Do not have anything where to hang towels in the bathroom? Do not know what to do with the used toothbrushes? Do not have money for hooks, in addition to all?
Then this idea (from the web-site The Masters' Country) is for you.
These hooks for towels are made from the used toothbrushes. Some imagination and a fine set is ready. Read the rest of this entry »
It is not a problem for a baby to learn two languages at the same time in a bi- or multilingual family. But what if mum and dad speak the same language but still want their little one to study a foreign language as it is much easier to learn a language when one is little. I will share my experience of "teaching" our daughter English (Russian is native to her). Any second language could be taught like that.
When Soniya had turned 2 months old, I decided to buy a book of poems with colourful pictures in English. But I could not find such a book in our bookstores. I found some books with fairy-tales instead. And it was for the better as later I found out that the child is not interested in poems at all (these rythmic lines were like a noisy background for her) but likes to listen to stories when mummy is reading them for her.
I read 5 funny phrases about animals to our daughter - every day, with the right intonation and pronunciation. And the baby was really listening.
When she had turned four months old, I added 2-3 Read the rest of this entry »
A baby starts watching the falling of toys on the floor from 6-7 months. In fact, the toys are thrown out of the cot even earlier. First, I washed the toys and rattlers as soon as they met the floor according to the acceleration given to them by a child's hand. But during the dayone and the same rattler could fly out from the cot from 5 to 10 times. So, I started collecting all the "lucky ones" in a basin and then wash all of them the next morning. Our daughter had only 1-2 toys by the evening. Too few!
And one day our daddy made one simple thing which made my work much easier. He Read the rest of this entry »
That's it - always ready! As both the mother who has a little baby and the mother who is "packing" her child for school and hurrying to work do not have time for cutting, boiling and frying! But malnutrition, as we all know, is not good for our health.
Natalie and I have worked out a list of products (with no semi-finished products!), which can provide a good breakfast being used together or separately:
* Oatmeal. Natalie's method: put rolled oats into the dish, cover it with boiling water and eat the dish in 3 minutes. Anastasia's method: put rolled oats into the dish, cover it with cold water, put the dish into the steam cooker together with the vegetables for the baby, add raisins and eat. The method of Anastasia's husband: put the oats into the dish, add cold water, put the dish into the micro-wave and add mashed banana - then you can eat it.
* Boiled buckwheat. Anastasia's method: put buckwheat into the saucepan, add cold water, leave it on fire for 10 minutes. Natalie's method: Read the rest of this entry »
The wardrobe of our newly-born Sonya was being filled up, basically, due to the presents of our relatives and friends. Everybody wanted to see the baby, to smile at her but how one can come without a "present"!
We, in our turn, wanted to thank the generous guests for the beautiful clothes (from crawlers to dresses) and entertaining toys (from rattles to construction sets).
Tea with sweet things was an ever-present attribute of the meetings. Of course, I had neither strength nor time for a substantial "feast" but why not have some tea? 
And we also found the way how to express our gratitude for the present to each guest in such a manner that Read the rest of this entry »
Our Arseny and Soniya are only 1 year old but we are already studying developing games to play with them in the future. We are sharing a marvelous idea with you from the field of "early-childhood development", the idea of a mother of almost 3 kids already, Karisa.
Today we are answering the question of Daria, a reader of our blog:
"So far, I have not been able to think out how to make table and a home playground for our elder daughter (24 months) for her to be able to make crafts and other creative things as we also have one ore baby (12 months) who will bother her. It is not possible to leave all the things like paints, pencils and plasticine on the table for them to be reached by he girl at any time as then you will get tired to collect all thi stuff about the room".
We have asked mums who have also got toddlers with 1-1,5 year's difference of age between them what solution they've got concerning this issue.
