As far as museums go, little gosling has taken to visiting repeatedly the ones concentrating on things that move: trains, trams, cars, planes. Whilst we’re yet to visit the tram museum (only open in the afternoons), we’ve seen the others at least twice each over the past months. Great opportunities for quality time together in an instructive, exciting, playful setting and for little ones to use energy. This is particularly true for us when wether makes us less inclined to spend time outdoors during the weekends.

The car museum (“Autoworld”) is accommodated in a big hall with plenty of space. This allows little gosling to run around, which is what he mostly does, on fast forward without much chance of knocking down fragile exhibits. It displays a varied collection of over 250 European and American automobiles from the late 19th century to the 1990s. It is notable for its collections of early and Belgian-produced vehicles and several limousines belonging to the Belgian royal family. Interestingly, there are corners displaying horse drawn carriages, as well as mechanical workshops and different engines. 

There’s also a corner dedicated to the French comics’ character, Michel Vaillant, featuring an F1 real size car maquette. This was obviously the highlight of our first visit. What can be better than getting into a car and pretending to drive? If one does not take into account climbing on to the wheels or trying to make them turn. Of course, there was time for drawing, snacking and reading a story.

First time around we looked at sizes of cars, wheels, steering wheels, comparing them. Most of all, we played at identifying their colours. The second time we went, he went ahead and we followed. He would stop in front of a car, pointing and asking: “What is this car called? How fast can it go?” Brand of the car, year of fabrication and, most importantly, the maximum speed it could reach. We compared the size of cars and their lights and identified the convertible ones (“this can only go in summer, it has no roof”). 

A temporary exhibition of racing cars attracted most of our attention. Little gosling loved the sound of the Italian brands . He was completely in awe with the big numbers I blurted out for the maximum speed they could reach. 

We hardly ever cover the entire museum in one visit, which is ok. The aim is to stay as long as he is enjoying the experience, but not long enough for him to get tired. The ideal duration would be around an hour, but we can hardly stick to it. Little gosling gets overly excited about trips to the museum and insists on seeing everything.

Make time for snacks and reading

After the initial burst of energy and running around, it is pretty quickly that I hear “Do you have something to read? Do you have to eat?” We never leave home without snacks. I find it important we make some time half-way through the visit for a snack break. As a result, we avoid tiredness and hunger setting in and communication difficulties. We usually take along a combination of fruits (banana or bite sized strawberry or apples), nuts (cashew, pistacchio, peanuts), cubes of cheese and salami and bretzels or corn cakes. In less restrictive times, we take advantage of the museum cafeterias to enjoy a hot chocolate and a biscuit or a sandwich. 

“Tia Isa wants a car”

Equally, I always carry picture books in my bag when we go out. We never know when we may feel like reading ;). The first time we read “Tia Isa wants a car”. This, as it turns out, is the our only story featuring a car.

I loved the story the first time I heard it read aloud by Meg Medina on Julie’s Library podcast. An immigrant family: aunt, niece, uncle, working to support their loved ones back at home, on the island. Reminiscing about their house by the beach and dreaming about the day, soon, when they will be all together again in their adoptive place. The aunt wants a car, green like the ocean, with wings like a swooping seagull, to take them all to the beach. Little gosling loved that idea: to get a car to take us to the beach! The niece secretly starts doing small chores in the neighbourhood, to put aside money to help her.

It’s a wonderful, heartwarming story about family, separation, longing, nostalgia, kindness, community, effort, the value of work, joy. A touching introduction into the life of immigrants. An emotional perspective of being far from the loved ones, whilst constantly having them present, in mind and hearts. I found it incredibly moving that first thing they did upon getting into the car was sticking a photo of the entire family. 

We definitely need more stories featuring cars and/or driving. And someday soon, we’ll watch “Cars” together :P. 

Little gosling loves to spend time in the driver’s seat of our car, “Zambilica” (in English, “small hyacinth”). He emphatically tries to turn the steering wheel and touches the commands, pretending he is driving. This is his ritual for a few minutes every time we come back from a car ride. When he grows up, he would like to drive us around, with daddy and I taking turns sitting in front, next to him. 

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The second time, we paused a bit more on some of the interactive elements of the Dinosaur Gallery. The virtual moving Pachycephalosaurus was still an object of fascination. Therefore, taking turns, his daddy and I employed a little trick to try and make little gosling feel a little bit less scared of it. I sat in front of him, on the specially designated spot and responded to its every move with a roar and a claw-like hands movement of my own. It must be designed to play this game, since it seemed like it stopped disconcertedly, wondering every time I did that. I kept doing that defiantly and very vocally until it smashed the virtual glass panel that separated us. I repeated the trick several times whilst little gosling came closer and closer to me and started mimicking me. It frightened him less and less, although the smashing still made us all jump :)))). 

We played at identifying the dinosaur skeletons (and marvelled at the very long tail of the diplodocus) and matching the skull molds to the dinosaurs. We played with the levers mimicking the power and easiness of movement of the femur of upright vs. sprawling posture dinosaurs. We measured our heights against that of some of the dinosaurs. 

When little gosling asked to take a break and rest for a moment and looked up at me: “mummy, do you have something to read?” I brandished with a proud smirk a new acquisition: Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz’ “Mad about dinosaurs”. It was a surprise I had held in store just for this occasion. We quietly sat down and read all the quatrains in the book, looking around for the corresponding dinosaur skeletons. 

