Play and Learn Every Day

International Blog Swap Day - Mummy K - Raising a Multicultural Child

23:14

I am taking part in something called International Blog Swap Day with Tots100! I've been paired with a blogger in Australia, and we're each writing a guest post for each other. My partner is Mummy K, and the post that I've written for her is about Ivy's first time swimming. Kristyn has written a really lovely post about raising her multicultural daughter and all of the ways that she's teaching her about her Filipino roots whilst living in Australia.

About Mummy K:

I am Kristyn and I work as a writer in Sydney, Australia. I was born and raised in the Philippines before moving to Singapore and finally Australia. I live with my five year old daughter, husband and two dogs. I have over 12 years of experience as a broadcast/print/online journalist and photographer. I self published two children’s picture books and currently editing my two YA novels.

You can follow Mummy K on Twitter and Facebook and have a look at her two children's books; The Dragon and the Lizard and We Have it All.

Raising a multicultural child

My daughter is a mix of Filipino and Australian, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to maintain a multilingual environment for her in our home.

Simply put, I am too lazy. Hubby doesn't really know many Filipino words (except for the funny rude ones) and so English is just easier to speak around the house.

However, I still wanted to find a way to incorporate my heritage into her life so she knows about my culture. Over the years, I've found several ways to show this to her.

Books – Thanks to online shopping, I was able to buy Filipino books with the stories I grew up with translated into English. Technology has also caught up so that I can just download the apps. She has a favourite book that contains many folklores familiar to me. I love that she enjoys them now like I used to when I was her age.

Songs – I have several Filipino CDs in my car that I play while I’m driving. Although she doesn’t know the words, she sometimes copies the lyrics and sings with me. She’s quite familiar with some of the songs now and even asks for them specifically when we’re driving.

My books – In the last two years, I’ve self published two children’s picture books for personal reasons. The first one, The Dragonand the Lizard, was published because I wanted to preserve a story our mother used to tell us as kids. The second book, We Have It All, is about our childhood in the Philippines – without TV, computers, and expensive toys. My daughter not only loves knowing about these stories, she also shares it at school, telling her teachers about the books I’ve written for her. It’s true though, I wrote them for her so that she has something she can pass on to her children and the next generation.

Small words – Recently, I decided to try and teach my daughter how to speak my dialect, Bisaya. A fellow mother at her school who talks to her daughter in flawless Thai inspired me to restart my efforts. Her daughter switches from Thai to English without any problems. I decided to start with small practical sentences. What surprises me is how quickly she’s picked it up. I thought her the concept of one sentence one afternoon and she was already using it like a pro. I really should have started earlier.

Trips – I take my family to the Philippines as often as financially possible. I want her to see how the other side lives so she knows how lucky she is. As she gets older, she’s become more aware of the difference between Australia and my home country. She sees the children living in the streets, working instead of going to school in order to earn money for their family. I answer her questions honestly and it gives her perspective in life. I’m hoping she grows up remembering these trips so she doesn’t become one of those self-entitled kids complaining about what they don’t have instead of cherishing what they do have.

Food – I cook a lot of our local dishes and over the years, some of these dishes have become my family’s favourite. I’ve written recipes on a notebook that I hope to hand to her when she’s older.

Australia is such a multicultural country that it’s not hard to implement these things in her life. I know that she’s much more aware of other cultures than when I was at her age. I just need to keep these things up to make sure she always knows this side of her.

2 1/2 years old

Rock Sculptures

23:00

2 1/2 years old

Making and Sailing Boats

09:30

2 1/2 years old

Our Weekend in Cornwall

22:05

We've just come back from a lovely weekend away in Cornwall, it was Ivy's first trip! We just decided at the last minute that we needed a bit of a break, and the best way to first take our 2 children on a trip would be a short trip that we could drive to, so that we could just load up the car with everything we needed! And we certainly did bring a lot of bags full of 'essentials'!

The Accommodations

We stayed at a really lovely cottage on the Retallack Resort close to Padstow. It was the perfect base for us to explore the rest of Cornwall, as the other towns that we wanted to visit were just a short drive away.

The cottage itself was just perfect for us, with a full kitchen (even stocked with a few essentials like milk and tea for when you first arrive), a lounge with couches and a TV, a cute outdoor terrace with BBQ, and 2 bedrooms and large family bathroom. Now that Ethan is in a big boy bed at home it's so easy for him to stay in a regular single bed while we're away. The resort is very family friendly, so we were able to request a travel cot for Ivy as well as a high chair, baby bath, and step stool for Ethan. It was really helpful to have these items provided as it meant that we didn't have to bring as much.

The Food

Part of the allure of the Retallack Resort was the Green Room restaurant, with head chef James Nathan who won on MasterChef a few years ago. Again the resort really made the effort to be family friendly, offering an early dinner seating for families with small children. We had a lovely dinner out, not easy with a baby and a toddler, but Ethan really enjoyed his sausage and chips and Ivy was happy as long as she was being held. Our hands were full, but we did have a delicious meal, our first like that in a long time, so we really were happy to have the opportunity.

Of course we were in Cornwall, so we also ate a lot of Cornish pasties! Ivy isn't eating solids yet, we easily made sandwiches in our cottage to give Ethan during the day whenever he was hungry, so we had a Cornish pasty for lunch from a different town each day!

On our last day we made a reservation for another special meal, we drove out to Watergate Bay to have lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall. That was definitely worth the trip, this time Ivy slept through the whole meal, we had a gorgeous view of the beach and Ethan was happy with his kids menu that could be folded up into the shape of a fish! Not to mention the food, which was absolutely scrumptious, another great treat for parents of a small baby who haven't been out much lately!

The Family Activities

For us there doesn't have to be much to make the whole family happy, just some water! Being by the sea makes a holiday for us as Ethan is such a water baby (and it's looking like Ivy will be as well!) We went to a different beach everyday, and even though it wasn't particularly warm that didn't stop Ethan from getting soaking wet, running around through the sand and the sea and collecting treasures from the beach. We quickly learned how important it was to always carry a towel and a change of clothes for Ethan! When we went to the beach we would carry Ivy in the baby carrier, which left us with free hands to play with Ethan and kept Ivy nice and cosy when it got a bit chilly.

The resort itself had lots to keep the kiddies busy as well. There is a playground as well as an indoor soft play area which Ethan really enjoyed climbing around on. There's also a pool, where we took Ivy for her first swim! There are baby and children's sessions in the pool as well as music classes, but we didn't get to give those a try. There's also the flow rider for older kids, but that will also have to wait for a future visit!

We had such a fantastic time in Cornwall, we loved exploring the different little towns and watching Ethan's joy as he ran around on the beaches. The only thing that wasn't terribly easy was pushing the pram around, particularly in St Ives, which is gorgeous but very hilly! So I would recommend using a baby carrier whenever possible. We'll definitely be making another trip to Cornwall when the kiddies are a bit bigger, I can't wait to see Ivy running around with Ethan on the beach!