Note from an older mum

Dear fellow LPN mums,
I am very happy to have found you all. This is a wonderful place to express ourselves and share information. I admire the enthusiasm and energy of those who have been mothers for 5 years or less and I thank you for letting me be a part of your world.

I have been a mother for 13 years now and I have benefited mainly from older mums who have put things into perspective with their wise comments and experiences. Now it seems it's time for me to get some fresh energy from younger mums too. I have 'been there done that' when it comes to searching for the information as to how best to prepare our children for their future. My first son was conceived and raised 'by the book' and it was hard work, done with much love (always been with all of our children) and it was yielding the expected results: baby slept through the night from 6 months, was introduced to foods on time, was trilingual at 18 months and responded to basic discipline rules. Then number 2 was born, another boy. NOTHING seemed to work: he even jumped out of his cot at NINE months when we were doing the 'by the book sleep alone in your room' procedure. So he shared our bed, stayed up late, couldn't speak clearly and seemed to be winging all the time! It was so tiring and as we tried harder and harder to put him into some kind of mould he rebelled more and more. At some point we started accepting him for who he was and not trying to make him some kind of preconceived toddler or child. He is a PERFECT 10 year old nowadays with a big heart and a loud voice that can be put to good use when needed (like when singing a happy song out loud!). After a 7 year gap we had our baby daughter who is now a toddler at 2 and a half. We have given up on books, rules and we have finally decided to simply ENJOY the ride. She is turning out quite normal, as trilingual as her brothers and as rebel as she naturally is.

I don't claim to be an expert, I just want to share my experience with you. What I would suggest is to enjoy parenthood. This is what I learned from older mums. They were smiling when I was complaining about how difficult potty training was or how much patience was needed to teach them how to write or make them read. I bought all the sticker books, the flash cards, the songs and the educational toys. At the end, each child is different and parents should make sure that they have a break too. I disagree with too much structuring. We should leave at least one afternoon - when they are at school age - just to be home and do simple things like watch cartoons (even if they are educational) or kick the ball. Let your children enjoy each other, interact as siblings like our grandparents did: the older can take care of the younger, they can all play with one ball, find snails in the garden and enjoy bilingualism, music, reading, sports or whatever it is that they are good at in a casual manner. I have discovered teaching my daughter the alphabet in English by singing while we change a nappy. The road is long and bumpy, sleepless nights come without a warning. We are only humans and we shouldn't get anxious on bringing up our children. Sometimes all you have to do is follow your gut feeling. Our children need to learn that we are not perfect and that we are humans just like them. We need our time and our space and as they grow into their teens there is a different danger of invasion into our already invaded space as individuals. It is our duty to help them with time management until their 20s (yes, twenties!) as found by recent neurological studies. Sometimes they will resist and we have to do it. But 20 or more years per child is too long to stress over perfection, don't you think?

Finally, I must to acknowledge that I have been very fortunate in being able to leave a routine that I had developed as a working mother for 10 years and left me EXHAUSTED. We went to a place where life goes on at a slower, more relaxed pace, where most families have 3 children instead of 2 and where mothers are forced to stay home with their children until they are at least 5. That gave me the opportunity to assess those 10 years and to wonder how could I have carried on like that for so long. There I could read more books on older children and I understood that after a certain point we cannot influence them anymore. So our initial efforts are very important and then the Community takes over, including teachers, sport teams, clubs, etc. So now I am using all my free time on bringing the spirit of community into the equation. This is a great place to raise children with a lot of individual effort into everything everyone does but when it comes to feel part of a community I think we are still far from where we could be. But that would be a topic for another note. In the meantime, get plenty of rest when you can, give yourself permission to make mistakes, say sorry when needed and ASK for 'me' time. Spoil yourselves because your children and your community need you happy, healthy and strong.
Thanks for reading.

Veronica Athanasiou
Ex Biology teacher and now full time mum with a particular interest on community issues.

Larnaca Municipality Press Release 21st May -27th May 2012

This weekly press release is part of an effort to inform our citizens and the public in general about the activities of our Municipality.

Cultural Events for May
English
Greek
For more information call the Larnaca Municipality Cultural Department on 24657745 or 24629333

Construction work
The Department of Construction of the Municipality of Larnaca informs the public that between 21/05-25/05/2012, the following construction work will be in progress:

• Pavement construction in the Shopping Centre.
• Drain covers cleaning on Alithersi street.
• Premix construction on the streets: Georgiou Averof, Alkiviadou, Stavrou Poskoti, Patris Loumoumpa etc.
• Drain cleaning in Kalogera and Filosofou Aristoteli streets.
• Gutter construction in Makras Asias street.
• Work related to the Flood Festival.

