Learning English, a great screen activity that will develop language skills of your kid.

First of all I would like to thank KIDLOLAND app for the opportunity to take advantage of this wonderful and easy way to learn English app, for our preschooler. All the information mentioned above, is my own.

As all of you know, I don't really like any of screen activities, and I always try our kid to learn by discovering and not by watching TV. I use a lot printables for educational activities, our daddy plays a lot with our preschooler developing his gross motor skills, Damian as well is taking some extra activities out of class hours... and it is wonderful to see how our kid develops his abilities and skills doing so many things and being happy. Then there is a quiet simple thing, we parents, having another baby, are getting tired as well, sometimes. We need our 5 minutes...hmmm or more to relax. And on this moments screen activity helps you a lot. Till now, we have used youtube videos, but we have noticed that our kid likes to navigate through some not very useful channels, and this 5 minutes of silence becomes 5 minutes of total control to the things he is watching. Did it happened to you as well? So, we thought that an educational app will help us with this problem, and we will enjoy all together the 5 minutes of silence.

There are plenty of apps to be used, and for sure you already use your own one, that you like and your kid enjoy. But, let me share with you some interesting things why I like this app and not another one, and you will decide if you agree or disagree with me.

1. I like Kidloland app for the simple fact that it has in it all ENGLISH songs that our preschooler used to listen on youtube, Nursery Rhymes like "Old Macdonalds has a farm" "Twinkle, twinkle" "Itsy Bitsy Spider" "London Bridge" etc, all the songs in one place, and you don't need an internet connection. Only for the first time you use it, as you need to connect to their server.

2. For almost a month we began to learn Russian letters and I find this as a difficult step for me, as I want my preschooler to learn it in an interactive way, and living in Barcelona I just can look for ideas on the internet. So, this app is great for learning English letters in an easy way with ABC songs and Phonetics games.

3. The other great point is, this app includes all the fruits, vegetables, cars, animal sound, birds, vegetables, shapes and our kiddo can learn new words easy.

4. Number, months of the year and colors he can learn within a game. What can be more interactive.

5. So, all in one,  just a big help for those mums who want their kiddo to learn easily English language in an very interactive way.

I think that we can already plan a long journey with the car, as for sure our kid won't get bored with this app.

If I opened you an interest to the app, Kidloland app and me propose you to participate on a giveaway. Go to our Happy Mama Secrets page and follow the steps to get a 3 months  subscription for FREE.

iOS (KidloLand) : https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id533412119?pt=275891&ct=happymamasecrets

Google Play Store (Nursery Rhymes For Kids): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.internetdesignzone.nurseryrhymes&hl=en

Amazon Appstore (KidloLand): https://www.amazon.com/KidloLand-Nursery-Rhymes-Educational-Preschool/dp/B00HFQBCEU

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How to introduce bottle step by step and solid food to a baby?

Every ending is a new beginning.

Summer ended and with this ended my maternity leave, kids holidays and taugh moments of motherhood. I know that a lot of new things has to happen, still, in our life, but right now we have to pass through new challenges.

1st of September was Marc's first day in the nursery and I had to make some changes in his diet because of this. We began to introduce him the bottle insted of breastfeeding during day-time and we continued with breastfeeding during the night-time. Because, he is already 4 months, I began to introduce solids in his diet. Below I want to share with you steps I have followed to make these changes easier for me and for my baby:

# Sunday, 28th of August - was his first day when I proposed him the bottle. I prepared only 90ml and gave him only one bottle during the first day, rest of the day was breastfeeding.

