October Gas Station Promos

You may be wondering why I put this post in my blog.

Well, I drive a CRV and last year we got these wonderful collectibles from Shell station.

And these we got from Unioil.

They're not free, of course, but we buy them cheaper than the regular price in stores.

We've also gotten some collectible tumblers and gift certificates. A few days ago, I got a liter of bottled water from Unioil Imus-Aguinaldo Highway branch. I am not posting a link for that because the promo may only be for that exact branch.

So here are two promos I can share with you for now. I will keep you posted on promos as they come up with new ones.

From September 15 to November 15, those who will gas up at Caltex will receive an Ultimate Overload Pizza, free of charge. Click here for more info.

___________________________________

Free gas araw araw!

Promo Period: September 15, 2015 to October 15, 2015

Click here for more info.

Disclaimer: This page is meant to serve as helpful information for TBM readers only and is not,in any way, a paid advertisement.

How To Make A Whiteboard Out Of Gift Carton Boxes

My daughter got this as a gift from her last birthday. She received a lot of presents but we didn't open them all at once.

Today we thought of opening some of them. When I was getting ready to put the cartons in a recycle box, I got the idea of transforming this box into a recycled whiteboard.

The only extra materials I used for this are 1 piece of bond paper and tape. I taped the paper to the plastic that holds the gift set inside the box.

Voila! The quickest and easiest, already designed whiteboard window is ready. Just tape up the edges of the box so your child can't open it. 

You can make holes and attach a string at the top of the whiteboard or put a magnet at the back and attach with tape just like I did.

Little-Big Mike Wazowski

Our project for today is to make clay art. I already have three small containers of Play-doh ready for my daughter in her arts and crafts box anytime she wants to play with them.

I got the three primary colors of the clay so we can just mix them if we need other colors but I bought some additional since she doesn't have white to make pink or sky blue. So here are our materials.

Our model is her 1-inch Mikey toy that we got in a box of four set.

I got a container of the light green Play-doh to match Mike Wazowski's color and added just a little more of green from another store-bought brand to make his color match the toy. Usually I make my own homemade play dough, but for this project I wanted to use clay that will last longer without getting molds and get the color we really want for a great outcome.

So my princess helped by using the rolling pin to flatten out the dough. And I patched it onto one of my daughter's plastic balls to make the body so it won't be too heavy.

I made a template for Mike's eye and used a cutter to get the exact shape of my template.

After fixing the eye to the body, I moulded an eyelid and attached it on top of the eye. Then the arms......

Making the arms was not that hard, I used a ruler to put lines to resemble fingers. For the feet, I was not able to get a picture but I always use a ruler to cut pieces of clay and help form them. I used a toothpick cut in half to support each foot, so it can also poke a small hole into the plastic ball. Make sure you put some glue when you stick the arms and feet into the body to help keep them in place, otherwise they'll keep falling off later on.

A slit using a ruler to make the smile in our Little-Big Mike's face finished the job.

I have to admit Mommy did most of the work to make this project but my daughter had lots of fun making her own creations.

Notes:

For regular playtime, I still recommend making your own play dough to make sure it's 100% safe for your kids to play with. For safety concerns, check out this FAQ page from Play-doh.

TBM’s Homemade Supreme Bibingka

You may be wondering what TBM means. It's Teacher-Buddy-Mom. 😄

This supreme bibingka recipe is the outcome of many trials. My mother is from the province of Ilocos Sur. And I remember when we were kids, going up there (I mean North of the Philippines) and my aunts and uncles all helping out to make a big batch of this special delicacy that got popular in Vigan.

They cooked this in a big pot that really looked like a witch's cauldron that we see in the movies. But the outcome is far from being witchy, it's actually the opposite which is almost close to heavenly.

So every time I feel like having supreme bibingka, I don't have to wait or ask a relative to have it sent to Manila. I just make it and enjoy.

Ingredients

3    cups glutinous flour

2    cups powdered coconut milk

1½ cup sugar

½   cup evaporated milk

5    eggs

1¼ cup water

¾   cup cheddar cheese, grated

Margarine, softened

1    tbsp. white sugar (for topping)

Procedure

1.       Preheat oven to 180ᵒC. Brush a 10-inch round pan or an 8x12 baking dish with margarine.

2.       Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Make a hole in the middle, then add the eggs and water.

3.       Mix well until there are no more lumps. Add only ¼ cup of the grated cheese into the mixture.

4.       Pour the mixture into the pan and cover with aluminum foil.

5.       Bake for the first 15 minutes. Take the slightly cooked bibingka out of the oven and sprinkle the extra 1 tablespoon of white sugar and the rest (½ cup) of the grated cheese on top.