Vera, the mother of Bazhena (4,5) and Kyrill (almost 3):
«Kyrill started crawling late, when he was about 8 months old. Till some certain time, we could play (study) peacefully with our daughter. But I decided in the very beginning: the things which are really not to be touched (by both the children) should always be in boxes on the refrigerator in the kitchen: everything for plasticine modeling, puzzles, pencils, brushes, watercolours, etc. I bought these boxes in "Ikea" but you can also
Starting from the age of 7, I used to look through the album with the pictures of me as a baby and my "sayings" which my mother had made. I studied how I had been changing while growing, how "wise" my comments were when I was 3,4,5 years old. I remember the album to make me joyous when I was not allowed to leave my bed because of a cold or flu:
"A TV set is working in a dark room.
- Mummy, I like this light so much. And I can say that this light is state*!" (4 yrs. old)
* "state" here means "belongs to the state"
"-Mummy, let's start keeping a dog.
- When we have a bigger apartment, then we will get ourselves a dog.
- When I am a grown-up, let's start keeping a dog?
- OK!
- What is OK, mummy?
- We'll start keeping.
- Who will we start keeping?" (4 yrs.old)
«-Anastasia, how long will it continue?**
- I do not know. Think yourself, long or not.
- And what do you think?
- I do not think. I have a day-off». (5 yrs. old)
** about my misbehaviour
When a daughter arrived in our family, I wanted to make something similar for her.
And at that time, Natalie, whose son Arseny was born only 3 months before our Soniya, suggested an idea. She turned out to have bought a thick writing pad and to be writing down some notes about the development of their baby by hand there. And, the main thing, she was drawing sketches there. Moreover, she also had photos and video. It was she who told me about scrapbooking.
But my approach to making the book differed from Natalie's one. I decided Read the rest of this entry »
A baby arrived in the family… He has not turned 1 yet but you are already thinking what he will be in 5, 10, 15…
Would you like to know right now what to present your little one with for his future full age (which seems so far now) ? The most touching and unforgettable present for the grown-up "baby" is your book with the recollections about him during his first (second, third…) year of life.
No, I do not encourage you to buy a thick notebook and writ? down something in it daily (especially during the first months of your baby's life ).
If you've got a little one and you are reading this article now, it means, most probably, YOU ALREADY HAVE SUCH A BOOK! Read the rest of this entry »
I picked up this idea from the book "The Baby Book" by W. and M. Sears when I even was not pregnant yet. Rocking chair! It was mentioned in the book a couple of times as a good means helping worn-out parents and overexcited children to relax.
At that time, the idea of the rocking chair was put by somewhere at the periphery of my consciousness and came to life again in some months when baby-twins arrived in the family of my sister. Exhausted by constant rocking, the parents decided to try a rocking chair and immediately bought two. "It was the best investment for all the period of my fatherhood", later said Paskal, a Swiss husband of my sister.
So, the idea was tested. But when our son was born, we did not use it at once. First, Read the rest of this entry »
The first year of the baby's life is a great opportunity for his mummy to do what she has always wanted but never had time for. For example, it can be creative work and/or mastering of a foreign language. Not possible? Just the opposite! Natalie and I have shared our experience where to find time for it on the pages of this blog. But besides time, one should be able to accommodate him/herself to the circumstances. How? I will explain it by giving an example. The language being learnt could be any language.
Have you paid attention that there is also a little one in the picture?
How to master a foreign language when you have a baby?
When one of my acquaintances had returned after her visit to Italy, she had a dream - to learn Italian. In a year, a daughter arrived in their family. It was then when she bought an Italian textbook, audio-tapes being a very useful supplement to it. Walking for hours along the embankment with her daughter sleeping in the pram, my friend was learning the language (keeping the Walkman in her pocket). Taking into consideration that a little baby should walk every day month after month, she has really moved forward in learning that Romanic language.
One of my students decided that she should learn English when her baby-son was 2 months old. It was September which was very close to October already (zero degrees Celsius). Her tutor (me) agreed Read the rest of this entry »
"I recently got asked how I store all of our children's books. This was a very simple answer so I thought I would put it in a Behind the Scenes post! This issue haunted me at first as I had TONS of children's books even before I began homeschooling. I used to teach Kindergarten and had kept all of the books I purchased myself over the years. Finally I came up with a solution!
I bought cardboard magazine boxes, made labels for them and sorted the books by the general themes or concepts. Specifically I have these boxes from Ikea, and I used my printer to make the labels, you could use a label making machine or just hand write them! This makes it so much easier for me to find what we are studying at a particular time, or just to find books we want to read!
