Blacksie, Blacksie, I Wanna Pooh...

The other day I heard my daughter Tala singing, rather distinctly, the words "Blacksie, Blacksie, I wanna pooh," and could not, for the life of me, figure out where on earth she had picked it up. I was genuinely mystified by her little ditty, even as she repeated and repeated it. Maybe it was because her brother Apel kept laughing at her seemingly naughty lyrics or maybe it was because I was just really slow that day, but it took her mother singing to her, later, "Bah, Bah black sheep, have you any wool" for me to make the connection.

I love how kids mangle song lyrics. It's as endearing to watch as watching adults maim songs can be infuriating. I remember Apel singing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, all the way way way..." and others I'm sure I could think of if I sat down with my wife a little. There's a sweetness to it, a sincerity that only children can get away with (which, when manifested among adults, really just comes across as plain ignorance or stupidity). There are videos of this stuff everywhere (and I'm sure on youtube alone I could find a few thousand), but it's really special to see my own kids belt out their own brand of lyricism. My son is old enough for me to know that when he's mucking up a son, I know he's really just fooling around (though sometimes he isn't and it's still funny) but to my mind there is nothing more precious than seeing a two-to-three year old, who's still coming to grips with the whole concept of learning how to talk, actually try to sing a song with the lyrics right, because I know that, in a few short months, her cognitive abilities will catch up and she'll be singing, and instead of re-writing the whole song she'll just be missing a line or a word here and there. Hearing kids fudge lyrics is good for a smile or two, but it has absolutely nothing on their revisionist rendition of a nursery rhyme.

It's the same thing, really as growing to miss how our kids couldn't say their 'r's and 'l's, substituting them with 'w's instead. Of, course, I wouldn't want either of my kids to walk around in their 30s without their 'r's or 'l's (Elmer Fudd, anyone?)

My Good Buddies Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak and Adarna Publishing

Aging pop icon Madonna once said that teachers should be paid more than entertainers, a sentiment I echo. I also feel, however, that the writers and illustrators of children's books should also be similarly compensated for their efforts, because truth be told a really good children's book, coupled with an enthusiastic, eloquent parent or guardian reading it can spur a child's imagination and drive to learn even before his or her schooling begins.

I, for one, started getting into reading to my children back in 2004 (back when I only had one kid, actually), when my son Apel turned two. I had made earlier attempts to read to him; when he was an infant he was essentially a captive audience, but when he got old enough to be ambulatory it was difficult to hold his attention. At two, however, he would happily sit through a stack of short storybooks with me. We went through a number of them, but the favorites were the Maurice Sendak classics Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen. Marvelous stuff, and he loved them both, as well.

It was easy to read to him then as my principal preoccupation was reviewing for the bar exams. It became a little harder when I actually became a lawyer and started going to work. Although I would try to sneak in some reading now and again, it wasn't quite the same, and with the birth of my daugther Tala some months later, more time was spent changing diapers than reading.

Last year, with both Apel and Tala getting Dr. Seuss books for various occasions like birthdays and Christmas, I finally managed to get into it again, this time with two kids as my captive audience.

Out of a desire to have my kids learn Tagalog as early as possible, we also introduced them to books from the famed Adarna house of publishing. I feel I'm violating some kind of rule about parents not being bilingual while their kids' learning process is still in its embryonic stage, but both my kids, Tala especially, love the books, particularly the one about "the Ampalaya."

Apel is now five, Tala two and both of them absolutely love their bedtime stories, maybe even as much as I love reading them to them. While I read, Tala often snuggles under my arm and sits enrapt.

And like before, it doesn't even have to be bedtime for them to want to read. Quite often, Tala tells me she wants me to read "Ham" (Green Eggs and Ham) or "Zoo" (If I Ran the Zoo) or even "Ampaiya" (Alamat ng Ampalaya). And she more often than not sits through two readings.


Yes, if my kids do well at school (and Apel is already doing pretty well at his pre-school), I will credit these lovely pieces of literature for helping them along.

Cuss Police

If I have done nothing else right as a parent, I take pride in knowing that very early on, I cautioned my kids against using swear words.

While there are many things wrong with this world we live in, I must confess one thing I find particularly revolting is to hear ten-year-olds in the street or in depressed communities spouting out profanities (usually in Tagalog) as part of their everyday conversation. Naturally, this reflects poorly on their parents, who were just as ill-educated as these kids are and as their eventual descendants will undoubtedly be barring some sweeping socio-economical-cultural paradigm shift.

Those of us, however, who have gone to college and law school and/or med school and/or graduate school, are presumed to know better, so if our kids were to spout out the usual four-letter words, and or their counterparts in the vernacular, it is a truly sorry statement about us. That is why, even before my son knew how to talk I strove to inculcate in him the attitude that swearing is bad, and gave a list of words he shouldn't use, going so far as to include more benign words (for adults, anyway) such as "stupid" and "loser."

Of course, as with many things adults teach their kids, the whole swearing education program becomes a case of "do as I say, not as I do." Yes, I still swear periodically, most frequently when caught in the throes of road rage.

But as a countermeasure against that age-old problem I've been striving to adopt an equally age-old solution: the substitute swear word. Some of them truly sound absurd ("fudge brownies" in lieu of "f***", "mother of pearl" in lieu of "mother f*****" and so on), but fortunately I think I'm getting the hang of it, and it helps to have shows like Spongebob which introduce a whole new vernacular of swear words that kids are familiar with.

What I find funny is how my kids have gotten pretty good at playing the Cuss Police to the extent that they are able to detect when their grandparents (my parents), some of the worst "offenders" around, are in violation of the rules, and admonish them accordingly.

My daughter is now getting into the "Cuss Police" thing too, although, like her brother before her, she thinks that any exclamation is a cuss, and so it takes a little effort to distinguish for her which words are okay and which aren't. I just love hearing her tiny little two-year-old voice saying "don't say that, papa," even if all I said was "my gosh."

It's not like I'm raising future chairpersons of a board of censors here, and someday they will adopt profanity as a (hopefully occasional) part of their conversation when they get (hopefully much, much) older, but at least I'll be spared the annoyance of hearing my kids, at the age of ten or so, spouting out obscenities that would make sailors blush.