6 Ways to Maximize Your Visit to the Manila International Book Fair (#MIBF2015)

The 36th Manila International Book Fair is here again! Do you have plans to visit the book fair? Book lovers like me usually look forward to this yearly event and mark our calendars so we don't miss it. There are many exciting things that happen every year at this fair: book launches, storyteling sessions, book signing, meet and greet with authors and illustrators, seminras and workshops and BIG discounts from publishers! 

Photo source here.

I love going to the bookstore. The prospect of finding good books to read make my heart beat faster. hahaha Thus, going to the MIBF where there is a sea of books makes me feel ecstatic. ;) 

So, with two days left of the book fair, how do you make the most of your trip to SMX? Let me share some ways based on my previous visits in the past years.

1. Get FREE tickets to the MIBF through the bookstores or publishers who will be exhibitors at the fair. You don't need to spend on tickets. Publishers and bookstores usually give away free tickets either at their branches or you can download from their websites. We got our free tickets this year from Fully Booked BGC. 

For example, you can print this ticket from OMF Lit and present it as your FREE pass.

Here are some links where you can download FREE tickets to MIBF 2015.

Adarna House
CSM Publishing
JesCom
St. Matthew's Publishing

2. Make a list. Make a list of topics where you plan to get new books. Then, check out what books (old and new) you'd like to get for these topics you have in mind. Or if you have book titles already that you are interested to buy, make a list of book titles.

3. Check out publishers for promos and events. Once you already have a list of topics or book titles, I suggest that you check out the websites or social media accounts of the publsihers of these books on your list. That way, you would know if they have promos like discounts or book bundles for the books that you like. You might also find interesting activities related to the books in your list like book launch or book signing, meet and greet with the author or free pass to special events by the publisher for those who will buy copies of their books.

Here's an activity by Scholastic for the Geronimo Stilton series.

Check out my post about Geronimo here.

Here are some examples of promos you might want to avail of.

Source: OMF Lit's Facebook Page.

Here are some book launches you might find interesting.

The official book launch of this book by one of my brothers from CYA
will be on Sunday. Grab a copy if you are a leader! Launch price is P325!

This is the first book of my friend Jomar Hilario.
It will be launched on Sunday together with other new titles
from Shepherd's Voice Publications. Take advantage of its P250 launch price!

4. Get the exact location of the publishers whose booths you want to visit. Get their booth number as well as their location. You can find this at their websites or social media posts also or at teh entrance of SMX where this is usually posted. This helps you plan your route around the book fair. Believe me, if you haven't been to the past MIBFs, you can easily get lost and overwhelmed and forget where you want to go or what you really want to buy. This brings me to my next suggestion.

5. Set your budget. After considering the promos, you need to edit your list of books that you want to buy based on how much you are willing to spend for your visit. It might be difficult to stick to your budget once you are already at the book fair (especially if you are a bookworm like me) but having a budget would at least caution you or remind you not to buy too many books or all the nice books that you will see. What you can do is make a list or mental note of the nice books you'll see and plan when to buy them. Make them part of your next shopping list or wish list for Christmas for example. You can also ask the publishers or sellers if they will have future sales and promos in their stores or branches. This will give you an opportunity to save up for these future promos.  

You can get this discount couplon when you post a photo
of yourself at OMF Lit's booth. 

6. Enjoy the experience of going around the book fair. The place might be crowded especially during weekends but you can still enjoy going around the venue by taking your time to browse through aisles and aisles of books and other educational materials that you will see at the MIBF. 

Tips on How to Make Books Come Alive and September Homeschool Activities

I would consider the month of September another relaxed month for our homeschooling family. We mainly used the books that we bought recently from the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) for our homeschool lessons. (You may read about our experience of the 35th MIBF here in my previous post.) We also had activities related to or inspired by the stories in these books. This is my way of helping the kids appreciate the stories and lessons that we read from their books.

 

Let me share some tips on how we made our books come alive last month.

 

1. Make/Use toys as props when you read and/or reread your books. Encourage children to also retell the story from these books using your props.

 

One of the books that we spent most time with last September was the Jepoy the Jeepney series. It was such a hit to my boys that we purchased the complete set last month during the MIBF. I love the concept of these books because with each book in the series, there is a cardboard toy that the child and/or parent can cut and assemble. The child can then use this in retelling the story in the book or simply play with it. My boys loved the toys and they asked me to complete the set of main characters in the series so they can play with them. My boys would play pretend using these cardboard toys for hours. They would either retell the stories in the books or they would make up their own stories about the characters in Barangay Pag-asa.

