Where to get FREE and CUSTOMIZED handwriting worksheets

Stuck at home, kids these days can easily waste hours on their gadgets. Why not let them practice their handwriting skills?  

In this post, i'm sharing three websites i'm using to make my son's handwriting!  You can customize your own worksheet and it's totally free! 

At the end of the post i'm also sharing our alpabetong Filipino worksheet in and cursive, feel free to download and print away!  

Click on each name to get to their websites. 

1.  Powerful Mothering 

This site offers free personalized name tracing worksheets. We used this when my son was still in preschool.  What i love about this site is there are a lot of font styles to choose from. You can choose to have dotted, lined or numbered. This is best for your preschooler who's still learning to recognize and write her own name.

2. My handwriting worksheets

You can choose to make print, D' Nealian   or cursive fonts using this site. Letter style choices are hollow or dotted. 

3. Handwriting worksheets

This is our most frequently used site since my son started practicing cursive. I think its best feature is the option for you to choose for name & sentence, single word, multi-word or paragraph.

Like you, i have been busy trying to keep my kid busy during this period of quarantine. So I made this Filipino handwriting worksheet. 

You can grab it here to get your very own copy for your kiddos!

Please do not hesitate to comment here if you encounter problems in downloading.

Get more free worksheets by following my Teachers Pay Teachers! It's here!

BREASTFEEDING TUBE FOR 75 PESOS!

 BREASTFEEDING TUBE FOR 75 PESOS!

Our nursing sessions have gone down to just one in daytime, then one or two more during the night. This is why i regret that it’s only now i found blogs with  DIY nursing accessories tutorials.

In making the nursing tube you will only need:

• any snug fitting sando or shirt (I used the one my sister bought for 75 pesos in Divisoria, Manila’s bargain heaven!)
• needle and thread (sewing is optional, but i wanted a clean seam so i hand sew the edges.
• scissor
• pins
• measuring tape

Here are the super easy steps:

1. Fold the top just below the armpit. Fold it inside out so you won’t make unwanted marks or cuts in the front side.
2. Secure the fold with pins. They should hold the fabric in place when you cut. Use the measuring tape to ensure equal lengths on both sides.
3. Cut the the top in two pieces. Try to keep the edges straight when you cut. This will help keep a clean seam.
4. Sew it. As i earlier mentioned, sewing is optional. I just want clean seams because I’m bad a cutting straight lines. Fold the edges twice and secure with pin. Again check with a tape measure to be sure you’re sewing a straight line.
5. 
   
6. That’s it, you ‘re done! You are ready to try on the tube. Then entire length of my tube was 12.5 after sewing. It’s long enough to covers my chest down to waist.

I often wear this under my night shirt. I just lift the shirt and roll down the tube when I nurse. With this, i get to breastfeed my toddler without exposing too much of my belly and my stretch marks. 

I have done some online (window) shopping and found that clothes customized for nursing tend to be really expensive! I hope you try and make one of these, too. You will be amazed with how much you’ll save with a little sewing plus a lot of imagination .Also worth reading:

• My DIY Nursing Poncho
• Breastfeeding essentials and cheaper alternatives

Tuyo Flakes

I had this craving for tuyo since last week! But i knew really wanted to try my hand at making tuyo flakes my self.

A bit on online research and i had an idea to make tuyo flakes!

Turns out i only needed a few pantry basics for this dish.

Here's how i did it:

Ingredients: 

15 to 20 pieces tuyo 

1/2 cup canola oil plus more for the first frying

12 garlic cloves, minced 

1 tsp paprika 

2 tsp chili powder

3 pieces labuyo 

2 tbsp vinegar  

1. Fry tuyo on low heat.

2. Let tuyo cool before removing head, skin and bones. 

3. Heat oil on low heat. add garlic then cook for three minutes. 

4. Add tuyo flakes. Watch closely to prevent the garlic from burning. 

5. Add paprika, chilli powder and labuyo then vinegar. Keep the fire on lowest setting. 

6. Wait for three minutes before mixing. 

7.  Cook for three more minutes. 

8. Let cool completely before transferring to sterilized containers. 

9. Store at room temperature.

10. Best to wait for three to five days before eating your tuyo flakes.

Of course my first batch did not see the light of the third day!

