Online Fun

Need to entertain the kids during the school break? There are loads of free educational resources online, from ebooks and singalongs to colouring pages and games. Here are 20 to get you started!

#9 Caring kids

Got little fans of Sesame Street at home? Get your hands on all sorts of online learning activities, from games, singalongs, colouring and activity pages to free ebooks. It’s all part of Sesame Workshop’s Caring for Each Other initiative. sesamestreet.org/caring

#10 Crayons and beyond

From paper crafts to free colouring pages, Crayola has a great selection of resources for families to use at home. There are also detailed lesson plans to tap on and weekly activity videos to check out. crayola.com

#11 New from Nat Geo

The National Geographic Kids website is filled with fun videos, quizzes and fact sheets on animals, science, space, countries and more. kids.nationalgeographic.com

#12 Famous stories

All ages can enjoy free ebooks and audio stories (with titles in over eight languages) on Audible by Amazon. They include the likes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Jungle Book. Stream them on your laptop, phone or tablet. stories.audible.com

#13 A project a day

Get access to daily courses for children from prekindergarten ages on Scholastic Learn At Home. They include educational games that you can play together. classroommagazines.scholastic.com/ support/learnathome.html

#14 Art activities

Keep the kids busy with the fun colouring sheets and activity packs available from the Affordable Art Fair website. affordableartfair.com

#15 Create code

Dabble with coding this summer break on Scratch, part of the MIT Media Lab. Kids aged eight to 16 will explore interactive stories, games and animations, while younger ones can try out ScratchJr, a special version designed for ages five to seven. scratch.mit.edu

#16 World of wizards

Head to the Harry Potter At Home hub for fun activities to keep young ones entertained, from craft videos and articles to quizzes and puzzles. wizardingworld.com/collections/harry-potter-at-home

#17 Join Hogwarts

You can also excite your little Harry Potter fans with the online courses on Hogwarts Is Here. All courses are free and topics include astronomy, potions and the history of magic. hogwartsishere.com

#18 Print some puzzles

Download free printables from HP for different age groups. They include colouring and dot-to-dot activity sheets, crafts, origami and puzzles. 8.hp.com/sg/en/printers/printandplay

#19 Building blocks

LEGO has launched #LetsBuildTogether, which offers a variety of resources for parents. You’ll be able to find play ideas, projects, games and creations to keep the kids entertained at home. lego.com/en-us/letsbuildtogether

#20 Start your engines

Find colouring pages, games, puzzles, quizzes, virtual tours and other fun free activities on Porsche 4Kids. Choose to navigate the website in English or German. porsche4kids.com

Singapore is richly diverse. Kids here celebrate Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Vesak Day, Deepavali, Christmas, Easter and even Halloween. In fact, many expat parents living in Singapore list this exposure to multiple cultures as one of their favourite things about raising kids here. But, as diverse as Singapore is, there aren’t that many black people living here.

Raising black children in Singapore

American Kat van Zutphen’s children were both born in Singapore and attend local Singaporean schools. Kat is black. Her husband Glenn is white. They have two children, a daughter who is 14 and a son who is 11. They both attend local schools here.

“For the most part, being biracial as an expat in Singapore is better than growing up biracial in the US – better in the sense that they get to live without the burden of race,” says Kat. “If we were in the States, they would surely be forced to be labelled as either black or white. In Singapore, our kids have many friends from many different mixes of ethnicities, nationalities and cultures. Here they are just another blend for the most part – they don’t have to wear someone else’s label on their identity. That being said, they are most definitely missing out on a very rich and powerful part of their heritage. That makes me sad.”

American Susan Williams is white; her husband is black. Their eight-year-old daughter Claire attends Singapore American School and considers herself brown.

“Back home in Baltimore,” explains Susan, “Claire had two close friends whose families looked just like her own – a white mother and a brown father. She doesn’t have that in Singapore, but she is experiencing a kind of diversity in terms of race and religion here in Singapore that she wouldn’t have gotten back home. We’ve laughed before because here, sometimes people think she is Indian, which she never would have gotten back home. She’s learning about assumptions based on context, which is interesting.”