Finance Department
The Larnaca Municipality Finance Department informs the public that payment of the Municipal Property Tax, Corporate Tax and Business Premises Permit for the year 2011 as well as for the previous years is possible only at Larnaca Municipality Offices. A 10% fine will be added on the initial tax amount.

As far as the Refuse Collection Tax is concerned, the payment deadline has already passed and legal proceedings have begun.
The public should settle their payments to Larnaca Municipality on time and within the given deadlines to avoid added legal and court costs.

Visit the website: www.larnaka.com
Energy Team and Environmental Management Department: www.larnaka202020.eu
Contact: 24816559, 24816581/email: perivallon@larnaca.com

Translation kindly provided by

Eri Constantinou

 www.greek4kids.eu 

The challenge of introducing new foods to kids

Do you struggle to get your child to eat? Do you find it difficult to introduce new foods? It’s a common challenge which partly has to do with the way kids are wired. They want the familiar, tried and tested.

It’s normal and understandable, but we shouldn’t exactly let them have it their way all the time. Some kids will only eat carbs, some kids only eat food that is white, some kids eat no veggies, some kids eat no meat, some are a combination of all of the above.

Emma is the combination kind, and her desires change by the season. She loves broccoli but turns her nose up at cucumber. She will eat pitta bread but not if there’s cheese in it - she’ll only eat cheese in a regular sliced bread sandwich. But despite these idiosyncrasies she’s a pretty good eater. She will eat meat, and veggies and loves fruit, yoghurt, cheese…. But not every kind you put in front of her, she has her favourites.

I’m pretty happy with her diet and I truly believe it’s because of the way we introduce food to her. I make fun lunch boxes and try to include a new food like that. She loves the fun food picks, cute containers. Another really fun way we introduce food to Emma is by serving it in Muffin Tins.

It’s such a great way to serve and introduce new foods. You get 6 holes and a chance to fill each with a different food. And even if you don’t make cute shapes it’s already separated in child friendly compartments.

They will love the new presentation, they will love the mini sizes, and you could be sure that they will try that new food you added in one of the compartments. If they don’t, don’t despair. It could take 10 – 15 tries for your toddler to accept the new food. You just need to keep introducing the food and eating it yourself.

Now just imagine, you worked all summer to have your angel accept strawberries. You finally get her to eat them and after all that work, seasons change, strawberries go out of season; this may mean you will have to reintroduce again next summer. It’s kind of an out of site out of mind situation. Best thing I can recommend is keep introducing the food even in a different form. So get some frozen strawberries and make a strawberry yoghurt or a strawberry banana smoothie.

Good Luck with it! It takes patience and perseverance, but isn’t that what parenting in general is all about?

Vanja
Emma’s Lunch 

Raising a bilingual kid: tips and techniques that work for us.

My daughter is bilingual… She is only 18 month old but I can already say for sure, she understands and speaks 2 languages – Russian and Greek. Her active vocabulary, meaning the words she can pronounce, in Greek is around 30 words and in Russian – around 35. And this is not including names, sounds of animals and few English words she sometimes happily throws around. I believe it’s a very good result and it’s reasonable to share some of the techniques my husband and I used, after having read tons of articles and opinions on this issue.

No. 1. We have eliminated the third language in between us – English. The reason is – none of us is a native speaker of this language so we couldn’t give the best of it. It was a bit tough on me because the second common language for us was Greek and I had to break a habit of communicating in English for so many years. At the end of the day it was the best thing I did because my Greek is on a very good level now.

No. 2. We “cleaned up” our languages. Seems strange but the truth is we do not realize how many slang words or words from other languages we use on the daily basis. When we started being careful about what we speak, it “slowed down” the way we talk. Don’t you sometimes forget the word in your language so you use a Greek/English one instead? Apparently that’s what I was doing all the time. Did you ever think of how it affects your child? It is common sense that if you cannot express yourself in one language – neither will your kid. So now, for the sake of my baby, I speak pure Russian and really enjoy the absence of long pauses in my speech.