 

For the other books that you have, I suggest that you use your kid's existing toys. Use their favorite toys as clues for the books that you'll read to them. Then, use their toys as props when you read these books. After reading, give them a chance to play with their toys that you used as props. I use this technique a lot when reading books to my kids. Recently, I used this to retell/reread the story of The Wizard of Oz to my kids.

 

 

 

2. Have art/craft activities related to your books.

 

I love doing art and craft activities with my kids. I search the internet for ideas and match them with my kids' needs and interests.

 

Since we recently purchased a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar during the recent MIBF, we'll been doing a lot of art and craft activities related to this story. You may read some of our activities inspired by this book in my previous post here.

Below is one of our latest art activities related to the book The Giving Tree.

 

 

Here are some of the book-inspired art and craft activities (as well as writing and drawing activities) that we have done in the past.

 

Hand-painting caterpillar and sun

More paintings of butterflies and flowers

Angel craft for our books on angels
Activities inspired by the 3 little pigs and another house for 1 of the little pigs

Activities inspired by the book Blue Cow Goes Out to Play

Activities Inspired by the Book In The Forest

Saying I Love You to Mateo: Another book-inspired activity

Painting Flowers after reading about them

 

3. Watch a play or musical based on the books you've read.

 

We were blessed to find out that there's a musical for The Wizard of Oz last month. My kids love music! I was confident that they would enjoy watching this so we bought tickets for a weekend show. It was their first time to watch a musical. I was glad to discover that they can already sit through it and that they had a good time watching it. After the musical, the boys made the musical/story one of their pretend plays. Sometimes, I would hear them sing some of the songs in the musical or exchange dialogues as if they are characters in the story.

 

 

 

4. Meet the author/illustrator of the books you've read.

 

We were blessed to have met the authors and illustrator of the new books we bought. The recent MIBF gave us that opportunity. But there are also meet and greet opportunities with authors and illustrators year-round, which are organized by bookstores or publishers so watch out for those dates.

 

You may read my previous post wherein I discussed how my eldest son's encounter with the children's book authors that we met recently had a positive impact on him.

 

5. Include the lessons from the books you've read in your conversations with kids and relate them to your routines or current events that you can discuss with them.

 

This book helped us reinforce
the value/lesson of sharing.
We also used this book to deepen and apply
our Math lessons on fractions.

The lessons that kids learn from their books need not remain in their books or in their minds alone. We can let children experience them or we can make these lessons come alive to them by relating these lessons to our day-to-day experiences or the current events in our lives.
 

 

Since September has been a rainy month, my kids and I read books about the rain and the weather. We brought out our books about the rain and the weather during the rainy days. We also read books about the environment and safety.

 

 

Here is my previous post and review on a book about the rain (The Rain is Here) and the activities we did related to it.

 

6. Go on a field trip.

 

Kids love field trips. They like to explore new places and discover new things. Kids would love the new experiences of witnessing something new.

 

Schedule field trips that are related to the books, lessons and concepts that you have introduced or are currently teaching your child. The experience would help the child appreciate and remember the lessons more. 

 

Some of the recent field trips that we had were our trip to Museo Pambata and the mobile planetarium at the MIBF. We had these field trips after we had our Linggo ng Wika lessons where we read Filipino books and our lessons on the solar system. Read about our Linggo ng Wika activities here. Read about our Space Book and the activities we did related to it here.

 

7. Teach them songs that are related to the books or characters in their books.

 

Music is an effective tool in entertaining and educating children. They love music and movement. Integrating music and movement activities in your lessons that are based on books will help you make your lessons/books come alive. Some of the songs we've used in our homeschool are the following: photosynthesis song, butterfly song, planets song. We also use nursery rhymes that feature characters (mostly animals) in our story books. When it was raining frequently last month and we were reading books about the rain, we sang Rain, Rain Go Away often. We also sang The Incy Wincy Spider.
 

These are just some of my tips to you to help you make your children's books come alive.

 

Let me now share some of our activities last month.

 

My kids' breakfast during Mama Mary's birthday.

Some of the activities we had were celebrations of Feast Days like the Feast of Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the Feast of the Archangels. Aside from going to Mass to celebrate these days, we had art activities and we learned/reviewed songs related to Mary (Hail Mary) and the angels (Christmas songs with mention of angels). He also learned (on his own) how to play Immaculate Mother in the piano. He kept experimenting until one day, he already learned playing the beginning of the song correctly. We (his parents and his mentor in the church) were all delighted to listen to him play the song. You may read my post on how we celebrated Mama Mary's Birthday here and the Feast of the Archangels here.

