Monday Coffee Morning - Surprise!

Molly over at The Move to America has had a wonderful idea for a weekly social link up with a 'Monday Coffee Morning' where she shares what her week has in store for her. Nice idea huh? If you want to join in head over to Molly's.

This weeks update is more in time for afternoon tea but the thought is there and it's earlier than last week.  This week is about enjoying the sunshine and getting into the holiday mood. I've just spent the weekend in Wales for a surprise party for my uncle who turned 60 so today is about unpacking, getting to grips with the washing and repacking bags. And writing blog posts evidently.

Airports - not the perfect place for relaxation
Photo: R Mitchell

My head is a little elsewhere after my trip to the UK. Whenever I have been back in recent years I realise how long I have been away and how little I feel I belong there anymore. It's just not home. A cousin asked me on Saturday if I thought I'd ever move back to England. I said no. I wouldn't voluntarily move back in the foreseeable future. So my head is processing that realisation at the moment. I know I feel at home here in the Netherlands, but how opposed to moving back to England I was I hadn't realised. That's something to chew over this week.

I won't reveal the exact words I used but yesterday I sent a text to my husband from Manchester airport telling him that the Brits around me seemed a little stressed. I found it hard work getting to my airplane what with being told off for having the wrong size plastic bag for my liquids at security. I had to put my liquids into a slightly smaller plastic bag that I was given whilst the security officer stood waiting. Baffled is not the word. The few centimetres extra of plastic bag makes what difference? If anyone knows I really am interested in hearing why. WH Smiths has introduced an amazingly ridiculous, annoying self-check out system in their airport shop which means the customer does everything themselves and everything takes twice as long because no customer knows what they are doing and needed the one staff member to authorise just about every move they made on the machine. Then I had to repack my hand luggage to take in the cabin so I could fit my handbag in my carry on because space was at a premium in the cabin as the EasyJet flight was fully booked. Stress, stress, stress. I was glad to be home.

It looks like the rest of the week will be about de-stressing, battling heat, packing and travelling.......
What does your week hold in store for you?

Multicultural Kid Blogs Pinterest Scavenger Hunt: Today's Clue

Get ready to start exploring!

The Pinterest Scavenger Hunt has officially begun!

This contest is sponsored by Multicultural Kid Blogs to celebrate the official launch of our website.

The Scavenger Hunt will run from July 15 to July 28. Participants have until July 31 to submit their entries, and the drawing will take place on August 1.

You could win one of four fabulous prize packages!

Details about the Scavenger Hunt can be found below.

Today's Clue

Are you parenting one of the 20%?

Now take a look around on this site and try to find the post that fits the clue. Once you think you've found it, pin it to the Pinterest Board you've created just for this contest.

Be sure to pop over to Creative World of Varya for the other clue for today. A full schedule and rules of the game can be found below. Don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter at the bottom for more chances to win!

How to Play:

Create a Pinterest board specifically for the contest and name the board "Multicultural Kid Blogs Pinterest Scavenger Hunt." Each day a new clue (or two!) will be revealed. Follow the clue to the blog of the day and pin the post described in the clue. (Any image from the post is fine). In the Rafflecopter below, enter the link to the Pinterest board you created for this contest. The Rafflecopter will also have lots of other ways to earn extra entries. The only required entry is the link to your Pinterest board. Please note: You can enter the Rafflecopter at any point during the contest. Obviously your board won't be complete until the end of the contest, but you can enter the link in the Rafflecopter before then. If your name is drawn at the end of the contest, we will check your board at that time. The final clue will be given July 28. Participants will have until midnight Pacific time on July 31 to finalize their boards. The drawing will take place on August 1. Winners must have pinned all of the correct posts to their board. Winners will be notified via email and must respond within 48 hours or another name will be drawn. Good luck, explorers!

Scavenger Hunt Schedule

(Visit the Scavenger Hunt main page for a full list of clues as they are revealed).

July 15

All Done Monkey

Crystal's Tiny Treasures

July 16

The Squishable Baby

July 17

Be Bilingual

July 18

the piri-piri lexicon

MommyMaestra

July 19

Creative World of Varya

Expat Life With a Double Buggy

July 20

Sprout's Bookshelf

Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns

July 21

Open Wide the World

MotherTongues

July 22

MarocMama

Head of the Heard

July 23

For the Love of Spanish

July 24

InCultureParent

July 25

Crafty Moms Share

The Art of Home Education

July 26

The European Mama

Spanish Playground

July 27

Vibrant Wanderings

A Hotchpotch Hijabi in Italy

July 28

Kids Yoga Stories

Final day to enter the contest is July 31, 2013, at midnight PDT. Drawing will take place on August 1, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Parenting A Highly Sensitive Child

Amsterdam Mamas has published an article that I wrote on the topic of highly sensitive children. It's my personal story of parenting a highly sensitive child and the journey we have been on over the last few years and in particular the challenges we have faced with his schooling. It's been a bumpy road but I hope my story helps somebody somewhere understand highly sensitive children just a little bit more.

