Even though Christmas is my favourite holiday of the year, I always can’t help but feel a bit stressed and overwhelmed during the entire month of Dec! From getting our home ready for the holiday season, to baking Christmas treats, to rushing to buy the last bit of groceries for our family gatherings, my to do list just seems endless! Then when it’s all over, I regret that instead of stressing over practical tasks and trying to get as much done as possible, I should have enjoyed the company and warmth of our family and friends during this magical season. So, this year in order not to lose sight of what’s more important, I am planning to make a bucket list to identify a few select activities (let’s not get too ambitious here or else I would get stressed about that too!) I would like to do with my family.
Back to the basics
Apart from the obvious, such as reading Christmas stories to the kids or doing a holiday movie marathon, I would like to spend some simple bonding time with them in the kitchen whipping up some holiday-themed yummy treats to enjoy with the movies! Or knock down that gingerbread house we have built together and gobble it up in a sitting or two. The aim is to give my family my undivided attention and just enjoy each other’s company without mentally checking off my task list or trying to get a million things done in the next hour.
Photo by @littleislandyogi
Sharing is caring
The holiday season is also about sharing, so I would like to include an activity or two to do something for the community that in our everyday life we might not be able to find enough time to do. My daughters are asking me to teach them how to knit and crochet, so I thought this could be a wonderful time to teach them to make something warm for the homeless or families in need of winter clothing. Another option is to go volunteer in a charity for a day or two, serving food or delivering necessities to the elderly. It is something we can do as a family and the children will be able to see the immediate difference their effort can make for people less fortunate than we are.
After an entire year of running around, meeting various deadlines for work and family, and letting our daily routine swallow us whole, this is the moment to slow down and take a deep breath! Enjoy the lovely little things and the important people in your life.
Have a lovely Sparky Christmas!
Are you ready?
We can finally be in official count down to Christmas! Have you already started filling your home with Christmas lights and decorations? Planning any Christmas baking this year so that the house can be filled with the lovely smell of spices and ginger? Or are you like me, leaving things to the last minute and then scramble to get everything done in the last week leading up to Dec 25? I promise myself every year that I would start preparing for my favourite season earlier, and in fact I have been gathering ideas for decorations and baking throughout the year! But I still need to put my plans into action and looks like the Gingerbread Village I want to make together with our daughters will only be ready till the very last minute.
Let the countdown begin
My parents used to go to Germany for work every December and would bring home all kinds of traditional German decorations and cookies they bought from the open-air Christmas markets. Every year, my mom would bring me a chocolate advent calendar from their trip, around one week before Christmas. This meant I got to play “catch-up” by eating all the chocolates that were meant for Dec 1st until at least 15th all in one go!!! All these years later, to me advent calendars always bring back the warm fuzzy feeling of Christmas with my parents. When I got older and learned how to sew, I would make my own version of advent calendars with colorful pockets made of fabric scraps, linked together with yarn and gave them to my friends as Christmas garlands for their rooms, filled with their favourite candies. If there is not enough time to make your own together with your kids, here are some nice options too. Maybe your kids might have some “catching up” to do, but in this case, I am sure they would not mind!
Get Organized
Christmas holidays, with various family gatherings and commitments, always seem to fly by so quickly that we never manage to do all the activities we want as a family, such as binge-watching holiday movies together in matching Christmas pyjamas, or going to visit a Christmas market in a town nearby. So the idea of putting together a “holiday bucket list” is super practical and maybe this year we can finally get our act together and do some of these family activities planned! Going for a walk in the park or completing a family new year hike would be a great opportunity to burn off those extra holiday calories too!
Happy Planning! Stay Sparky!
Food for Thought
Seeing the rich yellow, orange, and brown colors on trees while feeling the cool air on my nose, I have this sudden craving for some colorful and yummy Fall veggies that are at their best now! My mom used to always say that brightly colored vegetables are the most nutritious and that each color has its particular nutritional values. She also said that vegetables are the best when they are eaten in-season and grown locally.
This really makes me think hard and wonder about the fruits and vegetables my family and I eat every day. Living in a city and buying most of our food from supermarkets, I can’t help but notice that so many produces are imported from all over the world and not native to where I live. You can find strawberries grown in greenhouses in Korea in the middle of Winter, or pineapples in a supermarket in Europe. We easily lose touch with the “real” seasons and the harvest each season brings. So how should I introduce this concept to my children and get these little city dwellers to be more in touch with nature and its offerings?
