Our eldest child, Ericka, received stimulations in different forms starting from the time when she was inside my womb until before she entered school.

When I was conceiving our eldest child, I had a well-chosen diet. I drank milk for expectant mothers and fresh juices or fruit purees. I drunk carbonated drinks and coffees before but totally ignored these drinks when I was pregnant. Also, I made sure I ate fruits in a day. Furthermore, I ate vegetables and foods without monosodium glutamate (MSG). I loved junk foods but I totally stopped eating these foods when I learned I am pregnant. I chose the food I ate because I had been feeding my eldest child inside my womb through the umbilical cord that connected us together. Nutrients that I got from the food I ate are carried into my blood stream that also flowed into the placenta through the umbilical cord.

I had regular check-up with my good-natured obygynecologist. She never showed impatience over my curiosity as an expectant mother. She prescribed vitamin supplements and I discussed with her ways on how to stimulate baby. It was to get affirmation from her about facts I learned in school and books on stimulating babies inside the wombs.

It was during my second trimester when I started buying classical music tapes and CD tapes. Most of the time, I played the classical music and brought the two small sized speakers on my belly. Other times, I played the tapes on the radio and brought the whole cassette player near my belly. There are times that I read storybook and talked to my baby even though she could not yet talk back to me. I did all these because I believed that music and my voice are stimulators to the neurons in my baby’s growing brain. I do such activities especially when I felt my baby was moving.

It was good that I did not have much stress from the kind of work that I had at that time. I was a research assistant way back then in one of the Department of Health (DOH) funded research projects. I left the house at 10 o’clock and home at 4 o’clock in the afternoon after running the questionnaire to two or three respondents. Stress can affect the baby inside the womb of the mother. When a mother’s body is stressed out, lesser blood is channeled to the baby inside the womb because the mother needs greater blood. Apparently, the baby would have lesser oxygen that is very important to his or her growing brain.

The arrival of our baby was truly a great joy to us, her parents. We are always there with our child not letting our eyes missed her innocent smiles and kicks. After our child’s birth, I still kept on playing classical music most of the day. We gave her the best milk. I made sure that the milk has the greatest amount of nutrients among other milks. When our baby started to eat solid foods, I mashed fruits and gave her water-mixed baby cereals. I gave her fresh fruit drinks like squeezed dalandan, oranges, or calamansi mixed with honey given by my father from the province or sugar. I made sure that my baby ate well-chosen foods. I would not allow people give her carbonated drinks, junk foods, and foods with MSG. One time, I saw my mother make our child sip coffee from the spoon she used to stir her coffee. I told her that such food is not good for babies because their brain is developing. Healthy brain growth lies on healthy foods (other than avoiding the baby of falling and hitting his or her head).

At the age of one-year-and-a-half, when she could already grasp and hold things on both hands, her father and I bought her toy blocks. The blocks come in different colors like red, blue, yellow, and green, and shapes like circle, rectangle, and square. Its nature enables the child produce objects like building, robot, or any object he or she pictures in his or her mind. When my husband and I gave her the blocks, we never taught her how to use the toy. We wanted her to find out on her own how to use it. She did and even displayed intelligence on how to use it. She piled the blocks and there seemed to be logical arrangements of the colors. She piled seven blocks of different colors. Both ends of the piled blocks was color red. The center of the piled blocks was a block color yellow. In between the red and yellow colors are blue colored blocks. The arrangement of the colors of the blocks showed logical arrangement. Until her age now, she plays blocks with her younger brother and constructs objects she imagines in her mind. One time she came to me and said, “Mama, taste my lollipop. It is delicious.” She was showing the round block inserted to a rectangular shaped block that she constructed.

When our child was still in the same age, she could already walk, sit, stand, and run because her bones and muscles have matured. I started buying sing-along children songs or any children’s songs on CD. We would sing the songs together and even create actions for the songs that created laughter while we were singing and acting out the songs. She enjoyed such activities. Our child became familiar to the songs because of playing the CD many times. She even hums and sing it even without the CD being played.

