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One More Mile and the Cookie’s History!

25 May 2019 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Establishing healthy habits in kids is no easy task. But it’s more important than ever, considering the gamut of health problems caused by inactivity – from poor mental and emotional resilience to disabling and fatal diseases.

Like other families, we’re constantly challenged to stay active. How do we encourage kids to make a habit of integrating movement into daily life, a basic skill that affects so many aspects of mental, emotional and physical well-being? It’s an exercise in creativity to make physical activity routine, while at the same time creating memories and strengthening our relationship with them.

And how do you make that habit stick?

While we love organized sports, it’s a significant commitment. The kids are age-segregated so won’t be in the same camp time/day. This increases the time, effort and expense of shuttling them to practices/games that are on fixed schedules. Did I mention the costs? There are so many points in this chain where our motivation can break no matter how we prioritize it.

For economy of effort, we focused on making the little things count. And we looked at running as a cost-effective and convenient activity (doable anywhere and anytime) that draws several goals together for us as a family.

Here’s our ongoing journey, from the daily efforts to running in NYC’s Bronx Zoo Run for the Wild 5K to developing a homeschool curriculum around the lessons we learn along the way.

…….

Even with a compelling wealth of evidence, more of our own efforts at modeling healthy habits fail than not. So it’s even tougher to help our kids understand the system that impacts their choices and the long game that is their mental, emotional and physical health and well-being. This makes every effort count because the human mind and body are capable of amazing things when it’s in the best condition it can be. The healthiest life attainable is our goal.

Read the entire article at Multicultural Kid Blogs, written for National Physical Fitness and Sports Month.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Bronx Zoo, Bronx Zoo 5K, family-friendly, New York, NY, nyc, running, running with kids, USA, Zoo 5K

to homeschool or not in nyc?

16 September 2015 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Catching up on some long-overdue reading about homeschooling. Had no idea how big a movement it is, but I’m not surprised.

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From The Profound Ways that Schooling Harms Society, perfectly capturing why more parents are taking this route:

…interesting not only to look at what your children are required to learn in school, but at what they are not required to learn.  While your kids are very busy toiling over algebra and chemistry, international trade agreements are being forged and currencies are being manipulated by entities that most Americans don’t even know the names of, much less the inner workings of.  Kids are compelled to solve quadratic equations and write essays on Shakespeare, and they graduate without understanding how to calculate the interest on credit card debt or decode a mortgage agreement.  They learn an old fable called “How a Bill Becomes Law,” while corporate lobbyists draft legislation that will pollute their air and water, deny them health care and unemployment benefits, and put barely tested drugs on the market and genetically modified organisms in their food system.  And in the developing world, teenagers are struggling with — and more often than not, being defeated by — English Romantic poets and high school physics while the World Bank and IMF are negotiating incentives for foreign investment that will lead to their ancestral lands being sold out out from under them to foreign timber and mining companies and Wall Street speculators in agricultural land.

Our kids are so drowned in disconnected information that it becomes quite random what they do and don’t remember, and they’re so overburdened with endless homework and tests that they have little time or energy to pay attention to what’s happening in the world around them. They are taught to focus on competing with each other and gaming the system rather than on gaining a deep understanding of the way power flows through their world. The most academically “gifted” students excel at obedience, instinctively shaping their thinking to the prescribed curriculum and unconsciously framing out of their awareness ideas that won’t earn the praise of their superiors. Those who resist sitting still for this process are marginalized, labeled as less intelligent or even as mildly brain-damaged, and, increasingly, drugged into compliance.

More intriguingly:

In what should be considered a chilling development, there are murmurings of the idea of creating globalstandards for education – in other words, the creation of a single centralized authority dictating what every child on the planet must learn.

Yikes.

That techies are homeschooling in droves is interesting, since it reflects the people we know personally. Here’s a piece from Feb 2015, with useful links: The Techies Who Are Hacking Education by Homeschooling Their Kids.

…Problems arise, the thinking goes, when kids are pushed into an educational model that treats everyone the same—gives them the same lessons and homework, sets the same expectations, and covers the same subjects. The solution, then, is to come up with exercises and activities that will help each kid flesh out the themes and subjects to which they are naturally drawn.

Even back when we thought we’d stay in Asia, families have plenty of resources to draw on to homeschool. We’re fortunate to have moved to NYC where it’s one big learning environment. I was about to sign up for a book launch of Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas at Queens Museum to hear a friend read one of his essays when I wandered over to its education programming. Most museums have curriculum and tour options that can be adapted to my 3 and 5yo and their friends. Here are some from prominent cultural institutions I googled in under 5 minutes:

  • American Museum of Natural History
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art –
  • New York Botanical Garden
  • Carnegie Hall

There are readings and literary events for kids at indie bookstores (e.g. character visits at The Strand look cool if your kids know Elmo, Clifford and other widely-read characters), and high-quality curriculums on the web developed by people in varied disciplines. Check out #homeschool and #curriculum on your favorite social media. Every borough has homeschooling groups and co-ops, and the members often invite other groups to join their major events and activities.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: curriculum, homeschool, homeschooling, museums, New York, new york city, nyc, unschooling

Travel: Hauling a 2- and 4-year old through 6 countries in 8 weeks

29 July 2015 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

As we were leaving the region to move back home, I did a consultancy that took me to several capital cities to review national health programs. It was a great opportunity for all of us to say goodbye to friends, colleagues and places we’ve frequented over the past decade. So we packed up the house and shipped, sold or gave away our belongings, and took the kids on a two month journey through Southeast Asia. [Read more…] about Travel: Hauling a 2- and 4-year old through 6 countries in 8 weeks

Filed Under: Interests, Life, Travels Tagged With: air travel with kids, Clover hotel, culinary tour, Eureka Villas, foodie, Hanoi, Hue, kid-friendly Cambodia, kid-friendly Phnom Penh, kids, laos, living out of a suitcase, living out of suitcases, Manila, Myanmar, New York, NY, Nya Pyi Taw, Philippines, Southeast Asia, travel with kids, traveling with kids, USA, vientiane, Vietnam, Yangon

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Those little feet pitter-pattering about rule our lives lately. But on the occasional free moment I get to tap out scatterbrained bursts of consciousness about raising toddlers in Cambodia, traveling with them and working abroad. These posts are my personal updates to friends and family. But since you’re here, have a look around. Thanks for stopping by…

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