Much like the other books in the “Mad about..” series, this one describes in verse and super-colourful and suggestive illustrations twelve types of the most known dinosaurs, including the T-Rex, the triceratops, the stegosaurus, the diplodocus, the brontosaurus or the velociraptor. The star of the book was however the lesser known (to us) ankylosaurus, whose body is protected by an armour, so if you’re a T-Rex and unwise enough to attack it, you’ll end up breaking your teeth :))). Consequently, from then on, on our games of “if you were an animal, what would you be?”, the ankylosaurus has come up repeatedly. Why? Because he is obviously not afraid of the fierce T-Rex, like most of us would be if it was still roaming the Earth. The short poems and funny illustrations make for a playful and thoroughly enjoyable learning, for both mummy and little gosling, with just a nutshell of information easy to absorb by young minds. 

The reading finished, we moved on to “The living planet” exhibition, identifying animals (“I like best the…., because it is….”, pointing to them) and dwelling on the different habitats. Great learning opportunity all the photo visuals and the regrouping of animals per habitat. 

Little gosling sat down for another rest pretty soon and luckily chose to do it inside the Tetrapodium and Arthropodium – a small room exhibiting skeletons and sketches, all in ivory and black, of four and six legged animals. We played, taking turns at identifying and finding the different animals: “ I see a tortoise” – “Here”. “I see a rhino” – ‘There”, running around the room, with little going pointing excitedly at every find. We must have been at it for 15-20 minutes minimum, covering almost all of the animals in the room. 

We ended our tour with a visit to the museum cafeteria and a tasty sandwich. I’m sure we’ll be back again soon, as it was lots of fun.

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We had set out to see the dinosaurs gallery, just like Katie in “Katie and the dinosaurs”, the biggest display in Europe entirely dedicated to dinosaurs, exploring their life and their evolution. Their display of original iguanodons skeletons, discovered in a mine in Belgium, is pretty impressive. It had never occurred to me before, but there were dinosaurs in my home country. I saw the mould of “Zalmoxes”, a small herbivore dinosaur that lived in Transylvania, which at the time was an island  

It was one of those settings that made little gosling feel over-excited, he was constantly on the move, running from one dinosaur skeleton to another – “look mummy! what is this?”, mostly looking around for the T-rex and squealing at every find, particularly the flying dinosaurs hanging down from the ceiling; climbing on platforms (when we weren’t quick enough to explain we were not allowed to touch any skeleton; no, that one either :P) or crawling under them. Luckily, the gallery is displayed in a vast, high-ceiling hall, with plenty of space to move around without risk of damage. 

He courted for a while a virtual rendering of a Pachycephalosaurus frontly and angrily moving towards the viewer and smashing glass; he was very scared, but this “T-rex” attracted him terribly. After playing an approaching and going away game for 10-15 minutes,  he decided he didn’t want to be there any longer or return again. Almost 45 engaging minutes spent in the museum, that’s a pretty awesome start! 

From there, we moved on for a quick visit to a new exhibition called “The living planet”, that featured stuffed animals from all over the world. We spent some time identifying them. Little gosling really liked the giraffe, the zebra and the bear. I liked the fox and the butterflies. We only managed to see a small part of the exhibition before he displayed clear signs of tiredness and we called it a day. But we’ll go back. There was a nice part of the exhibit in which animals were exhibited against images of their habitat, which I think little gosling would have lots of fun exploring. 

We kept talking about the dinosaur gallery, explaining the dinosaur had been scary for us too, but it was a movie; the dinosaur was not alive or real. He was safe. We were safe together. By the next morning, he was convinced. He declared he wanted to go back to the dinosaurs some day. 

We explained there were many other museums we could visit and he immediately asked to go to a museum with planes or cars. Now he’s mentioning going to the museum almost every day and has made up his mind: the next museum needs to be the Autoworld, the cars museum. The aviation hall in the Military History Museum, the Museum of Musical Instruments and the Tram Museum will follow.  We’ll definitely go back to the Natural Sciences Museum, there are so many things to see and learn. I’d love to see the Gallery of Humankind or the minerals, for example.  

There are few museums I visited growing up. It was usually during summer camps or road trips with my parents that we’d visit memorial houses for famous writers, painters, historical personalities or historical monuments. In my youth, I preferred fortresses, castles and palaces or history museums to any other, although I checked the famous art museums in European capitals. I discovered science museums later and they made me regret not having grown in places where these were accessible; who knows, maybe I would have been more interested in sciences. 

Museums broaden our knowledge of the world and instill appreciation for it; foster curiosity and open up a world of imagination, exploration and experimentation; encourage, support and foster love for learning. What an amazing exposure to science, art and history!! What a fun, solid foundation for intellectual growth and development…

The early years are incredibly important in developing the brains of children and lifelong learning begins at a young age. Children are interested in learning about content and are capable of understanding many concepts very early on. Museums expose children to learning possibilities in a rich and dynamic educational environment, like no other learning space. They can introduce unknown worlds and concepts through interactive exhibits and hands-on play, allowing children to take ownership of their own learning process. 

Museums also offer unique environments for quality family time and an amazing alternative for engaging togetherness (particularly appealing for those days when the weather is less appealing for nature outings). Because visits to museums are special occasions, they become highly memorable for both children and adults – a shared intergenerational learning and joyful discovery experience – sparking enduring family conversations and family stories and memories. 

All in all, museums encourage children to dream, wonder and fantasise. Museums inspire. All the reasons and benefits why we find it important to introduce little gosling to museums from a young age. Who knows, maybe it will help him discover his talents and passions and  stimulate him to become a lifelong learner and, why not, a museum goer.  

