Keep a schedule

My husband and I are both juggling remote work. We sit down every few days and split the hours, so that we get at least few hours of full focus every day. On top of that, I determine the kids’ activity schedule the previous night. Similarly, our weekly menu is decided ahead and printed out (also helps reduce shopping trips). I plan in the quiet of the evening so that I don’t have to worry while I execute. Don’t forget to include time for your self-care during the day!

Crafts

First of all, head over to this old post where I list few easy crafts for which you won’t need special materials. Facebook is my best source of ideas (not a Pinterest mom). I warmly recommend TheDadLab group for an infinite string of inspiration. Fellow expat mom Katy shared these cool DIYs, many suitable for smaller children. Here are some ideas that I have tested or plan to:

The website Pencils and Plums offers plenty of free-to-download colouring pages and activities, check it out.

Coronavirus indoors treasure hunt

I am quite proud of this creation of mine. Some nights I hide coronavirus drawings all around the house and mark their location on a map. If the kids find them all the following day, they win a prize. I have also done a version where I write letters behind some of the drawings and the complete message gives away the location of the prize.

How to set it up:
– print the coronavirus sheet, cut the drawings
– draw a map of your house
– hide the virus drawings in various locations and mark them on a map
Pro tip: laminate at least the map so that you can use a whiteboard pen to mark the locations and use it the map more than once.
An alternative version: organise a simple treasure hunt by giving them a list (written or drawn) of objects to find and photograph to win a small prize. Can be done both indoors and outdoors.

Educational play

I am not a fan of screen time, but there are some really cool educational digital resources. Children can experiment with creating music with Chrome Music Lab (check out the music maker!).

“Lego has an app where you can download instructions to any set. If you have enough blocks you can build anything.”

Dagmar, expat mom in Finland

Fellow mom Karen reminded me about Scratch, a MIT tool to teach kids aged 8 to 16 to code. For younger children (5-7 years) head over ScratchJr.

Reading (and audiobooks)

Audible has some free titles for children in several languages. You can also look up podcasts of fairytales (one for Italian speakers) or fairytales on Youtube. If your child speaks Finnish, the app Lukulumo offers free audiobooks during the lockdown (username lukuulumokoti, password 987654321). Don’t forget our local e-library has also several reads and audiobooks available in several languages.

Keep it moving

If you are not in total lockdown, don’t miss to go for a walk every day. We have made a ritual of going outdoors at least 20 minutes after lunch. Another trick, if you have the space and your kids can be unsupervised: I give them a timer and encourage them to bike around the yard for 20 minutes to win a candy. 20 minutes of bliss for you! For Finnish-speaking children, Herotreeni offers a 3 week daily exercise programme for only 12 euros (I’ve seen a demo, superfun)! You want the same in English? No problem: MoovKids offers daily online classes (thanks Giedre for the heads-up).

“There are couple of links to the free lessons from popular gyms in Finland, I found them really useful. For example, Fressi has live streaming with agenda for the day, you can just join it, also Elixia has online courses that doesn’t require membership.

Tulasi, expat mom in Finland

Virtual social life

Children miss their friends. Schedule regular video calls for them to talk with their friends. For multilingual children, this is also a chance to preserve the languages not spoken at home. You can also teach games compatible with play through a screen, for example charades, hangman, or 20 questions.

Housework

Don’t forget small kids see chores like play. During these peculiar times, I am asking my kids to help regularly: emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, dusting… Results do not have to be perfect, but they can indeed help and these activities keep them busy (and they learn useful skills). Have them help in the kitchen as well, they’ll love it.

Household chores and engaging in as many parents household activities as possible. 

Lisa, expat mom in Finland

Several parents recommended gardening as an option. You can start some seeds also on the windowsill.

Free play

Dear parents, do not forget your own mental health and to allow kids to get bored. Boredom is the mother of creativity, after all. Let’s not go nuts to keep the kids entertained all the time. Alternate activities with free play if age allows. You are doing great!

The post Are You Not Entertained? – Ideas for Quarantined Parents #COVID appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

Kiasma is the major contemporary art museum in Helsinki and it’s conveniently situated adjacent to the central railway station. Kiasma is part of the Museum Card network and children always enter for free. Moreover, as it’s customary for many museums in Helsinki, entrance is free for everyone on the first Friday of every month.

Visiting museums with small children is always a challenge, but Kiasma organises once a year few weeks of hands-on art workshops targeting every age group: babies, toddlers, and older kids. The goals of the workshops are to facilitate parents to spend quality time with their kids, allowing parents to visit the exhibition while conceding something to the little ones, and introducing the rule-free world of art to children of all ages.

Our experience

My children (aged 3 and 5) and I visited the toddler’s drop-in workshop on a snowy Thursday morning. We entered the museum, undressed from our winter gear and left it to the free-of-charge wardrobe service (a pleasant surprise, as opposed to having to drag winter jackets around). The workshop was set on the last floor, in a small room. There were several activities to choose from, definitely enough to spend half a day there. As soon as we got in, we encountered a table full of mysterious boxes.

Exceeding my expectations, my kids spent a good half hour playing with them. Boxes contained a variety of sensory and visual surprises. E and R were in a frenzy to open all of them, while later they played some version of hide-and-seek where one would hide a specific box and the other needed to find it.

Close to it, two small ball pits with coloured lights invited for a “dry bath” in colours. In the corner, we found a dark box filled with mirrors and sensory objects. Children were allowed to crawl in and use flashlights, or explore using touch. E especially liked being able to experiment with light. I noticed how careful tools had been chosen, to grant safety (no small or sharp objects) and easy use for the little ones (flashlights had soft buttons, for example). My expat mom’s special eye also caught that all activities are described in Finnish, Swedish, and English, making them accessible to all families.