Embracing each season and the food it brings
First, we need to get them to eat what’s in season. Persuading kids to eat their veggies have always been a challenge for parents across the globe. One of the tactics we can use to entice them to eat more veggies is the beautiful colors of the produce. Presentation is key, so convincing them to eat a “rainbow” made of fresh fruits and veggies might be easier than asking them to swallow spoon after spoon of mashed peas in wilted green. There are also many mouth-watering children-friendly recipes that feature Fall vegetables, I am sure the kids would love to try them all!
Then, we can further “inspire” the little ones by linking the current season’s color theme to the veggies – Fall and its colors are rich oranges (pumpkins, squashes), reds (apples, cranberries), and browns (chestnuts, mushrooms). Bring them along the next time you head to your local farmer’s market so they can experience and see what goodies are in season and the color palate they present.
While looking for kids-friendly recipes using Fall ingredients, I also came across some good ideas cooking for the entire family. This site is great because it gives you recipe ideas organized by vegetable, so you can choose the recipes based on what you have handy in your kitchen! Take advantage of the beautiful season and enjoy all the yummy produce Mother Nature has to offer!
Stay Sparky!
An Inclusive Thanksgiving
Autumn is in full swing and many of us around the world have by now celebrated with our families some form of a harvest festival, be it Mid-Autumn Festival here in Asia or Thanksgiving in Canada. The next upcoming harvest festivity would be Thanksgiving in the US. Since this celebration originated from the coming together of Native Americans and Pilgrims celebrating harvest together, the topics of diversity and inclusion often come up when we talk to our children about Thanksgiving. But this is just the tip of the iceberg because in our daily lives, diversity does not only limit to race, but also gender, religion, disability, and sexual orientation (among many others). While inclusion requires empathy and open-mindedness that needs to be nurtured from a young age.
Soft Skills for Future Global Citizens
With the advancement of the internet and the ever-improving skills of our tech-savvy children, the world is literally at their fingertips. Even during Pandemic lockdowns, the kids have access to resources and are exposed to various cultures from all over the world. Therefore, to become true global citizens it is imperative that our children learn the nuances of a diverse society and to develop the necessary sensitivity towards others around them. But I must admit that I find myself sometimes not very well prepared for the questions or observations my kids have on this diversity. Having grown up in a completely different era, my knowledge of this topic came from my own limited personal experience and my parents certainly did not put as much attention to it as part of my education as modern parents do. So, it is really helpful to have found some resources that teach us how to teach our children this important subject!
Making it relatable
One obvious resource could be age-appropriate books for our kids that talks about diversity in situations that they can relate to easily. I find this website has great tips and suggestions on how we can prepare our children in their school lives, as well as listing some good books for the little ones based on their age. While researching on how to help our kids learn about diversity and inclusion, I came across this really beautiful animation created by Magali Dunyach, Chien-Ju Hung, Jimin Jung, Vajra Pancharia, and Léa Pietrzyk from Gobelins. This short film metaphorically explains diversity through a mother’s curry recipe and her conversation with her son. It compares the merging of various cultures in our daily lives with the richness of tastes that different ingredients bring to a pot of curry. It definitely gave me food for thoughts and for sure children will be able to grasp the concept easily. Hope you will enjoy this as much as I did!
Stay Sparky!
Screen Time during a Pandemic
Exactly one year ago, I wrote a blogpost about screentime for kids during the pandemic and how many of us found ourselves having to loosen our grip on the amount of time our children spend on their electronic devices. What started off as a “necessary evil” we resolved to as a temporary solution became something more long-term as the pandemic drags on one and half years later. By now, our pre-conditioned minds start to worry that the kids are getting too “addicted” to their devices.
Encourage a healthy tech habit
Sooner or later, technology would take on a central role in both education and entertainment solutions for the youngest generation, the pandemic seems to have accelerated this development. Before, parents only needed to be concerned on what TV programs the little ones are watching or the age-appropriateness of their books. But now we also have to be aware and be vigilant on what the “algorithms” are feeding their little minds, showing them more of what they have been seeing, slowly driving them onto a narrow path of junk consumption and isolation behind the screen. Luckily, more studies are now immerging on the impact technology and digital content have on young children and we are slowly identifying certain traits and preferences kids of different age groups have. Through this new found knowledge, maybe we parents can find out how to better help our kids to develop a healthier tech habit. Here is also a wonderful Parent’s Guide to Internet that shares really useful tips!
