Breastfeeding Benefits for Mothers

Breastfeeding Benefits for Mothers

Another article published in smartparenting.com.ph

Breastmilk is not just beneficial for babies but also to the mothers.

A Primer on the New K-12 Philippine Education Curriculum

A Primer on the New K-12 Philippine Education Curriculum

For the parents who want to really understand the new K-12 Philippine Education Curriculum, I’m sharing a link published by http://www.smartparenting.com.ph

Here’s a part I quoted from the article.  I just hope this will really be implemented in this new curriculum starting next school year.

According to Education Secretary Br. Armin A. Luistro, the new curriculum is focused more on the learners and not on the teacher. Luistro said, “We are making it a real learning experience for the students, meaning, it will be less on memorization and more encouraging of critical thinking”. In addition to this, a mother tongue-based multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE) will be used for instruction in Kinder to Grade 3 classes after studies showed that students learn more when their language at home is used in discussing the lessons in school. Also, there will be less contact time as Grade 1 pupils will only attend school for half a day instead of 6 hours. Luistro explains, “It is important that our learners develop that natural love for learning and not feel that it is something imposed on them…we will reduce it to four hours to make education less stressful and more enjoyable.”

For the first year high school curriculum, Luistro mentions that the lessons will be more interactive and meaningful to everyday life. This means that Science will be reflected in terms of its practical use. He further explains, “as students go up the ladder, we want them to learn skills that are being demanded by employers while at the same time giving them the chance to appreciate and enjoy the lessons”. For instance, Luistro stresses that Science is to be integrated in all learning areas since it is a complex subject. He further expounds, “the focus of early education (Kinder to Grade 2) should be the fundamental skills and literacy of the pupils to develop better comprehension for more complicated subjects such as science”.

A study done by SEAMEO points out that the current curriculum allots about 1,100 minutes per week in elementary education to Science, which will change with the introduction of K-12. Luistro says, “this, coupled with teaching more competencies, imply congestion in our current elementary Science curriculum.” To address this, Science will now be integrated into the teaching of the Language, Mathematics and Health under MAPEH subjects beginning at Kindergarten.

Prof. Calingasan further explains that the K-12 curriculum for Social Studies will instead center on historical thinking skills rather than memory work (of dates, names, regions, capitals, etc) and accumulation of facts. She mentions examples of thinking skills such as “weighing the evidence of any information, using primary source evidence, analyzing and interpreting information, manifesting ethical standards (e.g., respect for differences, recognition of sources of evidence/idea). The K-12 Social Studies curriculum will  also teach students about local history.”

Breastfeeding Beyonce

Breastfeeding Beyonce

Yey for Beyonce!

I feed my baby with breastmilk until now he is 13 months, though not exclusively at the moment.  But I’ve directly breastfed him for about 6 months and I never tried doing it in public.  I envy Beyonce for she was able to do it 🙂