As for my categories of books, I made Read the rest of this entry »
How to make developing toys from the things at hand for a small baby? A reader of our blog has shared her ideas with us:
The pictures on the diapers are very bright. You can make a game using them. To do it, cut the picture out from the diaper, collect two pictures of each type, stick them on (colour) cardboard, laminate the cardboard (or cover it with sticky tape) and cut it into pieces. The game is ready! So far, with a tot of 18-24 months old, we are just looking for the pair pictures. You can also gradually add more pairs of pictures into the game and when the child is older you can already follow Read the rest of this entry »
How to become more organized? How to have time for everything if you care for a little baby? Where to find time for everything besides household chores? Several ideas from a mother of a 1-year-old tot. (Continuation. The beginning is here.)
The best way for me to secure the accomplishment of some task is to set a deadline. It can be next week or the following weekend, or the two hours when my hubby or mother are ready to spend time with our son.
But if I failed to fulfill what I started doing during that time, I am glad that at least a part of it is done (after all, I am an extremely busy mother ). In such a way, an arrival of the baby freed me from the illusion that I should have time to do tons of things and accomplish everything quickly. Now I just enjoy the process not worrying that the process can be dragged out . As a result, I manage to do more!
To do more not getting tired it is also useful:
*
Not the most favourite activity, to tell you the truth…
One more secret of high productivity and good mood is to always do only Read the rest of this entry »
After I had read the article "Where to Find Time for Creative Work" by Anastasia, I was full of admiration and - I was surprised by myself.
Full of admiration - because I would fail to live in such a way. I am not so organized and disciplined to keep such a rhythm. It is fine for the one who has got self-discipline in his blood. But a clear-cut plan scares me and a rhythmical lifestyle makes me desire to break it. As if I were imprisoned by myself.
*
Of course, not everything is so bad…
And what? Does it mean I always have lack of time to do everything? And what about huge plans? What about the renovation of our apartment? What about our project "Parents' Ideas"? Quite surprising but already for a year (since the birth of our son) I have been successfully combining all that. How?
As we all know, one wants what he/she does not have. As soon as the baby comes to this world, he starts absorbing all his mummy's time. It seems she does not have time for anything else. But her desires are still there! To entertain oneself a bit, to read favourite blogs and to do something, creative, with that old granny's chandelier… There are tons of ideas but minimum time. And the less time you have the more things you want to do. And the surprising thing is that you really manage to do it - just have a desire…
To feel good and manage to do many things one should not forget to listen to himself. Everybody has periods of high capacity for work. The secret is Read the rest of this entry »
We were presented with two wonderful T-shirts. But… we failed to put them on our baby - his head did not go through, the little one was crying. Looking at other factory-made T-shirts, I saw snap fasteners on one of their shoulders. So, I unripped a side seam, edged it, sewed on a button on one side and made Read the rest of this entry »
There have recently been several articles on holidays and cakes in our blog. We suppose the look of pies and cakes already irritates the eyes and makes the stomach heavy :). So, what one can do with annoying cakes? If you are occupied with such a question, the article below is for you! We, the authors of the blog "Parents' Ideas", would like to share our good mood and smile with you through this post!
Actually, eating that holiday fruitcake is out of the question. But instead of tossing it you can turn that traditional holiday treat into Read the rest of this entry »
Have you already decided how to celebrate your birthday? Don't have any ideas? You can organize a wonderful holiday! Today we or, to be more exact, our friend Valentina will tell you how to make that day unforgettable. It can be not only a birthday party but any celebration - one just needs a pretext (By the way, a couple of weeks ago we described how to make ordinary days unforgettable.)
Here comes the story on how the Perevedentsevs family decided to celebrate Valentina's birthday.