 

Aside from our eldest son's daily piano practice at home and frequent practices using the piano in the church, it was also last month that our eldest son joined a Tiples or boys' choir in our parish. The minimum age requirement to join this choir is actually 7 years old. But the servants in the parish are familiar with our sons especially our eldest. They know very well that he's the boy who usually sings aloud and well during daily Masses so event though he's still 5 years old, they invited him to join. Their weekly practice started last month. This is in truth a big blessing because he gets free voice lessons weekly now as part of the choir. It's also very convenient because the practices are done near our house. This also provides him with opportunities to meet and interact other boys.

Last month also, since Yanthy (my eldest) learned how to play the Our Father and Hail Mary in the piano, he and his younger brother had been singing these songs during their prayer time at night. They sing these songs after reciting their usual night prayers.

 

On weekends, my kids and I do our best to join their Dad in jogging at the nearby park. I was happy to find and buy a book about a father and a son exercising and bonding through jogging also when we went to the MIBF. This book is another welcomed addition to the books in our library. This book will help us teach our kids about caring for their body/health by exercising. We can also relate it to our science lessons on the body.

Our family picture during my husband's 5k race and
our latest book on Father-Son bonding through jogging/running as exercise.

 

Part of our science lessons for my eldest son last month are the different systems of the body. He has been asking a lot of questions about the brain, heart and lungs so we read books about these topics. It amused me to watch my son experiment on his breathing after reading about the nervous system and the lungs. He ran around the room and observed how fast his heartbeat was. Then, he rested on a chair and observe the changes in his breathing. After we studied the circulatory system, he observe the nerves and arteries he could see in his body.

 

Although I would consider the month of September a relaxed month for us, I was happy to discover that we have covered a lot of material by simply reading a lot of books and by following our sons' interests and answering their questions.

 

When we encourage kids to satisfy their curiosity and discover answers to their questions, education happens all the time and naturally.

 

How did your September go? How do you make books come alive for your kids? Feel free to share your tips. I would love to learn from you, too!

Our Adventures with The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I've been trying to get a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book ever since I learned about the book; but only paperback editions or small board books were available whenever I was in the book stores to check its availability. One time, when a big board book was on stock, I hesitated when I found out about the price. I thought of waiting for a sale before buying a big board book for my kids.

 

Then, announcements were made about the dates for the 35th Manila International Book Fair. I checked one of the local bookstores (Fully Booked) where I know this book is being sold. I checked the available stocks and their prices. I took note of the versions that I'm most interested to get for the boys. I also hoped and prayed that the book would be on sale during the fair.

 

I included Fully Booked as one of our priority booths to visit this year during the MIBF. I'm glad we did check this book out during the fair! Although the big board book was not available at their booth when we visited, a staff offered to check the availability of stocks from the Fully Booked branch in Mall of Asia. The great news is that a big board book was available and it included an audio cd of the story (read by the author himself). The regular price for the board book that we got was P640. But it was also part of the sale so we got the book at 20% discount! I was so happy! As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait! I'm thankful that their staff went the extra mile by getting in touch with the nearby branch so we could still purchase our desired book at the size that I wanted.

 

You can read more about our MIBF experience here.

 

The boys and I wasted no time in enjoying our new book. We read it the following day after we bought our copy. We also listened to the author tell the story. Then we did some activities as we reread the story in the days that followed.

 

If you have small kids, you might want to try the same activities that I did with my boys. They surely made our storytelling sessions more fun!

 

The first part of our activity was hand-painting cut-outs of what the caterpillar ate in the story.

 

1. First, I drew the food that the caterpillar ate on a white board using a pencil. 

 

2. Second, I cut them using a pair of scissors.

 

3. Third, I guided the boys in painting the cut-outs using their fingers. We also mixed some paints to get the colors we needed. To make our painting activity less messy, we covered our dining table with used paper and had wet wipes and rags close by.

 

 

 

 

4. After painting all the cut-outs, we air-dried them while the boys took their naps. I also added some details on the cut-outs using a black sign pen when they were already dry.

