Bahay Kubo

THE QUINTESSENTIAL FILIPINO NURSERY RHYME

We all grew up learning the song and now our kids can too! But it's not just about the song, it's about the vegetables too.

One of the key elements of this program is that it can easily integrate into your daily lives and activities so think Bahay Kubo while you shop for groceries and when you cook dinner.

Check out our suggested activities below to get you started!

AGE RANGE: 2+*

*if you have older kids, they will likely be over the learning a nursery rhyme stage, skip ahead to activities 2 and/or 3 which kids young and old would surely enjoy.

activity 1: learn the song

Here are the lyrics. If you need a bit of a refresher, an audio track with lyrics can be found here.

Bahay kubo, kahit munti
Ang halaman doon ay sari-sari.
Singkamas at talong, sigarilyas at mani
Sitaw, bataw, patani.

Kundol, patola, upo’t kalabasa
At saka mayroon pang labanos, mustasa,
sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya
sa paligid-ligid ay puro linga.

source: Tagalog Lang

Here is a video to sing along to. It’s not the best and the canned music drives me crazy but it does the job.

Like us, I'm sure it's been awhile since you've been able to get the vegetables straight but believe us, it'll come back really easy.

activity 2: identify the vegetables

In this activity, let's come to our senses... and get to know our vegetables better! Look, touch, feel, smell and TASTE!

Head to your local market and try to identify which Bahay Kubo vegetables are available locally. You’ll be surprised how many you’ll find! Check out this link to find out what the Bahay Kubo vegetable names are in English.

Once you find them, make sure you get your kids to give them a close look. Get them to use their mata, kamay, tenga, ilong, bibig - all the body parts we need to use our Pandama. Need a refresher on your mga pandama?

Here's a worksheet to help.

activity 3: cook with the vegetables

In this one, we come to one of our favorite Filipino activities, cooking AND eating! Cook with your kids using one or more Bahay Kubo veggies as the star ingredient. Use your own recipes or something from Lola back home!

Need inspiration? A big hit with my kids is the Misua with Patola. It’s soupy and homey and full of garlicky goodness. And being true to their Filipino-ness, they also still eat it with rice. Here is a recipe from Kawaling Pinoy which is a great resource for Filipino recipes. Remember to eat right away or add extra water because the Misua tends to absorb a lot of the soup.

If you’re feeling a little bit more ambitious, here is a recipe that makes use of a lot of the vegetables in the song, Bahay Kubo Saute.

activity 4: arts & crafts

In every theme, we include an activity that includes arts and crafts. For this one, we suggest making a Bahay Kubo coloring book. There are a ton of free resources available that you can just download and print out. Here are some links to get you started talong, mani, sibuyas.

If your kids are a bit older (6+), you can try to make your own Bahay Kubo. Here is a good link to how to make one from Pinay Homeschooler.

And if your kids are older (8+) AND media savvy, try making your own music video! Try out some stop motion vegetable action. Here is a link to Tinkerlab’s Stop Motion for kids to get you started.