This early, am sure loads of mums are getting busy doing early Christmas shopping to avoid the hustle + bustle come December + avoid the proverbial Christmas rush, too! I cannot blame them really, as shopping during the holiday season can really be twice harder + difficult compared to shopping during a normal, regular day. It can sometimes spell disaster or may be equated to one major headache, either of which none of us wants to deal with, am sure!
Here are a few tips + tricks for one convenient + stress-free Holiday shopping:
To make the most of your budget, check out the malls pre-Christmas season sale where you can buy loads of potential gift items come Christmas day. Most of these products are sold at 50-70% off so you will really have more value for your money if you do all your shopping around this time
If braving this mall-wide sale, make sure to leave the little ones at home or if you can’t, at least have another companion so you will be sure someone can keep an eye on your tot while either of you browse the shops or the displays
Leave your credit cards at home so you can only spend the budget you have set aside for this shopping. You wouldn’t want to be knee-deep in debt in the New Year, right? Or, worse, ending up buying stuff you won’t really need just because they are on sale + you have the money to purchase them?
When buying toys for kiddos, make sure to get age-appropriate ones + check the labels if they passed standards on safety + quality. You wouldn’t want to be giving out toxic toys to your children or godchildren, do you?
To avoid the Christmas rush, do your shopping at the end of October or mid-November. Malls won’t be as packed compared to doing it in the later part of November or in December, when these places will be filled with shoppers
For your shopping convenience, you can also check out online shops where you can browse through wide array of items + products in the comfort of your living room. You might just have to add a small amount for shipping fee but what’s a few bucks compared to the stress + the headache {not to mention muscle ache if you decide to tag the toddler along!} you will avoid in the process. A cheap trade, really!
I find public speaking a very intimidating exercise, it almost always makes me feel uncomfortable and I’d prefer writing a dozen times over, so you’ll probably be surprised how I managed to work in a Call Center for almost 5 years of my life! It really is quite a struggle. And sometimes, when I look back, I was sort of in awe of myself for having conquered such a feat! Now, before you get into the wrong conclusions, let me just clarify, that I am no expert in the English Language, as most people would think of folks who work or has been in a Call Center before. We tried to be for the sake of keeping our beloved jobs, but really it is a series of constant learning and practice that made us speak English the way we do now. It was no walk in the park, I tell you! And I guess, the pressure of mastering a foreign accent to top that, made it all the more challenging and interesting. Just picture me struggling, with my strained ears most of the time, how to decipher the twang of Harry Potter from a person on the other line calling from a very distant continent! Real hard work, I tell you and it sure is one bloody accent! Sometimes I even had to ask the caller to repeat himself so that I can fully understand what he was trying to tell me. And, when you work in a call center, of course you are aware that repetition is such a big no, no and asking your caller to repeat himself more that twice will cause a mark down on your QA scores!
I have always preferred written communication over its verbal counterpart and blogging has been one ideal platform for me. Imagine not having to speak a word, well, audibly, that is! But the challenge in blogging comes in trying to formulate one effective way of communicating with your target audience sans the inflection and intonations that spoken words possess. And coming up with interesting, not to mention a little intelligent and informative, posts that would make readers stop for at least full 10 minutes and make them keep on coming back. Again, it is a challenge and one’s vocabulary has to be in tip top shape in order to create these posts, too!
That’s what probably got me hooked on blogging, in the first place! It was like school all over again. You challenge yourself to create these posts every single day and at the same time, continue learning and studying all the rudiments of blogging and practice my rusting skills on the English language too. Not because I am a stay-at-home mum to my toddler means I can totally forget about learning altogether, right? It would come handy once my son is in the learning age and it is my time to teach him my knowledge. Of course, I’d love to teach him impeccable English! It would be unforgivable if I’d teach him wrong grammar and poor communication skills, right?
Life, come to think of it, is really one never-ending learning process. You learn new stuffs every single day and you simply cannot rest on your laurels. Besides, it pays to learn a little everyday to exercise the mind and to keep us ahead in life. And brushing up on your English skills can very well be your ticket to that promotion you’ve been dreaming of for so many months now, or that job overseas which you have been wanting to apply for. For some others, it can also be a great tool to develop a good professional image and have increased confidence.
If my schedule and my purse would allow me, I’d really like to enroll in Aheadpro’s MELC or The Mastery of the English Language Certification. This is a test of English proficiency which is designed by Filipino language experts specifically for Filipino English users. This test assesses the listening, reading, writing and speaking skills of an individual. A person can easily gauge whether his English needs some extra attention, plus MELC is also a very good practice for tougher and a more competitive English tests, such as IELTS and TOEFL. I have a friend who is applying for a post in the UK and she needed to pass IELTS with flying colors in order to secure the job. She swears that this language test is really very difficult to pass and she needed all the help she can get to ace it, especially the oral part. Luckily my friend was able to pass and will be on her way to the UK very soon!
As recommended by Ms. Erica Dela Cruz, AHEAD’s Business Unit Manager, I might try their lifestyle + writing workshop which can very well benefit bloggers like myself! They have writers + editors as resource persons + would either conduct these seminars in places appropriate for the workshop themes, i.e. in a restaurant if it is on a food writing seminar.