 

 

 

5. As soon as the boys woke up, we read the story again. This time, we used our painted cut-outs. I handed the boys a puncher. I told them that as the caterpillar eats something in the story, they will take turns punching holes on the cut-outs. The boys enjoyed doing this! What they did was punch a hole on the food cut-outs that they themselves painted. They were proud of their work!

 

 

 

We had the second part of our activity the next day.

 

6. The following day, since my mom visited us, we asked her to make a caterpillar for us using a green yarn, which we planned to use in lacing/threading the hand-painted cut-outs.

 

7. We read the book again. This time, the boys were excited to thread the cut-outs using the crocheted green yarn that my mom made. Again, they took turns lacing/threading cut-outs that they themselves painted. The boys proudly showed their grandma the cut-outs that they painted.

 

 

8. After our storytelling activity using our new props, I tied the ends of the green yarn to secure the cut-outs and prevent them from getting lost.

 

 

9. Lastly, my boys sang a caterpillar song. They spelled the letters in the word BUTTERFLY by singing it. So, now even my 2-year-old knows how to spell BUTTERFLY!
 

My plan is make two more caterpillars using different materials next time -- one would be small while the other one is big. Watch out for our next adventures with the very hungry caterpillar!

 

Have you done some activities with your kids that were inspired by this book? Feel free to share it in the comments. Would love to learn from you, too.

 

All Set for the 35th Manila International Book Fair (#MIBF2014)

Today is the first day of the much-awaited yearly Manila International Book Fair. This is an event book lovers look forward to each year. Big discounts on books and other educational materials and toys, meet and greet activities with authors and illustrators, storytelling sessions, book launches, book signings, workshops, raffle prizes and giveaways are some of the things that people like me look forward to each year.

 

 

I checked out the booths that I will prioritize to visit to save on energy and time. The event is usually held at the SMX and it's quite tiring to go around, booth to booth, given its massive size. I usually go to back to the fair after my first visit because I get tired navigating the maze of booths that sell books and various products. I also like taking my time when I check out the books and products sold so one day is not enough for me.

 

So far, here are the booths that I plan to visit first. Our first target destination is the Adarna House booth. I've been searching for a copy of the book Hating Kapatid since August but it was out of stock in the National Bookstore branches that we went to. Thus, I was happy to find out that this award-winning book will be available and will be on sale as part of a bundle at the 35th Manila International Book Fair. I was also happy to discover that the other award-winning books in the bundle are books that my kids would be interested to read. 

 

Another bundle that I'm excited to purchase is the Science bundle. These are topics that my eldest son has been asking in the past weeks since we started our lessons on the planet and weather. I'm sure that we would enjoy reading these books. These books are recommended for Grades 4-6 students but I think my son is ready for them.



I'm excited to have our new books signed by the authors
and to have pictures taken with them with my kids.

 

One of the next books
in the Jepoy Dyip Series.

The next booth that I want to check out is the Lampara Publishing House booth. We recently bought a copy of the book Si Jepoy Dyip and my kids are interested to get a copy of the next books in the series. (You may read about our reading experience with this book here.) I was very happy to discover that the author and illustrator of this said book will be conducting a Children's Storytelling and Art Workshop on Saturday. I'd like to grab this chance to ask him to sign our copy and have a photo taken with my boys. I want to attend his workshop, too. The great thing about it is that we simply need to buy a copy of one of his books and we can attend the workshop for free. Aside from buying a copy of the next books in the series, I also plan to get another copy of Si Jepoy Dyip so I can give it away as a Christmas gift. I think it would be a nice gift for a little boy because the book comes with a toy.

 

 

 

 

The other workshop that I discovered and that I'm excited to attend on Saturday is the Children's Story Book Writing Workshop. The workshop will be conducted by the author of the book My Daddy! My One and Only! Just like in the other workshop, we simply need to buy a copy of the author's book to attend the workshop for free. Since we don't have a copy of that book yet, I will buy a copy for the boys. Thus, I can attend the workshop for free as well.

 

Another booth I want to visit is the OMF booth. I have bought plenty of Christian books from OMF since I was single. So, I was delighted to read this article that enumerated the 13 reasons why I should check out their booth this year at the book fair. I'm excited to buy copies of the new books in their Wow, God! Series plus the another new book titled Bee Green. Aside from the wonderful stories in these new titles and the 30% discount on their launch price, I'm excited because every purchase of a newly-launched book from OMF entitles the customer to get a FREE EBOOK! Isn't that a great deal?

