We despise the moniker “couch potato.”
While we love staying in the house and do all sorts of things together such as reading, cooking and watching movies, our family, in its core, are gypsies who love to do things outside of the house.
Jeff and I feel that for our children to grow as well-rounded individuals, there is a need to get them out of the house to interact with other people and play with other children. Just recently, we have made a conscious effort to make our diet healthier by adding more vegetables and fruits in every meal.
Four months ago, Nestlé NANKID invited us to the Parentology+, an advocacy to help parents take charge of their future with simple steps that can be taken right at home with day-to-day measures covering the different phases of life namely diet and nutrition, exercise and activity, socialization and creativity.
Jeff and I have our respective professional responsibilities but we always aim to find time for our children. We decided to bring the twins to this event. Jeff Junior was sick that time so he stayed home with Ate Joy.
The Northwing of SM City Cebu was transformed into a typical home and its rooms with three stations touching on three important topics: food, physical activity and socialization. It was a fun-filled afternoon where children learned to choose the right kind of food to stay healthy at the Foodie Station, jumped into a ball pit at the Play Station and played on a giant piano at the Social Station. It was a struggle to take out the twins from the ball pit.
Entrepreneur and stylist Cat Arambulo-Antonio was present to interact with the parents and shared ways on how she helped her children learn to socialize with their peers, along with some tidbits on how to stimulate creativity and confidence.
It was an afternoon that sealed our commitment to be the type of parents who do not only focus on the intellectual development of our children, but also their physical and social well-being.
In the spirit of Parentology+, allow me to share some principles and practices that we live by at home:
On Food
I would love to eat endless amount of chocolates and pork dishes with white rice but, uhm, no! Unhealthy practice that will get me sick and slow.
Jeff and I reviewed our diet recently and we decided to make more vegetable soup, eat more salads and veer away from too much carbohydrates. You know the dish called utan bisaya or law-oy to some parts of the Philippines? We love that at home! It is basically vegetables (squash, okra, eggplant, malunggay leaves, taro) boiled in one point and seasoned with salt. It is nutritious and the best pair to lean meat. We also emphasize the need to cook at home so our children learn this life skill.
On Physical Activity
Do we still take our children out of the house and the malls? In our family, the answer is “yes!” Toni went on a camping trip with me in the town of San Fernando, which is located about 39 kilometers from Cebu City.
She slept in a tent, played on a tire swing and walked three kilometers, among all the fun activities she experienced that weekend. Nick was in a treeplanting expedition and planted nine trees with forester Juan Yao of the Philippine Business for Social Progress and employees of Lear Corporation last July 14. JJ runs outside of our house like a cute goof ball with his basketball ball. Jeff and I vowed to ditch the sedentary lifestyle. We are not athletes but we do maintain a morning and evening routine of running/walking to keep us moving. We are currently scouting sports activities for our children so they can stay active and healthy. Trivia: Jeff was a cross-country runner in his younger days and I was named after a tennis player although I only played tennis once and I suck at volleyball and badminton. I did take up basketball in my college Physical Education course. Ha!
On Socialization
If you have been reading my posts in this blog and on our social media accounts, you probably know that I am an advocate of homeschooling for hands-on parenting and parent-child bonding.
However, one disadvantage that I saw in homeschooling was our children’s socialization and interaction with other children. The three of them formed a pretty tight bond, which is amazing, but this has prevented them from opening their circle to other children. Last summer, here in the Philippines, we decided to enroll them in a one-month class to get them in the system of being with other children. They adjusted quickly. Toni came home on the second day reporting about the names of two boy classmates, who were “not nice to each other.” She also reported that her new bestfriend is a girl named Ayana.
What are your family activities to make sure that your children grow up to be well rounded and well adjusted? Let us know!
