Life with Kids is Easy!
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While we were making cards in the network of our project “Homemade Cards and Gifts”, our readers were sharing their tips and ideas with us. For example, reading about this card Nadezhda told us how to make design paper in home environment.
Tags: cards, children, crafts, Creative Work, design, DIY, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, holidays, ideas, kids, presents, tips
On Friday evening, in joyful anticipation, I am going to the Art Store! There are so many things for art now! Wow! But this time I need some certain things – on Sunday children are gathering for the art meeting at our place…
Today our art-group consisted of 4 children: from 1,5 to 7,5 yr. At the beginning, traditionally, a meditation part: we are teaching the kids to work with their attention, to feel the vibrations. But all this – through beauty and joy! For every meeting we (Soniya takes an active part in this process 
try to decorate everything beautifully in our room. One of the elements which adds festive mood – flowers! 18-mo-old Soniya loves to visit the flower shop and choose flowers together with her mummy and then proudly carry them home. Vera with her two little ones also drops in at the flower shop and then Bazhena and Kirill hand tulips or chrysanthemums over to me when I open the front door for them In my opinion, the beauty of nature, even its small element, helps forming of the aesthetic perception of the world.
The calm part of the program gives place to games (Soniya’s toys attracts the elder kids ). And we also spontaneously turn on the video with the dance “Ranu Ranu” which causes real joy!
– watch the videoBoth adults and children were dancing. Kids copy the movements so easily – one is just surprised looking at them! For the future, we decided to include some dancing element as a physical warm-up into all our art-meetings.
So what about art itself? Impressed by Natalie’s and Arseny’s experience , we also were making pen and pencil holders (but for us those were vases ).
The technique is very simple: to make balls from modeling clay, to roll them out with a rolling pin through a plastic bag on a piece of cardboard, to decorate them with some balls of food foil and then to roll the cardboard in a pipe. For little Soniya, I was making the balls myself, she only stuck them to the cardboard. For the elder kids, the task was more complicated: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, home schooling, ideas, kids, modeling, parents, presents, tips
Or, to be more exact, the bottle left of it. When I found out that it could easily come apart, I was very much delighted! And even the ball can be taken out. And it is so wonderfully round, rugged, semitransparent… And why did I think that it was nonseparable? Here they are, the stereotypes of thinking restricting our creative freedom!
Well, the bottle can be taken to pieces. And it means that everything you want can be poured into it. The first thing that came to my mind was oil for the baby’s massage. It turned out to be even better than with the syringe! Now, when our son Arseny has learnt to push the piston, the syringe has become not very handy. With the bottle left after the roll-on deodorant I am very much relaxed! Whatever Arseny does with it, the oil does not run out. Besides, it is very handy as with the help of the ball mechanism the oil comes out in doses and there is never too much of it (like it was with an ordinary bottle and the syringe).
But the main pleasure is to
Tags: children, do-it-yourself, ideas, kids, tips
*Elevators/lifts in Russian multistory houses are quite narrow.
Our son was born in winter. Preparing for it, we bought the pram – a spacious one, with a big cradle for the baby to feel comfortable in it in 20 winter pieces of clothes and warm blankets. What we did not thought about then was the elevator in our 9-storey house. Our pram turned out to fit it only when the doors of the elevator were pushed to the sides with one’s hands 
. One had to be a magician-acrobat-bodybuilder to ride the pram into the elevator at the same time pushing the doors to the sides and not waking up the baby.
At that time we were new, not-experienced and not very witty parents. Thus, the problem was solved in a very simple way – Arseny had to walk at the balcony, that’s it (at least, it was easier for the mummy ).
But time passed. The sun started to warm up our balcony on the southern side of the house. By the middle of May there was the atmosphere of a Finnish sauna there. The issue “pram-elevator” appeared again. But once again we solved it in a simple way: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: advice, do-it-yourself, ideas, lifehack, tips
Arseny, being a 7-months-old baby, liked to gnaw at books. His granny presented him with two books – with thick cardboard pages. It was not possible for his little awkward hands to pick up such a page to turn it over. Once, after Arseny had expressed sincere excitement when I turned the pages over for him (he had not expected about such a possibility before), I thought that something should be done with that. And here is what I have done: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: books, children, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, ideas, kids, tips, tricks
Elena:
Our daughter was lying on a playing mat after she had turned several weeks old and then – on the floor with toys. But it is warm here and there is a carpet on the floor. I also have special places for her. For example, a basket with magazines and shelves with her toys.
And we’ve got lots of “devices” at home where I can place her: a vibrating baby’s chair, a swing, a special baby’s town where she stands, a chair for babies, etc. So, she is quite OK being alone.