"My eldest son is a highly sensitive child (HSC), and together we’ve been on an 18 month journey of discovery.
After a traumatic entry to the world, my first-born cried a lot – every evening for hours at a time for the first three months of his life. At six months, nobody could hold him except his father or me. Later, he would cower behind our legs if a stranger came near him. If we tried to leave him with someone, he screamed hysterically."  To read more head over to Amsterdam Mamas.

*If this is a topic that resonates with you I have created a Facebook group called "Happy Sensitive Kids" for anyone who is involved in raising HSCs. My goal is to create a supportive, safe place to share tips, experiences, challenges and the joys of bringing up HSCs. It's a closed group so you need to request membership but it also means that the posts can only be seen my members.*

My Children Are not Dustbins

I have been really frustrated the last few weeks by the amount of junk reaching my children's stomachs. What frustrates me as much as what they are being fed is the fact that it is completely out of my hands because it is happening in school of all places. My three year old seems to come home every other week clutching a goodie bag filled to the brim with sugar having celebrated some birthday or another or a child leaving nursery school to start primary school. Oh, and did I mention he's only in school for five hours per week? He gets more crap fed to him in those five hours than the rest of the week combined.

But it's not just the goodie bags. He came home yesterday proudly announcing he'd had an ijsje and a cookie in school because two children are leaving the peuterspeelzaal.  He was there from 8.45am until 11.15am. Seriously. How much sugar can a child ingest in those two and a half hours in the morning? If he's at home he has a piece of fruit around 10.30 am. If he's lucky and he nags me enough.

I don't like to whine, but really. Shouldn't healthy eating education begin at an early age? The schools my children attend write a lot about parents providing health snacks for children for break time in the 'school rules' and in their newsletters and ask that parents think along the lines of healthy treats to celebrate birthdays but do nothing to actually enforce these requests. The first whiff of a school trip and fried snacks and sugar bombs are on the menu (courtesy of the school). Practice what you preach. Please.

No thanks - my kids are not dustbins
Photo credit: http://www.montanabvba.be

Children do not need party bags loaded with every type of sweet and biscuit you can imagine. The truth is that most parents I know end up throwing the contents in the bin. My children get much more pleasure out of a pencil and eraser, or a fun pair of glasses and a mini water pistol (like my son got in his goodie bag today) than endless bags of gummy bears, cola bottles and Dora biscuits that their mummy throws in the trash as soon as they have forgotten they even received a goodie bag. Don't get me wrong I'm not anti-sweets but believe in everything in moderation, especially in school!

There are so many better alternatives. Last week a friend of mine gave each kid in my son's class, amongst other things, a tooter to mark her daughter's birthday. The entire class came out at lunchtime blowing them, a cacophony of noise, and they were having more fun than you can shake a stick at. Laughing, smiling faces all round and not a sniff of sugar involved. Another friend made 'watermelon lollies' for her son's birthday and with the exception of one child the class devoured them. We're making little fruit cakes for my son's farewell session at school tomorrow. Small ones, with as much fruit as possible and as little sugar as possible - the fun is in the cake topper photo we'll use. And he'll give each classmate a little bag of 'Forget Me Not' seeds (get it?) with a printed message on it. There is always an alternative to bags and bags of candy.

Rant over. For now. But watch out because well meaning relatives are next on my "my children are not dustbins" hit list......

Does your school promote healthy eating? Is this a cultural thing (my husband says this is the Dutch way...)? Are your children stuffed full of sugar outside your home?

Monday Coffee Morning: A Week of Hellos and Goodbyes

A little on the late side for morning coffee but I just saw this post by Miss Nerris and felt the urge to join in! Molly over at The Move to America has had a wonderful idea for a social link up with a Monday Coffee Morning where she shares what her week has in store for her. Nice idea huh?

So here's what my week looks like. It began with looking after a sick six year old and having to make alternative arrangements to get my three year old to nursery (thank you dear friend - you know who you are). My ill child then perked up no end this afternoon and so will be back at school tomorrow. Normality will be reinstated. Unless my three year old who was complaining of tummy ache at dinner time decides to run with the sickness baton......

It's the last week of school here this week before the six week long summer vacation begins. To add to that my eldest says goodbye to his current school so we'll be busy making mini fruit cakes tomorrow for his farewell 'party' on Wednesday. We'll be popping in to school for that and as soon as he's done with that he runs over to his new school next door to join his future group 3 class for their wisseluurtje (where they meet their new teacher and sit in their new classroom in preparation for September). He's already spent three mornings in his new school but this is goodbye and hello in the space of an hour. Quite the day for my six year old for sure.

Then we have one more full day at school and the whooping begins. Holiday time! No alarm setting on Friday. Nowhere to be. No obligations. Just six weeks before us of family time and fun. Or are my rose-coloured spectacles getting in the way of reality?

So how is your week looking?

Multicultural Kid Blogs Pinterest Scavenger Hunt Starts Today

I am very excited to announce the kick off today of the Pinterest scavenger hunt to mark the launch of the revamped website for a wonderful, informative, entertaining and fascinating group of bloggers spread across the globe: Multicultural Kid Blogs.

