Travel planner my best friend at the time of a family trip.

I am a working mum, if I wouldn´t plan my life it won´t be easy to get all the things done in the way I like them to be. I am not perfect, I know, but, I like to be very organized and accomplish the goals that I propose to myself. I understand that if I manage time correctly I will have time for my toddler, for house duties, and for my hobbies, that recently appeared another one :). But how about traveling, our getaways, you will ask if I plan them as well? I will say YES. I know it has to be a relaxing moment when you have to enjoy to do nothing... I have such days as well, but not on our trips or getaways, I have such days during weekend when grandparents play with our toddler and I have time for myself.

I like to plan our trips, getaways, and escapes that we make. Working in this industry makes me feel confident in all the places we choose to go, prices and best things to do there. Apart of that, I always ask my beloved colleagues about besties we can do while traveling. All these ideas I manage to sort in one single place, my travel planner, here I manage to write the chosen destination, things that we plan to do there, places to see, where to eat, where to sleep, transportation and so on and so on, the list can continue. The most interesting part is to be there and to enjoy your plan and not be stressed about what to do and where to go, because you have planned it previously.

It is up to you, I know for example a lot of spontaneous people who likes to enjoy the trip without having any plan, and almost all of the times the luggage is made 1 or 2 hours before the trip. Sometimes I think, that I would like to be like these people, but then I stop and think, that all of these friends do not have kids, and they can permit such luxury of not planning any trip, me not. Maybe in the future I will be spontaneous as well, who knows, but now I enjoy planning and having all the ideas well written on the paper.

You can choose between my travel planner, any other travel planners or make it by yourself. Below you can see some directions of what my travel planner includes:

- destination that we plan to go and budget
- travel information, how we get there (by plane, by train, by car, other)
- hotel or apartment where to stay (once we are 3 members in our family I opt to take an apartment)
- transportation once getting on your planned destination
- places to visit
- places where to eat
- packaging list (all the thing you need to take with you)
- and then every day trip plan of things to do
- some notes like sending cards to other family members, friends and so on
- and of course the image of all of us, best moments of the trip.

Doesn´t matter if you are a planner or a spontaneous person, I wish you to enjoy every trip/getaway/journey with your family.

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Number recognition, perfect inside preschool activity for your toddler

My recent hobby for sewing and crochet, makes me think all day long what I can do for my toddler as well. I have already made him some toys, I mean I saw and crocheted some of his favorite characters, but this weekend I thought about doing something educational and easy to do. I saw him numbers 1 to 5 and letter A. My idea was to sew 1 to 10, without any letter, but my toddler was asking me all day long about letter A, that finally I had to sew this as well. I suppose that he had learnt it in the nursery, because we made our educational activities on letters long time ago, and I don´t think that he remembers these activities.

Our toddler knows to count from 1 to 10 in Russian, Spanish and English, and the activity that I proposed to him this weekend was mostly for recognition and not only counting them.

Apart of the numbers that I saw him, I had a preschool education book, that has a lot of images and it is just perfect to learn numbers and its recognition. I like to make printable by myself, and make educational activities on my own way, because I think it helps my toddler to develop somehow apart of what he learns in nursery. But, with all of that, this doesn´t mean that I do not like educational books, I like them, but till now I haven´t seen any that will suit to the age of my toddler. This weekend I have shown him one educational book, that was bought last summer, and that I only now find it easy to my toddler, it is colorful, has numbers, and we can make different exercises with this book. What I made, was to make a combination with my saw numbers and this book. For my surprise this activity lasted almost one hour, and my toddler really enjoyed it, we have learnt new words as well, not only number recognition. It is true, that it was enough to learn just numbers 1 to 5, as when we got to number 5 recognition, my toddler was tired and I felt that he needs another activity, like playing and not learning.

I am proud of my kid! I think that my toddler will enjoy playing with his new soft educational toys and in future. My next weekend purpose is to play with numbers 6 to 10. I really hope he will enjoy as mach as he did with 1 to 5.

