Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

If you’re planning for a family holiday, would you choose to spend more time indoors or outdoors?

I know some families prefer to stay indoors on holidays, away from the sun.

And they shared with me reasons like :

– They simply love to be in air-conditioned rooms

– Their kids would sweat profusely when outdoors

– They don’t wish to get darker-skinned / sun-tanned

– They don’t like to be exposed to grass, mosquitoes, bugs, etc

…

As I always say, every family has their own way doing things.

They have their own unique preferences and styles, which of course is fine by me =)

As for OUR family, when we can, we prefer to venture out and experience more of our beautiful nature.

(So thankful that my husband share the same preference =)

[Camping at Batu Tapak Camping Ground, Sukabumi, West Java]

Here are our three main reasons WHY :

1. We’ve spent so much time in the ‘city’! 

Day in, day out, we see concrete walls.

Buildings. Traffic jams. Pollution.

Most things are man-made.

The fact that we live in Jakarta makes it naturally harder for us to see or interact with nature and its beauty.

We don’t get to see much big blue skies, the ocean, the beach, nor the mountains.

And even on days when we could catch a glimpse of beautiful sunsets, we’re most likely stuck in a traffic jam at the time, making it somewhat harder for us to truly absorb and enjoy the beauty of what’s already been displayed up in the sky.

So, where possible, we’d like to take a break, away from our city, and enjoy more of nature =)

…
 

[Exploring the areas around Batu Tapak Camping Ground, Sukabumi, West Java]

2. Imparting life lessons and appreciation of God’s creation through positive exposure and real experience

I truly believe that we learn the most when we have real experience and exposure of something.

Watching beautiful sunsets, catching glimpses of fishes below the jetty, even catching grasshoppers and releasing them back to nature.

Like, rather than looking through pictures of paddy fields, we’ll remember more about them after going to paddy fields ourselves, yes?

And, instead of just ‘talking’ about the importance of ‘persevering through difficulties in life’ and ‘not giving up’, such life lessons could be learned too when we go hiking and climbing over big rocks, eg.

…

[Canoeing together and waited for the sun to set]

3. Better awareness of the need to preserve our God-given nature

As we bring the kids to see more of the nature’s beauty, we have more opportunities too to talk about the importance of taking care of it.

Like when we went canoeing recently at Pulau Putri, we saw the big blue ocean and the beautiful clear water surrounding us. And so it was real and ‘contextual’ when I mentioned to the kids about the importance of not littering and spoiling our environment.

(If we often are exposed to nature’s beauty, we have a natural inclination too to ‘not’ want to spoil it, I reckon)

…

Oh one last thing.

I also feel, the parents’ attitude towards nature and the outdoors also plays a big role.

Because kids naturally watch how their parents live out their lives and absorb everything.

eg. What kinds of comments do they make when they are outdoors with the family?

Do the parents themselves litter?

Ah anyway.

I personally hope more and more families grow to love the world that God has given to us.

We may not be able to do ‘much’, but we sure can contribute by not making our nature worse, and by instilling the love and appreciation for the outdoors and nature in the kids, since young.

Food for thought.

The end of 2015 was filled with lots of outdoors and close-to-nature trips for us.

And for that, we’re forever grateful to God.

We went to the beach (Tanjung Lesung), an island (Pulau Putri) and the mountains.

In separate posts, I’ll share more photos, info and tips of our family trips.

So much to share!

For now, here are some of the shots we took when we’re at Putri Island!

*Excited*

Canoeing. Snorkeling. Swimming.

Sand-play. Sunset. Fishing.

Blue skies. Jetties. Banana boats.

Unforgettable!

Nearing the end of 2015, and we feel so blessed to be able to experience so much of nature and the outdoors.

Counting our blessings.

May this Christmas be a time for us to remember that it is not about giving and receiving gifts, nor it is about shopping and holidays.

Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

And so, just like all other birthdays in the world, the focus of the celebration should be on the one whose birthday we’re celebrating.

May we all remember to be thankful for the biggest gift ever given to us: God’s love shown to us when He sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, so we all who believe could have a relationship with God again.

Blessed Christmas, everyone.

Food for thought:
Often, one is fearful of something because there is little or no exposure to it?

…

A few weeks ago, we had this encounter with 3 snakes.

(No, they’re not ours. They belong to someone else =)

I was a little scared of them at first. I mean, snakes are not something that we often see and touch in real life! The kids refused to be near them too at first.

After some 15 minutes, we were all okay with these creatures (they are tame and gentle-natured pet snakes, btw)

Vai and Brie especially enjoyed the interactions and loved the scaly creatures! (Anya was okay with them too, just not as excited as her siblings =)

Ah, if only I could feel the same way towards house lizards! (I have this unreasonable phobia against house lizards. Boo!)