The MKB marks a collaboration of diverse blogging talent writing on a whole host of topics with one theme in common - raising world citizens. Bloggers share their ideas on a wide range on themes from languages, food and etiquette to education resources, crafts, activities and art.

So how does the scavenger hunt work? Starting today clues will be revealed that will lead you to a MKB member blog post which you need to pin to your newly created Pinterest board. For more information and specific instructions head over to the Multicultural Kid Blogs scavenger hunt page. There are great prizes up for grabs and lots of writing talent to discover. Good luck!

Are You Up for the Adventure?

Are you up for the adventure?

Those of you who have been following our World Citizen Wednesday feature already know how excited I am about our Multicultural Kid Blogs group.

We have slowly been building our presence on the web, first with a Facebook page, then a subscription to all of our Facebook pages, and now finally our own Twitter and Pinterest accounts.

And now, we are officially launching the Multicultural Kid Blogs website, where you can discover our member blogs, learn about our blogging carnivals, find great products and books, and more!

To help introduce you to the wonderful blogs that make up this group, we have created a Pinterest Scavenger Hunt, which will run from July 15 to July 28. You will have until July 31 to submit your entry, and the drawing will take place on August 1. You could win one of four fabulous prize packages!

Here's how it works:

Create a Pinterest board specifically for the contest and name the board "Multicultural Kid Blogs Pinterest Scavenger Hunt." Each day a new clue (or two!) will be revealed. Follow the clue to the blog of the day and pin the post described in the clue. (Any image from the post is fine). In the Rafflecopter below, enter the link to the Pinterest board you created for this contest. The Rafflecopter will also have lots of other ways to earn extra entries. The only required entry is the link to your Pinterest board. Please note: You can enter the Rafflecopter at any point during the contest. Obviously your board won't be complete until the end of the contest, but you can enter the link in the Rafflecopter before then. If your name is drawn at the end of the contest, we will check your board at that time. The final clue will be given July 28. Participants will have until midnight Pacific time on July 31 to finalize their boards. The drawing will take place on August 1. Winners must have pinned all of the correct posts to their board. Winners will be notified via email and must respond within 48 hours or another name will be drawn. Good luck, explorers!

Scavenger Hunt Schedule

(Visit the Scavenger Hunt main page for a full list of clues as they are revealed).

July 15

All Done Monkey

Crystal's Tiny Treasures

July 16

The Squishable Baby

July 17

Be Bilingual

July 18

the piri-piri lexicon

MommyMaestra

July 19

Creative World of Varya

Expat Life With a Double Buggy

July 20

Sprout's Bookshelf

Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns

July 21

Open Wide the World

MotherTongues

July 22

MarocMama

Head of the Heard

July 23

For the Love of Spanish

July 24

InCultureParent

July 25

Crafty Moms Share

The Art of Home Education

July 26

The European Mama

Spanish Playground

July 27

Vibrant Wanderings

A Hotchpotch Hijabi in Italy

July 28

Kids Yoga Stories

Final day to enter the contest is July 31, 2013, at midnight PDT. Drawing will take place on August 1, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Expat Family Ties: Far Away but not Distant

I wrote a guest post for Your Expat Child on the topic of expats staying in touch with their extended family. Geography does not determine the success of a relationship. I know first hand and it's a subject very close to my heart.

"There is a saying that grandchildren are the reward for being a good parent. And many grandparents would certainly agree. But what if many miles separate your children and their grandparents? Does it mean the relationship will be distant too? Can you be an uncle if thousands of kilometres separate you from your nephews or nieces?........"

Head over to Your Expat Child to read more, and whilst you're there, stay a while and have a browse - it's a must read site if you are living or moving abroad with children.

Multicultural Kid Blogs Scavenger Hunt

Are you a multicultural adventurer? Do you look back to a childhood filled with exploration and treasure seeking? Are you raising a little world citizen? Well, from the comfort of your tablet or computer you can relive those childhood adventures with a virtual scavenger hunt to win great prizes whilst discovering amazing blogs from around the world  on the topic of raising multicultural children. For more information visit the Multicultural Kid Blogs webpage.

It all starts next Monday.... are you ready?

Anyone Else Have Toilet Monsters?

The toilet paper devouring beast
Photo: István Benedek

We have two toilets in the house and they are both ravenous toilet paper eating monsters. To avoid their wrath they must be fed copious amounts of toilet paper per day at random intervals. And our toilet monsters are fussy. They prefer clean toilet paper. Paper that is unused. Fresh off the roll. They like it torn off in very, very, very long pieces, scrunched up and then thrown in for them to munch on.

Funny thing is that they only seem really hungry when my three year old goes to the toilet. And sometimes he tends to feed the toilet monsters more than they can stomach because much of it lays undigested in the toilet bowel, causing a painful and uncomfortable blockage for the toilet monsters.

Anyone else dealing with toilet monsters and toddlers?