With the start of school, homework is back. The girls have been complaining about how much more there is this year. There can be homework from TWO subjects! The same day!
It’ll be a long road to graduation.
Day 199: Homework… Again…
Tag: Learning
Day 194: Books and Play
I love some of the new libraries in Finland. They are a far cry from the stereotypical dusty, dark rooms with a librarian angrily shushing every sound.
The library in Lippulaiva, the nearby shopping mall, is full of color, sounds and running children. There is a playground with a slide and a real car, a pool table, a few 3D printers, and a loom. There are soft armchairs, cushions on the floor, and several soft nooks tucked away in corners. And there are books that people (kids especially) actually want to read.
I sympathize with people who feel it is too much; that libraries should be quiet and calm, with a focus on education.
But I think reading should be fun.
Day 192: Taking the Bus
Alanna and Kiara started extra lessons in English as a native language this year. The classes are held in another school, so we have been practicing taking the bus.
The have almost mastered it. Now they just need to remember to keep on eye on where they are going.
Day 188: Back to School
First day in the second grade.
New backpacks, pencil cases, and sweaters.
I wonder how many years we are still allowed to walk the girls to school on their first day.
Day 176: Washing Rugs
Washing rugs on the summer cottage pier was fun as a child. Mum would throw buckets of water on my feet as I scrubbed as hard as I could. I still love the smell of Mäntysuopa (pine soap).
As we cleaned the wendy house today, the girls tried the traditional method of cleaning a rug.
Their comment was a dry, “Clearly kids in the old days had a different way of having fun”. Apparently, it was hard work.
Day 175: Little Big Adventure
The best purchase of the summer – if you ask the girls – has been the massive, almost 5m-long swimming mattress Ukki ordered.
It easily holds both girls standing up, so, wearing a life jackets, Alanna and Kiara have been allowed to push it almost to the middle of the lake by themselves. This is, of course, infinitely cooler than doing it with an adult. Ukki even towed the girls and the mattress all the way to the other side of the strait.
In the deep, the mattress becomes a platform for jumping, diving, kicking, pushing and generally messing around in the water. The best game, naturally, is trying to stay standing when the waves from a passing boat rock the mattress.
Great fun and a great way to build even more confidence in the water.
Now we just need to figure out where an earth to store a thick, 5m mattress for the winter.
Day 173: Life in the Old Days
Alanna and Kiara both love stories about how people used to live in the old days. The concept of “the old days” is still quite fluid – anything from the 12th century to the year before they were born. Anything earlier than that is simply ‘a very, very long time ago’.
We have never explicitly tried to teach them history, although we do enjoy a good museum. But if they grow up understanding that ‘right’ ideas and ‘proper’ behavior change over time, maybe they will be less likely to dismiss new ideas and different ways of doing things.
But mostly they just find old toilets funny.
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All images from Urajärvi Manor and its beautiful gardens.
Day 159: Taking Flight
Alanna often lives in a world of her own making. She sees something, hears something, and you can watch how her imagination take flight. She tells wonderful stories and can become completely absorbed in developing the latest idea that has taken hold of her mind.
Occassionally, this habit can try my patience – especially when we are in a hurry to get something done. But at the same time I hope she never fully recovers from it.
Day 149: Beliefs
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 148: Crafts
Kiara, especially, is obsessed with crafts. We buy sellotape in bulk because – and I am not exaggerating at all – she uses five or rolls per week. She comes up with very practical and innovative designs and can surprise me with real out-of-the-box ideas – some of which really work.
Alanna does crafts when the mood strikes, but she is more interested in drawing – comics especially.
To build on this, I dug out my old sewing machine and we spent a happy few hours testing it out. Alanna made a beautiful dress for her doll. Kiara sewed a little pouch and a pillow.
I was just proud.
Blue Moment 