Do your kids like to play basketball? Since my son was three years old, he has always shown interest but maybe because I’ve always seen him as being the more cerebral-than-athletic type, he never really had the chance to try the sport until the summer before he turned five when I learned about Coach E Basketball School.

As parents, I’m sure there is nothing we aspire and pray for more than our children’s good health and protection from danger.

Earlier today, our son was one of the recipients of the Silver Award for the International Singapore Maths Competition (ISMC), and in between trying to hold back happy tears and regulating my breathing to slow-down the pace of my heart bursting with pride, I can’t help but wonder how we managed to raise this incredibly talented boy.

If I told you that I learned about Global Art Philippines when I was 33 weeks pregnant with my son, way back March 2010, right after my maternity photoshoot at the now defunct Blow Up Babies Studio, which happened to sit right beside their Serendra branch, and that I tacked their flyer on my corkboard to serve as a reminder to enroll my son there when he turns five years old, would you find that incredible, freaky, or both?

Do your kids have household chores that they are truly accountable for? By “truly accountable” I mean one that if they do it, you, the parent (or your housekeepers) won’t be re-doing the chore once the child is out-of-sight; or if they don’t, then that job remains undone and your child is held answerable for not doing it? I just had to qualify because based on what I’ve observed, chores for kids, more often than not, mean “playtime activity” than a routine, necessary task that actually contributes to the household, effectively helping to off-load us parents or the hired help from the real task-at-hand.