take care of your heart daddy

Zoe Sandejas’ entry won first place in the recent 2007 World Heart Day video making contest. The video is funny yet it sends a very strong message. Congratulations to our Rosehill parents and students for great acting and most importantly, for helping us to be more health conscious. Cheers!

Winning Video link -- http://youtube.com/watch?v=G_Jp0PmrF3k

Time to go digital

I finally bought my first digital camera this October. After long years of waiting for the right model and pricing, I purchased a Canon S5IS powershot. I have long entrusted taking my pictures with my Canon EOS 3 SLR camera. Some of the reasons why I did not choose to buy a digital model right away are because I'm so used to the fast focusing and low or zero shutter lag that my film camera had. The early digital models are also power hungry and took quite a while to focus. More often you cannot capture the intended scene due to shutter lag or your batteries will not last capturing the entire event.

I decided to buy an extra 28mm wide conversion lens with the unit (which is bulky though) and a 2GB memory card - all for a price lower than what you would pay for the regular unit in the malls. It's a good thing I can visit Hidalgo street in Quiapo where you can find many camera dealers so I can scout for the latest models even before their sold in the malls.

The new camera was put to test during our trip to Davao. It is quite handy and user-friendly even for my elder children to use. One of its nice features is that you can record video clips and still shoot pictures. It has an image stabilizer that allows more stable shots, a 12x optical zoom and can record pictures in 8 megapixels. This is a great camera to use for outdoors if you want more control than more compact versions but want to avoid the more bulky SLR models.

I miss the feel of the SLR camera though so I am saving for a digital SLR model soon. I have seen the features of the 40D model and its enough to make me drool.

Budget air fares

Most local airlines are now using low fares to entice people to travel. They go as low as one peso to any local and some international destination. Of course you have to pay also the travel tax, terminal fees, VAT, etc. but it is still way too low compared if you pay the regular fee. Consider this, I recently booked a family of seven to Davao and back via the one peso fare and paid 14,898.40 pesos for the taxes.

You have to be alert though for news that announces their promos as this last only a few days. Even at the first day, the seats can get fully booked before the duration of the promo. You have to be ready to decide with your schedule fast as your vacant seat can be taken if you wait to ask your travel mates first after checking the seating reservation and booking the next day.

I heard the local shipping lines are also imitating this promotion. Now that will also allow every juan to travel to any local destination even cheaper.

kids' love for reading

If you live somewhere in Quezon city, you may want to enrol your children at Bookhive. Bookhive is a reading club started by Ces Lecaros Aceron, former news anchor at ABS-CBN and lawyer husband Marvin for children. Primarily intended for pre-school and elementary children, it aims to promote the love for reading while kids are still young. We enrolled our son Jiego and daughter Ayi about two years ago and both have developed their enjoyment in book reading as part of their pastimes other than just playing or watching tv.

Aside from reading quality books for free, members get to be treated to story-telling (oftentimes by celebrities!), other workshops and parties. We also subscribed to Adventure Box magazine where our children can't wait to receive the next issue. Even the older members of our family fell in love reading it. This mag together with other Box magazines for different age-level kids are also being promoted by Bookhive.

For more information, call Ces Lecaroz Aceron at 3763409 or 0919-6213581, or e-mail magbox@bookhiveph.com. Visit www.magboxclub.com and www.bookhiveph.com.

Parenting Courses

Do you have toddlers and want to learn more on how to handle or develop them? Or maybe a son or daughter who just turned thirteen? Then why not join one of the courses offered by Educhild. My wife and I joined the basic course four years ago and we really learned a lot about parenting from parents also. We would spend our Saturday nights doing case studies and learning from other people's experience. It also served as our weekly date away from our then four children. No, we are not yet experts on this but yes we know we can be better. Joining their courses will probably be the best choice you will make if you want to enjoy being parents and be more effective in it. Your relationship as husband and wife will also benefit greatly from it. Currently, we are assisting also in our children school's NPEP program for new parents in Paref schools.

advent wreath

I don’t recall lighting advent candles much more saying prayers to this old Catholic tradition when I was younger. I don’t even recall it being displayed in our churches then. Perhaps I was busy looking at all the festive decorations or daydreaming about what toy or how much money I will get from my ninongs and ninangs during when I was a young boy. And I remember I was also busy planning how I can visit during this Christmas season my nililigawan during my young adult life.

It’s my children who thought me how to do this Christmas novena. I learned about it during my eldest daughter during her preschool years and since then, we do it traditionally at home. We even buy a bare wreath and let our kids choose some small décor to make it more personalized. We have not finished a single novena from then but we enjoy praying parts of the novena. Of course, our baby boy now is the one enjoying blowing the candles after.