Children – Page 2 – Blue Moment

Day 149: Beliefs

July 15, 2026July 15, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Alanna, Espoo, KiaraTagged 365 Project, Children, LearningLeave a comment

There is a fine line between creating a magical childhood and ensuring your children know what is real.

For example, how do you explain that dinosaurs were real, but dragons are not? That blue whales and giraffes exist, but unicorns are imaginary? That bats are real, but vampires are not.

We have spent time explaining that bears can sleep the whole winter, that caterpillars can dissolve into soup and emerge as butterflies, that geese can navigate across continents, and that some lizards can grow back their tails.

But humans can’t learn to fly.

Day 145: Big and Small

July 11, 2026July 11, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Espoo, Kiara, Outdoors, SportTagged 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Children, Espoo, Kiara, Outdoors, Sport, SummerLeave a comment

After work, I took the girls for a swim. The hot weather is about to turn, so felt like the thing to do.

While getting ready, Kiara fussed about her swimsuit, her hair and her swimming bag. She wanted to look cool in case she saw her friends.

When we got to Oittaa, she spotted the Angry Birds playground. Luckily, at that moment, the playground and splashing in the water still felt “cool” enough.

I wish I would convince her that there is plenty of time to be big yet.

Day 143: Tenacity

July 9, 2026July 9, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Espoo, Kiara, Outdoors, SportTagged 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Children, Espoo, Holidays, Kiara, Outdoors, Sport, SummerLeave a comment

I admire children’s dermination to have fun once they decide they are going to have fun.

I took Kiara and Alanna to a nearby sports-focused amusement park today. The temperature climbed above 30°C and the park had practically no shade. Even so, we stayed for more than 7h and tested every climbing, jumping, pedalling, lifting, shooting, running and balancing activity available. Considering the park has more than 30 different jumping castles alone, that was no small feat.

Most of the other kids gave up, and by late afternoon only a handful of the hardiest ones were still around.

At the endof the day, we popped into a nearby supermarket, bought swimming costumes to all three of us and went for a swim. Lake water has rarely felt so good!

Day 142: The Ancient Art of Puppetry

July 8, 2026July 8, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Helsinki, KiaraTagged 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Children, Helsinki, History, KiaraLeave a comment

Finland has fantastic museums for kids. In fact, almost all museums here have something specifically for children to do.

Helsinki City Museum is a good example with a whole section of historical play areas. And the theater section has a puppet stage.

Great stories were born this day!

Day 130: Spelling

June 26, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Alanna, KiaraTagged 365 Project, Alanna, Children, Kiara, Learning, Summer CottageLeave a comment

As the girls have been learning to read over the past year, I have been marvelling at how anyone ever learns to read in English. The spelling makes no sense.

In Finnish, every letter is always pronounced the same way, so once you know the letters, reading is pretty straightforward. To make up for it, Finnish words can be ridiculously long, and tiny changes can completely change the meaning of a word. But still. At least it is consistent.

I was well into my teens before the concept of a spelling bee made any sense to me whatsoever.

Day 122: Finnish Baseball

June 18, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Espoo, Home, Kiara, Outdoors, SportTagged 365 Project, Activities, Alanna, Children, Espoo, Home, Kiara, Learning, Outdoors, Sport, SummerLeave a comment

As a kid, I loved Finnish baseball (pesäpallo). It’s quite different from American baseball – most notably, because you pitch the ball up, not across.

So, when I came across a set of used pesäpallo equipment for kids at some sale or another, I did not hesitate for a second.

The girls’ success rate of actually hitting the ball is still low enough that we can practice in our backyard. I do not expect that to last long.

I would still love to pick the sport back up myself, but unless you are part of a fairly serious team, you can only really play in summer. And in summer, there is so much else to do.

Day 119: Herbarium

June 15, 2026June 15, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Activities, FinlandTagged 365 Project, Activities, Children, Finland, Holidays, SummerLeave a comment

When it is not homework, it is fun.

As a summer activity, we are collecting flowers with the girls to press them. With my mum, they are also catching bugs to inpect and draw.

Anything to keep them engaged in reading and writing.

Day 110: Summer Cottage

June 5, 2026June 5, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Alanna, Asikkala, Family, Finland, Kiara, Nature, OutdoorsTagged 365 Project, Alanna, Children, family, Finland, Kiara, Nature, Outdoors, Summer, Summer CottageLeave a comment

Swimming, boating, fire-cooked crepes, sauna, bbq, hammering, hand-picked wildflowers, ice cream – long days outside and never-ending bedtime giggles.

A perfect day for little people.

Day 108: Poison and Beauty

June 2, 2026June 2, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Finland, NatureTagged 365 Project, Children, Finland, Learning, NatureLeave a comment

When Merlin, our late Schnauzer, was in puppy school, he surprised me by learning the command ‘leave’ in 5 min. He surprised me even more by actually obeying it – regardless of what he found on our walks.

It was harder with kids.

Finnish forests are full of delicious berries and plants. It takes a lot of repetition to ensure the kids do not experiment with anything, even when they think they know. Lily of the Valley is easy, but some plants are easier to confuse – and more poisonous.

At least we don’t live in Australia.

Day 106: Drip By Drip

May 30, 2026May 30, 2026Posted in 365 Project, Everyday objects, Family, WaterTagged 365 Project, Children, Everyday objects, family, MakroLeave a comment

People are always curious what is the hardest thing in raising twins. They expect me to describe jealousy, trouble finding own identity, or sharing (or not sharing) friends and hobbies.

No-one ever understands that the hardest thing is to stay patient in the face of stubborn insistence of getting exactly what the sister does.

Exactly.

Even when it makes no logical sense.

The biggest daily fight in our household is whose turn is it to wash teeth first. Every night!

Somehow it remains irrelevant that the other one will go 2 min later.