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I came across the idea early in the year, in an instagram post of a mummy who had organised one for her two pre-schoolers the year prior. I love the chocolate Advent calendars, but did not want to expose little gosling to sugar, however little (constantly, over more than three weeks) so young. It had never occurred to me to have one with books. I loved the idea and started doing my homework immediately.  

So, what is a book advent calendar? A special counting down the days in December till Christmas by reading one Christmas (or winter-themed) picture book each day. 

I found it exciting to set up and invested quite a lot of time in doing so. Instagram and Pinterest are full of suggestions and inspiration for putting together a Book Advent calendar. There were many factors to consider. Whether to have a 24 days countdown or 12 days of Christmas. Reading synopsis and (virtually) browsing through pages of Christmas and winter-themed books (thanks to many mommies, teachers, book reviewers that post glimpses into many pages of the books on Instagram, offering a first hand experience of the book that allowed me to determine whether I would really enjoy the text and illustrations!!). Drawing up lists upon lists of book titles and ranking them in order of preference. Ensuring a diverse and balanced selection of titles between different winter and Christmas themes and characters. Finding books in all three languages: English, Romanian and French. I loved researching and pondering it all! 

The end result? I opted for a 24 days/books countdown. There were so many books and stories I wanted to share with little gosling (and that even before the Christmas publishing season)! A mix of themes starting off with stories about season changes, weather and animals’ lives, homes and behaviour in winter, continuing with traditions around Saint Nicolas, snow and all snowy things (playing in the snow, the snowflakes’ trip from the sky to the ground, building snowmen) and slowly building up towards Christmas with stories about kindness, decorating the tree, gift offerings, singing carols, baking cookies, Santa Claus’ preparations and travels. I included mostly titles that had been published in previous years, including a few “classics”, but made last minute space for one or two newly published books. 

I wrapped them individually in Christmas themed papers of different colours. I attached to each book a number, written on small cardboard cards, which I cut out in Christmas-themed motifs: Christmas globes, snowmen and Christmas trees. I piled the books in random order, so little gosling had to find each time the number corresponding to the day in December. I also prepared a table with the order of the titles, to follow and track our countdown progress (see below for the different titles selected). 

Many mommies rely on library books for the Book Advent, which is a terrific and economic idea. Due to language preferences and COVID restrictions, I had no possibility to have recourse to the library at the time, so I bought all of the 24 books myself. Another economic idea is books swaps with other mummies. I did not have that possibility either. I followed the advice of the instamummy I had first seen the idea at and started acquiring the books a few months in advance (already in August) to spread out the costs over several months. This worked well for the books in English, but impossible for books in French and Romanian. I found French winter titles in the bookstores as early as November, but the Romanian titles only got published/re-edited in December, when it was too late for the Book Advent. I wanted to have my Book Advent ready and wrapped by the 1st of December. In the end, we had only one book in Romanian, which I had saved from the previous year.  

I set the pile of books on a coffee table in the living room and the evening of 1st December we started our marathon!

Every evening after dinner, we made a nice, hot herbal tea. I put out a platter with clementines, pistachio, cajou, apples and pears (ok, around Saint Nicolas, we also had to include a bit of chocolate, but only because Saint Nicolas visited the creche and left the 2-3 years olds way too much chocolate figurines for their own good). We lighted our Advent candles and put out the lights. We put on selections from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” in the background. We invited little gosling to find the book of the day. He looked in the pile for the book with the corresponding number for the day on it and unwrapped it impatiently. Handing it to me, he invariably asked “what is this about, mummy?”, before putting it aside and asking to read all the previous’ days books first, before we closed the evening with the book of the day. We snuggled onto the sofa the three of us together, among our cushions showing happily skiing snowmen, under a warm blanket and started reading. 

The first few days, he wanted to unwrap more books :). We gently explained we opened one each day and he would have to wait. What an exercise in patience and delayed gratification this was! 

This was our evening routine for the weeks leading up to Christmas. There were stories he liked better than others and we read them two-three times the first time around. We continued reading many of the Advent books through Christmas and New Year’s. Even now, months later, he is still asking for some of the Advent stories. He knows, however, that they are stored away and regularly asks about Christmas, patiently tracking the passage of the months on our seasons and months’ wheel. 

I was weary that 24 books would be too many for such a young kid to take in; that the game would become uninteresting over so many weeks. Although little gosling loved the game and the reading, towards the end, he was approaching it all with a certain fatigue and a bit less excitement. This did not diminish his enthusiasm at finding even more books under the Christmas tree or at reading during the holiday period. Nevertheless, in retrospective, a 12 days calendar would have been equally exhilarating – and a bit more economical. In any case, now we have a good stash of seasonal books to build on and quite a number of favourites to read in following years. It will be enough to add just a few new titles each year from now on. 

Take a look below at little gosling’s favourites (and mine, too!). All about snow, friendship and a bit of Christmas spirit. 

The first stories, Suzanne Barton’s “Robin’s winter song”, Yuval Zommer’s “A thing called snow”; Ezra Jack Keats’ “The snowy day” are sweet, slow introductions to winter. Beautiful, lyrical transitions from autumn to winter; birds migrating to warmer places; first snowflakes; squirrels digging out their hidden acorns; foxes sipping water from cold stream; bears hibernating; robins snuggling; woods and urban landscapes covered with snow; kids exploring full of curiosity and excitement all the entertainment winter and snow have to offer.