E and R spent some time also playing in the unusual “sandbox” which contained plastic plates instead of sand and coloured lights. Tuija, the workshop main planner, explained one focus was to show everyday objects in a different setting, that is the creative process of many contemporary artists. As a parent, a good chunk of my role includes giving boundaries, rules, and fitting reality into schemes and boxes to feed it to my children. I am excited at the idea that art, even at this simple level, can allow them to explore the free world of imagination and creativity.

After the “dry activities”, it was time to mess around with water colours. The workshop makes available apron of all sizes, including adults’. An interesting surprise were the water painting boards, originally meant for mindful creative activities. You only need water to paint and the board clears by itself when it dries.

Finally, the moment they had been waiting for: real painting! Children were allowed to express their creativity by painting with different brushes and colours on some plastic surfaces, which was later cleaned by the workshop assistants.

Everything was protected in plastic and they had the apron, so they could safely focus on just drawing and having fun. Colours were easily washable from the skin. It was liberating for them!

The art exhibition

After having plenty of fun, we went downstairs to eat. Kiasma has a nice cafe that serves lunch on weekdays, but also some quiet spaces where it’s possible to eat a packed lunch or snack. Strollers and baby carriers are available and can be borrowed for free. The whole museum is fully wheelchair-accessible. Now that the kids were in their best mood, it was my turn to enjoy the museum. Two floors were populated with exhibitions. Even though most works were hard to explain to kids, many were visually attractive and they allowed me to enjoy most of them.

I was slightly worried we would walk into inappropriate content, but anything that was not family-friendly was separate and clearly marked (but still accessible, so don’t let the kids roam with no supervision).

The huge spaces of the building allowed my kids to explore safely. I taught R to observe paintings from different distances, that interpretation of art was always free, whatever feelings or images art would evoke in her where the right answer. After walking the whole exhibition, they insisted to visit the workshop again!

How to be informed of future family activities

Kiasma organises these workshops every year, usually around January, when the museum is less crowded. The toddlers’ workshop is planned towards the end of the week, including Saturday, to allow also working parents to take part. Information are updated on the museum’s webpage. To receive notifications of events directly to your mailbox, you can subscribe to the Kiasma klubi’s mailing list (in Finnish only). Some events are advertised on Facebook, so I invite you to like Kiasma’s page. We had plenty of fun and surely will be on the lookout for the upcoming happenings!

We were granted free access to Kiasma to visit and review the workshop. All opinions are mine and sincere. Read more about my working values here.

The post Contemporary Art and Children: Kiasma’s Workshop for Toddlers appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

A simple strawberry version for my husband’s birthday.

The base is a classic sponge cake, you can find several recipes online, use a book or website you trust. You can save time by ordering a sponge cake from a bakery, I often do. Before filling it, I brush the sponge with some juice. Now the cream. For a 10 person cake (22 cm diam. cake pan) and one filling layer, I use:

750 g mascarpone cheese
250 g spread cheese (ex. Philadelphia or oat spread)
200 ml of vanilla sauce or cream
about 8 full tablespoons of icing sugar (taste to find the right amount)

Mix with a hand whisk. For kids’ cakes I may add food colour.

E’s 3rd birthday cake.

I usually take out one third of the cream and add strawberries and/or chocolate chips to it, and use it for the filling. You can use your imagination and try something new, like cherries or meringue. The rest is used for the icing. Use a spatula and spread it on top and on the sides. You’ll find out the cream is extremely easy to manipulate and holds perfectly. You can top the cake with fruits, flowers, candies, anything you like.

A very happy customer.

I know it sounds dramatic but this recipe changed my life! I used to approach my family’s birthdays with anxiety about what cake I would bake and desperately browsing online. Now if I wish I can try something new, but if I don’t feel like it I have this easy and classic recipe to trust.

If you’ll try it, make sure to send me or tag me in a picture, I’ll be glad to know I have made some other mom’s life easier!

The post The easiest recipe for a birthday cake: win at every party with beautiful and tasty cakes appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

Nature paintings

What you need: liquid glue, a brush for the glue, sticks / leaves / dried flowers, a sheet of (possibly coloured) paper.
First, we plan what we want to represent. Then, I help R. to break down the elements we may need. For instance, when she painted the tree above, I suggested we needed sticks for the branches, then leaves, and so on. I send her out on the search for what we need. If we need leaves of a certain size, I give her a sample paper so that she can compare if the size is right. Then she simply sticks all the items with glue on paper. Along with the searching time, this can easily fill up two hours!

The centipede

What you need: coloured paper, two beads, 3-4 crafting breads (askartelupunokset), sticky eyes. Optional: glitter.
I have to give credit of this easy craft to Pikku Kakkonen, as I saw this on the show. It’s easy and contains several exercises for toddlers: cutting, sticking, and decorating. With the help of a drinking glass, draw circles on different sheets of coloured paper. Have your toddler cut them and glue them in sequence. They’ll form the body of the centipede. With the breads, make the legs and the antennas. Complete the antennas with the beads. Stick the eyes and decorate with glitter.

Bookmarks

What you need: coloured cardboards, strings, beads, pencils. Optional: glitter.
I am still a traditional reader and need a physical bookmark for my reads. I asked my daughter to make me one and it was really fun! There are no guidelines, just let your kids colour, use glitter or stickers. We completed it with nice strings and beads. Better if you can laminate.

Here you are, three super easy crafts which require standard material to be completed. They saved me in a couple of occasions where I didn’t expect rain or when my older was bored and demanded entertainment. I hope this will do you the same favour!

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