"When my husband and I were returning to our native city after Christmas holidays, we were discussing my January 9 in the train. I had never celebrated that day away from home. And this time we were discussing how we would invite guests, what we would do. To tell you the truth, the discussion was quite sluggish unless I thought that I would like…some Italian compleanno. I love this country! - may be one day I will even learn Italian
For our guests to find themselves at least for 1 minute under the tender Italian sun (most of them had never been to that country), we invented various things:
- different notes in Italian appeared Read the rest of this entry »
Waiting for the guests? So many things should be done. Mummy has to do the house, to dress her baby, hubby and herself, to lay the table in a festive style.
Would you like some advice? Start the preparations from making the cake! It will take only 5 minutes but then you will be able not to think about sweet things for tea any more.
Marshmallow cake. Recipe
- dice 3,5 marshmallows and put them into a bowl with a flat bottom and high sides
- cover the marshmallow with sour cream
- next layer:
Women's Day is not as far as it may seem.What to present the nearest and dearest ones with?
The best present is known to be the one which is handmade. For example, this original lighting fitting made of vegetable sponge.
When Sophiya had arrived in our family, I started drinking baked milk litre after litre - it was said to improve lactation. Because of that or, may be, because of some other reason, when our daughter turned 3 months old, she became allergic to the milk protein. Then I had not understood yet what caused the allergy. Thus, I took away everything from my menu except for boiled buckwheat, bread, white sea fish and green apples.
Any nursing mother would agree that it is very difficult to be strong and cheerful living on such food when you have a babe in arms. I longed for something tasty!
And at that point I remembered the recipe of my brand-name pie. Brand-name as it was the first dish I learnt to cook at the same time upgrading some other recipe. It is a pie which can be made quickly. A pie which does not need a large variety of ingredients. And, finally, it is a pie which suits any situation and any holiday (Women's Day, Christmas, a friends' meeting, etc.).
The recipe of the pie with apples, dried apricots and nuts
Ingredients:
Babies who have not turned 1 often sleep in the pram while being outside, especially during the cold season. However, the producers of warm hats do not always pay attention to this fact.
For our daughter Sophiya, we bought a woolen hat for winter. For the first time, the hat was put on her in October when she was 5 months old. It was not comfortable for her to lie in it at all - the little started "shaking" her head several times before she finally fell asleep.
I understood the cause of it only when I saw a bright pink trace - the trace of the seam on the back of her head. What could be done? Our granny was about to run to the store and buy one more hat.
At the family council (where the granny was also taking part) we decided
Christmas and St. Valentine's Day were celebrated not long ago but new holidays are already on the way, for example Women's Day/Mother's Day. During several months you have to generate a bunch of ideas on what to give your dearest and nearest ones. We will help you in that!
"My girlfriend has her birthday coming soon but I've got no idea what to present her with. She's got everything!", "And what should I do with these goblets?! I've got too many of them already!", "A nice thing but there is no space on the shelves left… but I can't just put it into the garbage", - we are sure such contemplations are known to many of you. At least, they were known to us.
One eight-years-old girl was asked what to do to feel joy. One of the answers suggested by her was the following: "you may give presents". As for us, we cannot say what brings us more joy: to give or get presents. But we know for sure that most joy and a great sense of content we get from making presents.
First, it is interesting to make presents with your own hands. Not long ago, there were ribbons, beads, and pieces of cloth on the table but now they have turned into an elegant handbag, a nice hat or a fur toy-mouse.
Second, it is a good way to express your individuality. Exclusive things can be bought either for much money or done by you. In the second case you'll get the colour, size and style which will fit and match exactly you.
Third, making something with your own hands you put one special thing into it which can not be bought for any money - you fill it with your love.
And fourth, you may involve children, from babies to teenagers, into the process! A child who has not reached 3 years old will only watch and touch the "ingredients" but at that time the creative images will be leaving their trace in his visual memory. Moreover, when the thing is ready, he will have a feeling that he has taken part in the creation of "beauty"!
What is so special about the present? The thing we give is not as important as the attention! Thus, handmade presents are considered the most valuable.
In the past, the idea that a present can be not only bought but also made somehow skipped our mind. It took us much time to, finally, invent what to give a person for that thing to be useful and not commonplace. And now we simply do not have such a question - ideas come long time before the event (if not - read further ). All you need is a little bit of imagination and creativity.