What I personally learned from this:

– Positive exposure and good knowledge about something could lead to positive experience, which then leads to a change of mindset and feeling towards that ‘something’.

– City kids tend to be afraid of such animals (ie. Unusual pets and creatures) because of their little exposure to nature and creatures.

I personally feel that it is not a surprise too if city kids (and adults) tend to want to harm / bully such creatures (eg. Insects, etc) upon seeing them. Which is sad, actually, and should really be deterred.

eg. Kids spotted a ladybug in the garden and wanted to squash it. Boys saw a butterfly on a wall, and threw paper and pebbles towards it. Using real animals during games (eg. ‘who could handle slippery eels for the longest time’) and throwing them around for fun.

I mean, I personally don’t ‘love’ bugs and creatures like eels, frogs and lizards. BUT, I am against mishandling or torturing them in the name of fun (And if you want to eat it, then kill it fast)

…

Any possible solution to this?

Hmmm … where possible, try to spend more time outdoors, where we could have more interactions with nature and with God’s many creations, big and small. Really, the more we’re out there, the more we’d be in love with it =)

One of the most memorable moments I had this year was my hot air balloon experience in Chiang Mai!

It was January 2015.

And together with a few other members of the media, I was flown to Chiang Mai by Silk Air.

It was awesome!

I wrote about it sometime back (Click HERE to read the post)

But, I thought I should just share more photos of the experience.

(If you ever get to visit Chiang Mai and are open to experiencing what it’s like to fly high up in the air, go for this hot air balloon experience!)

Anyway.

Here are more photos to share!

Enjoy =)

[With Mr. Wout Bakker, the pilot at Balloon Adventure Thailand, Chiang Mai]

I realise I’ve been on ‘vacation’ for a little too long from blogging.

Life has just been so full these past few weeks.

I’ve just kinda updated my Instagram, which automatically goes to my Facebook and Twitter accounts.

BUT ANYWAY.

I told myself earlier today, that I MUST at least write about our family’s milestones.

Happenings, sights, thoughts that are worth remembering in years to come.

(But seriously, there are just TOO MANY of them to write about, no?)

And here’s one ‘December 2015’ event that I’d like to remember:

Anya’s Piano Concert.

It’s been three years since she first had her piano lessons.

And last Saturday, she performed 3 pieces alone, and also another piece with her friend and teacher.

As I sat back and watched her play, I remember thinking ‘Wow! I have a daughter who can actually play the piano!’

THAT may sound silly to many, but to me, I’m glad and thankful whenever I see our children doing better than us parents! =)

(You see, I can’t play any particular musical instruments properly, I totally can’t read musical notes, I have a low voice and I can’t sing high notes =)

Now.

As to the question : Will she be great at it?

Well, as long as she is consistent with her practices, does her best and explores her God-given talents … that matters more to us.

Just keep on playing and enjoying music.

PS: A little note to Anya:

Anya,
You’re growing up real fast.

Soon you’ll probably be taller than me and will very most likely be spending more and more time away from us.

As much as I know how it’d be hard for me to face when that time comes, I know I’d need to learn to step back, let you spread your wings and fly away one day.

Anyway.

It’s been 11 years and 9 months since I first held you in my arms.

And throughout those years, there’ve been way too many tears and laughters, as well as memories that I hope you and I will treasure always.

Your Daddy and I pray for you, that you’ll continually grow in your love for your family, your life, and in your faithfulness and devotion to God.

We hope and pray too that you’ll continually discover for yourself God’s wonderful gifts, grace and plans for you.

We love you very much, but HE loves you even more.

Do remember that whenever you are in doubt, or are faced with life’s tough struggles.

And.

I can’t wait to see how God works wonderfully in you and through you as you step out more and more into the world.

Love you.

These past few weeks have been mad busy for us.

I feel so bad that I haven’t been recording our happenings here on my blog!

Ah anyway, here’s one of the things that have kept us busy : our drama performance at Aula Simfonia Jakarta last Saturday.

It was an adaptation of Mozart’s Magic Flute!

It was especially memorable for me because for the first time, the 3 kids were involved in the production together with me.

One was in the choir, two were ‘birds’, and … one was a witch! =)

It was a big project for us all, and I felt this whole mixture of excitement, anxiety, thankfulness and thrill!

Anyway.

Since not many people get to see what it’s like ‘backstage’, here are some ‘behind-the-scene’ photos to share with you =)

…

Oh, one last thing, don’t miss out on the concerts held at Aula Simfonia Jakarta! It’s the first concert hall in Indonesia that has world-class acoustics and aesthetics.

To check out what concerts are on right now at Aula Simfonia Jakarta, click www.aulasimfoniajakarta.com

…

PS: All photos in this post were taken by Rafi.