 

The other booths that I plan to visit are the following: Fully Booked (to check out if the various versions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar would be on sale), Heartshaper/Lighthouse (to say hi to the owner who is also a friend and to check what materials they have on sale), Scholastic (to see what Clifford and Spot books are on sale) and Filway Marketing. Moreover, I hope to find educational toys that are on sale that we can use in our homeschool.

 

I also checked the line up of activities again for the next four days and took note of the ones that I plan to attend. To get the detailed schedule of events and to see the list of exhibitors who will participate in this event, check out Manila International Book Fair's website or Facebook Page.

 

As for me, here are some of the activities I have noted in my planner:

 

DAY 3 - Friday, September 19, 2014

10:00 A.M. – 12:00 NN / Stage Area
Storytelling Session with Vibal Group – LG& M Chikiting Books, Vibal Publishing House, Inc.
 

1:00 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. / OMF Booth Storytelling and Book Signing Session for Wow, God! Flaming Furnace, Fiery Faith, OMF Literature 

 

2:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M. / Stage Area
Lampara Kids Event: Magbasa, Makisaya, Maging Batang Lampara, Precious Pages Corp.
 

On top of these, I plan to drop by the SVP and the CSM booths to say hi to my author friends who are launching their books at the fair and who will be signing books. There are also big discounts from these two publishers so make sure you check out their booths too. I will definitely check out Vibal's both as well to check books that are on sale. Two year's ago, we bought a copy of The Rain is Here from their booth. (Read my review of this book here.)

 

The entrance fee for the event is P20.00 for adults and P15.00 for students, teachers and senior citizens (ID should be presented though); but you can get free tickets through the various exhibitors. I just printed our tickets which I got from the Adarna House blog. You can also print the tickets from other exhibitors like OMF, Tahanan Books, Paulines and Jesuit Communications. Or if you are near a Fully Booked branch, you can get free tickets there.

 

So, when do you plan to head to SMX to go to this event? What books do you plan to buy at the MIBF?

Perfect Timing for our Family Field Trip to Avilon Zoo

We had been planning for this field trip in years. We only had one child when we started considering this field trip. Then I got pregnant, gave birth and got busy caring for the new baby. This year finally we were able to push through with our plan. Looking back, we realized that it was perfect timing.

Here are some of our reasons why we believe so:

1. We got discounted tickets from Metro Deal. This saved us a lot! We got the tickets at 50% off. If our plan before pushed through, we would have paid the regular price for our tickets. God indeed is a God of perfect timing!
2. We now have a bigger vehicle, a Toyota Innova. With this, we were able to bring with us my mom and my godmother who happened to be vacationing from Austria. We used to have a red Toyota Vios. It can fit a maximum of 6 people only. It that would mean that two of those sitting at the back are small or kids. That can even mean removing one of the kids' car seats. I didn't like that idea especially for long drives. So the family van is just perfect. We had more than enough room for everyone and we didn't have to remove any car seat. We even had space for our things.
 



The best friends, my mom and godmother.

 
3. We were able to bring both kids to the zoo in one field trip. My mom said on the day we had finally had our field trip, "It's a blessing in disguise that your field trip didn't push through when you only had one child because that would mean you will need to go back to this zoo again when he's bigger so that he too can have a field trip their." Makes sense! One field trip for both kids! Saved us time and money. :)
   
   
   

   

   
    
   
4. We had good weather.  It's officially summer now in the Philippines and it was the perfect time for outings or field trips.   

 

We had a great time with each other during our field trip. We scheduled it during the April 9 holiday. The zoo is quite far from our place so we spent around two hours travelling. It was already lunch time when we got to San Mateo to pick up my mom and my godmother. We had lunch first at Tropical Hut. Then, we headed to Avilon Zoo.

 

 

The long drive was worth it! The kids had so much fun! The pictures and stories in the books we had been reading to them in the past year (in my eldest son's case... past years!) finally came to life. They loved running around the zoo! (My kids are usually active and walking seems to be not a part of their vocabulary.) We were sweating by the time our tour was done.
 



We had our afternoon snack first before we headed home.
 

Mateo snacked on apple and crackers
while everyone had pizza.

Then, we had dinner first at my parents' house in San Mateo before we headed back home. It was a tiring day but it was worth it. Having that trip was everyone's high point that day.

 

 

 

 

 



Here are some more pictures.

This little boy really has a sense of humor!  This was his first reaction when he saw this big rat!
Good thing we were able to take a photograph!






With Trixie, the urangutan.



Mateo finally saw a real horse.