Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

[Sponsored Post] Checklist for preparing kids for the new school year

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Back to School

In our household, our first born is getting ready to start her schooling. And it is a great moment of both pride and sadness for us. At one hand, we are proud of the bubbly young person we have created who is ready to let the school system mold her. At the same time, we are sad to lose her to the behemoth that the outside school system can be. Unfortunately, we can’t (and won’t) home school her for the rest of her life.

So we thought about all the unique experiences that she is likely to encounter in the first few days at school and how we could help her transition. It would make sense to have a list! We both sat down – she came up with some ideas and I helped her with the others.

* Making new friends – topmost! Friends we can choose (family we can’t)!

* Understanding and accepting discipline. Discipline in relation to other kids and to the teachers.

* Understanding roles and responsibilities. Different times in life require different hats!

* Finding new games and experiences.

* Learning to lead and learning when to be led.

* Being respectful of others – of their traditions, values and beliefs – which may be different than ourrs.

* Learning new things and ideas.

* Keeping safe. Understanding the dangers around her and how to find the best ways to deal with them.

* Handling stress. Yes, hopefully stress shouldn’t be part of her curriculum at the moment, but the better prepared she is now, the more helpful it will be in the future.

* Respect for the environment. This was a forced entry, as we wanted to round it off to 10 items. But this included inculcating into her the need to respect the things that are natural around her and leaving her rubbish behind, using recyclable items and taking care of nature strips.

We sat down and printed this on our own HP 8500 Officejet printer, and posted it in her room and kept one in her school bag. Hopefully, she will follow most of them. 🙂

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Disclosure:

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by HP via Glam Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of HP.

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Learning about Finland for Kids

Finland is a country in Northern Europe bordered by Sweden, Norway and Russia, as well as the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia. Let’s learn more about this Nordic country. 

Finland Basics

Finland is 130,678 square miles, or 338,455 square kilometers, and is home to about 5.7 million people. 

Its capital and largest city is Helsinki. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish.

The area now known as Finland was first settled around 9000 BC, and it was part of Sweden from the late 13th century until 1809, when it became an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire. It declared independence in 1917 and it officially became a republic in 1919. It lost some territory to Russia after World War II but retained its independence.

It was the first country in Europe to grant its citizens universal suffrage, and the first in the world to allow all adult citizens to run for office. It is a Nordic style welfare state with an advanced economy and is often ranked as one of the countries with the happiest people in the world. 

It has a unitary parliamentary government, with a president and prime minister.

The name in Finnish is Suomi, and it’s not clear where the name came from but it seems to have a common original with the Sámi, indigenous people from the Nordic region and Russia. 

Finland National Symbols

The flag of Finland has a white background with a blue Nordic cross (which looks like a Christian cross on its side) in the center. It is said that the blue represents the nation’s thousands of lakes (there are more than 180,000 recorded lakes in the country) as well as the sky.

The national anthem, “Maamme” in Finnish or “Our Land” in English, was originally written for the 500th anniversary of the town of Porvoo and was first performed in 1848. The song is not officially the national anthem but has been commonly used as the anthem since the nation’s independence. Estonia‘s national anthem uses the same tune. 

Finland’s coat of arms is a crowned heraldic lion on a red field, with the right front leg replaced by a human arm holding a sword. He’s also standing on a sabre and surrounded by nine roses. 

The Eurasian brown bear is the national animal, and the Finnhorse is the national horse. Finland’s national insect is the seven-spot ladybird and the national fish is the European perch. 

Lily of the valley is a floral emblem of Finland, and their national dog is the Finnish Spitz. In addition, granite, the silver birch, the Whooper swan and the holly blue butterfly are all considered national symbols. (You can read about several of these here.)

Finland Learning Activities for Kids 

Grab resources for teaching about Finland from Teachers Pay Teachers. Artsy Craftsy Mom also has a printable fact book you can purchase.

Make a tape resist Finnish flag with this idea from taidekoti. Or use watercolors to make the Northern Lights, which can be seen in Finland, with this project from The Pinterested Parent. And learn more about the Aurora Borealis in this video from Little School.

Learn more about the boreal forest/taiga biome, which covers the majority of Finland, with this resource from Let’s Talk Science. Talk about the differences between brown bears and grizzly bears, and pull out horse crafts and learning activities. 

Take a listen to some music performed on the kantele, the national instrument of Finland. 

Check out the Moomins, described as “with and roundish trolls with large snouts,” developed by Finnish author and illustrator Tove Jansson.

The national food of Finland is rye bread, so give it a try with this recipe from Zingerman’s. (It will still be good even if you don’t have freshly milled rye.)