All posts by Maria

Learning about Penguins:
beautiful animated film + books

For kids, , , ,
children books about penguins

Hello, I wanted to share with you a few things we’ve been enjoying and learning about penguins from. It is nothing major, but it is fun, beautiful and educational and is a good introduction into the subject of Antarctica and the fascinating creatures living there.

Our boys’ love for penguins started with a beautiful Russian/Japanese animated film called “Lolo the Penguin”. To parallel their love for Lolo I found them a wonderful little book about penguins that they have been going over and over on their own or with us reading it to them. I also found some good brief videos about penguins on youtube. And lastly we have large Maps book with very beautiful map of Antartica that we reference as well to see where the penguins live and who else live there.

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Our children’s play room

For kids, ,
kids room decor ideas toy storage kids
kids room decor ideas toy storage kids
kids room decor ideas toy storage kids

Hello friends, and Happy New Year! I thought to start the year by sharing with you some of the things from our boys’ play room (our former home office). We all want our kids room being beautiful and Pinterest and Instagram have endless feeds with inspiration. But when I searched for the room decor and organization ideas I came to notice that a lot of those pretty rooms didn’t seem to be designed truly for children, but instead designed by adults for other adults to admire :). For example, the storage is often such that children simply can’t reach many areas on their own, the wall art is abstract, the objects like maps, Earth globes and clocks are too high to be seen well should children feel curious. And then lots and lots of purely decorative little things all over the walls to give mamas extra cleaning to do.

In arranging the boys play room we wanted to make sure that it was most importantly designed for them. That it was organized in a way where they could easily reach what they needed and easily put things in order afterwards. And lastly so that it’d be fairly easy for me to dust, mop, etc. It took few trials to find the furniture and storage we felt worked really well for us, but I think it finally came together really lovely. It is airy, cozy and beautiful. It has lots of storage as well as plenty of play space, reading area and beautiful educational art and objects.

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Our little indoor Monkey Wall

For kids, , ,
kids room decor ideas toy storage kids

Monkey walls like this with much more fun parts to climb on are very common in Russia, and as you might know from my previous post on this topic called “A space for little monkeys to be monkeys” I’ve been really wanting to have one for the boys room. Surprisingly these seem to be nearly impossible to find here in America. And after searching high and low the ones I did find are actually from Russia/Ukraine anyway. 🙂 Ordering one from Russia with all the cool things as I wanted was really expensive due to all the freight charges, but fortunately few months ago I cam across this product and it was very reasonably priced. (This is not a sponsored post.)

While our monkey wall is very basic it nonetheless given our boys a lot of opportunities to try themselves at new physical challenges, experience a bit of risk and acquire new skills. All of which are so good for their development both physical and mental. In this post I cover some more details about it, where you can buy it if you are interested and share a very cool video of a 3 year old girl doing all sorts of amazing fits of acrobatics on a similar equipment at her home. Hoper you enjoy 🙂

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The Yule Tomte and the Little Rabbits

For kids, , ,
children Christmas story winter books Yuletide story

Here is a post on one of my personal favorite Christmas-themed books of all times! To be perfectly honest, the story is still a bit long for my boys who are 3.5 and 1.5 years old. I tired reading it with Alexandros by breaking it down into parts, but somehow couldn’t quite get him into the story. Part of the thing, he is really into snakes, dinosaurs and maps right now. Currently on his Charismas gift list is a cobra. He understand Santa can’t bring him a real one from India as a cobra just wouldn’t like it, so he says he is OK with that, just wants a toy cobra that is very realistic! Earlier our Christmas list had a live tarantula and an anaconda. 🙂 So…. the cute bunnies aren’t quite cutting it for him as far as the story goes 🙂

But in any case, this story is so good and the illustrations are so wonderful that I think this book is one of those classic ones you can read over and over again throughout your entire childhood and later. I re-read it every winter. So here it is.

children Christmas story winter books Yuletide story
children Christmas story winter books Yuletide story
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Bisgaard — real winter shoes for kids

For kids, , ,
Bisgaard winter shoes for kids in America

Hello, friends! It’s been long time since I got a chance to get to my blog to share with you some of our latest finds for the little ones and our ways to make our home and lifestyle more sustainable and healthy. We have new and very exciting project in the making here that has been taking all of our free time for the past couple months. I’m looking forward to share it with you very soon, but if you follow me on Instagram you probably already know what it is 😉

So, here is a very short post to share with you my latest find that I’m very excited about — the real winter shoes for children. Having warm and comfortable winter shoes for the winter is so essential to getting the kids out no matter the weather, but strangely finding shoes that are really warm (like, actually warm!), flexible and comfortable has been a real challenge here in America, at least in my experience. Last winter I found these shoes from Bogs which are great and this year we bought another pair of those shoes. We still use those shoes most of the days as it hasn’t been that cold here in Colorado yet and we had very little snow. So I still highly recommend the Bogs shoes for not very cold weather. But when the temperature drops to -10C/14F and below these are the shoes to keep little feet warm — the Bisgaard Tex boot.