# Monday, 29th of August - I gave him 120ml of formula and rest of the day breastfeeding.

# Tuesday, 30th of August - I gave him 120 ml twice and in the evening solid food (banana in the oven with fresh orange juice), breastfeeding during the rest of the day

# Wednesday, 31th of August - 150ml of formula twice a day, apple in the oven for the evening and rest of the day breastfeeding

# Thursday, 1st of September- Marc's first day in the nursery, he took only 20ml of formula in the nursery and 150ml of formula at home, pear and banana in the oven and breastfeeding rest of the time

# Friday, 2nd of September- 120ml of formula in the nursery, 150ml at home and breastfeeding

# Saturday, 3rd of September - twice 150 ml of formula and boiled carrot in the evening.

# Sunday, 4th of September - once 150 ml and boiled potato.

Next week, I want to introduce him cereals. I wanted to give him 3 times formula a day, but it was a challenging change for my body and my baby.

Damian was at home all week long and I haven't had enough time to make too many activities with him.  Our daily routine was going to the park and reading books rest of the time.

Tomorrow is my first day at work after 4 months of maternity leave and 3rd day in the nursery for Marc. Kids are growing too fast.

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7 Inside and outside activities with a preschooler.

If you have another baby in the house and your preschooler is already on holidays, like I am, then I have some fun activities you can do to survive and make happy both of your kids.

1. I used to go walking a lot with my baby while my first son was in the nursery. Now, I had to think that my kid won't walk as much as I do. So my daily walking routine, changed on going to different kids' parks to uncharge somehow his battery.

2. Outside activity - Feeding pigeons, this activity is always a good idea, every time we fed pigeons our kid enjoyed. He loves to run after them. What is great as well.

3. Read books, great inside activity. Here I would like to mention that I have observed that if my preschooler is not watching any video or TV, he is keen to listen while I am reading. As well it is great activity for a not sleeping baby.

4. Playing with montessori toys or not so montessori, leaving him play alone, while baby need your attention.

5. Inside activity - scissors. Help to develop his fine motor skills on cutting paper. By the way, it is montessori activity as well.

6. Inside activity - painting. If till now, painting was more for developing his skills on discovering colors and create new things. Now this activity is to develop his ability to write with pencil.

7. Outside activity - zoo, discover the greatness of nature that exists in the World. Here you need help. Daddy is always with us on such complex activities.

Now, our kid is with his grandparents, my parents-in-law, and I understand how much free time I have for me. If you have somebody who can help you, just leave them to help you. I was too tired after such a full activities week. And yes, my preschooler didn't have any screen activity during these days.

P.S. You can follow us on socials. I began to upload little videos with our daily routine. Come and enjoy them.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happymamasecrets
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aladoros/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/happymamasecret
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDMSQda2jq9MorNt3pPR81g

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Swimming during pregnancy.

Swimming is one of mostly recommended sports during pregnancy. I am not the fun of this kind of sport, only because I can't swim professional, and I swim very slow comparing with other people in the gym. With my first kid, it happened to swim few times, while with my second baby I was highly recommended to swim by my doctor. From first weeks of pregnancy I felt pain in my back and this pain annoyed me even during the night. Then, I have read that every pregnant has such pains, because of big changes that produce in our body during next 40 weeks. Strange, but I haven't noticed this pain in my first pregnancy.

Recommendations that I received were:

1. Swimming.
2. Massage, with a specialist, it is important not to make massage for all the back as it can be dangerous for your baby and for your pregnancy. Don't try it at home, only if you are specialised in massage.
3. Special exercises to reinforce my back.

I like water, even if I don't really like to swim. Water help you to relax and feel great after a long working day and after a sleepless night. Swimming is great for pregnant, because it is the less dangerous type of sports and bump weight less in the water. Apart of that, the cold water help to revitalize your body and help it to relax.

Recomended styles of swimming:

1. On the back.

This one I was highly recommended, by the way I swim the best on this position, as this position is the most relaxing one while making slow movements with arms.

2. Freestyle.

Apart of reinforcing arms muscles, it helps to the back as well. Even though, in my case, I wasn't recommended to use this style of swimming during my pregnancy. I used to swim at the beggining of the training, to warm muscles and to learn to control my respiration. And then making movements on the back.

