Arseny (23 mo) is not interested in games, his cars any more, he cannot find what to do – and all because it is too cold outside (25 degrees below zero Celsius)… Not the best time for the mum who has to invent something cheerful and developing, immediately, but the imagination has almost stopped working. Especially when the little one answers “no” to most tempting suggestions 
. In such a state the astounding ideas usually come to one’ mind. For example, one of these days our son and I organized Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, crafts, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, ideas, kids, lifehack
- I’m busy. The tot found a pine cone and started glueing pieces of it to the paper. It'd have never occurred to me Very creative! #ananas #
- Daddy goes shopping. How to explain what to buy? I cut out the pics and unstuck the labels from our daughter’s baby food. #ananas #
- We teach our daughter to rinse her mouth after toothpaste. Green tea helps – she sees what she is spitting out (water didn't work) #ananas #
- After painting on paper with finger paints, Soniya moved to the mirror and her face. Excellent! A creative personality is developing #ananas #
- What to do while walking? Dig broken twigs out of snow together with the tot. Put them into water and wait for the buds to open. #ananas #
- The tot is slow in getting dressed for walk? Take some bread to feed birds (fish for cats ). It’ll motivate him to hurry! #ananas #
- Everyone’s dancing: mum, dad, tot. The tot shows the movements, the rest repeat. Very uniting! #ananas #
- Sonya wants to stop bathing but she's just started! I suggest her washing my face. Feels like in a spa-saloon. Mum's super clean now.#ananas #
- Tot is crying not wishing to get dressed? What if you suddenly start acting as some book character? The tot’s attention is on you! #ananas #
- Getting fun with the toddler: cutting giant glasses-masks of colour construction paper. Little one is amazed! #natp #
- Hello world! #natp #
Our daughter (20 mo) has got lots of dolls and toy animals already. But I also wanted her to have a “living” toy. In the stores, the choice of punch puppets was quite disappointing. Thus… I made a Punch myself and got lots of satisfaction from it (because Soniya was happy to get such a puppet – the Punch became alive in her hands and it was also pleasant to touch one’s check with it!)
How to make a Punch? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Creative Work, do-it-yourself, ideas, kids, presents, toys
The Fifth Meeting of the Children’s Art-group
The first (in 2010) meeting of the children’s art-group has already taken place. And it is notwithstanding the fact that both the road to our house and the neighbouring streets were covered with 20-centimetre snow which had fallen at night.
The New Year unexpectedly brought us some new elements into our art meetings. Now not only mums/grandmas and their children come to us but also dads. And, secondly, one more boy, Svet (2,5) finally joined us.
We started our meeting with a story about how the New Year’s Eve is celebrated in different countries, how Father Frost/Santa Claus comes to all the children on our planet though he may be called differently and be accompanied by different personalities. Here you can download an illustrated story about the New Year in different counties prepared for children: from Santa Claus and Per Noel to Queen Lucia and Goddess Laxmi.
An important quality which unites all the characters in the story about the New Year is the desire to give presents, tasty things and joy to people. We also decided to prepare something sweet to present others with it – this time we were making pastry for gingerbread.
While the pastry is being cooled in the fridge, we Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, cooking, crafts, Creative Work, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, food, holidays, ideas, kids, modeling, New Year's Eve, presents
What to give as a present? The answer to this question is being sought by many people on our planet on the eve of every holiday. Each of us, at least at the bottom of his heart, wants his present to be unique, useful and to reflect his love…
The whole December Soniya and I were making something – we were preparing presents for our relatives for the New Year’s Eve. I wanted both to make practical presents and to involve our little daughter (19 mo) into their creation. And here is what we got at our table on December 30 before I put these things into holiday bags:
You’ve already seen our Christmas balls and vases (you can learn how to make them here and here). The greatest thing about these crafts is that they always turn out differently, they are always unique.
I thoroughly recorded the process of the creation of each craft with my camera. And when everything was ready, in each bag there was a pile of photos of our daughter creating the presents which were in that bag.
The cards are also handmade: there are imprints of little palms and a beautiful tape on the edges.
And what is there in the centre of the first photo? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: birthday, children, christmas, crafts, Creative Work, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, holidays, ideas, kids, New Year's Eve, presents, Women's Day
Our dear readers! We wish You a very happy new year!!!
We wish You the deepest silence and coolness of a wood lake within You, the changeable beauty of the World around, sunlight spots on Your pillow on Sunday morning, the smell of just made pastry when waiting for the guests, child’s amazement in Your soul and baby talk nearby (as these are the most wonderful sounds on Earth!).
Let children be always near You – Your children, Your children’s children or just someone’s children – as all the little ones on Earth are worthy of love and kindness
We wish You love and eternal childhood in the coming year!
Warm regards,
the authors of the blog “Parents’ Ideas“
Anastasia and Natalie
Universal peace and content are the essence of the New Year’s Eve: look how simple and at the same time happy this family is, even in such conditions!
Illustration to the article
The author is unknown
You can read our wishes in Russian here
Tags: children, holidays, kids, New Year's Eve, parents
Before Soniya (19 mo) went to the first in her life New Year Children’s Party, we had made several crafts devoted to this topic together with her. I was involved in experimenting with ideas on how one can depict the New Year’s Tree and our creative process which included different techniques turned out to be extremely interesting for our daughter. We are sharing our ideas with you. All these pictures could be nice postcards for relatives and friends on the New Year’s Eve. And we are sure almost everyone will appreciate a card made by a child.
New Year’s Tree Crafts with a child of 18 mo:
This New Year’s tree was painted with a fir-tree branch and finger paints. Then Soniya Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, christmas, crafts, Creative Work, do-it-yourself, drawing with kids, early-childhood development, holidays, ideas, modeling, New Year's Eve, painting with children
Merry Christmas, our dear readers!
Last Sunday meeting of the children’s art-group was devoted to Christmas.
By the way, we have prepared for you an illustrated story about Jesus Christ’s birth for children which you can download here or in the section of this blog “Material for Kids”.
Last Sunday, there were 4 children at the art meeting. First, we sang songs. Due to it, the children’s attention was established (as well as the atmosphere of our today’s meeting). Then a little theoretical and practical episode followed: I asked the kids how one can make other people happy?… The children were smiling but keeping silence. When finally the voice of an adult was heard, “You can give someone a present”, I took a bag where each child found a parcel with toy cats and dogs . I wanted to show the children not only the theory how one should act but also its practical use (and also to illustrate the idea that presents can be given not only for something but also at any time without any special reason ).
At the art&craft part of the meeting the children were decorating Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, christmas, cooking, crafts, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, food, holidays, ideas, kids, presents, recipe, Russian cuisine
The creation of something new takes place thanks not to the intellect but to a play instinct based on inner necessity. The creative mind plays with objects which it likes.
Carl Jung
Children are little magicians. Just by their presence, they make impossible possible. For example, absolutely any adult is able to make a toy from nothing in the presence of a little child, and during a couple of seconds!
Look how we played today:
We’d got only animals and nothing else. And then everything appeared. You create whatever you want, you go wherever you want. The limitlessness of opportunities makes you stunned!
Wherever we find ourselves: in a hospital, in some transport, in any situation of waiting – in a moment you can create a small world on a piece of paper. And no boredom, no kilos of toys taken with you. Here is the magic – the magic to be (near) a child.
Being a designer, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, drawing with kids, early-childhood development, ideas
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Life with kids is easy! Wonderful ideas, parents’ tricks and tips, lifehack and wisdom – invent with us to make life with the kid more harmonious and easier… >>>
We are on Twitter: @momideas
– Anastasia (aka #ananas)
and Natalie (aka #natp)
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