When I was small, my mother used to tell me how important it is, for my personal growth, to become a parent one day. It is only then will I learn the true meaning of “selflessness”. Now that I am a mother I understand what she meant. Our children are EVERYTHING to me and my husband and we would gladly give up everything to keep them healthy, safe, and happy.
Self-care is the first step
During this challenging time, our kids rely on us to give them the necessary physical and mental support to brave on with their remote learning routines and deal with the missed contacts with close friends and beloved relatives. We are still constantly in a vigilant mode to try keep ourselves and our family safe from any form of harm and it can get really stressful and tiring after so many months. To fulfil the calling of “Selflessness” we first need to “Self-Care”! It is super important to keep a positive attitude and stay healthy not only physically but also mentally for the sake of our family. I find this article by Sarah Fader so helpful in explaining the importance of self-care as a parent and the effect it has on ourselves and our children.
Take a breather whenever possible
When you are toiling with the daily tasks of working from home, doing housework, helping the kids with their remote learning, getting 3 meals a day ready for the entire family, it is easy to feel your mental and physical strength melt away as the day wears on. There are so many parents that are going through the same challenges and it definitely helps to hear their stories and maybe learn how others deal with similar issues. Take a coffee break in your busy day and listen to an episode of some interesting parenting podcasts such as these can bring a smile to your face and remind you that you are not alone in the career of parenthood!
Photo Credit: @meghan_mosakowski
Drop down and gimme 10 push-ups!
Another great way to de-stress is to spare a bit of time each day or a couple of times each week to do some form of exercise. As many of us know already, but might just need a warm reminder, that working out helps your body to release more serotonin, the hormone that keeps your mood up! Why not pen in a workout session or two with your kids and get everyone into a better mood and achieve better health at the same time? You might find some good ideas here for a family workout routine at home!
Hang in there for just a bit longer
We might still have another bit to go before this pandemic nightmare is behind us, so we need to stay strong and live long! Sometimes it is enough to start from the basics and stop ignoring the cries for a time-out from our bodies, maybe these methods could be a good beginning.
Bombol salutes all the selfless parents who are doing their best everyday for their families and we send you a huge virtual hug of solidarity!
Stay Sparky!
Happy New Year!
The Bombol team wishes you a healthy (above all things) 2021!
Many of us wanted to write off 2020 and dive straight into 2021 without looking back, well, here we are!! Now that we can start the year afresh, how should we plan this to make it the BEST year EVER after we have gone through one of the worst in recent history? I think it is the right moment to think of setting some New Year resolutions for 2021 to make sure we get the most out of the year.
You need to strategize your New Year resolutions!
Photo by @victoriacotovan
I am sure that, at one point or another, we all have made new year resolutions and failed to follow through with them after a couple of weeks (if we were persistent). But I think we should definitely give it another try now, because we have gone through a particularly tough year and survived, that means we will be strong enough to follow through with the resolutions and challenges in 2021! Of course, what goals you set this year matters a lot to their success rate too. That’s why I find this article’s suggestions super helpful because I do agree that we need to start small and set realisticgoals in bite size.
It is always a good way to set good examples to our children and get them involved in what goes on in our lives. So why not help them set their own new year resolutions so you can give each other mental support, especially when the going gets tough?
Send the best New Year wishes to your loved ones
In this holiday season, I find it emotionally very tough not being able to spend it with my close family and friends due to social distancing concerns. It’s not possible to give new year wishes in person, no cheering and counting down together, nor group hugging our loved ones at midnight on New Year’s eve, and toasting together for a great year ahead…All we have left is video calls and text messages that we can send to wish everyone well in 2021. Well, if that’s what we have, then let’s make the best out of it! I found some meaningful messageshere that can provide some inspiration when sending the new year greetings to your loved ones (although these suggestions seem to be meant for New Year Cards, I think they work just as well if not better in text messages!)
What does 2021 have in store for all of us?
2021, may you bring us more joy than your predecessor did, and we welcome you with open arms and enthusiasm! We will make the best of you by Staying Sparky!
Let’s get ready for some festivities!
Here we are, it’s finally December and it’s getting really close to my favourite time of the year – Christmas!! The thought of all the decorations, presents, the fancy trees, and rich foods usually bring a smile to my face. In some places, you can already see Christmas decorations up and blinking away back in early November! Well, it never hurts to have everyone in the festive mood a bit earlier!