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Blois- and how we managed to keep our toddler in a car seat for 9 hours

Later on January we went to Blois, a very beautiful town in the center of France, with a great history a lot of Castles and beautiful surroundings. Why we have chosen this destination? For a simple reason, that we have friends there, and for long time we wanted to visit them, but always there were a question about the easiest and fastest way to get there. As this town is almost 200km away of Paris, and is about 900km away of Barcelona, and always we were on doubt to go there by car or by plane. First one, by car, it always seemed impossible as our toddler was small, and we have never ever done such a long way by car with him, and we thought that it would be tough for him and for us. Second choice, by plane, we were almost decided to by flights, but then we thought that anyway we will have to rent a car in Paris and make 200km by car, and hours spent before the flight, during the flight, renting a car and so on, appears to us that is more likely to be a bad idea. Apart of that while you fly, you do not take all the things you need with you. So, at the end we decided to go by our car, and yes it was tough, and yes we were tired, but we took a lot of things with us, and the result, and sightseeing of the town worth all the efforts we made to get there.

Till the last day we were on doubt when is better to leave, and to go by car, during the day, make a lot of stopovers, and enjoy France as it is a really beautiful country, or to go by night with very few stopovers, and enjoy that our kid sleeps all the way. First choice seemed more attractive, as we like to travel and discover new places, but at the end we have chosen the second choice, easier for us and our toddler. It was a good decision, the better one. Our kid slept all the way to Blois, and we made several stopovers to breathe fresh air and be on our way.

Tips for a night car trip with a toddler:

1. Dress your kid with very comfortable clothes

2. Do not give milk during your trip, and even before the trip, like several hours before only.

3. Leave your kid to go to sleep later than usual, as he gets really tired and fell asleep right away in the car

4. Prepare car seat in a sleeping position

5. Prepare some snacks, as he will asks before sleeping

6. Be aware to make stopovers and take your toddler to the toilet, as it will be a surprise when you are on a highway and your kid is awake and asking for the toilet. (This haven´t happened with us, but we were mostly afraid of this)

7.Relax, there is a long way away.

Some pictures of the beautiful town Blois

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Mallorca - an island to discover on winter and summer with your toddler

Travel is always a good idea, and with small ones even better. How about an island, and discover its´ beauties with a toddler? We thought that even if it is cold and it is winter a little trip to Mallorca will be a good idea for us. Even though we found a great deal to go with all the family, I mean with our lovely grandparents. A big company is interesting, a lot of fun, and quite much more time for me and my husband, as our kid were in a good hands.

We went to Mallorca for a New Years´Eve, and stayed for a few days later on the island. Apart of the idea to meet New Year on the beach, which was the best one, we also enjoyed medieval architecture in the North and beach beauties in the South of Mallorca. Our toddler was happy about the trip, and all this because:
1. he adores to fly, every time when he sees an airplane he asks us for flying with it
2. like his parents he loves new places, new apartment and changes
3. there were grandparents, and he loves them and were playing a lot in the evenings, as his parents were too busy with planing the next day journey

This doesn´t mean that we had no tantrums and difficult moments, with a toddler these things happen on a daily basis as something normal :). It´s just a question of managing these tantrums correctly. I will write an article on this something later, but now I would like to share with you some tips while travelling with a toddler.

Tips for traveling by plane:

1. take a flight early in the morning or late in the evening, or even better at midday when your kid has his sleeping hours. Even if our kid enjoys planes and flights as our, if the flight lasts more than 1 hour, it is complicated to keep him calm on his seat in the plane.

2. take big toys, small toys will be through away and it will be difficult to manage to have them at the end of the flight

3. take snacks, I prefer different fruits, something easy and healthy to eat, milk, water, juice, all in small packs, to be easier to use.

4. Dry and wet wipes, clothes.

Tips for traveling to an island:

Which is the difference you will ask? Yes, there is. To travel to an island it is very different compared to a big city. In a big city you do not need to rent a car, as all main sightseeing are very closed to each other and well communicated by public transport, on an island, you have to walk a lot and to move by car, as public transport usually goes where is more population. That is why we decided to rent a car, a big one and to discover the island.