Nadya:
So, about the entertainment when the cooking mummy has to handle two babies one of which is crawling. We’ve got lots of stuff on the lower shelves in the kitchen: pans, boxes with baby food and juices, new sponges for dishwashing, plastic bags, etc. All the children love to “set everything in order”. Makar throws everything onto the floor or puts some things on other shelves, collects the sponges into heaps. In a word, one may think he is studying to count and learning the colours. Just a joke And it takes much less time for the mummy to put everything in its place afterwards than for the baby to “sort everything out”.
You can also put the little one into the baby’s chair and give some biscuits and then to sweep the floor… You may give him a pan and spoons and show how to bang the latter on the pan or how to put the spoons into the pan and then to take them out… If the situation is really difficult you can even give your baby a bundle of napkins (and to say farewell to them ). Or you may switch on some active music and cook dancing and during some time even a not-walking baby will either be impressed or start dancing himself… you can also take some toys away for 2-3 months and then suddenly give them to the baby – they will be like new ones for him. But I try to cook while Makar is sleeping…
When moving from one place to another, mothers-anteaters carry their little ones on their back.
When Arseny was in his crawling period, he was sitting in his chair while I was cooking. If he was tired of waiting and I still needed to eat something, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, food, home, ideas, kids, lifehack, parents, productivity, tips, tricks
from natural materials, for the baby of 5-8 months
When our daughter had turned 5 months old, I paid attention to the fact that she had started not only take things with her hands but was also touching everything she could reach. Thus, an idea was born to make a toy for her which would consist of heterogeneous elements for the baby to have an opportunity to develop fine motor skills and at the same time to compare similar in the shape but different in tactile sensations and colour parts.
It develops touch-sensitive perception of the baby. Cotton, viscose, mohair, atlas (the types of cloth are of different colour) and peas, rice, buckwheat, millet are used in the ring. The toy develops fine motor skills of the little one, forms his standards of colour, size and form.
1. In winter of the two previous years we had little butterflies in the kitchen: their larvae infested the packages with cereals. I had to invent something to prevent such insects from penetrating into the ring.
2. The baby discovers the world at that age with the help not only of his hands and eyes, but also of his mouth. Thus, the cereals should be ensured to stay dry if the ring happened to be in the baby’s mouth.
Both the tasks were solved with a Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, ideas, kids, parents, presents, tips, tricks
I think there are no kids who do not like adventures! As one good man has said, “The children who have got enough adventures are more disposed to quiet games and activities”. Which, of course, makes their parents happy. And where to find adventures for 6-12-months-old baby? Everywhere! Everything that goes beyond the usual way of life is already an adventure.
And an adventure can also help in a critical situation – to stop hysterics. Or, vice versa, to make routine work – house cleaning- more interesting. I will share our experience with you.
Once, 7-months-old Arseny burst into hysterics. Hungry after a long sleep, he was crying and could not stop whatever I was trying to do. Even the dummy, the baby’s bottle with milk, a switched on photocamera and mobile phone could not distract him from crying. In 10 minutes of unsuccessful attempts, to calm the baby down, I Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, home, ideas, kids, lifehack, parents, tips, tricks
We, the authors of this blog, have already shared our ways of finding time for creativity, arts and crafts with the readers: Anastasia’s approach, Natalie’s approach. Today, a new mother Alima will tell us about her tips and tricks:
“How did our parents manage us when there were no washing machines (and there also was a tendency to iron things), no diapers like pampers? I even do not talk about dishwashing machines and other modern helpers. We’ve got almost everything that makes the life of a new mother easier but I still feel lack of time to do everything. It seems here comes the answer – our desires are unlimited and even if we had a babysitter there would be tons of things to do and places to visit. So, let’s change the attitude – I do not get tired at all, I have enough time for everything and, what is the most important, I have enough time for the baby!
My hubby, Igor, wakes up and puts on a non-iron shirt. It is not a non-ironed shirt but a shirt which you may not iron, thanks to the modern technology, and which is made of cotton. He warms up his breakfast in a micro-wave – sensor heating – just indicate the temperature that you need. Then I awake and put the dishes out of the dishwashing machine – during the day I put all the dirty dishes into it. The plates are shining – I am not able to wash like this!
We need to prepare a report for Igor to take it to his work. We put our baby-girl in her pram at the balcony and get to the computer. But the little one does not sleep. But Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, family, home, ideas, kids, lifehack, parents, productivity, time, tips, tricks
When our daughter had just turned 2 months old, we got a parcel (by post) from our Moscow friends. There were beautiful suits, toys and… inflated balloons. At first I was surprised. It seemed Volodya did not want to be trivial. But in two minutes I suddenly realized the importance of the balloons: there had been much free space in the box and for the things not to fly about the box (not to break and rumple) our friends decided to inflate balloons and occupy all that space with them.
Then Nadya, Volodya’s wife, was telling me: “The post office was closing already. And we had to go to the station. So, we were packing quite quickly what Read the rest of this entry »
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… >>>
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