Sweet World of Joan

Being a college professor, summer is a time to recharge and learn new things. It’s actually when I made my plans for the whole year with the coming school year as a basis for the activities and goals I want to achieve. One of the “perks” of being a teacher is having a two-month summer vacation no pay off course but at least you can do anything in that two months and go back to your job by June. I usually plan my summer activities at the start of the year, giving me ample time to save for it. This year I get to go to the beach! Puerto Galera. I am not a beach person, hate the salty water, the hassle just to get there, and swimming pool is just fine for me.   But this year our faculty department planned the outing as a form of professional development-team building activity and with minimal fees. I decided to join since I’ve never been to Puerto Galera and to show support for my department. I brought my son too, since he have never been to a beach before and he wants to go to Borac...

I was walking to work yesterday when I saw this huge pile of singkamas “ Mexican Turnip” it caught my eye because of how it was arranged. I was thinking about it the whole day that to my delight it was still there when I came home(I live near Nepa Q Mart) in the afternoon that I could not resist taking photos of it. Seeing so many fruits signifies how blessed our country is by God. I love summer because of the different fruits in abundance like ripe mangoes, watermelons, melons and of course singkamas. These fruits remind me of my summers as a child eating fruits during summer outings and ice candies made of ripe mangoes. Yummy!

One of the joys of being a kid during summer is going to new places, playing all day and meeting new friends. Last May 2 and 3, we joined my mother’s office summer outing at a resort in Pampanga. The two day summer outing is the last outing that my mother joins in before she retires this July. My son Lorenzo was in heaven, he got to swim and play with new friends. Since my son is an only child he seldom has kids his age to play with and the outing was an opportunity for him to develop his social skills. It was bittersweet when we were parting with his new friends, he invited them to visit us at home. I am so proud of my son’s friendliness and generosity. Making him feel he is loved greatly and is supported in what he is doing made Lorenzo confident and giving towards others. I hope at that even when my mom retires my son’s communication with his new friends remains.

It’s summer once again and for kids it means fun, fun and more fun. But for a child like my son who loves school this summer time is “boring”. He has frequent tantrums now a days for there is not enough to do and he misses school and his classmates. It’s one of the disadvantages of being an only child, there are no other kids to play with. I decided than one solution would be to enroll Lorenzo to a summer activity and I looked around and here is what I found out: Learn a new sport My son is overweight and his pedia encouraged us to give him more physical activities. I found an Ad about it Milo Summer Sports Clinics on the newspaper and called the MILO hotline (02) 914-7111 and discovered they have various sports activities to choose from karate, swimming, basketball, bowling, taekwondo and other sports catering to different ages. I am considering enrolling him on taekwondo but my husband thinks it’s too soon. My son loves to swim so a swimming lesson is another choice we are considerin...

It's been two weeks since the start of classes, weeks filled with adjustments for me and my family. For me it is time to go to work again as a college computer instructor and for my son it is the start of a new chapter of his life, SCHOOL. One of the reasons why I chose to teach than to continue my career as a computer programmer is the freedom to choose my time when to go work. I really wanted to have a family so before getting married I shifted to teaching. One of the great things about teaching is that you have summer and Christmas breaks or vacations, but its downside you also don't have a source of income during the whole summer. At least you have a time to try new things and indulge in activities that you can't do when you are working in an office. Summers are a great time especially if you have kids, you have a time wherein you can really bond with each other. This past summer is really a special and memorable time for me and my son Lorenzo. We really got to bond, it...