When I was small I used to spend my summers with my grandpa and grandma in their cottage in the mountain. They had a huge garden and looked after any kind of vegetables and fruits. My favorite thing was to climb to the top of the cherry tree and eat as many sweet and ultra delicious cherries as my belly can allow. I enjoyed fruit picking insanely. My only competition were the starlings and sparrows. My daughter, however, is the typical city girl. She loves fruits but fruit picking for her means rather visiting the store and putting any kind of fruit she sees in the big trolley she insists…
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10 TIPS HOW TO SHIFT KIDS’ INTEREST FROM PHONES TO EXCITING ACTIVITIES WHILE AT A RESTAURANT
A realm of great discoveries, true friendships, big dreams and a flight of imagination – this is what the happy childhood stands for. At least for me. It is rich in taste and aroma. And it brings me back to the infinite poppy fields around my grandmother’s cottage. The freshly sliced sweet peppers from the yard stuffed with homemade cheese. My grandfather’s unique kachamak (traditional Bulgarian meal). And the cherry trees that I used to climb to pick the sweetest fruits ever… What a memorable childhood I have got! Nowadays things seem slightly different. For quite many kids the poppy fields are replaced by walls, and the tree climbing –…
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38 LIFE LESSONS I TEACH MY DAUGHTER
I wish life were always a rainbow and unicorns. But it is not. Sometimes it is three prawns and a close meetup with death. Indeed, we do not have plenty of time to be the perfect parents. However, we have enough time to be good ones. Hence, I want to make sure that, against all odds, my little daughter will grow as a confident, passionate and daring woman able to navigate herself in life with the ease of an experienced sailor. That is why I am doing my best to teach her ALL of the following: #1 Feel beautiful. Always. Not because you have an amazing appearance. But because…
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RAINBOW IN A GLASS – FUN SCIENCE EXPERIMENT
Do you like rainbows? I do! A lot. When I was little, I used to spend my summers at my grandparents’ cottage. The mountain behind the house often revealed some of the most beautiful rainbows in the sky. They soared majestically over the field. I remember I was always absolutely mesmerized by the view. Mom used to say that “a bear was marrying somewhere” or that if I went under the rainbow I would become a boy. I have been running towards the rainbow so many times ever imagining myself passing under it. I never became a boy – never suceeded to get under it 🙂 Today, my daughter and…
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TIPS FOR KIDS’ ADVENTURES AT THE PORTRAIT GALLERY
The past few weeks the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has become a long-awaited and desired stopover for me, my little daughter and her friends (all 3-5 years old children). Together we go to a time travel adventure to meet the people who have contributed to the present appearance of the city which we live in. And because we are super moms with unlimited number of creative tricks in our beautiful minds (and bodies! :)), we transformed the visits to the Galleries into a real adventure. As we enter the large hall on the first floor, we look at the stunning 2200-star ceiling. Filled with a starry mood, we rush…
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SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS AT HOME FOR CURIOUS KIDS
Child curiosity knows no boundaries. It feels so good exploring with and broadening the horizons of my wee one whenever she comes to me with sparkling from excitement and hunger for new knowledge eyes. Feeding this hunger for new things and experiences, we often perform various experiments at home, cook together, draw with hands or create cards made of sequins, autumn leaves and pinecones. There are so many super fun and educational activities for making weekends with the kids colorful, memorable and exciting. Today, I’m sharing with you our science experiment from last Saturday involving plenty of ice, few colors and lots of fun. Actually, it all started with Mia…
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SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR PARENTS WITH KIDS IN A PLANE
My daughter’s very first flight was when she was just few months old. Since then, for her modest age of three years, she has been more times in the air than I had ever been by the time I was fifteen. Subject to this, my husband and I learned some very important lessons. As can be expected, the school of life teaches its lessons the hard way. In our case it was more or less like this: with protruding veins on our foreheads, abundantly sweating, with a slightly lowered full of shame eyes. Who would suspect that the energy of a little kiddo multiplies n-times at the very moment the…
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SAFARI ADVENTURE WITH FOUR THREE YEARS OLD
The little one was still speaking incomprehensibly and was usually pointing to the moon or the wider cosmos, in an attempt to express her wishes, when I heard of the safari park. I will not forget that day. She was digging happily a hole in the sand pit while I was talking about family fun activities with another mom. And so, the Blair Drummond Safari & Adventure Park popped out of the conversation. With an elevated mood, I digged into the web just to find out that the chances of monkeys attacking your car and adjusting the front wipers into a tooth brush, and the side mirrors into a baby…
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TIPS TO SUCCESSULLY HANDLING TODDLER TANTRUMS
One of the things that terrify most parents is their toddler throwing a tantrum. For me, tantrums are the moment when I want to dig a hole in the road, bury myself and breathe through a straw until this emotional explosion is over. As worrying as these conditions might seem, they are a perfectly normal part of our children’s development. Meltdowns uncover before us the whole emotional universe of our wee ones and their inability to express their feelings because they still do not know how. When my wee one was about two years old, she began throwing tantrums during which she was stretching like a yoga pro on the…
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MOM’S SCHOOLING ADVENTURES IN SCOTLAND
Regardless of how enjoyable and happily a woman lives in the cocoon of motherhood, sooner or later her baby caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly ready to start school. The same baby that she gave birth to not that long ago… We were having dinner with friends. Our very first meeting at the nursery of the wee one was a smiley wink of the faith. Eve was seated on the floor wiping the blood from her daughter’s nose with extraordinary tranquility. One of the teachers was muttering a mixture of excuses and detailed explanations of how Sara had stumbled and fallen. Eve cut her some slack interrupting the flow of…