Little gosling loved them all and, as a result, he constantly asked for snow. “Is it winter, mummy? I want it to snow!” “Patience, my little darling, winter is long. Maybe we’re lucky to see snow this year” – little gosling’s first. I was also so much looking forward to making angels in the snow with him, just like little Peter does in Keats’ story. I’ve lived through many snowy winters, but never made snow angels. We ended up having snow in February and April, but it was not enough for snow angels. Next year, hopefully.. 

“Pick a pine tree” by Patricia Toht, illustrated by Jarvis came up right after Saint Nicolas. I wanted to keep some illusion of order and sequencing between the different celebrations and traditions in December. So, I thought, let’s read the book for one or two days before we decorate our own Christmas tree. 

First evening, little gosling asked to read it “encore” four times in a row. He likes rhymes and diligently observed each step: of selecting, transporting, preparing for the tree decorating, decorating and enjoying the Christmas tree. We took the time on each page to read, talk about the illustrations and recall how we had decorated the tree with his grandparents the year before. He may not have remembered much, but it was always useful to keep his grandparents on his mind in those times of distancing. 

He seemed to like the idea of taking a pine tree home on a sleigh.. It made his daddy and I reminisce about our childhoods; those big snows that lingered on for days and days, our dads pulling us around on a sleigh – that was our means of transportation from one place to another. No one bothered in those days to clear the snow from the sidewalks (to our delight). 

Then, of course, the lights – he really insisted on putting candles in the tree and finally accepted that we light several candles around the living room instead We played at identifying the different trinkets and ornaments spread out on the book’s pages; “jolly Santas”, “jingle bells” and “candy canes” were his favourite. “We don’t have a staar” for the tree top, he noticed, and determinedly asked for one. We’ll have to do something about it for next year. We enjoyed the build-up of the poem. Even after many readings, his excitement and happy expectation when turning the page to finally see the decorated Christmas tree remained unfettered: “it’s not a pine tree anymore; it’s a CHRISTMAS TREE!” :))))

In “A home in the snow”, text by Peter Bently, illustrated by Charles Fuge, our old friend, Bramble Badger, pulls his friends in his sleigh to a tea party (on his birthday) to which he has not been invited. It turns out to be a surprise party for him of course. Bramble has the gentlest eyes throughout, quietly reflecting upon his friends seemingly ignoring his birthday. Little gosling’s favourite part is all the animals coming out of the dark shadows to join the party, holding lanterns (he thinks they are candles, which he loves looking at), and, of course, the huge birthday cake :P. My favourite part is when all the animals gather around the fire to listen to Bramble telling stories… I wish I had a storyteller among my friends and family.. 

“Snowflake in my pocket”, written by Rachel Bright and illustrated by Yu Rong is an endearing depiction of friendship between young Squirrel and the gentle, more experienced Bear. Ohh, the playfulness of their days together and the strong bond between them, squirrel’s excited discovery and exploration of snow and the tender innocence with which it brings home “the perfectest” snowflake in his pocket so thai Bear can enjoy snow…. Only to find out with eyes drowning in tears that it had melted… It’s a lovely story, with enchanting illustrations, in a strong, contrasting palette. Little gosling’s favourite bit is squirrel waking up and enthusiastically discovering the first snow all around. My favourite part is Squirrel cuddling on Bear’s lap, to watch the fire burning.. Something I’d like to do someday…

“One snowy night” by Nick Butterworth is a lovely story about kindness and sharing. Percy the park keeper welcomes into his little wam hut all animals that come knocking on his door or digging their way up through the floor looking for refuge from the cold and the snow. Our edition came with a fold out big size illustration of the accommodation animals find for themselves around the hut and we’ve been using it to “talk about what we see” :). That’s little gosling’s favourite part. My favourite bit is Percy sharing his sandwich with the birdies and the squirrels in the park. 

“Little robin red vest” by Jan Fearnley tells the story of how robin got its orange-red breast – a Christmas present, of course, for his kindness and generosity towards its fellow animals. In the seven days before Christmas, Robin gives away, one by one, without a moment of thought, his beautifully colored warm vests, to animals who were suffering from cold. Santa Klaus sees it all and rewards him with a “very, very special” red vest that will keep him warm forever. Little gosling’s favourite moment is when Santa Klaus finds Robin and takes him away from the cold. My favourite part is the depiction of the winter wonderland: snow, pine cones, holly, snowflakes everywhere, in warm, contrasting colours. 

In “The most wonderful gift in the world” by Mark Sperring and Lucy Fleming, brave little Esme drags her reluctant friend Bear across the treacherous path, through the howling gale and the deep, deep snow drifts to Little Bunny Boo-Boo’s house to deliver Santa’s present: themselves, two new friends. Little gosling feels so sorry for Little Bunny having received no present and loves Santa’s short note (it inspired him to run around with “his list” of dear things). My favourite part are the facial expressions, particularly Bear’s fear and Little Bunny’s excitement with his new friends.

“Oliver Elephant” by Lou Peacock and Helen Stephens is an endearing story of the attachment between little Noah and his stuffed blue elephant, Oliver. Little Noah goes Christmas shopping with his mom and baby sister. He and Oliver play together a lot – and get into mischief . After a snack break, Noah can’t find Oliver and they revisit all the shops to search for him, only to find him tucked in Noah’s baby sister’s pram. Little gosling loves the playfulness of Noah and Oliver’s bond, his eyes smiling at watching them together. And the big slice of chocolate cake that Noah orders . My favourite bit is the tranquility and serenity of this mummy’s outing with two small babies.. I’m quite envious at how she’s pulling it off .