No. 3. We sing and rhyme a lot. Even before Anna was born my hubby was singing his favorite Greek songs to the baby in my belly and so was I in Russian. By the way she still loves those songs and smiles every time we sing them. Music and poems prove to be easier absorbed by infants and develop their ability to pronounce words and make sounds.

No. 4. I developed a system based on the method of Glenn Doman. To put it down in a few words, according to this scientist a parent can teach a child from the age of 1 to read by showing him/her cards with pictures and words written with big red letters. By showing such cards with animals, fruits, vegetables, means of transportation, etc., you are giving your child a huge passive knowledge and vocabulary, which becomes useful once a child starts communicating. I found this theory quite reasonable and moved on to prepare my own cards, even though you can easily download those from Internet for free. I took same pictures but printed out one set in Greek and one in Russian. You are supposed to show the cards to your child very quickly (few seconds each) but very often (minimum 5 times a day) and stop before the baby gets bored. Guess what. Anna is never bored and many times she brings me to the table where I keep our cards and loudly asks for more. That is why I prepare new cards every little while.

No. 5. We are watching cartoons in both languages. It’s important not to show favoritism choosing your TV or Internet entertainment for a kid. It can be hard because I personally know lots of great Russian songs and cartoons and nearly nothing of a kind in Greek. Since I don’t know – I ask and search. It wouldn’t be fair if I only showed products of my native culture and leave the Greek part to my husband who works while I’m at home with the child all day long. I do my best to balance both languages.

No. 6. When my husband comes home we play a game which can be called “let’s read the same book in different languages”. Anna has a favorite book; she brings it to me and points at some characters, animals or objects, which I name in Russian. Then I ask her to go to daddy so he would read her the same book, naming the same characters, animals or objects in Greek. At the beginning Anna liked my version better, probably because I was showing more emotions while daddy was tired most of the times and his version was not so exciting. The solution came unexpectedly. Once daddy tried to get out of the reading and pretended to be asleep when Anna came to him. She was very surprised; poor kid turned to me with a puzzled look and asked me in a very dramatic manner: ”papa???”. I found it so funny that it was simply impossible to hold my laughter. In a few moments daddy “woke up” and also started laughing out loud and Anna really loved this part. We do the same scenario nearly every time and she started loving daddy’s version because she needs to earn his attention first, he is very good at playing a hard cookie! 

No. 7. Last but not least – communication with people of both nationalities. Luckily enough we have lots of friends and relatives from both sides, so Anna hears both languages not only from us. I think it’s very important because if she would hear other people speaking Greek only, eventually she would come to the conclusion: why do I need this other language my mum uses all the time? Thanks heavens I have my parents living permanently in Cyprus, but even having their help I’m still looking for more Russian speakers and gladly make friends with other moms, whose kids are in the same situation. Right now our babies simply enjoy understanding little words of each other. In a few years’ time these kids will realize that they have an advantage of speaking a language that other children do not know, like a little secret language! That’s a huge thrill and good motivation for them to use this language and not keep it in a passive stage.
Of course, everything I’ve mentioned until now, works for us in our particular case. Every child and family is different. Not all the parents can (or want) to eliminate a third language in between; may be some of the mums do not have time to create their own Doman Cards; it also happens that a mother is the only source of minority language and her relatives/friends are far away. Here is my point of view: the more you deal with the issue and try to work out your way, without letting it go or flow on its own, the more chances of success you have.

Irina Evangelou 
LPN Mum

LPN is a pure community based site that adopts the true spirit of Blogging. As such we feature unedited raw content from our readers.

Lefkara

Lefkara is a village on the island of Cyprus famous for its lace and silver handicrafts. It is located on the southern slopes of the Troödos Mountains in the Larnaca District of Cyprus, off the main Nicosia-Limassol highway. It features cobbled streets and picturesque architecture. The village is split into two administrative regions: upper and lower Lefkara with around 1,100 inhabitants.
A common sight is groups of women who sit in the narrow village streets working on their fine embroidery, as they have for centuries. The village is also known for its skilled silversmiths who produce fine filigree work, and there is a small Turkish Delight factory. A folklore museum in the town shows visitors what life was like in Cyprus a hundred years ago. The museum is located in a restored house and exhibits the furniture and effects of a wealthy family, local costumes and examples of the Lefkara lacework.

Nowadays, people visit to learn of the rich Cultural history of Cyprus, and to admire the ancient architecture.
http://www.visitcyprus.com/wps/portal