Discussing racism with children

So, what do you tell children about racism? Dr Sanveen Kang, a clinical psychologist and the founder of Psych Connect, says how a parent should approach the topic of racism depends on the age of the child.

“When children are young, be honest. Don’t encourage children not to ‘see’ colour or tell children we are all the same. Rather, discuss differences openly and highlight diversity by choosing picture books, toys, games and videos that feature diverse characters in positive, nonstereotypical roles.”

Dr Kang continues: “As children get older, parents should take a firmer stance, seizing teachable moments and challenging intolerance. The conversations with teenagers can revolve around activism and taking control.”

You should also teach children who are not targets of racism the tools to stand up for friends. Teach them what not to say and what to do if they hear something they know is off base.

Parents must decide what to share

But, like everything in parenthood, mums and dads must feel their way to try to figure out the best way to talk to their own children.

“I made a conscious decision not to try to explain racism in America to my daughter,” explains Kat. “I remember that day. I remember grappling with this feeling that I needed to explain ‘the struggle’ that goes with being black in America. Then I suddenly just stopped cold in my tracks. Thank goodness I caught myself. I realised that this is not her path; everything I wanted to say was my path and my struggle. Not necessarily hers. She is a mixed-race kid, born and raised in Singapore her entire life. I’ve tried to make sure both my kids are exposed to the experience of race in America, but more as a member of an audience, rather than having a starring role in the drama. They learn about racism as another life topic to study, or as a by-product of the values we hold as a family: respect for everyone as a human being, self-respect (to your very core), standing up for yourself and others, not standing by when injustice happens. In the end, I don’t feel ‘big’ enough to be the teller of the story of race in America to my kids.”

A very different story in the US

“When my daughter Claire was around five years old,” explains Susan, “we were in the US and I parked on the street in what wasn’t technically a parking spot, to run into a store quickly. Claire was terrified the entire time we were in the store, and kept trying to get us to hurry up. When we got back to the car, she was shaking and in tears. Of course, I asked her what was wrong. She was so scared that because we were parked illegally, the police were going to come, and she was afraid they were going to shoot her because she’s brown.”

Can you imagine? Claire was just five. This is just one example of why discussions about racism start very early in the States and why those discussions can look so different than discussions here.

African American Crystal Wagar lived in Singapore when her husband was the US ambassador here. Now they are back in Florida where she serves as the first black female mayor for a suburb of Miami.

“My girls are age six and three,” explains Crystal, “and I have already started that conversation. I’ve had to explain certain comments that were made in front of them about their mother and their brown skin. They have witnessed me being pulled over for no reason with my afro hair and hip-hop playing. They have already witnessed their mother being humiliated just because. While I somewhat sugarcoat it now, soon I will not. Because, just like my mother taught me and her mother taught her, we have to be extra strong and unbending. I teach them to love and respect everyone, but it will not be and is not enough.”

And, as black children get older in the US, the conversations get more intense. They might be about the bigger issues of racism or even about seemingly small things like not wearing hoodies or running at night. Rene Syler is the mother of two young adults.

“I have two children, a daughter who is almost 24 and a son who will be 22 this month. What I tell them is the same thing I’ve always told them about how to navigate life as a black person. Some of them are minor and perhaps even seem silly, like making sure they are neatly dressed. But the most important thing I tell them, as adults, is to use their phones to record any altercation with police or otherwise.”

Moving past the hate

Of course, the real goal is to end racism completely, for a child to look at another child with skin different than theirs and not see them as anything other than another child. The key is to encourage interracial friendships and to model the behaviour you want them to exhibit. Encourage them to be an ambassador for their own race and religion. And, perhaps the best thing to teach all children is the simple Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

Looking for more suggestions about what to say specifically to your kids? Check out expatliving.sg for our in-depth article.

The key is to encourage interracial friendships, and to model the behaviour you want your kids to exhibit