The post Little Gosling’s Holidays: Our First Book Advent Calendar 2020 appeared first on Mommy Goose Chronicles.

Saint Nicholas is important in our home country, but it is huge in Belgium. Our local bookstore had a generous offer of stories on display. I selected four books that, which I thought highlighted n an overall exhaustive manner, the different aspects of the holiday: the legend behind it; the public representations of Saint Nicolas; his aides; the preparations, both by Saint Nicolas and by us, at thome; the celebrations around it; leave presents for the kids. I put aside two of the books for Saint Nicolas’ morning. I wrapped one in our book Advent. The fourth one we started reading mid-November. 

As we read, little gosling became more and more curious. With curiosity came fancying the idea of presents –  receiving them, unwrapping them, attracted by the kids’ excitement and enjoyment in our stories.. Oh, and Saint Nicolas’ biscuits :P, too. 

We introduced Saint Nicolas with “Saint Nicolas, c’est qui celui-la?”, published by a local publisher, Mijade. It tells the story of a kid, famous at school for his naughtiness, who gets introduced to Saint Nicolas by one of his classmates. The classmate assumes Saint Nicolas would not usually visit the kid, since he is known to be a troublemaker. Convinced that he would not get a present from Saint Nicolas, he decides to sneak into a toy shop where the Saint is giving our presents and take a present for himself. He gets caught by Pere Fouettard, the Saint’s helper and made to wait in line for his turn. To his amazement, Saint Nicolas knows everything he’s done and points out there is always a mixed picture. Whilst kids may pull pranks, they all are intrinsically kind. The kid had been helping his dad with the dishes, caring for his little sister, for example. In the end, Saint Nicolas hands him a wooden plane he had so much wished for! I loved this sweet, balanced take on naughtiness and its impact on gift receiving. Pulling pranks is what kids do and it does not wipe out all the goodness and innocence in them! 

“C’est quand la Saint Nicolas?” was a huge hit! We continued reading it well after Saint Nicolas had passed, with little gosling very seriously asking about the next Saint Nicolas! I think he was more excited about Saint Nicolas than Christmas :)).. Another Belgian product, we unwrapped it from our book Advent a couple of days before Saint Nicolas. It follows two brothers in the days before the holiday, exploring behaving and putting together their wish list and writing letters to Saint Nicolas. It shows them placing their clean boots by the fireplace (we were inspired to do the same, although we grew up with placing the boots by the windows or the door), putting out a carrot for Saint Nicolas’ donkey (! we didn’t know he had a donkey, but we immediately adapted and made sure it had a nice-looking carrot for the effort), singing the Saint Nicolas’ song the following morning and getting terribly excited by the gifts received. It’s a fun and funny story, and a great family read, particularly for siblings! 

So, on the evening of the 5th of December, we put all of our winter shoes by the (fake) fireplace and a carrot, all together. The following morning, I gently reminded little gosling to check the boots. He excitedly leapt towards the living room: “There’s something there! Saint Nicolas came!” His eyes got glued on his dad’s presents (biscuits mostly…) and it took a while to move on and get excited about his own presents (no sweets there….). When he finally did, he insisted on putting on the elf pj and on top of it a winter themed sweater with an excavator (one of his obsessions :P), as well as the Christmas themed socks. It also took him less than five minutes to decorate the felt Christmas tree he had received with colourful felt decorations.  We kept it up on the wall until January, and it got decorated again and again. 

Despite the pandemic and the inability to properly go and see Saint Nicolas giving out presents to kids in a shopping centre, for example, the school made sure the kids got a visit and a small gift. We even have a photo to prove it! And a lovely friend made sure he received some of Santa’s speculoos biscuits, which go so well with hot chocolate, mniam-mniam. 

The other two books came with Saint Nicolas himself. “Les souliers de Saint Nicolas” (Belgium, Mijade) is an endearingly funny take on Saint Nicolas’ own preparations. Whilst baking his signature biscuits, Saint Nicolas keeps a small curious mouse away. So, the mouse pulls a prank on the old, forgetful Saint. He hides away his shoes. In all the confusion around finding his shoes and putting on his red costume, the Saint burns his last tray of biscuits and leaves the house in slippers. Luckily, his sharp-minded donkey very creatively helps Saint Nicolas keep up appearances. He even licks the burnt traces off his face, affectionately. At the end of the night, when all the work is done and the Saint returns home with some biscuits for the mouse, he discovers his shoes next to the small thief. 

“La légende de Saint Nicolas”, published by Auzou, retells the deeds that made the Saint famous and the patron saint of children. Three brothers get lost in the woods whilst looking for food. They knock full of hope on the door of a butcher to get cover for the night, only to be killed and thrown into a barrel for many years, until Saint Nicholas comes along and rescues them. A tale rooted in the gruesome spirit of folk tales, it caught me completely off guard, but we told the story as it was :).

