6 reasons mothers are important

 - If it weren’t for your mom, you wouldn’t be breathing right now. If nothing else, you should thank her for that.

 - Mothers are the emotional backbones of the family. They provide the holding place for everyone’s feelings and do their best to keep us from being hurt.

 - Who would kiss your boo-boos to make it all better if she weren’t around? Mothers have the magic touch (and kiss) to help us heal our wounds, physical and emotional.

 - Truly, our mothers worked hard and made sacrifices, so our lives would be better. There are not a lot of people willing to do that, so let her know you appreciate it.

 - Mothers are forgiving—so forgive her in return. Perhaps nothing will be as valuable a gift to both of you as forgiveness. Open your heart and drop your resentments. Now that’s love.

 - When you want to climb the tallest mountain, your mother will make your lunch for you. She is the one who will support your dreams when no one else will. She will also remind you to wear clean underwear.
Her boundaries made you a better person. You may not have liked some of her decisions, especially when you wanted to party with your friends, but she did keep you out of trouble. 

The importance of teamwork for children

Teamwork requires people to work cooperatively with others towards a shared purpose. For a team to work together effectively, it takes all members of the team to respect each other’s abilities and opinions. Teamwork is a highly social activity and involves much interaction and exchanging of ideas and actions. 

Being part of a team enables your child to move from more intrapersonal (individual) ways of thinking to interpersonal (communicating with others). It will help a child in all areas of their learning, and help them to feel part of a community, too. Working as part of a team will strengthen your child’s social and emotional skills, help develop their communication skills, and can improve confidence.

In school your child will experience teamwork in many different forms. Children may be asked to work in pairs, small groups, or larger groups on a variety of different things. They may be asked to work in teams for physical activities such as ball games or running games or more formal activities such as projects. Children also often form their own team activities during their play time.

While your child will experience plenty of team-based activities at school, it is important to continue the ethos of good teamwork at home. It can feel great to be part of a team, but if a child is excluded from a team it can be an upsetting experience. Make sure your child understands this and does not exclude others.

Teamwork can often inspire competitiveness with other teams – especially in physical activities. Encourage your child to be a good sportsman and a team-player.
Get children to work together on a project at home – it could be anything from a collective art project to performing a play. Encourage every child to decide on a role in the team.

Спектакль «Шел по городу волшебник»!!!

24 и 25 мая 2014 года Санкт-Петербургский детский театр сказки «РазДваТри» приглашает юных зрителей Кипра принять участие в невероятных приключениях вместе с героями спектакля «Шел по городу волшебник»!!! 

Хорошо бы найти коробок волшебных спичек, исполняющих любое желание. Раз…и сразу мама разрешает не чистить зубы. Два …и можно стать прославленным спортсменом. Три…и ты вдруг самый сильный человек в мире…Но принесет ли это радость? Может, не стоит надеяться на волшебство, а лучше всего в жизни добиваться своим трудом и талантом.

Санкт-Петербургский театр сказки «РазДваТри» - лауреат европейских фестивалей пантомимы и клоунады, неоднократный дипломант фестиваля «Театры Санкт-Петербурга - детям». 

Рекомендованный возраст: от 4-х лет и старше.
Продолжительность спектакля: 1 час 10 минут (без антракта).

НЕ ПРОПУСТИТЕ ЗАГАДОЧНОЕ ПРОИСШЕСТВИЕ В ГОРОДАХ: 

Никосия - 24 мая в 11.00 (Театр SATIRIKO-большой зал) ,
Лимассол - 24 мая в 18.00 (театр Agios Athanasios),
Ларнака - 25 мая в 11.00 (театр SKALA), 
Пафос - 25 мая в 18.00 (театр MАRKIDEO).

Стоимость билетов 12 евро.
Дополнительная информация по телефону: 96 30 2770
И на сайте: www.magictheatre.ru

The importance of family travel

"Are we there yet?" What parent has heard that little voice coming from the backseat of the car five minutes after driving out of the garage at the beginning of a long trip and hasn't sighed and asked themselves, "Is this all really worth it?" When it comes to taking your children along on trips, the answer is "absolutely."

In fact, going on trips with your children is without question one of the single most important parenting activities that you can ever do. There is simply no substitute for travel. It's an enormous teaching opportunity for your children in a myriad of ways. Not only is traveling with your kids the best possible way for parents and children to bond with each other, it inevitably provides a host of teachable moments.

The first important value that travel provides for your children is that it teaches them how important they are to you. Inevitably, when you take your kids with you on a trip, it is a simple yet direct way of communicating their importance in your life. As you undoubtedly know, children learn a thousand times more by actions than they do by words.

Telling them that they matter to you, that you love them, that they are important in your life is all well and good (and of course you ought to do it), but there is no substitute for the message that is communicated to them in their guts and in their souls by the fact that you have chosen to spend one of the most valuable things you own -- your time -- with them.

They learn not by the words that you say, but by the things that you do with them that show then that they matter, that they are significant people to you and that you are willing to spend your time and money to include them in a special part of your life.

Park Life - By Paula Manoli-Gray

I live opposite and next door to two parks and should consider myself lucky really, especially with two young children, but the reality is not so idyllic.

For one, the two parks are of the old-school variety, despite being only eight years old. By that, I mean they have the same, standard, dated toys as every other park in my area; slide, swings, roundabout and seesaw, all in the same boring metal, same basic design and same colours. But that is not a reason to be ungrateful, nor would I be if the parks were a) maintained properly by Aradippou municipality and b) not desecrated and destroyed by the hoodlums in my neighbourhood.

These parks – along with a myriad of their kind across Larnaca neighbourhoods – are a sorry sight to see. They are so dilapidated, overgrown and vandalised that we actually give them a wide berth, opting instead to get in a car and drive to some of the nice new ones with their elaborate play structures, landscaped gardens and less-standard toys. What a shame when we have two parks directly next door and opposite to us.

My ex-pat neighbour once remarked to me that he could not understand why we have so many parks. There is a law that a certain percentage of land in built-up areas needs to be 'green', therefore, you will find multiple parks in areas like mine, which are relatively new to development, with literally one every couple of hundred metres. At the time I didn't particularly like his comment and put this down to him not having young children. But I can see now that he is right. We do not need a park every few steps we take, especially when they are all the same and battered. Yes, we need green areas, but they should be just that – lush, green forests and gardens, with some, good quality parks intermittently. These fewer but better parks should have exciting, sturdy toys, be maintained by the municipality and above all, vandalism should not be tolerated.

As we speak, in the park directly opposite to my house, the hoodlums of the neighbourhood have smashed the slide to pieces, along with a bench. Furthermore, they have built a den with all manner of household junk (I won't ponder where it has come from) and are still letting off bangers and fireworks even though Easter is long behind us. They scream and chant late into the night.

Whilst I fully agree that children will be children and should have the freedom to shout and build and explore and, and, and… there is a fine line between them doing this and becoming a nuisance and pest. We all share the neighbourhood so why are their parents not checking up on what they are doing? Why do they allow them to run around till late at night letting off fireworks and smashing things up? What a sad indictment of society if they don't actually know that this is happening, although I suspect they do and turn a blind eye because it is not actually in their own property that the destruction is taking place.

As much as I love my neighbourhood in Aradippou, these parks are a shameful, ugly blot to our community, as are the disrespectful and aggressive children that destroy them.

First appeared in The Cyprus Weekly, 10/05/14