6.       Put the bibingka back into the oven, still covered with foil.

7.       Cook for another 15 minutes then take out of the oven again and brush generously with margarine.

8.       Put the bibingka back into the oven uncovered and cook for 5 more minutes to brown the cheese toppings.

9.       Turn off the heat and take the cooked bibingka out of the oven. Brush again (generously) with more margarine.

10.   Your homemade Supreme Bibingka is ready. This is very good served warm. Wait for it to cool down a little before serving though. :-)

Tips:

After the first 15 minutes of cooking, you can brush the bibingka with margarine a few more times to let it get absorbed on to the top part for better taste.

Keep the left over bibingka in the fridge but warm it up in the microwave at 50% power for 1 minute before serving. Enjoy!

Hotel Transylvania 2 Movie

My daughter and I watched the movie today.

Her rating: 

She says it's her new most favorite movie ever. She says this every time she sees a movie she really loves. From an audience her age, she thinks it 's even better than the first movie.

I agree with her a hundred percent. There are a lot of movies made with sequels but they just don't seem as good as the first.

I like the first Hotel Transylvania movie but the second one is also really good. They even added a great grandpa Vlad to add a twist.

I like it that they showed how a family can stand strong together, which makes it a really good family movie. You can watch the trailer here.

So Mom's rating? Also .
Overall rating:

Homeschooling Pros And Cons

I am a homeschooling mom.

Before I started a family, I didn't know anything about homeschooling. Honestly speaking, I only heard about it with celebrity kids so that they can be flexible with their time and they don't have to physically appear in school.

When my bundle of joy came into our lives, the only thing I could think of was giving her the best in the world that I can offer.

So the time to choose a school for our daughter became a dilemma for me. I chose three out of eight of the best private schools around our area with affordable tuition fees.

I was ready and just waiting for the enrollment for the school year to start when the option of homeschooling crossed my mind.

I remembered the emails I received about homeschooling from the newsletters of Bo Sanchez - a preacher I've known of for many years. So I attended the orientation on the school he founded and it was like an awakening for me, light bulbs started flashing and all my questions were answered.

So here are the Advantages and Disadvantages that hopefully can help you decide whether homeschooling is for you or not. These are all my personal opinions and experiences, and without any intention to discourage traditional schooling.

Pros:
1. No bullies!
2. No need for school uniforms.
3. No school buses needed.
4. No take-home assignments.
5. No worries when it’s raining so hard, if the school will get flooded and cancellation of classes happening in the middle of the typhoon (and don’t forget the thunders and lightnings).
6. You and your child don’t have to spend two to three hours of preparation before going to school and the time traveling to and fro.
7. You can choose the time and which subjects to do first depending on your child’s needs. Like if your child is really good in one subject and finishes it early, then you can spend more time teaching him in the subject/s he is having problems with.
8. No competition between students.

Cons:
1. There will always be bullies.
2. You will need to buy more than 1 set of regular uniforms plus extra uniforms for Physical Education and Girl/Boy Scouts.
3. School bus arrangement is necessary if the school is not within walking distance or you’ll have to take your kids to and from the school.
4. Take-home assignments and/or projects after school.
5. Instances of classes getting cancelled hours after the students arrive at school because of unforeseen typhoons signals.
6. Spending two to three hours of preparation to go to school and the possibility of getting stuck in traffic during rush hours.
7. No flexibility on the time and subjects to be studied.
8. Competition between students. Don’t get me wrong, I know that competition can be a good thing for some students because it makes them strive to be better but it can also be the start of a bad thing.

Again, these are my personal opinions and experiences. So far, I am very happy with my decision to homeschool my daughter. There have been easy and also tough times for us but nobody knows your child better than you. You'll find that as you teach your child virtues, you also learn with him/her.

Printmaking Using Vegetables

Today I have decided to do printmaking with my daughter using vegetables. While going through the fruit and vegetable isles of the supermarket, I tried to imagine what each would look like on a print whether cut lengthwise or crosswise.

Finally, I chose okra (ladyfingers) and calamansi (musk lime) which looks almost like a key lime. We used watercolor in tubes and here are the outcome.

We used the calamansi for the yellow flower and the rest are prints from okra that were cut diagonally and in longitudinal and cross sections. Don't pay too much attention to the mushroom in ochre color.

For this one, I drew the outline of a turtle using a pencil so my daughter can keep her prints inside the lines. Then, of course, TBM did the finishing touches by drawing a mouth and an eye (she specifically said) with eyelashes to make sure it looks like a girl.

We called our masterpiece “Señorita Tortuga.”