Reach Out | Inspire | Connect | Emphatize
Living in a world dominated by advancing technology and a nation whose society has high and critical expectations, we end up raising a generation who is book smart yet socially inept, so focused on the academics, they forget that they are part of a wider web of far-reaching interlocking relationships. As educators at Pariposa, we strongly encourage the building of a strong foundation for our children on the basis of LOVE- love for ourselves, love for the environment, and love for the community.
Thus in the beginning of the school year, we embarked on a journey of love. Love for ourselves begins with making balanced choices in life- balanced choices in the food we eat, the words we use, the way we express our feelings, etc.. We learnt about the healthy choice logo, the food pyramid, made a healthy version of banana chocolate ice cream, and invited a parent to teach us how to make Chicken Spaghetti Bolognese which we loved so much, we eventually adopted into our school menu. A trip to Bollywood Veggies concluded our learning on making balanced choices as we discovered the importance of what we eat and what goes into our body, but it also sparked an interest in the environment which led us on our next journey of love..
Love for the environment begins by interacting with it. The guided farm tour around Bollywood Veggies provided our children with just that! We had the opportunity to touch, smell and taste some of the plants, and were introduced to methods of sustainable and planet-friendly farming. Taking all that we learnt back to Pariposa, we extended our learning by starting on a recycling project. Plastic bottles brought in by our children were painted and turned into beautiful pots and bird feeders. Since Earth Day was around the corner, we learnt about how Planet Earth is sick, made our own compost, made paper, adopted three pet terrapins, decorated the school with potted flowering plants brought in by our children, and planted trees and other various plants. We even got to harvest our papayas and corn which we had for lunch!
Now that we at Pariposa are doing our part to help Planet Earth, we wanted to know how other Singaporeans are lending a helping hand. As such, we wrapped up our theme with our holiday programme by reading the “Karung Guni Boy” by Lorraine Tan and Eric Wong, through which we learnt about how some Singaporeans go around collecting recycled materials to sell and make money. This brought us on our next journey of love..
Love for the community begins with recognising differences. The story of the “Karung Guni Boy” not only showed us how Singaporeans are helping Planet Earth, but more so was an eye-opener for us all as it gave us insights into the lives of Singaporeans who are not as fortunate as us. Since our Pariposa family is made up of a myriad of nationalities, we asked some of our parents to come in and share about what life was like in their country. Our children were so intrigued to hear about life in Canada, Colombia, Korea, South Africa and Sri Lanka. With Singapore being such a multiracial society, we decided to come together on National Day to embrace the differences and celebrate this country we now live in. After the celebrations, our children discussed their observations and noticed that common food amongst all nationalities was rice. They also shared about what they are thankful for in Singapore. Since our children have been exposed to life in other countries, they were thankful that Singapore is a safe country, that it is a clean and green city, and one child even said that they are thankful because they get to go to school! These beautiful answers showed us that their little hearts were filled with love. However, love in your heart was not put there to stay and as such, our journey of love continued..
Love is not love until you give it away. With their observation of rice being a staple food in most countries, coupled with their compassion for the underprivileged, our children asked if they could “turn Pariposa into a shopping centre” – One that has an art shop, a restaurant, and a store where they could sell handmade items using rice and recycled materials to raise funds for the underprivileged.
Thus, on the 4th of November 2017, Pariposa will launch its year-end concert and fund-raising carnival organised in collaboration with our children, supportive parents and Touch Community Services.
All of us are so excited to continue on this never-ending journey of love through RICE: Reach out, Inspire, Connect, Emphatize.