An unusual year calls for an unusual tree
With this year’s “special” situation, celebrating Christmas will be even more of an “at home” event than previous years. With everyone staying home this holiday season, there is all the more reason to decorate your home nicely to enjoy the festivities together! Why not feature an alternative Christmas tree instead of a traditional one? My Mother-in-Law usually alternates between a traditional tree and a modern take on it every other year. I remember one year she made one by stacking different sizes of white carton boxes, laced with lights, into a tall tree shape and it was just spectacular.
Why build a house when you can build a village?
One thing I love about Christmas is the smell of gingerbread around the house, the spices just yell Christmas! Kids can help make and decorate a little gingerbread village to be used as centre piece on the dinner table that they can be proud of, and it can easily occupy them an afternoon or two!
Stuff the turkey to stuff your tummy
Now that the decorations have been taken care of, time to think about the main Christmas meal! Due to social distancing, big parties are unlikely, so some turkey farms are actually going to supply smaller birds for this year’s “scaled down” celebrations. In terms of what to serve, apart from the usual cooking websites that provide great ideas, I really like these suggestions from onecrazymom that are easy, delicious-looking and less traditional.
A hug from Bombol
No matter how we choose to celebrate Christmas, it is an occasion to appreciate the love we share between family and friends. The warmth generated from such family times will be enough to weather us through this particularly “challenging” Winter of 2020. The Bombol team sends you a virtual hug and we wish everyone a joyous time with the family and a fabulous festive season.
Stay Sparky!
The more the better?
As linguist Amy Thompson wrote in her article, learning an extra language can encourage “cultural competence” and “tolerance of ambiguity”. It trains the learners to tackle problems in other ways that are unfamiliar to them and be more at ease with situations that are new to them. Parents who love travelling and bringing their kids with them are likely to expose their children at a young age to different cultures, foods, and languages. Same for children coming from families that are made up of more than one ethnicity. Both cases encourage the children’s curiosity and open-mindedness towards people from different backgrounds. In everyday life, integrating different languages in a household without freaking out the children can be tricky. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution as each family’s style of communication and interaction is different, but based on my personal experience, keeping things “natural” for the children is key.
Every family is unique
My mother tongue is Cantonese while that of my husband’s is Flemish. We speak to each other in English, but we were living in Italy during the years our 2 daughters were born. Ideally, we would like our kids to be exposed to both our mother tongues because they are part of their heritage, and for easy communication with the grandparents. They need to learn English because that is our little family’s common language. Additionally, both my husband and I had full-time jobs, so the children attended the local day care centre which spoke only Italian. Our poor babies had 4 languages to deal with at the same time since birth! I tried to look for books that give advice on how to raise multilingual children, but the maximum number of languages mentioned were 3. So we started with the “one person one language” method and improvised the rest.
Training the ears
I speak only in Cantonese when I talk to the kids directly, my husband does the same in Flemish. But when we are together as a family, we speak English and the children also watch TV at home only in English. Italian came naturally to them at the day care centre and in fact their first words were “ciao” and “buono” (as in “yummy” whenever they saw food)! Their spoken vocabulary in Italian continued to grow and yet they understood all other languages more and more too. We thought it was important for them to choose their own spoken language that comes the easiest to them (Italian) and we would just naturally answer them in our mother tongues. To me, it was more important to train their ears to listen to different languages than to actively speak them at that point. I believe that if they listened to a language long enough and got familiar with the sounds of that language, they can pick it up easier at a later age if they choose to use it more. I find the methods we used quite similar to multi-linguist Barbara Rumi’s as described in her article here.
Our family relocated to Hong Kong when our kids were 5 and 2 years old, and they faced another language challenge: they started learning Mandarin at school! At that point, asking them to deal with a fifth language was too much, and since no one around them spoke Italian anymore they slowly replaced their Italian with Mandarin. It was a bit of a pity for them to lose their “mother tongue” at the time, but out of practicality it was bound to happen as Italian is not actively spoken anywhere around them.
The accidental multi-linguist
Ten years on, it is interesting to note our children’s language evolution. They are now fluent in English and Mandarin (for practical reasons), while proficient in Cantonese and Flemish (more than adequate to communicate with relatives). They also started to learn French at school and are taking on this new language with interest. They even like to compare vocabulary in the various languages they know out of curiosity!
