Childlink holds events to observe National Children’s Month

CEBU CITY – Childlink Learning Center and Highschool Inc. recognized the importance to address the adverse impact of the pandemic on their students thus it came up with several activities for the month of November in observance of the National Children’s Month.

Childlink founder and directress Maria Theresa Tio said that the events started on November 6 with a webinar entitled Resilience in Children: Building Academic Stamina and Socio Emotional Resiliency organized by Scholastic Philippines for its partner schools.

Childlink parents and teachers joined the webinar which provided information, especially to the parents on how to counter the adverse effects of the pandemic on their children.

 “More than ever, we need to listen more to our children and look at what they need (which is) not just physical. During this time, parents are the only ones they get to talk to,” Tio explained.

Childlink has partners whose objective is to support children currently of the pandemic. Tio encouraged the Childlink parents who were not able to attend the webinar to check out the Scholastic Philippines Facebook page where it posted the recently held webinar.

On November 20, the school conducted a Career Orientation For Teens for all its high school students in the areas of business, medicine, engineering, information and technology and politics and governance with Childlink parents as speakers.

“Being in top positions in their fields, they shared with the students on how important it is to have inherent values. The students were taught that work may be hard but if you love your work, it is not really work,” Tio said.

Azela Honor talked about business while Dr. Manuel Villamor Jr. spoke on medicine.  Engr. Jan Claudette de Joya discussed careers in engineering and Atty. Amando Virgil Ligutan focused on politics and governance and Kristine Borja also delivered a talk on information technology.

The speakers were given 15-20 minutes for their presentations. Aside from a discussion on careers, the speakers also taught the high school students work ethics and the value of work.

On November 29, Childlink held a book reading with an author for students in Pre-school to Grade 3 and Let’s Go e-Games activities.  Grace Chong will be reading her book entitled Lumpia Lane. It is a story about a restaurant owned by a Chinese family and how the grandparents wanted their grandchild to learn the business to be able to leave a legacy.

Chong is a multi-awarded author who left advertising creative work in 2000 to write full time.  As of 2015, she has 50 published books in two genres (inspirational and children's books) and has received six recognition from the prestigious Palanca Awards; two Gintong Aklat Awards; and the National Book Awards. She was educated in both the Philippines and the US.

According to Tio, the aim of the activity is to promote reading to children.  The school made it a requirement for students and parents/guardians to attend because this is a very good learning activity.

Meanwhile, Let’s Go e-Games is a fun activity organized by the Childlink Student Council and will feature the popular games such as Roblox, Mobile Legends, and others. This will be attended by students from Grade One to Highschool.  The Student Council planned the e-Games activity to foster camaraderie among students.

“We are promoting eGames because a lot of games are really educational. We advise our students that they can play but should remember to set aside time to study and help at home.  Our teachers try to relate e-Games to lessons because these also benefit the students,” Tio explained.

On the other hand, Childlink will hold the Good Grooming and Etiquette for Tweens with Zara Hernaez De Joya for students from Grade 4 to 6, who are now in their puberty stage.

De Joya’s discussion will focus on the context of self-love, the individual’s roles in society and interconnectivity to the world in general.  She will be talking about personal hygiene and sanitation, which plays a key role, as well as basic etiquette and netiquette and its importance. (Photos: Childlink/Robby Alugar)