COVER Sunday 18 18 december 2011 COVERSTORY STORYStareducate, Stareducate, Sunday december 2011
Parents go the extra mile to generate different thoughts and creativity just for their children.
Stareducate, Sunday 18 december 2011
New ideas, changing perspectives
By ALYCIA LIM educate@thestar.com.my
Window view: children look out of a hut they built from scratch with Lim.
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AMANTHA Lee’s attempts at getting her daughter Elizabeth to eat her meals quickly proved futile and with a second baby on the way, the young mother had to come up with a way to shorten meal times. “Elizabeth, a toddler then, was a very slow eater, and I was worried that I would not have enough time to feed her when my second child was born. So I started making simple bento meals for her.” Lee’s first bentos were nothing like the ones she does today. “I started out with making simple heart-shaped riceballs and flower carrots, just basic shapes so she could eat on her own,” says Lee, 35. These days both Elizabeth, 4, and sister Evana Goh, 2, have “animals” and cartoon characters smiling at them when they open up their lunch boxes. From Hello Kitty sandwiches to Superman bentos, they are the envy of their friends who are amazed at the colourful combination of snacks that greet them. Lee shares that it was the need to get her daughters to eat healthy foods that inspired her to be creative with the food presentation. Over the last few years, through trial and error, her daughter’s meals have begun to look like great works of art. Using mayonnaise as the “glue” to stick the seaweed or eggs onto the shaped rice, Lee says that making bento meals for her children doesn’t cost a lot. “I don’t use any fancy tools. All I use is a pair of scissors, and maybe some toothpick to put the mayonnaise on. “To shape the rice, I line a bowl with a plastic foodwrap, and then use my hands to shape them. “Many people ask if my daughters will eat “normal” food. Although I often make bentos for them, not every meal has to be decorated. “In fact, it is because of the bentos that they are now able to eat different types of vegetables. They are not picky with their food and they can even eat capsicum and ginger!” Today, Lee’s “artworks” have brought her a following on Apple’s Instagram application which allows individuals to share images with the rest of the world. “I recently joined Instagram and am surprised at the number of followers I have! People are interested in what I do, and sometimes they also offer suggestions and ideas.” Sharing some parenting ideas, Lee says, “My girls go out cycling in the evenings on our porch, and sometimes they just play indoors. “I do not have a fixed routine set for them, apart from their meals and bedtime.” She adds, “My mother always made sure we had proper meals and a balanced lifestyle when we were young, no matter how busy she was.
Aquarium artw ork: Quynh Ts ang wants her feel the animal baby to s on canvas. Toying around: Shiliang surrounded by the toys and other items his parents made for him and his siblings.
Green fingers: Lina’s children Zara Safiyyah (left) and dhia aisyah (right) in their vegetable patch. “As a mother now, I am simply following the example set by her.”
In line with nature While some parents like Lee have chosen to be artistic in the way they prepare and present meals just to ensure that their children have balanced and nutritious meals, others focus on nurturing their children’s creativity through play. Lim Da Vid, 40, a father of three believes in making the most out of the gifts of nature. His four-year-old daughter serves him a bowl of “noodles” (which are actually rubber bands strung together) she had just “cooked” in her make-believe pan during the interview while his one-year-old son plays on his own. Almost everything in the play corner have been handmade by either Lim or his wife, and most of the items at home are made from wood, or organic cotton. “Wood has been scientifically proven to be good for improving their sen-
sory abilities. Just look at children who grow up in wooden houses and play in the garden daily. They are always healthy and happy.” The wooden rocking horse that stands at the corner of the living room took him about six months to build and was made for his daughter, Huizi, as a gift before her younger brother, Shiliang was born. “We knew that Huizi would feel neglected when Shiliang was born because of the attention we would give him, so we gave her the wooden horse and reassured her that we loved her just as much.” Apart from the horse, Lim made a kitchen stove complete with drawers from recycled wood. The former engineer says that making toys for his own children also helps them understand where things come from. “When children see their parents putting in so much effort to make a toy for them, they learn to appreciate it. They also get to see the work in progress, so they understand that things can be made, and not just bought from the shops.” Undeniably, doing such projects at home require a lot of time. “Of course, it is time consuming, and can get quite tiring. But I believe that if we spend less time shopping and more time at home, a lot can be done.” Lim believes that when he comes up with a creation, it evokes a a sense of curiosity, but he keeps his children guessing until he has built it. “By not revealing the creation, children will keep guessing and it teases their imagination. When it is done, they do feel a sense of accomplishment too, because they would have finally figured it out.”
Simple ideas at home
Steady hands: dhia aisyah
COVER STORY
n. hard at work on her creatio
Admittedly, not all parents have that creative edge. Nevertheless, freelance writer Elaine Tan believes that one does not necessarily have to be a creativelyinclined person to turn their home into a fun place for children. “Although I had an interest in craft, I never really got into it until after my son was born.”