Our main goal is not for our children to be “truly” multilingual, but through the process of learning these languages, they are trained to keep an open mind to cultural differences around them and to develop their own methodology in solving new challenges that come their way. We never pushed them to speak a certain language or stress them with it as it needs to come naturally. They should choose the language they can best express themselves in. To me, all other languages they were exposed to through the years are bonuses if they choose to retain them.
Stay Sparky!
Family comes first!
The leaves have turned golden while the weather has gotten cooler, this means it’s almost Thanksgiving! Although Thanksgiving is a North American tradition, many countries around the world also have their own festivals dedicated to the season of harvest. These are occasions for families to come together and give thanks to what we have. Everyone has been affected by the pandemic and families faced various challenges because of it. Many of us also received support and love from each other, so it is especially important to give thanks this year, more than ever.
Roll up your sleeves and get cooking!
No matter where we are around the world, celebrating Thanksgiving in the US, the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, or Dia de Acao de Gracas in Brazil, it is always a family occasion. Family and close friends sharing a meal prepared with love is just what we need! Cooking a celebratory meal for loved ones sometimes takes creativity and planning but this website suggests so many different dishes from appetizers to drinks and desserts that allows you to have easily 10 years’ worth of harvest dinner menus without repeating a dish! For the non-traditionalists, there are also other alternative dishes to give a more international flair to your dinner.
It’s a family matter.
For those who want to capture the culinary moments of family celebrations and leave a legacy, how about putting together your family’s very own special cookbook that features Grandma’s secret sauce, Uncle Bob’s famous meatloaf, or Grandpa’s homemade grappa? This cookbook can be a family project that you can leave for future generations and it makes a wonderful Christmas gift too! To take the challenge up a notch, creating your own recipe of a family special dish for important occasions will certainly give even more meaning to your get-together! Get your little one set up on a booster in the kitchen and you have an official taster for your creations!
We will celebrate Thanksgiving no matter what!
But wait, we are in 2020 and many of us are currently under some sort of COVID lockdown! Does it mean all the careful planning of a family meal needs to go down the drain??? I refuse to let the pandemic ruin this festive moment, it’s just another hurdleto overcome, and we need to make the best out of the situation! Here are some guidelines we can follow to have a socially distanced Thanksgiving, which gave me the idea of cooking the meal all the same and delivering it to our loved ones so we can have a virtual Thanksgiving meal together from our respective homes while sharing the same food that we prepared withlove! Have a Sparky Thanksgiving!
Once Upon a Time in Milan
Fred and I became parents for the first time in 2006, that was when we were introduced to a whole new world of all things baby! Like all diligent new parents, we did a lot of research on what we needed to buy for our first little princess. Unfortunately, we were quite disappointed with what we found, both in terms of design and function. These two important aspects could not seem to coexist in one product! We were living in Milan, Italy at the time, and with Fred being a product designer and I was working in the fashion industry, we literally breathed and lived “design” every day. Naturally, we dreamed of injecting more “design” input into the baby furniture industry by creating items that we think can meet our expectations on form and function, at same time revolutionize this sector.
The first item we wanted to work on was the piece of furniture that our daughter used the most – the baby bouncer. It was my lifesaver as I could put Yasmine in the bouncer on the floor next to me while I hung up laundry, prepared meals, even outside the bathroom door! But the more we used our bouncer, the more room for improvement we think it has.
What features does an ideal Bouncer need to have?
From our first-hand experience as final users, an ideal bouncer should have all or most of the below features:
It should bounce gently even without our intervention (to keep baby entertained while giving our arm / foot a rest), but should have no electrical parts to generate the movement since they tend to breakdown easily and cannot hold too much weight.
Particularly important is proper neck and back support for the little one, especially when the babies have not yet developed strength in their spines (usually before 6 months old).
There should be multiple inclination positions on the seat’s backrest to accommodate baby’s different activities, be it playing or relaxing. Our daughter suffered a lot from colic and we found that a more comfortable position for her was to sit more inclined so her tummy could open up more, thus soothing her cramps.
We would like our baby to enjoy her favorite chair for as long as possible, beyond the usual 6-9 months age and weight limit of most bouncers in the market. Preferably the bouncer would be sturdy enough to last her a few years and eventually can be passed on to a younger sibling.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!
