Raising Kids -- Surprisingly Smart Parenting Tips for Dads and Moms

Hats off to these smart parenting tips for new mums. Here they go (emphasis mine):

1. You won't need half the crap that you bring to the hospital with you. And it will be a pain in the butt to carry it all home.
2. There are tons of stupid baby gadgets out there. Don't get suckered into things like baby wipes warmers, knee-pads for crawlers, etc.
3. It will be much harder than you ever expected, and so much more rewarding than you ever expected.
4. Let your partner help. Insist that your partner helps.
5. Even with a newborn, you need time alone. Give the baby to your partner, a grandparent, anything, and get out of the house for an hour, ALONE! Get a pedicure, buy a book, or just go grocery shopping by yourself, at least once a month.

Source: What advice would you give to a new mum about raising kids? at Yahoo! Answers

What I like most about these tips is that it says, "Let your partner help. Insist that your partner helps." This is a cool call for husbands (like me) to help in parenting, isn't it?

Raising Kids and Swapping Parenting Tips? Five Reasons Why This is Cool

I pray this initiative to swap tips on raising kids through a magazine in Sioux Falls succeeds. Every parent needs tips. Come on, we exchange tips about golf all the time. Why not about raising kids? Doing that right may mean far more to us in our last breath than a series of holes-in-one.

New Magazine Offers Resources For Parents

SIOUX FALLS, SD - Online groups and play dates help parents swap tips about raising kids, and now Sioux Falls parents can find that same kind of advice in a magazine. With children come questions, and the answers can sometimes be hard to find.

"We really don't have anything right now that we can get lots of good information about parenting, tips, lots of advice from other parents, which is hard," mother Leigh Jerzak said. But a group of local parents hopes to change that.

Source: keloland.com

Gosh, how true. We have marriage and family gurus filling up our channels. Tips from other parents are as good. I remember a movie about someone closely following the advise of a popular parenting counselor. Later, he discovered that the counselor had no child and never had one. What a funny story.

Homeschooling -- Building a Family Who Loves

A fundamental homeschooling attribute found expression in one of the blogs I stumbled upon. Building a family was mentioned in the third paragraph of the Guest Family Homeschool Mission Statement:

Give generously to each other as we honor others above ourselves, building a family who loves, encourages and enjoys one another. As a family we will give generously to others, instilling a purpose that is outward and sacrificial in God’s love.
Source: Waiting for Perfect @ aisforanteater.com

One of the most common objections encountered by parents who go into homeschooling is this: "How about the socialization of your kid?" To answer that question, here's a picture for immediate gratification:

Learn Filipino Book for Filipinos and Foreigners Alike

This Learn Filipino book available in Amazon is a fascinating find. Being a non-Tagalog native speaker myself, I see the importance of this book.

It's not just for foreigners. It is also for Filipinos who don't speak "Filipino." Yes, there are many Filipinos in the Philippines who do not speak "Filipino" as their native language. They need this book as much as foreigners.

How come? You might say.

In the latest (1987) constitution of the Philippines, the word "Filipino" got a new meaning. From then on it also referred to the "national language" of the Philippines.

The thing was, the national language up until 1987 used to be Tagalog. It was spoken by people in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces. So, the "Filipino" language referred to by the constitution was actually Tagalog, but with words incorporated from other Philippine dialects.

What turns men into fathers? Check this out.

I welcome this news with a grain of salt:

What turns men into fathers?

Why do men suddenly turn from macho to cuddly bears around babies?

Now, a new research answers why. A study has shown that levels of oxytocin, the ‘cuddle chemical’ released into the blood during labour, also rise in new fathers.

Not just that, their bodies see a sudden surge in prolactin, a hormone more commonly linked to milk production in new mothers.

Source: TimesOfIndia.com

I welcome the fact that certain hormones act inside a man's body when a baby is born. But the danger with attributing fatherhood solely on hormonal activity is to associate fatherhood with the feminine side of parenting.

That, to me, does not do justice to fatherhood and to parenting as a whole.