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I’ve been singing to him since he was really tiny. I’ve been singing him melancholic songs  (“romanțe”) to sleep, with some effectiveness :P. It gets him settled down and in the mood for sleep, but nothing can compete with breastfeeding to sleep or, recently, with daddy’s bear hug, depending on the mood. I used to sing “Pe lângă plopii fără soț”,“Numai una”, “Ciobănaș cu trei sute de oi”, “Barca pe valuri”, or “La oglindă”. They are all dear to me for different reasons and bring back memories from different stages in my life. I remember my mum singing “Pe lângă plopii fără soț” to me, but granted, when I was much older. I still sing these songs to him. They are soothing, particularly when sung in a low tone, just perfect for sleeptime. Lately, however, he’d rather have me sing nursery rhymes at bedtime: “Podul de piatră”, “Row, row, row your boat”, “Coccinelle, demoiselle”, “Twinkle, twinkle little star”. 

Nursery rhymes were part of my “weapon arsenal” when he got agitated, particularly during car drives. As a baby, he could not bear being in the baby car seat more than 10 minutes straight. He got very bored and agitated. I used to carry with me lots of different toys and books to distract him. When we were done with those, which was fairly quickly, I started singing nursery rhymes to entertain him. I remember various car rides (3 hours +) when he was between 4 – 12 months of age. He had me singing “Tăranul e pe câmp” (with onomatopoeia added in especially for him) again and again and again for good stretches of time :))). He loved it, he was chuckling and squealing. “În pădurea cu alune”, “Oac oac diri diri dam” or “Vulpe, tu mi-ai furat gasca” were also big hits. The last one still gets requested regularly. 

When he was around 8 months, we flew from Joburg to Durban – in principle, a short flight. For whatever reason, the plane took forever to leave the runway. And this was the middle of the summer, hot hot hot and the air conditioning was off.. So my smiling, happy little baby turned quickly into a desperately crying red ball. He was hot and uncomfortable. The flight attendants kept looking at me funnily and asking whether he was ok (?!). I started singing to him in a very low voice “Podul de piatra s-a daramat”, “Iepuras coconas”, “Melc, melc, codobelc”, all rather soothing. This helped him calm down enough to accept lying down and breastfeed. I remember one traveller in front looking back at me and saying “I feel sleepy as well” :). 

Learning nursery rhymes in three languages

It took him a few weeks after starting going to an English-speaking nursery at 15 months to bring home English nursery rhymes and ask for them. I wrote about our journey with English nursery rhymes here.. We expanded our repertoire in the meantime. The current favourites are “Row, row, row your boat” (with crocodile, polar bear and lion included) – he loves to hear it when tired or upset, “Horsie, horsie” – which he recites/sings on his own whilst riding on his dad’s or my knees, after waking up, and “Hickory, dickory dock”. For the last one, he tells me which animals he wants to have going up the clock (mouse, monkey, giraffe, lion, bee, frog…) and what time the clock should strike – relevant for the times I imitate a church bell chime. We have lots of fun with this one. 

When he’s not asking us to sing to him, he starts singing or reciting the nursery rhymes that he knows on his own. Particularly early morning. He’s an extraordinarily early riser, to his dad’s exasperation – he’s the one who has to entertain him from 5.30 to 7.00 a.m.. Or right before falling asleep, on daddy’s watch.   

With all this in mind, it was hardly surprising that his first words in French, upon starting a French-speaking school, came from “comptines” (nursery rhymes). First came “bateau = boat” (“Bateau sur l’eau, la riviere, la riviere/ Bateau sur l’eau, Touni est tombé dans l’eau.. plouf”). During the first lockdown we used to sing it with the names of his colleagues. One by one, in his order of preference, they would fall into the water :))). Good way to remember their names and talk about them, and keep school on our radar. Next came “crocodile” (“Ah, les crocodiles”). This is a funny one, about a crocodile on the Nile going to fight the elephants and ending up running away, jumping into the river.  There’s a fun clapping of hands that accompanies this song and little gosling loves doing it. I was so amazed the first time he said the word. We had barely spoken about crocodiles and he wasn’t using the English pronunciation.. 

Some months later, some weeks into the resumption of school after the lockdown, little gosling again started coming home with rhymes. “Mummy, sing petit lapin”; “mummy, sing les poissons”; “mummy, sing le moulin”; “mummy, please sing soleil”. At one point, every day he was asking for a new song :)))). What I did was explain I did not know the songs, but that I would do my best to learn them. The next day I took him to school, I asked the teachers what songs he was referring to, then went home, looked them up on youtube, wrote them down and added them to our treasury. And, of course, repeat them several times, on my own, to remember the melody. I find the French nursery rhymes incredibly mellow, with hardly memorable tunes.  

“Soleil” was a difficult one to find. I asked the teacher on the first occasion to sing it to me, so that I can look it up on the internet. But I could not find it. So, I explained the situation to little gosling and asked him if he could, please, learn it in school and then teach it to me. He agreed. Aaand… one evening, at the dinner table, he asked for it: “mommy, sing “le soleil””. I reminded him of our deal and he said: “bebe learned it” and off he went: “le soleil brille brille brille/et moi je dors dors dors/[cute little snores and his little hands together under his leaning head]/je me reveille, veille, veille/et dis fort fort fort/Bonjour soleeeeil!” :)))) He can also sing “Frere Jacques” on his own. 

Special songs

Some weeks ago, little gosling was having a distressful afternoon. He did not want to be hugged or touched and I was out of ideas to soothe him. I suggested I sing him a “special song”. He liked the idea of having something special, so he acquiesced. I ended up singing “What a wonderful world” several times in a row, whilst he leafed through Tim Hopgoed’s boardbook. Ever since, when he feels blue or tired or upset, he asks me to sing a special song, “another special song”. So I had to keep being creative and find new ones. I’ve tried Judy Garland’s “Over the rainbow” from “The wizard of Oz”, but the one that stuck the most and gets requested the most often is Julie Andrews’ “My favourite things” from “The sound of music”: “no no, mummy, sing the one with the dog that bites”. 