If you can’t fight it, use it
Since the beginning of the pandemic (which feels like a lifetime ago), the idea of what should be the appropriate amount of screentime for young children have evolved significantly. Looking back, some of the pre-COVID suggestions such as “not more than 1 hour of screen time for kids under 2 years old” sounds unrealistic, if not downright unachievable! Let’s face it, screens are definitely here to stay and have become a vital part of our children’s everyday life. There is no way back and we need to embrace the new era and learn how to use them to the greatest benefit for our kids. If we cannot set the screentime back to pre-COVID quantity, then we should make sure the kids are getting quality.
Stay Sparky!
The much awaited Trick-or-Treat
Halloween is near and hopefully trick-or-treating in costumes out in the neighborhood is back again this year. For kids who have resumed in-person classes at school can finally show off their costume creations that they had all last year and most of this year to design and finetune!!
The Halloween Photo Corner is now open
For the small kiddies who are not yet vaccinated, I imagine many parents are still quite sceptical about getting them out there trick-or-treating. But it is a pity to miss out on the fun of getting dressed up in their costumes and not to capture these precious moments with a nice portrait photo or two! With the ultra-high-quality camera on mobile phones these days, it is not too difficult to set up a photo booth with some spooky backdrops and props. The kids would have such a blast getting their photos taken! Here are some useful tips in setting up your own studio at home.
Teal is the new Orange
Having grown up in Asia, to me Halloween, its costumes, and the trick-or-treat tradition were all part of the “Western” culture that I observed from afar, mostly from American TV shows. But this quirky festival has evolved into such an international one through the years, many kids in Asia grew up trick-or-treating in costumes around their neighborhoods too! Although for sure the kind of treats they get differ enormously from their fellow trick-or-treaters in North America! I only got to learn about the Teal Pumpkin Project recently where families would put non-food treats, such as little toys or trinkets, in a blue pumpkin instead of candies in an orange one. Although this project’s main aim is to make kids who have food allergies to enjoy trick-or-treating just as much, I find this an awesome idea to have the kids eat less sugary treats as a result!
Have fun and enjoy Halloween! Stay Spooky!
The new normal
The pandemic has brought along a whole new definition of normality in our everyday lives and hygiene has become top priority in many families’ daily routines. Answering to this rising demand in the past year, there are many devices that offer sanitizing functions to small everyday objects by using UV-C lights, much like the bigger machines that sterilize baby bottles at home. But how exactly does UV-C kill bacteria and viruses, and are they truly effective? There is actually a lot of information out there on this topic, but with all the scientific terms and jargons, it can be mind-boggling to tease out the important information. Here below are some of the questions I had when I first looked into this rabbit hole and what I managed to find and summarize after doing some research on the topic. Hope it helps fellow curious moms who want to keep their families healthy and germ-free!
Where does UV-C light come from and how does it kill germs?
The sun emits 3 types of UV rays: UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C. UV-A gives you a nice tan, UV-B gives you a sun burn, and UV-C actually destroys any living thing on earth. Luckily, the earth’s atmospheric layer blocks out the short wave-length UV-C rays, and therefore all living organisms on earth never have to develop a natural defense mechanism against it, not even harmful organisms. The UV-C rays damages the DNA of the organisms and prevent them to multiply and cause illnesses, that is what makes UV-C light so powerful in inactivating bacteria and viruses.
Some disinfecting devices claims they can reduce 99% of germs while others say they can reduce 99.999%, is there a lot of difference?
This percentage tells you how effective the device is against bacteria or viruses. Taking a colony of 1 million bacteria as sample size, the ability to reduce 99% of the colony means there are 10,000 bacteria left alive. The reduction rate is exponential therefore every extra 9 you see behind the decimal point means the bacteria or viruses are reduced by 10 times more. This means the ability to reduce 99.999% of nasties is 1000 times more effective than the ability to reduce 99%, eliminating all but 100 bacteria in the colony of 1 million! So those “9s” DO matter, and the more the better!
What determines the strength and efficiency of the UV-C sanitizing device?
The disinfection happens when UV-C rays directly hits the surface with the virus and the effectiveness of disinfection depends on the dose of UV-C ray applied. There are 3 major factors that contribute to the dose of UV-C given: strength of UV-C rays, distance between the light source and the virus, and the exposure time. Therefore, when a device boasts of having a high number of UV-C LEDs, or a short disinfecting cycle, it does not necessary mean that it is more powerful than others in the market. According to the FDA, many home sanitizing appliances deliver a low dose of UV-C light and therefore might need longer exposure cycles to be effective. So, based on the above information, to reach a strong disinfecting result, we need to expose the object to a strong enough dose of UV-C light for a long enough period of time with uninterrupted direct exposure from all sides.
If UV-C light is so destructive to living organisms, and can damage our eyes and skin with direct exposure, what should be a safe and responsible way of using this amazing technology?
