Orchestra view.

A Lesson from Our Vacation with Kids

We are huge proponents of taking the kids along on vacations. I believe it’s a great bonding opportunity for the family, very educational for the kids, and it’s also fair when parents take the kids along on their travels. Based on my own childhood experiences, when parents vacation without kids or only with one of the siblings and not the other, that makes the child left behind feel like they are missing out and being deprived. I don’t want my kids to feel that, so we always take our kids on our vacations, as well as events and activities where we feel they would get a great experience. But recently we were on vacation in Miami, and there was one time when our values were put to a test.

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Pushing Kids to Achieve in Sports and Hobbies

The Lesson of Not Going to BJJ Tournaments

My 3 older kids train BJJ and are begging me to take them to tournaments. Their friends go to tournaments regularly and win trophies and get their rank promotions, and my kids get jealous – just like this week again, after another recent tournament. But it’s very hard for us to take our kids to tournaments. You have to get up at 5am, eat breakfast and drive 2-2.5 hours to another city to get there by 8am weigh-ins, then spend a full day there and drive back home all tired. My homeschooled kids get up late, we cook our breakfasts from scratch (which takes quite some time), we would have to bring our younger child along who will be bored, and waste a full day staying there and driving back and forth.

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Family Vacation

Family Vacation

We believe in the value of healthy eating. We believe in the value of exercise. We also believe in the value of having a large family with multiple kids. And we believe in the value of spending time together as a family, not separately. All this can be easily maintained while we are at home, within our comfort zone. But when vacation time comes, our values are subjected to a serious challenge.

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Protecting our children

Prevention is the Best Way to Protect Children

“Assume that a legislator with courage, influence, intellect, vision, and perseverance manages to enact a law that goes into universal effect and employment on September 10, 2001; it imposes the continuously locked bulletproof doors in every cockpit (at high costs to the struggling airlines)– just in case terrorists decide to use planes to attack the World Trade Center in New York City … The legislation is not a popular measure among the airline personnel, as it complicates their lives. But it would certainly have prevented 9/11.

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Our home where we had home births

​How to Prepare for Your Home Birth

My husband and I had all our babies at home with a midwife. Based on our experience, here are some suggestions about how to prepare for a home birth and make it as smooth and easy as possible.

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Travel

Prerequisites for Being a Homeschooling Business Owner

Homeschooling and working are typically believed to be mutually exclusive. In most homeschooling families, at least one of the parents doesn’t work. On the other hand, most families where both parents work don’t homeschool. My family’s experience shows that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing – there is a way to do both.

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Shopping

What’s wrong with consumerism?

Every holiday season I come across a bunch of articles that decry gift-buying madness and the general culture of consumption. The authors seem to think that the habit of purchasing material goods somehow interferes with one’s family time and spiritual well-being.

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Leaves

About Home Birth

We recently welcomed our fourth baby via a delightful planned home birth. It was only three weeks ago, but it feels like it’s been three long months. The newborn’s slow, sleepy routine makes the entire family, especially the mother, slow down and enjoy those still, quiet moments. It’s a great time for self-reflection and recollection of past events, and it’s a perfect opportunity to write my tribute to home birth and to my wonderful midwives.

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