3. Buterfly style.

I haven't tried it, but it is totally prohibited during pregnancy, because it requieres a lot of force in the muscles and if you are not a professional swimmer, like me, better do not use this style.

You can begin to swim from first weeks of pregnancy till the last ones, but always you have to consult with your doctor and see if he recommends you to make this kind of sport. Every woman is different and swimming is done to help you feel better, not worse.

Now, after giving birth I am swimming as well. There is no better way to relax after a sleepless night. Swimming help to quit stress and influence positively on prolactina, the hormone of producing milk.

Swim my darlings! You deserves the best in this world!

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Second pregnancy: what have changed?

I have written already a post about my first pregnancy and you can find it here. Even though I have lived the experience of being a mum, second pregnancy made me to ask questions as well. There is no pregnancy the same.

Disorders - same or not

There are disorders that will be the same as queasiness or back pain, because these disorders are related to the changes that we have in our body. For example queasiness I had less on my first pregnancy, but back pain was felt more in my second pregnancy.

Feel baby's movements

I was reading that for sure in my second pregnancy I will feel baby's movements before that in my first pregnancy, I would say that both babies I have noticed on my 20th week of pregnancy.

Food

On both pregnancies I felt like I am 24h hungry, this feeling hasn't changed. The only thing that was different was the kind of food that I was keen to eat more. On my first pregnancy I ate chocolates, and a lot of sweet things. While with my second pregnancy I ate a lot of salt things and I didn't like sweets.

Duration of delivery

Oooh yes, here is so big difference on its duration. With first baby it last almost 12 hours, and with second 3,5 hours. Researches say that on the second delivery, our muscles are more elastic and our body maintain something like "memory" about what have happened once in our body. Our body is marvelous and it can do miracles.

Breast feeding

With second baby breast feeding is much easier, because it is prepared for the suction, while with first baby almost one month I needed to get customized with the process. Very first days of breast feeding with our first son, was painful, while with second son there was no pain. And breast feeding is a pleasant process.

                                Aren't they cute?

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Discipline for a toddler. Maria Montessori inspired.

Recently, I began to read Maria Montessori book "Casa dei Bambini", or Children's House, translated to English, and I was really inspired how she approached on education of discipline for kids that were learning by her method. Children were keen to listen her and develope their potentials at the highest level.

What do I mean with discipline for a toddler by her method? A lot of mums already know about montessori games which develope fine motor skills on babies, toddlers and kids. But most of them don't know how she obtained that all these kids were doing what she wants and play the games she porposed to them to play.

Every week on Children's house, nurses took measurments of the kids, and this measurements were taken in the day of the week that was born the kid, for example if the child were born on Monday, then all the measurments(height, weight, skin color, eyes control etc.) were taken on Monday. To make this process easy for a teacher, M. Montessori made for every kid a card with all necessary measurments and basic data about the kid. Kids loved the idea of these cards as they felt important to the school and they were keen to help the teacher to take all their measurements.

I hope I grow your interess to read her book and I won't tell you nothing more. I am sure you will ask now, how these cards are related to discipline? In my case it has a direct impact to make a discipline that works for my toddler.

I proposed to make a card as well, not on paper, but on the board as I thought it will be easier if I will have to make changes during the week. This week I continue to make it on the board, but next week for sure I will do it on paper and I will share with you a sample. This card, was done for the whole week and includes all the activities he makes during the day, like going to the toilet alone or playing alone, watching cartoons and eating. And all these activities were marked as 'v' meaning that this activity was done very well by our toddler. Our toddler was happy when he saw, that some activities done by him were appreciated by us. It is ok that some activities are done easier and others less or even when he doesn't like to do, but that mark of 'v', and our appreciation means much more for him than his effort to make what we want.

