In the case of the well-knit Teo family Drs. Z and Aivee, and their children Ken-Z, 12; Kenzo, 8; and Keli, 7 there are five changes that have been wrought in their daily lifestyle.
First are the family’s Bible Study and Prayer Nights. “The quarantine has given us more time to sit together as family,” says Dr. Z, whose family, though, has always been prayerful. “After breakfast, we study the Bible. Right now, we are going through the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is a joy to see how our kids learn more about how God’s word can guide their lives. For me, it is a magical moment to see how fast they are growing as young Christians. I believe the fruits of this time will be seen for many years after.”
“Second is our Gadget Detox rule,” says Dr. Z. “Our lives have been fully occupied by our smartphones, gadgets and video games, even more so during quarantine. Our rule is that all of us, including the parents, are now allowed only one hour of use daily. It is an honesty policy, and once the hour is up, we have to find other things like reading, exercising, playing with the dogs, doing arts and crafts, and more importantly, conversing with each other. This teaches everyone to balance time and hopefully this discipline will be useful even after this crisis is done.”
Third is the #FaceShieldsForLife Campaign. “So far we have done hundreds of DIY face shields distributed to over 20 hospitals and hundreds of frontliners. Every afternoon, the family gathers around the table to make face shields daily to contribute to the pool made by our Aivee Group volunteers. Keli has made a simple DIY video on social media to show everyone how to make the face shields. We want to teach the children the importance of contributing their time and effort to those in need.”
Fourth is the Return of the Board Games. “Old favorites like Uno, Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble and Jenga allow the kids to really interact with each other and let their personalities and creativity shine through fun and crazy moments.”
Fifth is Bonding in the Kitchen. Dr. Z, himself a gourmet, says:
“Our family loves to eat and cook. The kids seem so excited about cooking together many of our favorite Singaporean dishes. And so far we have cooked pancakes from scratch (not pancake mix). We have the kids help the yayas clean up. These moments are a rarity and might not be possible when we are all busy with work and school.”
Of course, the Teo family, together with the Aivee Group volunteers, prepared packed lunches for hundreds of health frontliners in some 30 hospitals. Mainly because food is meant to be shared.