We attended Adler Planetarium's Astro Overnights for kids, the first week of November. Even though we visit Adler at least once every year, neither I nor the children have visited Adler after dark. It was an evening well spent. Everyone including adults had great time and learned stuff that we didn't know.The weather was very mild that evening. … [Read more...]
Why I love reading parenting books
If you follow me on Goodreads, you know that I love reading books, mostly, parenting books. I have more books on my "to-read" shelf than "read" for obvious reasons. Some of the books I have or was planning to read are already outdated as my children grew out of 1-6 age phase and are moving steadily towards teenage phase.My love for reading … [Read more...]
Book Review: Perfect Health for Kids
"Perfect Health for Kids - 10 Ayurvedic Health Secrets Every Parent Must Know" is a book about health care, not sick care. I learned so many vital health information, not only for my children’s health but also for all of us in the family. I read the book again in order to prepare for the new school year, where good health and mental focus is … [Read more...]
Minecraft Birthday Party Ideas
We celebrated my son's 9th Birthday party with, of course, no other than Minecraft theme. There are so many great resources out on the internet to put together a great DIY Minecraft birthday party. I will list what we did and the sources I used. PREPARATIONS AHEAD OF THE PARTY I prepared my own Creeper backdrop from vinyl tablecloths. Materials: … [Read more...]
Easy butterfly wing cape for children
I had no plans to sew a butterfly wing cape for my daughter, until I came along with this amazing fabric at Hancock Fabrics. It is a sheer fabric with eye catching rainbow colors. All my materials were rainbow colored, including fabric, ric rac border and the thread.Materials: 3/4 yards sheer / light fabric (60" width) Ric Rac … [Read more...]
Outdoor arts with twigs and branches
Spring is here and hopefully no more snow for this arctic part of the world. The trees have barely started to sprout buds. My early spring bulbs, daffodils, hyacinths, didn't come out at all. We still keep ourselves busy. We went out and grabbed little twigs and some branches fallen from the trees. My daughter started to work on a 2D artwork. We … [Read more...]
Book Review: Lean in
I've read “Lean in” right after I've made a company change. I've had to think hard where my career was going after 9 years in a workplace where I loved my work and the people I worked with. I had long discussion with my husband and family. The decision to make the change didn't come easy. This decision was not only impacting my life but my family’s … [Read more...]
Arts & Crafts: Glittery Eiffel Tower
My daughter made this glittery Eiffel Tower for her class project, during a week they learned about France. She needed to build an Eiffel Tower and with what and how to do it was up to her. We came up with this idea. I helped her with the construction.Materials needed:Eiffel Tower print out from InternetCardboard (from old parcel … [Read more...]
Geocaching: A Modern Day, Global Treasure Hunt
Happy Earth Day!Last year, during summer, our local public library held a small workshop on geocaching. I’d heard about it from few parents but didn’t have time to research myself. We learned what geocaching is, downloaded the app and searched and found our very first cache during the workshop.It sounded really fun, mostly for kids but … [Read more...]
Fun activity ideas for long rides and flights
We've completed yet another successful long flight to Aruba and back. I am quite experienced in entertaining children in long flights and road trips, as you can read in this post titled, Preparing for long flights and trips with babies and young children. Good news is it gets easier, as the attention span of children grows by age. Parents or … [Read more...]
Cake Tutu for Ballerina themed birthday party
A friend of mine baked the birthday cake for my daughter's ballerina themed birthday party. I sew a tutu for the cake. The inspiration is from Pinterest. It's very easy to make. I sewed it with my sewing machine. If you are patient enough, you can sew it by hand as well.First order of business: Know the circumference of the cake, in order to … [Read more...]
Packing hot school lunches and keeping them warm
I try to pack school lunches for kids as much as I can. However, recently I've given up, having to throw away so many untouched foods, half eaten or even barely eaten sandwiches. I let the kids eat school’s cafeteria lunch instead of spending all that time to think, prepare and see all that wasted food.The school cafeteria lunch menu this year, … [Read more...]
Product Review: Luckybums ski and bike trainer for children
I taught my children how to swim, ski, and ride a 2-wheel bike. Last year, I was teaching my younger one skiing. It's a little bit tricky to teach one and keep an eye on the other one who can ski by himself. Everything was easy and good when we were on the bunny hill together. Then my son wanted to upgrade from the bunny hill to bigger hills.For … [Read more...]
Book Review: When Children Ask About God
I came around "When Children Ask About God" a while ago when I was looking for children's books about God on Amazon.com. It was one of the related recommendations. However, this book is not for children. It is for adults. It is written by a Rabbi, who is also the author of "When Bad Things Happen to Good People". The book is definitely not a … [Read more...]
Winter Activity for kids: Snow painting
Winter in Chicago can be harsh. It's long and sometimes colder than Alaska. Particularly, windchill is dreadful. Nothing protects you against it and it drains the energy in you. Snow, however, is on the good side of winter in my book. When it snows the temperatures warm a bit. Everywhere is covered in a peaceful white, at least for a while. Kids … [Read more...]
Winter Learning Challenge by Chicago Public Library
Winter break is here!Winter Learning Challenge is another great program for the kids over the break by Chicago Public Library. Since last summer these programs also involve LEARNing and CREATEing in addition to READing. The theme this winter is "learning more about nature in your neighborhood this winter". We did great winter activities from … [Read more...]
Ballerina themed birthday party
My little sunshine turned 6 a week ago. It's harder to accept that your youngest is growing. (S)he is always the youngest of the house no matter what.My daughter wanted a Ballerina Birthday party this year. We made a big change and threw the party somewhere other than our house. For the last 13 parties, between my son and daughter, we always … [Read more...]
Let’s give these kids a playground on Giving Tuesday
Happy Giving Tuesday. Today is “Giving Tuesday”, a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support non-profit organizations. My children go to a public school in Chicago. It's a magnet school with about 850 students from K to 8. It's a really good school. We're lucky … [Read more...]
DIY – LEGO table and storage
Our new LEGO table or workstation was really easy to put together. The main item is the large IKEA Linmonn table that gives enough space to work on for 2 children. We have LEGO 10 x 10 baseplates but I don't have any plans to glue them down. IKEA Adde chairs are better fit than their old IKEA Mammut chairs. (On the table: Organizing LEGO … [Read more...]
Redesigning our playroom
I have been working on a lengthy project in our basement, which is our children's playroom. It's been quite a while since we set up for early learning, then preschool and kindergarten, while my son already outgrew a lot of stuff, including games, toys and furniture. This summer, I decided to take on a complete overhaul and update the … [Read more...]