Just right: Lee putting the finishing touches on a ‘Snow White’ bento for her children. Getting most of her ideas from blogs, Tan says that craft does not have to be rocket science, as she discovered. Doing basic art and craft at home such as finger painting, making collages, or even turning flour and water into dough with her toddler, the mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy says that such activities are a good way to keep herself engaged with her son. “Although I send my son to a babysitter for a few hours a day, he is with me most of the time and I need to keep him occupied with activities to work on.” To help develop his sensory abilities, Tan recently made a sensory box. “I got a box which I put things inside for him to touch and explore. For example, you can put in squishy balls, or even use it to play and explore his imagination by taking out little toy animals and putting them into the box, like a safari.” Admitting that things can get rather messy sometimes, Tan says “I used to be very particular about mess and clutter but I have learnt to accept it.”
Fun activities do not always have to be heavy on the pocket, either. “Toys are expensive anyway. So I think the cost of buying flour or food colouring is insignificant, especially for urban parents.” Apart from keeping a child occupied, craft work also helps them learn to be independent. “If we allow them to play on their own and explore, they would learn how to discover many things themselves.” While Tan took up art and craft after her son was born, Lina A. R. 34, inspires her children with the work she does. “I used to do lots of beadwork and sewing, but a few years ago I started crocheting,” she says. With such creativity in her blood, it is no surprise when her daughter, Dhia Aisyah, 4, picked up an interest in drawing and sometimes coming up with her own craft projects. “Many parents think that craft is art on paper, using a glue and scissors, but it is more than that. I believe that anything we do with our hands qualifies as craft.” Allocating a corner in her house for her children to explore, play, and learn, Lina says, “I let them paste their finished products on the wall in a section of a room. It may look a little messy but I don’t restrict them ... it is one way of allowing them to explore their creativity.” Embracing technology, Lina says she encourages her children by putting their work online through a blog. “I teach my daughter how to use the iPhone, iPod and the computer. Apart from doing some research and playing games, she is also
allowed to watch videos and download applications under my supervision. “ I believe that as long as they can manage their time, there is no harm in exposing them to technology because they learn how to use the tools available to them.” Living in a house in Johor Baru, Lina appreciates how fortunate she is to be able to be a full-time homemaker. “Since I don’t have a nine-to-five job, I can think of an activity for us to do together each week. It could be planting vegetables, or even baking a cake. Sometimes I even ask the children what they want to do.”
Starting Early Just days before giving birth to her first child, Nhu Quynh Tsang, 33, says she cannot wait for the arrival of her baby girl. The mother-to-be who lives in California, the United States, is aware that she must choose the right toys that help develop a child’s creativity and intellect. “I wanted to decorate the baby nursery with my own handmade art, so I came up with the idea of making felt animals and gluing them on stretched canvas. “The felt art work is not just for decoration but it will allow me to teach my baby the different animal names when she begins to talk.” The optometrist who has enjoyed drawing, knitting, crocheting, oil painting and even jewellery making from a young age, has recently been inspired by talented and like-minded individuals on social media sites.
Maths Wiz: yeoh explaining the rules of the game to participants.
Great learning tool WANTING to create a fun way to teach his daughter Maths, Jimmy Yeoh, 65, began putting number dots on building blocks in 1978, and hasn’t looked back since. “I remember my daughter playing with building blocks which she enjoyed very much, so I decided to put dots on them to teach her how to count. She was then about three years old.” That first step lead to another, and today, Yeoh is known as the creator of “Math Magic,” a maths-based board game that has been played in schools throughout the country and overseas. “I realised that when you turn numbers into a game, it generates a lot of interest. Within a year-and-a-half after I started using building blocks to teach basic calculation, my daughter became very good with her numbers, and I decided to do the same with my younger son.” Both his children are now in their 30s, and work in science-related fields. Yeoh said that after he saw the results of his games, he decided to commercialise his ideas. Travelling the world to introduce his games, Yeoh says that his purpose has always been to share his ideas for the enjoyment of others.
“It was tough. Many people shunned me for my ideas, but I kept going because I believed in it and knew that if I did not commercialise it, my game would die a natural death. I wanted to leave something good behind for the future generation.” “Even though it has not been an easy journey, I am happy when I see children play my game. They have fun with it while practising their number skills at the same time.” Math Magic is a puzzle-like board game similar to the more popularly known word board-game Scrabble, where number tiles are matched at each turn to score the highest points. “I started by making my first prototype using manila cards. It was nothing fancy. But it worked, and I realised that people who played the game really had fun.” He adds that players have to work out about 300 to 500 different calculations to finish one game. “How many teachers or parents can get their child to work on 50 Maths questions in one sitting without making a fuss? With my game, they will be be doing triple the number of calculations without even knowing it!”