childled activity – Expat Mom Journal

Today my world has turned around! Have you ever felt that something just had to be heard / read / seen at the right time, at the right place?

Quote

The quote that struck a spark in me this time, was found while mindlessly scrolling through my insta feed. It is something super simple but very powerful. It doesn’t even matter what image, music, and captions accompanied the meme. The message that it holds is important and it sounds like this.

A says: We only live once. B’s response: WRONG! We only die once. We live every day!

Community

What a change in perspectives! Me being a huge procrastinator, I need to live every day! Get accountable and do something every day for me, my husband, my kids, my environment.

I cannot wait to integrate into this new community. Making friends is not easy, but it’s definitely worth the effort. It’s important for me to help my family building a network of friends / people around us in our new home, to grow together.

Fitness v. Fit-less

Another way this quote influences me is to get in shape. I am a year postpartum today. I feel weak but motivated. Building a stamina would mean more playtime with my kids. I would like to fully live every day with them. At this point I am sleep deprived, my hormone level is imbalanced, and I go through waves of energy tides few times a day.

New habit

Today my eldest found joy in using a toy that he got about two years ago (way too early to his age back then). It is perfect now. It works like a slide-projector, if you remember those. You must choose a slide / image and place it inside an apparatus that will reflect it onto a canvas.

We then draw the image on the canvas and then coloured it in. After completing two of these arts with my son, he carried on alone while listening to some nature documentary on the TV.

Before I knew it, he brought his notebook with 7 images drawn and coloured in. He then explained that each image is part of his weekly calendar that will commence tomorrow. He asked his dad how to write the word DAY. Then wrote day 1, day 2, etc., next to each image.

I suggested we turn this into a journal. He preps 7 days worth of image. Then during the week we can write ‘HIGH, LOW, BUFFALO’ of the day around the image. But why stop there? We can add the date, name of the day in all the languages we speak at home. Furthermore the weather, and any ad hoc events worth looking back on. My son is interested in learning to write. He often asks us to spell a word for him, so he can write it down. The opportunities are endless.

Let’s make every day to remember for.

Meanwhile Indoors

My son decided he would like to draw something. He was determined to use many colours but he didn’t know what to draw exactly.

He wanted to work on it collectively with his sister and me. As I was taking the crayons out and the notepad, an idea sparked in his head. He opened the notepad and took the brown crayon. He divided the paper into smaller parts. Then he dedicated a colour to each part and instructed us to colour as he told. He felt in control and it was great to see how he gently giggled when we improvised and things didn’t go the way he imagined. He was easy and we were too. We named him Colour Chief and proudly played his part.

Colouring

And we just coloured. It was a bliss. We all chipped in and got the work done. There was no competition, it wasn’t a race, it was a bliss. The kids enjoyed it so much that we made four different pictures.

1000 Hours Outside Challenge

This week has passed by ever so quickly. We spent time outdoors five out of seven days due to some above described weather. In Hungarian customs April is labelled as a foolish month due to its ever changing weather. Well, here is Switzerland, March feels like April in Hungary. The weather is playing tricks on us, as my son would say. Its hard to tell how to dress. It could be winter when the bus picks up the kids in the morning and early summer warm when the bus brings them back from kindergarten. Overall we braved the elements for over 12 hours outdoors this week. Since we starter the challenge we logged over 120 hours outdoors in total. This number is not as high as I expected it to be three and half months into the challenge, but it comes with no surprise due to the time spent in hospital earlier this year. I am not worried about the early set backs as I know that we will recuperate the hours in the warmer summer months ahead of us.

Daisy in macro at the front with toddler running on the road blurred in the background.

Cat is chilling in the grass on a sunny day.

Toddler is sitting in the grass on a sunny but cold day.

In Summary

We made the most of the good weather outdoors and made good use of our time indoors. The kids enjoyed this simple drawing activity so much that we coloured a dozen more in the following day. It gave us a break from the daily routine. It is easy to set up and put away. My daughter learns bit by bit that drawing happens on the paper and not on the wall or furniture. It teaches them to put away things after use, so it is ready next time we need them. And my favourite part is that while drawing the conversation flows like water from a mountain stream. During this time, I can indulge in the stories my son invents.

Tag: childled activity

Power of quotes