Patterns.

The foam magnetic patterns that I purchased in the fall for our new school year, has been a great success in our house. The box is always on the kitchen counter, and when I am cooking most of the time the girls would come up and keep me company by playing with their pattern shapes. They have been using the cookie sheets and I also have a book with different patterns, outlines of animals to fill in with the shapes. The cookie sheet works as a magnetic surface, and it is easier to work with the shapes since they don't get messed up that easily. The concept of the toy is supposed to teach them shapes, pattern recognition, and also be used as a great tool for math manipulatives to learn about fractions, additions and subtractions, etc.

And then Leona took the box and dumped it on the floor and started creating various images. It is so great to see her use the imagination and take initiative to explore the things you can make out of the shapes. She came up with a whole landscape, as you can easily see the sun and clouds with rain drops, two types of flowers and a tree, there is a giraffe, a car and herself standing next to it. As she was playing she kept on counting the leaves, the drops, the petals. She definitely is showing interest in math and it seems that it excites her, as she constantly asks me questions "how much is five plus three", etc. And she brings a math workbook to me to do it together.

Lunar eclipse.

It has been our second experience watching lunar eclipse. As it doesn't happen often, every time it is an amazing sight! They say next lunar eclipse will be in December 2010. And weather permitting it can be observed today anywhere in the US according to NASA.

Eclipses occur only if at full moon when the sun, Earth and moon are in a perfect line. Because the moon's orbit around Earth is not perfectly aligned with the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun, eclipses do not occur at every moon.

They were predicting the moon to possibly turn turquoise color, but we did not see that. Of course I grabbed my camera and went outside. The sky was perfectly clear on a rather frosty night. I was trying to snap a shot without a tripod. I was just leaning against the tree, and holding my breath for a few seconds. But it was impossible to hold my camera still still I was trembling from being cold. I sent Mirek to get the tripod, and the result was much better!

It is such a mystical thing to observe! You just sink into the sky and forget about things around you! It is truly magical!

Interestingly, Christopher Columbus famously used a blood-red eclipse in 1504 to frighten natives on Jamaica into feeding his crew.

What's up with that hair?

Natural way of living and holistic approach to body is my specialty. There is so much bad things out there that we , as parents, have to be always on a look out about what our kids eat, what they play with, what we bath them with, and so on. So I've been keeping my eyes open and remembered and implemented a lot of forgotten practices of leading a healthy life style from my childhood.
I don't rush the kids to the doctor's office with the first cough or a fever. I know how to treat cuts and other wounds, we practice prevention through proper nutrition, trying to keep us active with going on hikes, nature walks, swimming, biking, etc. So far we have been blessed with our health and energy levels, plus every day I am trying to learn something new in the field of holistic health that interests me so much.

Some of my favorite little secrets are using baking soda and vinegar for house cleaning purposes, using lemon instead of deodorants for your underarms (it's a bit sticky in the beginning and might give you a bit of a burning sensation if you've just shaved, but works great!), using organic coconut oil as face and hands moisturizer. One rule to remember here! If you won't want to eat it, then don't put it on your skin, since our skin is the largest external organ and absorbs everything! Coconut oil has a fantastic aroma and Mirek always tells me how "sweet I smell"!

Have you tried to brush your teeth with baking soda? I basically grew up doing that, since a lot of times we had no tooth paste at home, and baking soda came in handy. It is not pleasant (no strawberry flavorings here, let me tell you that!), but the results are phenomenal, it just takes some time to get used to it , plus you don't have to brush with it all the time, but can substitute with natural tooth paste (Tom's of Maine, for example).

And recently I've learned another trick... I am coming closer to the true story! One of my favorite health web sites is Dr. Mercola's. The compendium of his expertise in leading a healthy life style is amazing! So, I have read that you can actually use olive oil instead of conditioner. And since girls' hair gets soooo tangled, even if I brush it right after the bath before they go to bed. In the morning there are always plenty of "auches"! Don't you think I wanted to give it a try? Of course!
We washed their hair as usual with their natural shampoo, and then we used.... extra virgin first press olive oil!
"Mom, why did you do that? Now I smell like salad!", Ivana was saying almost instantly after I've applied the oil on her hair. I thought that Leona would chicken out and refuse, but no way. She wanted to have olive oil on her hair as well. And so I poured it generously!
Then we washed it off with warm water, and I must admit it was noticeably easier to comb their hair right after washing. I was on the cloud nine to have found an alternative to a conditioner (just read the label to see what it contains, some of the things you won't be able to pronounce!)

And that is how my beautiful daughters looked in the morning! I think the picture says it all! Shall we get the scissors?
To make things worse, it has been four days of hair washing now, and their hair is still rather greasy! I guess I'll be buying natural conditioner! But... I would never have know if I hadn't tried.

KULU MELE.

What is KULU MELE?
In case you couldn't think it up, it's the name of the African dance ensamble located in Philadelphia, and touring with their shows all over US. They specialize in West African and Cuban dance. We went to see their show on Sunday.

It was one of the greatest performances (not comparing it to Broadway) on a local level we have been to so far. As I tend to be a bit skeptical to wonderful descriptions of the program on the pamphlets and fliers, I still decided to give it a shot. And there are NO regrets here, not a bit!

First, the girls had participated in a workshop before the show. They made paper African masks, with jewels and raffia. Leonka did a fantastic job doing her coloring. A few volunteers came up to her and were amazed at her ability to do such a nice mask. Yep, you could tell we do a lot of hand-on activities with the girls at home.

The workshop took an hour. The lady talked about the history of mask making in Africa, and when the kids got busy there was African music playing in the background to give extra inspiration to little artists.

The best part was when they announced that those who had participated in a workshop would get to sit on the front seat, right by the stage! Wow! It was great! I kept on looking at my girls' faces. Ivana loved it to pieces, and Leona's mouth would not close, and her eyes were rounder than round!

Kulu Mele's show was fantastic, with live drummers, singers and very dynamic dances. In the middle of the performance all the kids from a workshop were invited on the stage to show off their colorful masks and dance to the drum beat. Ivana was jumping excitedly, Leona was holding my hand, and then gave a nice bow on the stage after showing her mask.

I left my camera at home, so I don't have any pictures of the girls on the stage, but today I asked them to pose for me so that we can blog about it!

I've never sat so close to the stage, except that one time when I took Mirek to see "The Death of the Salesman" on Broadway. Let me tell you something! Those tattoos on dancers' legs, callouses on their toes, and sweat dripping down from male dancers' naked chests were a bit distracting in the beginning, but than I was submerged into their dancing and totally stopped paying attention. A few minutes later I was visiting west African tribe...

http://www.KuluMele.Org

Mist in the morning.

The weather has gone mad! It is supposed to be snowing! It is supposed to be cold and crisp fresh air, when we go sledding and skiing with the girls! Playing snowball fights and building a snowman! The weather has gone mad!
The fog looked almost unreal in the middle of February. It was so thick, that you could hardly see anything in front of you within a yard distance. Forget about driving on those country roads, with sharp turns and curvy ups and downs. I was worried for Mirek getting home safe and sound.
Then at the end of the day, we had even more surprises! Thunderstorms (YES!), pouring rain followed by hail. What a turnover from a calm winter day.