There is some debate out there about the harm UV-c rays can cause to human beings, but most materials I found conclude that we need to use it with extreme caution. For a UV-C device to be truly safe, the LEDs should be enclosed in a complete radiation leak-proof casing when it is performing its sanitizing cycle. Any accidental opening of the closed environment should immediately terminate the cycle and the LEDs turned off. Unfortunately, since this kind of home-use sanitizing devices have only become more popular recently under the pandemic, many newly designed products have not yet gone through and passed the necessary safety tests as consumer goods. In many of them, the UV-C light source can be exposed to the naked eye and skin during its operation, causing potential harm. I find this article quite helpful in explaining this point.
What are the benefits of using UV-C sanitizers instead of disinfecting wipes to clean our daily objects such as keys, phones, or the bite ring that was dropped on the sidewalk by your toddler?
I only found out recently that disinfecting wipes do not instantly sanitize the objects and needs a few minutes for the chemical solutions to work their magic. The same solution also leaves residue on the surface that you might not want your child to come into contact with all the time. Besides, the wipes are only good for hard surfaces and wouldn’t be as efficient on soft materials such as soft toys. UV-C sanitizers, on the other hand, zaps away most bacteria and viruses without leaving any residue or something for the earth to digest in the landfills.
BLAST-UV away the nasties!
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Bombol team has been doing tonnes of research on the UV-C disinfecting technology. We found that since there are so many factors contributing to an efficient disinfecting result, very few devices currently available in the market have managed to achieve the delicate balance between having the strong enough amount of UV-C dose, combined with the correct time exposure, and optimum distance in a truly contained and safe enclosure. As if that is not big enough a challenge, we had to make this device foldable into the size of a wallet, genuine to the Bombol spirit of lightening the load of parents-on-the-go! We dedicated the past year to design our very own UV-C disinfector, BLAST UV, that we can proudly say that we got all angles covered, figuratively and literally! Come find out more about BLAST-UV and all the nerdy techs behind the portable disinfecting device that can reduce bacteria by up to 99.999999% and Sars-COV-2 surrogate by 99.99%*. Yup, we got THAT many “9’s”!!!
Stay Sparky!
* SGS Laboratories and Harrens Labs have independently tested and certified that Blast UV™ Disinfector inactivated 99.99% of Human Coronavirus 229E virus, a recommended Sars-Cov-2 surrogate by ASTM [US} and TGA [Australia], and killed 99.999999% of Staphylococcus Aureus and 99.99999% of Escherichia Coli Bacteria, in just 5 minutes.
All Good Intentions
In the past year or so, during numerous lockdowns with a household full of chores and home-learning to complete, food preparation can become a cumbersome and mundane task at times. With the growing convenience of food delivery apps, fast food is literally just a fingertip away. We have all been there, in the first few months we did our best to feed the family all home-cooked wholesome meals 3 times a day, but sometimes, during our weak moments it is so easy to give in to the convenience of ordering tasty meals that gets delivered to your doorstep than preparing something from scratch. Besides, the kids love them and won’t complain about anything tasting bland! But this means losing control of what kind of ingredients go into our meals, so much for trying to promote a healthy eating habit for the family!
Eat Healthy Stay Healthy
Recently, everyone around me, myself included, has become more health conscious now that we are slowly emerging from the post pandemic life. An important lesson we have learned from this ordeal is that we should try to stay fit and healthy in the hope of improving our immune system and lowering the chance of getting sick. Apart from physical workouts, the next most obvious thing we need to pay attention to is food. As life sort of gets back to “normal”, running around between home, office, and schools will be part of our daily routine once again, leaving us less time to prepare food. So we need to look for smarter ways to plan our meals to make sure our family still gets healthy breakfasts and dinners all the same.
Taking on the vending machines
Now the trick is how to make sure the kids get a decent lunch when parents cannot keep a watchful eye on the little ones when they are at school? Our ultimate challenge is back again: open war with fast foods and vending machines! The fact sheet put together by Centre of Disease Control and Prevention in the US shows us a summary of what youngsters’ eating behaviour is like these days and I am shocked by the amount of empty calories found in the most popular snacks available at schools.
Let the kids decide
Therefore, we need to guide our children to choose healthier foods so they can develop a balanced eating habit in the long run. I find this article very helpful in suggesting a moderate way to slowly change the eating preferences of children, and to let them have a choice within a reasonable selection of foods. As they get older, they can be involved in setting their own school lunch menus. My daughters get together every weekend to lookup yummy recipes, decide what shall be their lunches in the coming week, and come up with a grocery list for me to get the ingredients. It’s so nice to see that they are in control of what they eat and are making sensible choices!
