Interesting article in the NY Times, on the benefits of being bilingual...

Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalised world.  But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental... more

Fishy Thailand - what a spin out!!!

We are off for a quick holiday to Thailand this week - EUREKA!

To be perfectly honest we have planned a pretty stock-standard resort holiday and I have no burning desire for adventure on this trip, but that said I'm sure we'll see plenty of Thai Fisherman in their boats out on the ocean.  Definitely an opportunity to tell Miss May and her little condo buddies that great folk tale of the "Two Thai Fisherman Ta-In and Ta-na"!

NOTE: if you google Ta-In and Ta-Na you can read the story in full - here is my abridged version..

Ta-In and Ta-Na were great friends who both lived in a small costal village in Thailand.  They were really good fisherman and together they built a small boat and started to fish together.  They shared the fish they caught and cooked them for dinner each night

After some time the fish became scarce.  They caught fewer and fewer fish until one day Ta-In caught only one fish and Ta-Na caught nothing at all...

Back on shore Ta-In offered Ta-Na only the tail of the fish, as he caught the fish he wanted to eat the head and the belly all himself.  Ta-Na was not happy about this and they started to quarrel.  A village elder came to break up the fight and help the two come to a resolution.  After some thinking the village elder announced that Ta-In should have the head and Ta-Na should have the tail and the belly he would eat himself.  Ta-In and Ta-Na had to agree as there were no better ideas.  They were both very sad and realised that they had both been greedy they now they were both loosers.

From that day on they always worked together  and helped one another.  They shared their haul no matter who caught the most fish.

Lovely!!!

After a quick discussion about Thailand Miss May and her friends got messy with my salad spinner and the end result were these beautiful, colourful fish!!

Here is how it's done...

Wedge a paper plate into your salad spinner and drip plenty of colourful paint around the plate.

Give it a spin (sorry no photos of this step as I was spinning and only have 2 hands...)

Rip off the lid and...voila...

Cut out a mouth and make it a tail... 

Embellishments are a necessity...  the girls in our condo love a bit of glitter!!!

Enjoy the rest of your week... xxK

St Patrick's day

Ok so St Patty's day may not seem like an obvious starting point for this blog, especially given we are an Australian/Singaporean family living in Asia.  However they say 'timing is everything' and it just happened that the first major celebration on the calendar was good ol' St Paticks!

There is another, more poetic reason though.  One of the first people I met on arrival in Singapore nearly 4 years ago was my dear friend Nikki, who is Irish and a real, live, (adult) Third-Culture Kid! I was sharing a beautiful meal with her last week (at the fabulous KILO) and we got talking about her personal 'Third-Culture experience'.  Nikki was born in Malaysia and has lived in various countries across Asia and the Middle East pretty much her entire life.  In fact, except for a couple of years at boarding school in Dublin she has not really lived in Ireland much at all.  Interestingly she still has a strong Irish accent - which I LOVE!   I have invited Nikki to be a guest blogger down the track and am really looking forward to her contribution.

So I want to dedicate this post to my favourite Third-Culture-Adult, Nikki... welcome back to Singapore mate!

NOW... on with the Show!

St Patrick's day I've often celebrated with a Guinness and a giggle, but I have to admit that I'd never really thought much about it's origins.  There is loads of information about St Patricks day on the web but given the short notice and my daughter's short attention span, we kept it to the simple points below...

- Ireland is an island right next door to Great Britain** (our condo friends joined us for this exercise and their mummy explained that Great Britain was where Uncle Jack lives so that was a nice reference point for them)
- It's pretty cold most of the time in Ireland and it is very green and beautiful
- Once many Irish people had to move away from Ireland because there were not enough potatoes to eat, but that happened a long time ago!
- St Patricks day is a happy day for the people of Ireland and everyone wears green to celebrate!
- On St Patricks day the Irish people like to tell a story about a little man called a Leprechaun who is no taller than a small child.  This little Leprechaun man is a little bit naughty and a little bit grumpy and he spends his days busily making shoes.  The Leprechaun keeps gold coins in a pot at the end of the rainbow.
- In America there is a big river in Chicago and even though it is not part of Ireland the people celebrate St Patrick's day by turning the big river BRIGHT GREEN!!

So after a quick chat about the Leprechaun and green rivers... we did some painting!

I had prepared a large sheet with a basic rainbow and a black pot.

The kids helped me sprinkle gold glitter (to represent the gold coins)

...and then we got about decorating with green paint - I had made some shamrock stamps but have to admit they did not work very well!

I had hoped that by the end of the exercise we could add 'green' to Miss May's every growing vocabulary ... alas 'yellow' will suffice for now!

In the end it turned into a condo painting bonanza and there were little semi-naked artists everywhere...

... as usual some people preferred the 'yellow' water to anything else!!!

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY EVERYONE!!!

** I omitted any reference to Northern Ireland for the purpose of simplicity

Introduction

Last week I (re-)commenced life as a stay at home mum!  I did take time off when Miss May arrived nearly 2 years ago and it was a very special time without question, but it was a merry-go-round of feeding, sleeping and …. poo!  By18 months Miss May was so full of energy and enthusiasm and every day I cursed myself for not being able to better balance the demands of work and home… in essence I failed to make room for both and as a result both suffered.  So Hubby and I agreed I would resign and spend 2012 at home with Miss May, making a mess and exploring Singapore!

I came across the term “Third-Culture Kids’ through a friend of my Husband who is an Australian teacher living and working in China – his youngest, who speaks fluent Chinese and has lived in China her entire life, apparently thinks she is Chinese… or at least seems to prefer the idea of being Chinese over being Australian.  All this is of course very cute coming from a blond 4 yr old!  

As I’m sure many parents who have moved their families overseas will attest, there are wonderful benefits to bringing up kids overseas.   Potential language opportunities, increased family unity, cultural acceptance and awareness to name a few.  However, what I was initially surprised to hear about are the potential feeling of displacement that Third-Culture Kids can battle later in life.  In particular that when it comes to moving home a Third-Culture kid is likely to feel a sense of loss, can struggle to fit (back) into life at home, and will likely miss their host country, where they spent their key formative years and formulated their special brand of self!  Indeed there are experts who have dedicated their professional careers to research and awareness of these issues.

Our daughter “Miss May” came to us through adoption, and I feel some characteristics shared by Third-Culture Kids may not be too dissimilar to concerns I already harbored for her as an adoptee and this has strengthened my resolve.  So I hereby dedicate this blog to the following ambitions for my daughter in the coming year and beyond.

1.      To learn about the global community we are part of here in Singapore and beyond through experiential, hands-on, fun activities
2.      To establish strong relationships with our family and friends back in Australia with the help of technology, story telling and art activities.
3.      To make new friends and learn from other parents who might share their own ideas…  (yes that is an invitation!)
4.      To strengthen the bond between the members of our little family with laughter and shared experience!

So I hope you will follow our journey and look forward to hearing from you soon!