When she turned three years old, I saw mathematics and science workbooks in our graduate school library for pre-school. The workbooks are excellently done because there are target skills to be developed in the children who would be using these books. Since I could not find workbooks like those in the bookstore, I photocopied the books for my eldest child. I used the book to teach her counting, simple mathematical concepts, and tracing. I even introduced science. How did I teach our child mathematics? I used real objects like chocolates, apples, or candies to represent the numbers when I taught her how to count, add, and subtract, since she could not yet figure out the meaning of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth that I am telling her. Our child can already recite number one to ten but it was only memory route. She achieved this by listening to her grandmother say it many times like a long-playing song. After listening to her grandmother recite it many times, she was encouraged to recite the numbers together with her. But she does not know the meaning of numbers she was saying. I wanted her to understand what those numbers she was saying meant. The mathematics workbook gave a good chance in doing it. One time, one page in the math book was on counting 1 to 10. The book represented the numbers using bees. To make her understand that the numbers are not only used in counting bees and that it does not only represent bees, I gathered objects like her toys, and chocolates that I can use to make her understand what I wanted her to understand. I started to attain my goal by pointing the number one (1), saying what it is (that it is number “1”), and saying that number 1 represents 1 bee. I made her count the bee to make her understand what the number “1”, which is written on the paper, means. She counted it and said, “1.” So, I told her that 1 bee means “number 1”. Then, I told her, “The number “1” represents any object. It could be your doll (I took the doll from her toys and showed it to her.).” I asked her to count the number of dolls I am holding. She counted and said “1”. So, I told her, “Number “1” (pointing on the written number on the paper) means “1” doll too. So, number one does not only mean a bee. Number “1” could be a doll too. Number “1” could also mean 1 chocolate too.” I concluded our activity by saying, “Number “1” could mean any object. It could be 1 bee, 1 doll, or 1 chocolate.”

We did the activities in the science workbook material too. I brought her outside the house in the tree area or to University of the Philippines Diliman campus’ lagoon where there are animals and plants, or we brought her to the Quezon City wild life to make her understand concepts in the science workbook. One time there was a lesson on parts of a tree in the workbook. I brought our child at the tree area before our house. There are mango trees whose branches could be reached because it is low. Rambutan trees together with calamansi plants and coconut trees stood in the area too. We stood under the mango tree whose branches are lying low so that my child could touch it when I carry her. How did I teach her the parts of a tree? I stepped on the roots of the mango tree. Then I said, “This part of the tree that I am stepping on is the “roots” of the tree.” After this, I let her step on the roots too. Then I asked her, “What part of the tree are you stepping on?” She answers, “Roots.” I did the same to the other parts of the tree. I let her touch it and make her say the name of that part of the tree she is touching. I stimulated her sense of vision, touch, and hearing in teaching her the parts of the tree. I learned that this is an effective way to teach children. I got this knowledge from the report of a classmate on Maria Montessori in the class I enrolled at the graduate school. Maria Montessori believed that stimulating the different senses of the children in teaching them is a very effective way of teaching them. This worked in our eldest child. She was able to say the different parts of a tree even without seeing a tree after the activity.

I bought watercolor and crayons (non-toxic) for art activities. I taught her primary colors and made her enjoy mixing colors. We even enrolled her to an art workshop one summer at U.P. Diliman when she turned four years old because she loves art. She was the youngest enrollee then. Her other art activities are done in the house. We cut out objects and pasted them on papers on the big illustration board I bought from the bookstore.

When I taught our eldest child, I did it in the environment of fun. We played teacher and student. In this play, I took the opportunity to teach her how to write on the black board and paper that I bought from the bookstore. When we did the art works, we made funny stories out of the objects we cut or colored. When her father or I read stories to her before bedtime, we did it with voice projection. In the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarf” story where there is a witch queen, we changed our voice into the sound of an old wicked witch. She really loved these activities that she even requested us to do such activities again and again.

I felt fulfilled at this point in my eldest child’s academic success. There are people who frown on the academic field of psychology in terms of improving human behavior and human capability like my in-laws. But I keep on believing using the knowledge I gained in psychology in making my eldest child and youngest child achieve cognitive development to the fullest.

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