Stay Sparky!
Ready or not
The hot topics these days among parents are about vaccines, start of school, and the now rampant Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus. The combination of these issues frames the mood of uncertainty and concern in most families as schools around the world are resuming classes, in one form or another. Parents are faced with the nagging question of whether to let the children go back to face-to-face school or keep them at home, especially for children under 12 years old who are not vaccinated.
The impact of the pandemic on our children’s education is profound, both academically and socially. They missed out on more than a year’s worth of learning how to interact with other children and were deprived of many bonding experiences such as camps, sports, and games. Not everyone takes well to online lessons either and many kids prefer in-person classes which are more effective in helping them learn. In order for children not to miss more precious time at school, we need to find out how to make it safe for kids to go back into the classrooms again and how best to help lower the risk of them catching the nasty virus.
Mask up!
It has been one and a half years since the pandemic started and one can only be on high alert with cleanliness and hygiene for so long. Additionally with the arrival of Summer there was this false sense of security that the worst is finally over. Don’t know about you, but my guard has been lowered somewhat when it comes to constantly maintaining a high standard of cleanliness around me and my family ! Unfortunately, the situation has once again become more concerning with the super contagious Delta variant, which means we need to stay vigilant again on everything and everyone we touch or encounter. Many places around the globe resort back to mandatory face coverings in public places indoor, schools included. With the arrival of Fall also comes the flu season, so the best way to keep our kids healthy is still to ask them to wear their masks when at school or playing with friends. Another important habit we all learned during the pandemic is to keep our hands clean and don’t touch our faces with dirty hands, so never let your little one go to school without a small bottle of hand sanitizer! Here’s a list of school supplies ideas and tips for your child to start the school year safely and healthily.
When in doubt, sanitize
Many households have developed their own set of rules by now on what to do when you come home from a day at work or from grocery shopping. Some of these rules might include changing out of the clothes you were wearing outside, wash hands with soap, disinfect the bags or items you have brought into the house, etc. The same might apply to your child when they come home from school, additionally it might be better to regularly sanitize their school bags and smaller items such as stationery and toys they might have shared with other children.
We have come this far already in the pandemic and have found so many ways to make the best out of a difficult situation. Getting our children back to school in a safe and responsible way is just another hurdle we must jump over to take back a bit more control of our lives as we knew it before COVID-19! We got this!
Stay Sparky!
What is the “new normal”?
As more and more people get vaccinated in many countries, the world seems to be slowly waking up from its Pandemic lockdowns and restrictions. Many of us are working hard to try to get back to “normal” mentally, socially, and economically. Of course, the idea of “normal” might vary and we might think that things will not, or might not, go back to pre-COVID times. To me, sadly, the “carefree” days of walking on the streets without a mask, shaking hands with others, hugging a friend I bumped into at the park, even eating an ice-cream while walking in the street, can no longer be taken for granted. Questions of social etiquettes such as “should I keep wearing a mask in public?”, or “would people look at me alarmingly if I eat while walking in public?” keep popping up in my mind. Re-introducing ourselves into society post-COVID, although sounds a bit silly, feels like a daunting task.
A silver lining
If we as adults can feel insecure about it, I can only imagine how scary it must be for children to emerge from the Pandemic. With sporadic lockdowns and ever-changing social-distancing guidelines, the sense of stability children need is lost and things can be so confusing for them. But the silver lining from this pandemic for many kids could be more family time with their parents. This article identified many aspects of what families went through during the past one and a half years, the pros and cons and the dilemmas we all faced at one point or another.
No perfect answer
With vaccination rate slowly climbing, many schools around the world are planning to hold face-to-face classes after the summer, and companies are starting to jump-start their business activities again. It is time to get ourselves and our children physically and psychologically prepared for what’s coming up next. This Summer could be a good transition period for all of us to do just that, slowly but steadily. I guess the first concerns many parents have when they need to go back to their full-time jobs in the office, is what would happen to their kids. Should they be sent back to the day care? How likely will they be exposed to the danger of COVID-19 while they spend their playtime / naptime there? Are the schools doing enough to safeguard the children’s health? There is never a correct or satisfactory answer to each of these questions and most parents in the world are asking them! But we need to evaluate the risks and find ways within our capability to mitigate them, such as get ourselves and our children (age permitting) vaccinated. If the children are too young to be vaccinated, then at least we need to make sure their caretakers are.
There is still time to get prepared for post-COVID times and as long as we keep getting informed about the latest situation around us, I am sure we will find a way to get back to “the new normal”.