1. Rent a car
2. Take your car seat for your toddler. We had a bad experience in Tenerife, because we´ve rented the car chair, and our kid at the end of our trip didn´t want to sit there, as his back was hurting him and he could not sleep. Imagine how many tantrums and cryings we had in the car. In Mallorca we took our car seat, and there where no questions on where our kid is sitting, as well he slept well during our journeys. Ask the company you will fly with, about the permit of taking pushchair and car seat, as a lot of them has the option to take both. You won´t regret.
3. Take a pushchair, you will walk a lot, and of course your toddler will get tired.
4. Manage your stopovers, to eat, sightseeing and other reasons, think firstly on your toddler. Be sure that you can make a stopover everywhere you go, as a toddler asks for a stopover very often.
5. Have a lot of snacks with you in a car and water, juice in this case is not preferred, as they asks for a toilet much more times.
6. Toys -  very appreciated the one that is mostly wished by your kid, we had a little car that it is his preference wherever we go and a flash/CD with the songs we are used to listen in the car/home. Singing in the car is always fun, and your kid will love to sing with you.
7. A great mood for travelling

I think too many information in just a post, I won´t bother you more, here you go with some lovely pictures of Mallorca.

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Christmas activities for toddlers.

Quite late post on the things we have done on Christmas Day, but as I have a lot of things to share with you, and the pleasure to write another post of the day, I want to share our experience on the Montessori things we´ve done on that magic days of Christmas. I hope these ideas will be useful for you for the next year or for the future. Any comments are very welcome.

I thought about activities that would entertain my toddler and would help me to motivate him to stay away of youtube, the only thing that I am aware and I think it gets more complicated to restrict him once he grows.

The idea was to prepare: a Christmas tree, Santa Claus, a wreath and an unusual toy for Christmas tree. All these things were prepared from recicled things.

Christmas tree.

For this toy we needed: green watercolor, pompoms-little ones, and sticks of ice creams.

First step was to color into green all parts of Christmas tree. I think that my kid enjoyed this part more than any other thing of preparations.

Santa Claus

For this I needed: toilet paper, red color paper, scissors, glue, removing makeup discs, white stickers

Wreath for Christmas Tree

This was the easiest thing to do for me, and quite complicated for my toddler as this require a lot of patience.

I needed:  different colors paper, scissors and glue.

A toy for Christmas tree

I needed: pompoms, toilet paper tube, yellow color spray, glue.

Very easy thing to do for our kid, he enjoyed working with pompoms and glue.

Christmas Tree

1st Christmas Tree

I needed: colored paper, pompoms, glue, scissors

2nd Christmas Tree

I needed: paper, pompoms, glue, scissors, watercolors

As it was mentioned before all these activities are screen free activities. From my experience once the toddler grows up the task to keep him away of tv and other screen free activities is very complicated.

P.S. Be aware once you propose your toddler such activities, as I have used some dangerous utilities, and it is very important to make use of these very accurate and let your toddler to work with them less and only in your presence.

Enjoy your free time with your kid.

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Carnival 2016

Uhhh.. finnaly I managed to write a post.

Things go fast, our toddler is growing, I am happy the way he grows and how easier things become every day. He begins to be independent, to play alone and leave me with more time for myself. But, this doesn´t mean that me and my husband do not help on his developing skills in either way.

Today, I will talk about Carnival that were in his nursery this year. I think, that this year was the first one, when our toddler really enjoyed all the week, and went to the nursery very happy. All these, because every day he had to go to the nursery masked, and last day, on Friday, the nursery was one who prepares disguise for all children. I went on Friday to see him, and to listen all the songs that they prepared for Carnival. It was a very good experience, for me and for our toddler. I was proud of him, as he wasn´t crying or bored about the idea of Carnival, and he was proud as his mom comes to see him.

Some pictures below. How cute is he on elfs disguise¿?

xoxoxo

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