When we make presents, we, usually, either paint, or take pics with a camera, or write, or knit, or everything mentioned and something else .
What else can be made with one's own hands? Judging by our own experience and the experience of our friends, one can:
- write a poem, a fairy-tale or even a book and then, having decorated it with illustrations, have it bound;
- make a card with an appliqué from dried flowers and then put some lacquer onto it;
- model a toy from clay and special plastic material and then colour it; Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, Creative Work, design, early-childhood development, family, holidays, ideas, kids, New Year's Eve, presents, Women's Day
It has so happened that there is almost no free space in the room where we live. This room serves as a bedroom, a study, a photostudio, a music hall, a meditation hall, a canteen (sometimes) and since we've got a shower cabin in the corner - a shower room :). Have you imagined? But, anyway, we had to find the answer to the question where we would change diapers to our future baby.
All the changing tables, plastic and wooden, which are offered at stores should be placed somewhere: on the floor or on the wall. To dress the baby on a writing desk is not a good idea as the desk is occupied by the computer.
By the time when I had left for the maternity hospital, the idea that we should make the table ourselves was only being born. When, in 5 days, I returned home with Sophiya, the changing table
Really, what can be there? For all my life, I have believed that pockets are not more than a marketing trick of the producers of clothes for children. Why not raise the price twice if there are such cute pockets-pictures on the baby's attire?
What mum can resist the temptation to dress her dearest one most beautifully? A shirt with pockets, trousers with pockets… The tot looks so sweet - almost like an adult! But why does he need them?
I was grumbling in a manner like this preparing to become a mummy myself. I was complaining about the lack of not expensive but quality clothes without any "extra additions" in the stores. Arseny arrived and I understood how wrong I had been. Read the rest of this entry »
«The space we live in influences us…»
Alexei Karpov
1. The world-known mathematician of the 19-th century Sophiya Kovalevskaya writes in her memories that the passion for this science awoke in her in a great part because of the walls in her room when a child: for the lack of money there were pages from the maths book instead of wallpaper on the walls. She was very much interested in the unknown signs on the walls and she was studying them for much time.
2. Once, when I was 20, I was painting a picture in oil in an American college. Unexpectedly, my hand depicted Read the rest of this entry »
My husband and I have a very nice approach to holidays: the holiday should be not only on holiday days but - every day (at least, one should strive for it). Frankly speaking, I adopted such an approach years ago from my future husband when we had just got acquainted. In practice, it turned out that it really works! First, when you are unexpectedly given a present you know for sure that it is from the bottom of your dearest's heart and not because it is a holiday and one HAS TO give presents. On the other hand, we exchange pleasant surprises on holidays as well.
Here are several ideas for husbands on how to make wives happy (and also for wives - on how to make husbands happy) - both on holiday and on working days`:
- Once Valery, my hubby, went to Read the rest of this entry »
The baby has arrived and… the world almost turned upside down! Sometimes you don't have time for brushing your teeth and eating. Do-it-yourself things - what are you talking about!
Strange it may seem but after the birth of our daughter my desire for creative work even doubled!
Someone may say that if the baby is calm then why not make art and create things? I would not say that our daughter was very calm. During the first six months of her life, Sonya slept 4-5 times a day for only 30 minutes and she asked for milk every 1,5 hour during the night. What I really can say is that she has always been a cheerful child! And cheerfulness comes to the baby when his mother is cheerful and in harmony with herself and the world around. Moreover, not having his own life experience, each baby is developing through imitating and the first person he imitates is his mum.
So, where a mum can find time?
Set the Rythm
When I was a teenager, my parents, in addition to the secondary school, signed me up for music school, art school and a swimming pool - quite a rich variety of activities which was widened by mountain skiing at weekends. I remember quite clearly that between the last lesson at school and the solfeggio at the music school I had only half an hour. And it was enough for me to drop in at home (not by car but on foot!) to have dinner and change my books and run into the music class on time (sometimes I even managed to eat an ice-cream on the way to the music school). In a word, I had time for everything. And when I had graduated from the music school and stopped visiting the swimming pool and the art school, I felt I had less time "for myself". The secret Read the rest of this entry »