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Children’s snow suits:
non-toxic + made from recycled plastic bottles

For kids, Sustainable living, , ,
non-toxic children snowsuits design fashion slow fashion children brands

I wanted to share with you a quick post about these beautiful snow suits I got for both boys from our beloved Lea and Jojo. You might have seen this blog post on a rain jacket we have that is made from recycled plastic bottles. And just like their wonderful rain jackets the snowsuits are also made from 100% recycled plastic bottles as well as being certified non-tofus, thus free of formaldehyde and other harmful chemicals.

I highly recommend their products, and here few reasons what makes them so special.

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Room on the Broom this Halloween!

DIY, For kids
Room on the broom book

This year Ale unexpectedly got very excited about Halloween. All the way back in August. He patiently waited till October and till the leaves would start turning color. But when first leaves turned red and yellow there was no holding him back! And it is amazing how children bring back the magic into grown up lives as all of us, even my mom who is not into any of the Halloween themed things, got excited with him and got busy crafting skeletons and witch hats, baking ghost cookies, carving pumpkins and making all sorts of things to make Ale’s Halloween dreams come true. 🙂

My boys are very young, so when it came to Halloween themed books I was very fortunate to have come across this most lovely book. It is so perfect for children. The story is short and told in catchy rhymes, the characters and endearing and the story is very positive. And because it is told as a rhyme it is fun to remember and play out. And turns out there are so many beautiful online resources accompanying this book, so you could make coloring pages, puppet theater and much more.

And last, but not least, we were delighted to discover that there is actually an incredibly beautiful animated film created based on this book and is available on iTunes. Needless to say we watched it a million times over laughing and enjoying every little bit of it.

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Autumn books, part 2:
Books about seasons by Gerda Muller

For kids, , , , ,
Autumn books for children Gerda Muller

Welcome to my next post in the series on beautiful books about fall for children. This post features books by Gerda Muller. If you look through all my post on children’s books you’ll see that I frequently write about her books for children. They are truly are absolutely wonderful.

What we love about them

  • Incredibly beautiful, realistic and detailed illustrations giving children wealth of information about world around them
  • The stories are always about children’s interaction with nature — walking and playing in the forest, gardening and so on
  • Her numerous books on seasons beautifully present to children the seasonal changes that take place around them, what to look for and fun activities each season has to offer
  • Books also teach children about friendship and family

Children’s Age

Both of my sons were extremely interested in these books from about 5 months old onward. Eleon, who is a bit more independent, could be frequently found going through one of Gerda Muller books for the last many months. And with Ale those were our bed time stories for many months straight!

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Bathroom: Going toxin and plastic free

Sustainable living, ,
zero-waste chemical free bathroom personal care kit

Ok, looking at this photo probably makes you think it is some hippy-dippy stuff that just isn’t your thing. 🙂 Honestly, where all the fancy skin and hair products? Instead some funky powders and a metal shaver on top of it all! Right?

But hear me out on this one and give me a chance to show how these products are actually incredible, they are cleansing, nourishing and make you healthier.

The short version

  • Conventional cosmetic products contain chemicals that are toxic to the reproductive system, disruptive to the endocrine system, neurotoxins and/or known carcinogens
  • Contrary to common assumption the FDA does not regulate the majority of ingredients used in cosmetic products
  • The word ‘Fragrances’ in commercial products mean further undisclosed synthetic chemicals
  • The word ‘Natural’ in the product name is pure marketing, there is no official certification or standard associated with it. It is 100% unregulated term.
  • Even products labeled ‘Organic’ can contain petrochemicals and as little as 10 percent of organic ingredients by weight or volume
  • The list of substances banned for use in cosmetics in Europe is over 1,000, while in America it is only 8 substances long
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Autumn books, part 1:
Books by the magical Elsa Beskow

For kids, ,
Woody, Haze and Little Peep by Elsa Beskow

This weekend we are having our first cold weather here in Colorado’s Front Range. No frost yet (whew!), but rather cool nights. So the trees turned color everywhere you look to most beautiful jewel tones. As much as I miss summer already I can’t deny of how beautiful this time of year is. Simply breathtaking!

And while browsing Instagram I’ve been seeing some beautiful posts about fall books, so I got inspired to feature some of our books that are themed around autumn. And the first post in this series is about our latest new book — the stunning “Woody, Hazel and Little Pip” by the extraordinary and magical Elsa Beskow. And I also thought the “Children of the Forest” was very fitting here as well, as even though it is not strictly about fall, it is about seasons and it is another gorgeous book by my beloved Elsa Beskow.

