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!
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!
Story Time is Bonding Time
It’s never too late to learn to be a Storyteller
One of the fondest memories I have of my mother is the countless afternoons snuggling up to her in the sofa while she read all kinds of stories and fables to me. Through these stories I learned so much about life-skills and different cultures, lessons that I keep on benefiting from even now. When I became a mother, I was so determined to give just as wonderful an experience to my daughters so they will not be deprived of this privilege and the tradition will live on. But reality soon hit, and I have a confession to make: I HATE STORYTIME when I need to be the one to tell the stories! After a full day of multi-tasking and reaching the last leg of the day’s marathon, not much energy is left in me for bedtime stories. The stress starts to kick in when I saw my baby all nicely tucked in her bouncer, with teddy in hand and staring at me with those adorable expecting eyes! Not all of us are natural-born storytellers like my mom! For the brave parents who are determined to master the art of storytelling, there are apps you can download that can teach you how to become a better storyteller! *sigh* I wish I knew about this when my kids were small.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
It is OK to introduce a bit of variety and let our voice and face take a much needed break every now and then. Maybe we can consider alternating between “traditional” story sessions and other similarly interesting options. One obvious choice is to let someone else do the job and go for the storytelling websites such as this one that has a large library of children stories suitable for all ages and read by different people (celebrities in this case, which probably means more to you than to your kids) with different reading styles. For toddlers who might need less visuals to enjoy and understand the content, podcasts for children could be a good option. Of course, it is important to choose suitable podcasts according to your child’s age, interest, and personal development.
The evolution of bonding
No matter which method you choose, the main goal is to spend quality time with your baby and create loving memories together. Using technologies such as storytelling websites or podcasts does not mean you are offloading the task to others. This is because the interaction between baby and you through questions and discussions about the stories are actually the most important quality time you share. Now that my kids are older, our story time evolved into a book club of sorts when we would discuss the latest adventure books we have recently read, or they would introduce me to other interesting titles they got to know from school! Our bonding time continues and soon they will be the ones telling ME stories instead!
Happy Reading and Stay Sparky!
How to get your child to try different food?
Introducing solid food… let the struggle begin!
To kick off this blog, I thought we should start with something we can all relate to: FOOD!! As a family, we LOVE food and enjoy trying new cuisines and tastes wherever we go, so I took it for granted that our baby will be the same from the get-go! Besides, I believe getting kids to have an open-mind to food is a good start to teach them to have an open-mind towards other things later in life.
I still remember when our first daughter was about to turn 6 months, how excited I was to introduce the wonderful world of solid food to her! I did all the research I could think of: where is the best place to feed her for the first time: the baby bouncer so she feels more relaxed, or the baby booster where she can sit up properly? Which is the best feeding spoon on the market, with silicon or not? I read up on all the baby puree recipes and got all kitchen utensils ready for the big day. The menu was vegetable broth made with love and rice cereal! Finally, we were ready for her adventure to begin!! Imagine my disappointment when I saw the expression on her face change from a smile to a frown and then a cry after spitting out her first bite of the yucky stuff I made! NO luck to convince her to take a second bite, no matter how much I tried. After half an hour of futile attempts, I literally had tears in my eyes and being the perceptive little girl that she has always been, she got upset and cried too!  So, there we were, mother and daughter crying together in front of a bowl of uneaten rice cereal in broth!
One small step for a baby, a big step for a food enthusiastic adult!
Fast forward to 14 years and 2 daughters later, we now enjoy trying new foods as a family wherever we go and our kids grew up to be super open-minded when it comes to food. Of course they still have their preferences, but they are willing to try it all first before they make up their minds whether they like it or not. They have always been super easy to travel with and we never had to worry if the restaurants would have plain pasta and tomato sauce or not. They eat what adults eat and that’s the end of it (of course an occasional bribery of dessert always worked)!
But how exactly did we succeed in raising adventurous eaters? I used a lot of similar tactics that Celia Barbour described in her blog post (read till the end because I find her last sibling tactic most effective!) If you need more structured game plan, I think Katie Morford, MS, RD also summed it up really nicely in this article on how she did it. Trust me, this effort you are making now can benefit your kids and the family in the long run!