After identifying our dream bouncer’s most important features, Fred started his work on the drawing board, literally! Initially he wanted to use bamboo as the frame material due to its pliable yet stable nature, but since we were in the north of Italy and were surrounded by expert engineers from various industries, he soon realized that aero-space grade aluminium is actually a better and more durable option. But we liked the idea of bamboo so much that we kept it as our bouncer’s name!
When we got the frame design sorted out, we turned our dining table into a little sewing workshop where I used my very rusty sewing skills (from my fashion school days) to make trial samples for the seat cover and back rest using my mother-in-law’s sewing machine from the 70’s! The entire design journey took us almost 1 year and in late 2009 we became proud parents, this time to our Bamboo Bouncer!
All Made with Love
Another year later, with our marketing budget being non-existent, some truly kind friends, Mimmo & Sabine and New Target Web, helped us to produce our very first product video on a shoestring with free models (our own baby Nisha and a few adorable kids of our friends)! Out of pure nostalgia, here is the video (watch out for our little Nisha with a green bunny dressed as a boy because we only had a couple of baby boy models):
A New Era
We celebrated Bombol’s 10th birthday last year and we are so proud that our Bamboo Bouncer is still being appreciated by so many kids around the world. Through the years, we have gathered many constructive feedbacks from our customers on the bouncer. We have taken these comments seriously and worked on an updated version of the bouncer, Bamboo 3DKnit, which we launched earlier this year.
We are constantly doing our best to improve our existing products and our creative juice is always flowing to come up with exciting new ways to help modern parents to lighten their load. Stay tuned for more innovations and Stay Sparky!
Let’s Make this an Alternative Halloween!
Tricky to go Trick-or-Treating
With social distancing rules still in place across so many cities, many families are probably hesitant to go Trick or Treating or think twice about hosting costume parties this October. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, many of us (especially the kids, and the “kids in us”) are feeling disappointed in not being able to go out and haunt the streets! So, let’s make the best out of the situation and go for some special Halloween activities that we will all remember for years to come (maybe some of these activities will even remain as new holiday traditions from now on!)
Let’s Celebrate together…at a distance!
This year’s new Halloween fashion must-have has got to be the face mask! Many kids are probably already designing their own Halloween-themed masks to show off either at school or online (if remote learning continues). There are so many great ideas out there on the internet and so many possibilities to get creative. It has always been a challenge to get the kids to wear their masks and KEEP them on, so having a cool mask can be a great incentive. The perfect accessory to stay festive and stay safe at the same time!
It is all about having quality family time.
Many of us have fond memories of dressing up in matching costumes with our parents and going trick-or-treating together. Well, instead of trick-or-treating, this year’s Halloween can still be a family occasion for bonding. Turn the kitchen into a sinister lab with a booster seat set up at the kitchen table for your little assistant and do some crazy spooky experiments with Dad the Mad Scientist. Stir up creepy potions or create scary snacks with Mom the Witch, to be consumed together during your Halloween moviemarathon!
There are so many cool ideas out there to make Halloween extra special, our kids will for sure find this year’s festivities most memorable and fun!
Stay Spooky…oh, I mean Stay SPARKY!!!
Future, here we come!
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed EVERYONE’s life dramatically, no exceptions. It has only been a few months, but the way of life as we knew it seems to have gone through so much change to the point of no return. Post COVID-19 times will never be the same as before and we need to adapt, whether we like it or not. One of these things is the further relianceon technology, or screens to be more precise, when it comes to providing education and entertainment for our children. We, millennial parents, have always been told to be careful with the use of this “electronic pacifier” on the little ones. It should be rationed in small doses and ideally not expose it to babies under 18 months.
Rules for the New Era
But hey, desperate times call for desperate measures! Parents nowadays have never faced greater challenges in juggling between work and home as these two places merge into one. Suddenly, the screen became the “necessary evil” for everyone’s sanity during lockdown and social distancing. All the previous screen time guidelines are out the window and we find ourselves having to use our own better judgement to navigate these unchartered waters. Not only for the kids, even for us adults we are now staring at our computers at all hours of the day, so I think some ground rules must be there to put structure to this new era, for the sake of the entire family.
So, if screen time is inevitable for the kids, the only control we have is the content that we expose them to. This short video from BBC certainly convinced me that if we make use of the screen time in a stimulating context that promotes imagination and creativity, our children will benefit immensely, of course along with other daily activities such as sports and play times. The trick is to avoid passiveconsumption of this medium that doesn’t encourage analytical thinking or improve social skills.
