the continuous knowledge they had learnt, students will have better capability to adapt in the ever-growing technology environment. This program is in collaboration with Cyberland International Education Centre Singapore.

The Digital Summer Camp: Coding and Technology is a techie summer treat that allows children to have fun while learning digital skills. This programming course aims to break classroom walls and create a learning space that will boost child’s creativity using technology. It also encourages learning through collaboration and cooperation. With Power Mac trainers as their mentors, children will be able to enhance their use of digital tools and bring life to their imagination. This is in collaboration with Power Mac Center, one of the recognized leading Apple Premium Reseller, Authorized Education Reseller, Authorized Training Center and Authorized Service Provider in the Philippines.

For more information about Galileo Summer Programs, you can call 8451234 or email  [email protected].