- Before this card, we had very difficult his meals without a cartoon (we do not let him watch tv or other screen activities, and screen activities were permitted only during the meal) and he neglected any kind of food without a cartoon. With this card it was soooo easy.
- Washing hands and teeth were a process that was easy before the card but he didn't wash his hand regularly, only when he wanted. Now, he is washing his hands and teeth more times that it is necessary, only to get this recognition on the board.
- Put all his toys at theirs place and cleaning the space where he plays. Before this card it was mostly impossible, now he is doing almost every time.
And much more things that I have been impressed after appling this method. Here I want to mention that we proposed all recognitions to be marked only if the kid is doing the activity alone. If he needs to go to the toilet he has to go alone, to eat as well he has to eat alone without any help. We, parents, have the main job to observe if our kid is doing correctly the activity and have to help only if we see that our kid can't do it by himself.

Here is the board of our last week recognitions:

And here is this week card, it is optimized to other activities we want him to do by himself.

This method works, and I am happy of the results. I don't have to negotiate with my toddler when he needs to eat or to play alone without me. I do not have to scream any more when I have to put suncream in the morning, he knows that if the thing is not done there won't be any recognition on the board and that is it.

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Learning shapes, montessori activity for a toddler.

Some weeks ago, I proposed to my toddler to learn shapes. This activity comes to my mind, once I have seen he is learning shapes at the nursery and I thought, that it is a great moment to make this task easier for me and for him by repeating these at home. As well, I was looking for some interactive video on youtube as he could make association with all the knowledge he got during few days. Looking now, I want to say that I am very proud of my son and his quick ability to recognize all the basic shapes.

Steps we took for learning shapes:

1. Nursery activities

2. Montessori games with matching shapes. (these games he used to play from 1 year)

3. Emoticon made from cut paper

4. Making crafts from shapes. In our case circles.

My toddler was very happy once he saw the usefulness of shapes and how many crafts can be done from them. Discover shapes with toddler,  it's too much fun.

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Zoo fun activity. All wild animals in a single place.

Our toddler loves animals, I think all kids love animals, domestic or wild ones, doesn't matter. We decided that it would be a good present for our kids to buy a familiar one year pass to Barcelona Zoo. Because this park is very big, going there with a toddler and a baby, makes impossible to see all animals in one day. And the decision to buy a one year pass was a good one, as we have seen all animals just going there 5 times.

Apart of the great number of animals inside of the park, there are some interactive parks for kids to play, as well places to eat and enjoy the atmosphere of the park.

I leave you some images of our visits there.

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No sew sensory book. Quiet book for a toddler. Steps to make your own no sew quiet book.

It was some time that I wanted to make a quiet book for my toddler, but the idea that I have to sew all the little pieces and then order these to a quiet book, stoped me from making this quiet book. Last week I have seen on pinterest a lot of options of a no sew books. So, I thought that is just a great idea for me and for my toddler.

To make a no sew book what you need:

1. A shape to measure the desired size of the book

2. A felt for the base of the book ( I choose different felt colors for the base)

3. Hot glue gun

4. Scissors

5. Pen or marker

Now, it's time to decide how many pages will have your book. Once you have decided the number of pages that will have your sensory book, it's time to cut the pieces and split all the pages with hot glue gun.

Now it's time to create and to make this book useful. I used some fine motor skill ideas and montessori pages.

Below you can see our no sew sensory book pattern:

1. Hourglass and baloons sensory book page

2. Matching windows and doorof the hous sensory book page and learning the finger signs of numbers 1 to 5 sensory book page.

3. Collect flowers, fine motor skill quiet book page

4. Montessori activity with a shoes quiet book page and LEGO brick sensory book page.

5. Caterpillar fine motor activity quiet book page and buterfly change of colors sensory book page.

6. Directions sensory book page and crayon box uiet book page.

7. Matching world map continents quiet book page.

8. Number association quiet book page and octopus fine motor skills sensory book page.

9. Montessori transport quiet book page and montessori watch quiet book page.

10. Heart puzzle sensory book page and maatching shapes quiet book page.

My toddler loves this quiet book, and I enjoyed making this for him and his little brother. It took me 2 days pf hard work and it was worth it.

How do you like our sensory quiet book?

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