Glad that my husband also enjoyed it!

Five Things I Don't Buy Anymore

These few months have been tough for breadwinners. In light of the rising prices here in the Philippines, most moms have a hard time staying within budget. And when money is tight, we really have no choice but to buy the basic essentials and veer away from non-essentials.
Hirap kaya mag-budget!

So while we're on the budgeting subject, I  want to share a few things i stopped buying. I decided not to spend money on these anymore. That's because one,  they're way too expensive and  two, I opted to make them myself and three, i can;t justify the cost anymore.

Pancake mix, waffle mix or cake or cookie mixes  

I dabbled into baking a few years back. Then I discovered that a kilo of flour is just around
Php 60. This makes a dozens of pancakes already, as opposed to prepackaged pancake mix. Sure, pancake mixes are more convenient but they cost way too much. A small box of pancake mix costs around Php 30, that gives you about 5 regular sized pancakes. Sure, it takes a few more steps in the morning and more bowls to clean, but for me, the savings is worth it. I think going the home made route is better for us since we eat pancake for breakfast almost everyday.

I don't buy the ready mix cookies and cake as well.  If you have the basic baking ingredients in your pantry, like flour,  baking powder , vanilla extract, you can already learn to make cake and cookies! No need to buy the overpriced cake mixes anymore. Plus i get to nurture by love for baking.

The easiest way to save money

If anyone asks me, what's the easiest way to save money, i would say, it's to automate savings and investment! It's a money saving hack everyone with a payroll account should do.

Based on my experience, i'm just too lazy to keep a separate account for my savings. What i did back then was to manually deposit my saving to a separate bank account (with a different bank, i should add) with a passbook. I used a passbook account separate from my payroll ATM because I simply don't trust myself not to touch what remains in my atm account.

However doing the actual task of  depositing every payday seemed tedious. The bank is literally steps away from my office, yet i'm  too lazy to go there in person to deposit my fund. Sometimes the lines at the teller are just too long or i just can't spare a few minutes because i'm way too busy at work. (Yes, i know, there are too many excuses.)

Then i tried opening a separate savings account which i can access via online banking.

Yes, at first, it worked because i no longer have to personally go to the bank to deposit. But i just find it too hard to just leave the money there especially at "petsa de peligro" days - those few days just before the next paycheck, if you know what I mean.

I tried to discipline myself and be responsible, but it was just too easy to transfer money from my designated savings account to my payroll  via online.

This left me  with zilch amount of savings by the end of the month!

So i thought of some other way for me to easily tuck away my money and yet  it would take an effort  to withdraw.

In comes the "hidden" wonders of automatic banking.

Image from consumerfinance.gov

Did you know that some banks allow you to "automatically" save and  directly invest a portion of your salary regularly?

Money Wisdom from my Mother

Kung maigsi ang kumot, matutong mamaluktot. As kids, this was our family's mantra. Yeah, we were not born rich and we had our share of "poverty" moments but i am amazed at how my mother worked her magic and stretched our family budget.  I used to hate how "kuripot" my mother was. But having a kuripot mom, well money wise, i'd say now, put me and my two others sibling through college, so i'm so thankful for that now.

I really to hope to be like my mom and be able to support my son until he graduates. In our country, it is in deed a feat to put through a child through college but the hubby and i are doing our very best to go on our way just to give our son the best.

Tofu with Spicy Sauce

Here's one more of my go-to dishes.

What you'll need :
4 blocks of tofu
oil for frying the tofu

1. Cut tofu in 1/2 inch cubes, rinse with running water and then drain on paper towel.
2. Fry until golden brown.
3. Set aside.

For the sauce:
1 medium sized white onion, in two 1 cm cubes
1 clove garlic minced
1 stem green onion, minced
1 tbsp korean  pepper flakes (gochugaru)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp sugar

1. In 1/2 cup water, add sugar, pepper flakes and soy sauce. Set aside.
2. Heat about 2 tsp oil then saute white onion, garlic and green onion.
3. Save some green onion for garnish.
4.  When the onion is translucent, add the pepper flakes mixture.
5. When the mixture starts to simmer, add the tofu.
6. Cook for 5 more minutes.
7. Garnish with green onion then serve.

***