Our music treasury

With all this wealth of songs we’re singing together, I’ve been building our own Nursery Rhymes/Song Treasury. I got the idea from little gosling’s French-speaking creche. When we did the insertion days together, I saw the teachers using cards to sing with the little ones. One side, which they were showing the kids, had drawings so that they could guess the song and make word associations; the other side had the lyrics. “What a good idea!”, I thought. I decided to write down all the different songs and rhymes we sing together on individual cards and draw something meaningful next to the lyrics, so that he can choose what he wants us to sing. 

I find this very useful, particularly for the new songs and for the songs in French, until I learn the lyrics by heart and he learns that we can sing the song together. It’s also great to have all our songs together in the same format. We sing songs in three languages; songs that we learn from books or from youtube videos, songs that I remember from my childhood, as well as songs that he brings home from school. I think it’s fun for little gosling as well, browsing through many cards and picking the song he wants to hear/sing. Not to mention that I find it relaxing and take great pleasure in putting together the cards: writing down the lyrics, looking for inspiration and (easy) drawing. 

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I suddenly remembered I had this little pretty board book saved for some time and asked him “Shall I sing you a special song?” He paused, intrigued, nodded and quickly climbed into my lap to see the book I had pulled off the bookshelf. 

I gave a most imperfect and off-key rendition of Louis Armstrong “What a wonderful world” and… he loved it . He gently caressed each page with his cute little fingers as I sang, pausing longly on the pages with the children holding hands and the kid diving in the ocean amongst the fish (“where is the baby, mummy?!”) and then asked we did it “encore” and “encore” and “encore”…

The book is a joyful, lyrical, amazing pairing to the song and it is so happily coloured, like all Tim Hopgoed’s books. We love it. Little gosling forgot all about his troubles and was back to his playful, cheerful self. Now, he occasionally entertains his very sleepy (and annoyed) dad at 5.30 a.m. singing the song and corrects me sternly when I get a line wrong. Mea culpa, I keep forgetting “the bright blessed day” and improvise..

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First ones were our foam bath-time letter and numbers. We’ve been playing with them in the bathtub since little gosling could sit on his bum unassisted. To this day, it’s one of his favourite things to do. We started by just putting them up on the bathroom tiles one by one. At one point, I started identifying the numbers and letters, reciting words that started with the different letters. Then we used them for colour recognition and for many months now, we’ve been working on letter recognition. I would ask him to give me a red one; or “F for flower; and fox, and finger; and foot; and food”; or “S for snake, for snail, for star or for sunflower”. Truth be told, it’s probably much more fun when he plays with his dad. There’s still some letter recognition involved (in Romanian), but they get to compete at throwing and sticking them onto the wall opposite the bathtub, with the sweetest, funniest squeaks and squeals :). 

Next came a wooden alphabet puzzle, when he was around 18 months. Little gosling loves puzzles, he gets very focused on the job. At the time, this was one of the more complex puzzles he had. It took him some days of work, but he managed quickly to finalise it without help. I was so much in awe with his visual memory, no way he could remember all the information he was getting from me about the letters. I remember us playing with the puzzle over his second Christmas. He was able to recognise a couple of letters: A (for his mummy’s name); R for rhino; T (for his name). I thought that was so amazing :))). 

We started, then, playing with his foam letter playmat. This must have been some weeks after his second birthday. He helped me dismantle it and put it back together every time we cleaned the floor or/and washed it. I’d ask him to give me the letters one by one. R for rhino, X, L for lullaby, K for kiss, M for mom, W for whale, waterfall, watercan and waterlily, and Z for zebra were the easiest ones. He would get those without any thinking. He struggled with N (even though N is for No :)))), which he mixed up with Z a lot (they really do look alike, don’t they?!). Similarly, he got confused with J and U; he associated both with “umbrella” (again, quite understandable, right?!). From there on, it was a matter of a few weeks before he could identify most letters on his own. We used associations with characters from the books we read or even with the book titles. B for boat (and badger/bursucul from Peter Bentley’s and Charles Fudge series with Bramble the badger); C for cat; D for dingo (from the dingos in Rachel Bright and JIm Field’s “The Koala who could”); G for giraffe (for “Giraffes can’t dance) or gruffalo; H for hug (one of my favourites :)); S for snake and “The Secret Sky Garden”. At this point, I, Q, U were still difficult (“I don’t know these one, mummy”) and some confusion between several letters still persisted: M vs. N, K vs.X, occasionally C vs. G and O vs zero. 

With two years and two months approximately, little gosling started identifying and pointing to numbers and letters on the street, on posters or on labels. I remember how surprised and amazed we were when, one day, at the lunch table, he started reading (right to left!!! :)))): A for mummy’s name; P for penguin; S for snake. We had a bottle of SPA mineral water on the table. He went on: penguin, U, rhino, “efelu” (excavator in his language :P). Pure. Still on the water bottle. That was pretty awesome and both his daddy and I were very excited about it. 

Around two months later, I got him this beautifully colored wooden alphabet crocodile puzzle during our only week of holidays this year, in a little shop in the Moselle valley in Germany. I thought he would love it; partly because he loves puzzles, but also because there is this French nursery rhyme about a crocodile that he loves so much. He wasn’t so much into doing the puzzle the first time we took it out; he just wanted to gather all the pieces together into a bowl and carry them around. He didn’t look at it for weeks. 