So here are just a few pictures I took to share with you just how stunning they are! I highly recommend them as the stories are also absolutely lovely. Please note that these books come as large format books and mini books. I highly recommend to get the large ones, as you really get to appreciate the beauty of illustrations. See below the list of our favorite online stores where you can find these books in both formats.

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Autumn is the time to start on your #UrbanGarden :)

Gardening, Sustainable living
urban garden how-to easy

Isn’t this photo with our garden pickings from few days ago so beautiful! It is October, but we are still enjoying the tomatoes, fall raspberries, plums and pears and few other veggies. Yet, as much as I refuse to accept it, the summer is finally slipping away. This past Sunday we had a little family farewell party to this beautiful and generous summer we had this year.

Yet the gardening life is still very busy. If you are new to gardening, you might not realize that some things you wish to enjoy next year get planted in fall. Plus if you’d like to add some fruit trees and berry bushes to your garden now is a great time to check for end-of-season sales at your local nurseries.

So here I’m sharing with you some gardening tips on planting bulbs (garlic as well as lovely flowers) and what to look for when buying fruit trees. I hope this helps you get started with your Urban Garden if you don’t have one yet. You will be so rewarded once you get one going and it is much easier than you think. And there is no words that can describe the joy it gives to little fruit bats aka ‘small children’ 🙂 who spend their summer days snacking on fruits and berries as they round around half naked 🙂

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Learning about butterflies with children

For kids, , ,
children books about butterflies insects

I originally intended to post all of our insect books (see the Learning About Ants post) throughout the summer. But keeping things according to a plan while being a parent to two little toddlers has not been my strength 🙂 . Fortunately for me, September is a great month for the butterfly study and thus this post, as Monarch butterfly migration happens around mid-September, at least here in Colorado. So instead of completely missing the right time to post this, I happened to accidentally wrap it up at a perfect time to discuss these fascinating natural aviators!

Interesting butterfly facts:

  • If a human baby grew as fast as a caterpillar, it would weigh about 8 tons when it was only two weeks old.
  • Their eyes are made of 6,000 lenses and can see ultraviolet light.
  • Many adult butterflies never excrete waste — they use up all they eat for energy.
  • Butterfly wings move in a figure “8” motion.
  • Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
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Our favorite to-go ware for kids (and ourselves)

For kids, Sustainable living, , ,
stainless steal to-go ware container non-toxic food container

Few years ago we got this container from To-Go Ware. I was attracted to it for being stainless steel rather than plastic, and also being an upright container. Over these few years it’s been such great and integral part of our outings with the boys, so I wanted to share it with you.

One thing that has always been a bit of an inconvinience for me with regular rectangular broad-base containers is that when placed in a bag they pretty much always end up getting on their side and the contents are at risk of leaking some liquid out into the bag. And that is if the lid doesn’t come ajar from all the shaking and rattling in the bag. And when they do stay put the way you had them they always take up more room than I wished.

This container is made in the style of Indian tiffins — Indian style lunch container. They have been around for ever in India, but are apparently a cool new thing in our cutting edge Western world 😉

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Learning through play is the only way:
learning letters

For kids, ,
learning to read learning alphabet through play
“Do not keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.” – Plato

In my own words — learning through play is the only way. Truly, I think it is very important to let children learn at their own speed and only with their own desire and games is the perfect way to lure them into such learning. I also think learning should be a very lively activity. After all, children are just not meant for sitting. 🙂

I introduced the letters to both boys from the earliest age — we have little letters from HABA for them just to play with in whichever way they choose, we discuss letters a little bit while reading books at night, we have a very large alphabet chart (see the DIY instructions here) in their play room. I just try to keep the letters there for them to see, to become familiar with and when they have interest learn about. At times I casually talk about the letters on the chart, or pick up some letter cubes and start looking at pictures, looking very engrossed and fascinated. Of course they want to see what all that interest is about. Target achieved! 🙂 One thing they both always really like are these little alphabet cards with animals I got a while back. These are the same cards we used to make our alphabet chart. I really like them, so I got 2 sets. And recently Ale and I came up with a little game using these cards that he enjoyed playing many times over.

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Russian pickles with lemon, dill and horseradish

Cooking

I always mean to share more simple cooking recipes from my mom, as they are always very wholesome and don’t require a lot of time and work. Yet finding time to document it hasn’t been easy as Eleon shifted to only 1 nap a day and Ale is now rarely have naps at all. Fortunately, I managed to put together this little post while the cucumbers are still in season. 🙂 I think you will really enjoy this recipe. It tastes quite different from the pickles you normally find in the supermarkets in America as instead of vinegar we use salt, lemon juice and spices. I think in vinegar-based recipes the taste of vinegar is often over-powering. Here the flavor of spices and herbs compliments the cukes and neither overcomes the other. It is exceptionally quick and simple. And so so delicious!

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