Fall is upon us, all schools (in one form or another) have started and us parents need to get back to a more routine work schedule (be it at home or even back in the office). Limiting screen time becomes even harder when it is the most important tool for learning and the only way for them to maintain some sort of a social life with their friends. So after doing my fair share of research, online(where else!), to see how to manage this delicate balance, the most helpful advice came from this article that sums up everything for me: don’t get so uptight about screen time, as long as you can maximize your child’s learning experience through the correct content in the appropriate context.
All is good, Namaste, and Stay Sparky!
Planning Ahead
For many countries, which previously thought to have the pandemic situation under control, the fight against this enemy is nowhere near finished. As second or even third wave of COVID-19 cases hit, we also approach the end of the Summer. Many schools are preparing to start the new school year online, or at least have a contingency plan of switching to remote learning in case things get worse again.
The Hurdles of Remote Learning
So many kids around the world have been looking forward to the beginning of school where they can meet their much-missed friends and teachers again in person. My heart broke when I saw the faces of my daughters after they learned that they would need to start school online again.
I think remote learning for the little ones at pre-school and kindergarten levels is the toughest. At their age they mainly learn from hands-on activities and develop social skills through interactions with others. They also don’t have the concentration span to sit still and listen to their teachers on the screen for a prolonged period of time. I really respect these education professionals who are creating and reinventing teaching methods to adapt to the current educationaldemand. Additionally, young children need more patience and attention so they can only teach a few students at a time, having multiple sessions a day, making it also extra draining physically and mentally.
Happy to Help!
As for our little kids, they also need to adapt to a new way of learning and can only see their teachers briefly each day. They are not yet old enough to handle the online interaction independently and require much help from their care givers by their side, so we are becoming the teaching assistant at home too! Have no fear! There are actually many websites, that normally provide home-school parents with structured curriculum, that have useful information to those who need to do this temporarily. For more ideas on fun yet educational activities and tips on teaching your kids from home, this site provides some pretty comprehensive resource guides for all ages up to elementary level.
The Post COVID-19 Education
This pandemic has forced the age-old methods in education to be re-invented overnight into a new form. Although these remote learning strategies are supposedly just a temporary solution to handle the crisis, it has kick-started a new era of education that will come with its benefits and problems. As this article from the World Economic Forum has concluded, it is important to have resilience when facing these new challenges, and without doubt we will help our kids navigate these unchartered waters together!
Bombol is here for you!
To boost the morale of the Sparky families who follow what Bombol is up to, we would like to offer you a special discount to get you ready for the start of school at home! Use the discount codeBACK2SCHOOL1 and get 10% discount on any purchase from our online store! (Valid until Sept 30, 2020)
Stay Sparky!
A Foldable Booster is Definitely a Game-Changer!
It is always better to use your own booster seat than a public one
Hygiene concern is a big issue these days and all parents are very much on the alert to keep everything their baby uses as clean as possible, especially when eating out. Many restaurants or hospitality spaces do offer highchairs for their little guests, but they might not have the time to keep their equipment as clean as we would like them to. Having your own booster seat is the best solution in this case when you can clean it properly after use and your child can have a clean booster to sit on every time.
Say “NO” to chunky furniture also in Grandma’s house!
Our parents have made so many sacrifices for us since the day we were born and continue to do so when they become Grandparents. They babysit our kids, take them on holidays, and spoil them with sweets before passing them back to us still sugar-high! So many grandparents have a complete set of baby gear at their homes so they are fully equipped to take on the grandkids at any time. After an action-packed weekend at Grannies’ the kids have gone home, and they are stuck with the bulky high-chair in their kitchen for the rest of the week / month! This is when a foldable booster seat can come in handy for them: it can be folded and stored away in the drawer until the next visit without taking up space. No bulky furniture they need to move in or out of storage either.
It’s chair for home away from home, wherever you go
Kids tend to get attached to things very easily and would like to drag along everything that belongs to them, furniture included! This might help them to feel more secure when they are away from home or familiar surroundings. For a toddler, sitting at a table for a meal outside the home environment might feel a bit intimidating at times, so having brought along his own chair could help him ease into the situation a bit faster. A foldable booster seat makes taking along his own dining chair beats lugging a highchair to your friend’s house!
