My Kid is a City Kid

I helped Tia with her homework yesterday and by help I mean, accompanied her til her work was done. She needed to write one paragraph three times in her workbook. The sentences went like this "Haji Musa mempunyai sawah padi yang luas di Kedah. Dia mengupah pekerja dan menyewa jentera untuk membajak sawah padinya." Apparently, she didn't know anything about sawah padi, jentera, Haji Musa, Kedah, etc etc. Thank God for Google but I couldn't show her Haji Musa though. :P After we're done with the homework, we went upstairs to get ready to sleep and I read to her about fireflies. I told her that I caught a few when I was small. She looked perplexed. In her eyes I could see that she was wondering how was it possible for me to catch fireflies. She had never seen one in her life.

Basically, her childhood and mine are totally different. My kid is a city girl who never walks barefoot on a ground. She never plays outdoor at 3pm without adult supervision. She doesn't know how to climb trees. She never experience riding a bicycle downhill without having any protective gears. She was amazed to know that I had a lot of interesting experiences in my life. On my defense, I didn't have anything to do, that's why! But for her, if given the opportunity, she would love to experience my childhood, I reckon. Looking at her life now, many people would agree with me when I say, it's a blessed life. She could get almost anything that she wants, and she never has to worry about anything. But at the same time, she's losing out on the excitement of discovering things out there. 

I climbed trees as early as 6 years old. I chased and caught chickens just to find out that i'd only get a small piece after all the hard work. Tia could eat chicken whenever she mutters the word 'chicken'. I walked to school, stopped halfway to play in the rubber plantation about half an hour or so before headed home. I plucked multicolor chicken shit flowers (bunga tahi ayam) and made potpourri, along the way to my religious school. I helped my mom picked ciku fruits from the tree, cleaned them and sold them, only to receive 5% of the revenue for myself. When the water supply was cut, I had to walk downhill to the well to bath, wash clothes and carry some water home, uphill!! I didn't have any fancy toys but I spent my days on top of the ciku tree, wasting my time. Haha! 

Life is different for many kids nowadays. Tia is well-protected by us. From home, to school, to babysitter's house, to home again. Never once I let her out of my sight when we're together. But as a kid, she has also experienced many of us could only imagine, like traveling the world. She's six and she's been to many countries, meeting kangaroos and koalas, experienced extreme cold in Shanghai and autumn in Korea. She is gaining knowledge from books, a lot of books. She learns what she loves to do like dancing and drawing. 

Our childhoods might be different but as long as she's happy and she's got to experience life at its best, I don't think it matters. I'd like to introduce her to kampung life but I don't know where to start and I think she's not cut for it. Haha!  :)