Or maybe I can also try their other tutorial which is aptly called BEST or Business English Skills Training. This will help me hone my English skills and not only that, it would also teach me helpful tips and tricks on vocabulary enhancement and review of the English grammar, as well as about effective business writing and business presentation, which, you never know can be handy someday.
Ms. Rosanna Llenado – President
AHEAD Professional Network (AHEADPro), a division of AHEAD Learning Systems, Inc., founded by the visionary + president, Ms. Rosanna LLenado, is a learning and development solutions provider of programs and training seminars for skills enhancement. Initially organized to support the recruitment ad training activities of AHEAD Tutorial + Review Center, it is dedicated to the development of companies that aim to shape a globally competitive workforce and more importantly, of goal-driven, service-oriented professionals who seek to improve their skills in order to achieve their goals. AHEADPro has a pool of highly-respected and esteemed specialists, academicians, consultants and experts, regarded as authorities in their respective fields, as trainers, mentors and lecturers. They have principals and head teachers from reputable schools in the country (including Ateneo de Manila University, Claret School of Quezon City, Diliman Preparatory School, St. Paul College, La Salle Greenhills, Adamson University, among others) participating in their LESSM and TESSA programs and include St. Luke’s Medical Center, DepED, Philippine Business for Social Progress, Dusit Hotel Nikko, MSI-ECS, Air21, FedEx, MailMore and no less than the Senate of the Philippines, among the roster of its regular clientele.
Ms. Jane Santos-Quinto – AHEAD Official
What makes AHEADPro standout amongst other tutorial programs around, apart from being the leading + the most-awarded tutorial company in the country, is that they provide a tailor-fit training program for specific individual requirement. They also provide a very flexible training options for clients, if ever the client opted to have his training conducted in his office or somewhere else, apart from the confines of AHEADPro’s classrooms. Plus, of course, one can never go wrong with AHEAD’s 12 years of expertise. As Ms. Jane Santos-Quinto, AHEAD official, shared, almost 95% – 100% of people who reviewed with them get the scores + marks that they originally aspired.
Apart from MELC and BEST, AHEADPro also offers other training programs and tutorials including:
English as a Second Language (ESL)
GoEnglish Global Opportunities through English
Leadership Strategies for School Managers (LESSM)
Teaching Strategies for Student Achievement (TESSA)
Test Preparation Courses, including IELTS + TOEFL Reviews
Ms. Erica Dela Cruz – AHEAD Business Unit Manager
Don’t you think it is high time to speak + write English like a Pro? After all, it really pays to be ahead!
AHEAD Professional Network
337 Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1108
I came across this video in facebook two weeks ago + I was floored!
Okay, at first it does look promising, that’s what got me hooked the first 20 seconds or so, plus I also watch this soap whenever I got the chance to, watch it with my son mind you, but as the video progressed with the little girl crying for almost four minutes with adults laughing in the background, their futile attempts to appease the little girl with an explanation seemed only that, futile! It turned out to something too scary for my mummy taste, imagine Jared crying over a TV soap like that – mommy’s ultimate nightmare!
I must admit, and I am also guilty of this sometimes okay lots of times, nowadays, television is playing a vital role in our daily lives, what with all the mummy stuff we have to do + what seemed to be the easiest way to keep the baby occupied while we go about our chores, but put him on his tiny perch in front of the tube for the next hour or so! It was like having an unpaid nanny on duty 24-hours or at least while the baby is awake.
T.V., what do I need? Tell me who to believe! Whats the use of autonomy when a button does it all? T.V., what should I see? Tell me who should I be? Lets do our mom a favor and drop a new god off a wall. ~ Idiot Box (Incubus)
Expert says to hold off TV viewing for as long as possible + that children aren’t really missing much if you raise them TV-free. So here I am again, retrying to raise Jared sans TV (or PC more like, since he watches most of the time in the computer) or at least with limited TV time. If you were just like me, who struggles to keep the children TV-free but has to give in some time, here’s what we need to bear in mind:
Allow TV time in moderation 1 to 2 hours a day at best, and in case of very young children, like Jared, break TV time into 15-minute segments lest your child’s brain might go on autopilot. What I do is let him watch 2 to 3 Pocoyo episodes then let him resume playing. If in case I need to be in the kitchen for a longer period of time, like when doing my laundy, I let him watch a movie (the current hit is Up) but checks in with him from time to time, + make sure his toys are just lying within arms’ reach for when he got bored or tired of watching.
Be your own censorship + always preview programs + shows before allowing kids to watch them. To make sure you know exactly what your children’s going to see, opt for rented DVDs or BluRay of their favorite cartoon shows or animated movies. This is also a sure-fire way of avoiding the lure of advertisements, since young minds are not yet capable of processing them.
Watch with your children whenever you can, taking “Parental Guidance” to heart. What I do is cuddle my son as we watch together, talking to him about the program or do tasks on the side, like folding clothes or organize bills, as he watched.
Walk the talk and provide a good example by limiting your TV time whilst the baby is awake.
Provide alternatives so as to send a signal to your child that it is not good to just watch TV all the time. You can either play with his toys, read him a book or in Jared’s case sometimes, magazines + other publications, listen to classical music or invite him to go out for an afternoon stroll.
Think of other creative ways to play + bond with your child apart from being glued to the boob tube, he won’t be a kid for long anyway + we ought to make the most of it.