One day I took it out: “let’s try and do it with an abc book” and… it worked. We opened the book on the playmat and he starts looking for the puzzle pieces containing each letter, in the order in which they appear in the book. Mummy’s role is one of support. I turn the pages and make sure he looks first at the page on the left side. He’s always going ahead and looking at the first letter that appears, on the right-hand side. Every two-three letters he excitedly calls on his dad: “daddy, look what I did!”. He’s so very satisfied when he finishes his puzzle, jumping around the crocodile, laughingly :).  

We started with Rosalind Beardshaw’s “ABC – A Walk in the Countryside. Such a sweet and engaging book! I love the idea of an ABC book telling a story and little gosling loves Rosalind Beardshaw’s Lola, so…I had to have it! :)) It runs through the alphabet whilst two kids wander about happily playing, observing and marveling at nature’s small creations. Even in what looks like chilly, rainy weather :P. The colours are warm and the images are playful, full of joy and of wonderful child-like joie de vivre. Little gosling’s favourites are M for mole, because of the mounds of dirt they make in the grass (of which we saw many during one of our outings on a nature reserve) and Y for yacht, that the kids are pulling along with a string from the river bank. I for ivy and J for jacket are close seconds and the most difficult one seems to be Q for queue. 

At one point, he wanted another book and went for Tim Hopgood’s ABC book. This one also has the small letters and it includes words that we don’t encounter that much otherwise, such as “newt”, “island”, “quail” or “xerus”!!! The illustrations are brightly colored and vary in size from half a page to a two-pager. For “Y” there’s a small mirror included that little gosling invariably and excitedly calls a “sun” :)))). I love “U”; he looks at the “universe” every time and asks “where is the universe, mummy?”. The universe is all around us, everywhere, I tell him. And then he recalls mummy telling him during some of our bedtime routines that the “universe is always growing”.. 

More recently – yes, we’ve been doing the crocodile each day for a while now -, he switched to Virginie Morgand’s “ABC off to sea!” He loves the dolphins, the mermaids, the wooden-legged pirates and the unusual names: Ivor, the parrot and Ulysses, the cat. 

Every once in a while, when we read together, he starts identifying the letters in random words here and there! He’s getting quite quick at it! 

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Little gosling stopped at every tree on our way, circling them, looking for spiderwebs and enthusiastically pointing them out to us, “mummy, there’s a spider web”! We observed red and black beetles bustling up and down the tree, various mosses growing on the trunks, fungi growing amongst the roots of the trees. We managed to distract his attention away from the trees with a big flock of geese that had left behind lots of feathers and wildly colored blue and green dragonflies playing chase above the well kept water basins in the park. 

He happily sped on his balance bike, faster and faster, asking us to run alongside him and laughing whole-heartedly all along. He was so busy, that he didn’t even want to stop to eat the delicious hamburger fresh from the grill which he had found so irresistible other times. Everything caught his attention. The planes flying above, taking off from the nearby airport made him look up and start singing “Avion cu motor,/ ia-ma si pe mine-n zbor,/ nu te iau, ca esti mic,/ si te cheama….”. He still remembers the ground sprinkled with molehills..  

One of the episodes little gosling recollects the most is the first time we gathered chestnuts. We took home maaaany chestnuts on that occasion. We were approaching the exit to the park, we were almost at the tram station and I was almost sorry we had not found any chestnuts on our way, when we spotted some in a tree above us. I was showing little gosling, when my husband quickly grabbed a branch and started swinging. A rain of chestnuts fell upon us! The little one started running around excitedly, gathering each and every fallen chestnut :))), amazed at how daddy had made them fall. We took all of them home and played at ordering them by size and at building shapes with them: triangle, square, circle, rectangle, diamond. Since then, the chestnuts in the park that we cross on our way to school have started falling. Every morning we look for the newly fallen ones and little gosling kicks them around running; towards the exit to the park he throws or kicks a chestnut rolling down into the lake. Every once in a while, he comes home with some chestnuts in his pocket :). 

My intention with the leaves was to press them and then play with them together, maybe draw them, playing associations and identify the tree they belonged to, start working on a herbarium..  I managed to press some of them, but most are drying along on colorful trays around the living room. I did draw them, however, and that, I discovered, was a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing activity for myself. Quite a learning experience, also, as I was never very knowledgeable about trees, however much I enjoyed spending time outdoors. 

Nevertheless, we keep gathering leaves, from all the parks we visit… As autumn progresses, we find more colours, orange, the occasional red… The other day, he got excited with a beautiful yellow American walnut tree, playing with its leaves and fruits. He loves kicking or touching the leaves, throwing them into the water… And I enjoy watching him explore and play in and with nature.

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He has recently started to ask about birthdays and we’ve been talking about months, soo… I also made a #seasonsandmonthsoftheyearwheel, inspired by @playlearngrowwiths and @learning.the.lovely. Cutting carton, reinforcing it, gluing, drawing was so absorbing and relaxing! Great activity for both mommy and kid ! I’m no artist, but little gosling gets the images, which is what matter. I was a bit taken aback when little gosling pointed to my November and took my pumpkin for a clementine , but hey! I just found out his big blue eyed animal friend I’ve been calling an owl for the past 6 months is actually a penguin!!! We learn together! Both wheels are now proudly embellishing our fruit bowls in the kitchen. And a weather wheel is in the making

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