Mamabuzz

Saturday 9 January 2016

New Mamabuzz web site

We have the new web site http://mamabuzz.eu/?lang=en

It is our big pleasure to welcome you there!

Do not forget to like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mamabuzz/?fref=ts

Thursday 30 April 2015

Touring Exhibition: David Bowie is

David Bowie is, is the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie – one of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times. The V&A’s Theatre and Performance curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh selected Over 300 objects including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, photography, set designs, album artwork and rare performance material from the past five decades are brought together from the David Bowie Archive for the very first time. The exhibition demonstrates how Bowie’s work has both influenced and been influenced by wider movements in art, design, theatre and contemporary culture and focusses on his creative processes, shifting style and collaborative work with diverse designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre and film.

The exhibition is touring internationally. Confirmed venues are:

Source: V&A

Saturday 4 April 2015

Why do we have Easter bunny

Srpsko-hrvatska verzija teksta je ovde.

Easter is supposed to the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, but when someone hears Easter, they think of the Easter Bunny and eggs. Since ancient times rabbits have been associated with spring. It is believed that Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring, Eostre had a hare as her companion. She is a goddess of the dawn and the spring, and her name derives from words for dawn, the shining light arising from the east. Our words for the "female hormone" estrogen derives from her name.

Rabbits have been associated with springtime since ancient times. The hare symbolizes fertility and rebirth. Later Christians changed the symbol of the hare to the Easter bunny.

The tradition is that the Easter bunny leaves Easter eggs on Easter Sunday. Parents hide eggs in the garden and the children go on an egg hunt to find them.

The idea of an egg-laying rabbit was taken to America in the 1700's German immigrants. They told their children to make 'nests' with their caps and bonnets, and if they were good the Easter bunny would leave them coloured eggs.

From a Christian perspective, Easter eggs are said to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection.

Source: dailyjournalonline.com

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Avocadolada

Via Yummyaddiction

This drink is perfect for you and your baby or toddler. It is creamy and delicious and it’s a great fiber boost.

Ingredients

2 ripe avocados, pitted, peeled
2 small bananas, peeled
4 cups coconut water
1 1/2 cups frozen pineapple

Instructions

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth. If using fresh pineapple, pop in 1-2 ice cubes to create a really creamy, slightly chilled smoothie. Sprinkle with shredded coconut.

Wednesday 18 March 2015

A history of breastfeeding

Srpsko-hrvatska verzija.

It seems how you feed your baby has always been controversial subject. Historian Lucy Worsley give us a fascinating insight of.

Photo credit Musee Municipal, Macon, France /
Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library

If you enjoy the occasional daydream about living in the past, there is a one thing missing from your vision of life as a Tudor housewife or Georgian gentlewoman. Lucy Worsley says that in her own image of motherhood in the olden days she'd always assumed that woman lived near to nature ate homegrown vegetables, sewed their own underwear, and breastfed their babies. Though, she has been exploring the history of domestic life for her book and TV series. She was really surprised to discover that for centuries mothers went to extraordinary lengths to avoid breastfeeding.

Until 20th century, every woman wanted to hand her baby to a wet nurse as soon as the umbilical cord was cut. In Tudor times (15th-16th century), there was lively debate on the issue of whether mothers 'really ought' to breastfeed their own babies. But this mindset switched from 1600 onwards, when there were widespread complaints that 'bad' mothers were shirking their maternal duty. But then...

Photo credit Corbis

Many moms were forbidden from breastfeeding by their husbands because it inhibited the conception of the next child (breastfeed can delay ovulation). Certainly a landowner's wife who'd given birth to a girl would be expected back in the marital bed as soon as possible to provide a male heir to the family's estates.

Then there were other woman who wanted to avoid the potential problems that came with breastfeeding. A list of medical risks of nursing made in about 1700 makes pretty daunting reading; a woman might face difficulties 'when milk is too abundant, when it curdles in the breasts, when these become inflamed' it says, or she might 'suffer from an abscess or crack in the nipples'. In the days before antibiotics and creams, these conditions were genuinely dangerous.

If you were on of the new others who couldn't breastfeed, then prepare for stern words from rather officious gentlemen standing at the Puritan pulpit - religious radicals who also tried to ban Christmas. 'Sure if their breasts be dry'. wrote one of them, women 'should fast and pray together that this curse may be removed from them' .

Photo credit Buzzfeed

From 1700, the change in attitude towards breastfeeding gained some momentum when, for the first time, doctors started to encourage it for a baby's health. the beautiful and influential Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (Kiera Knightely in The Duchess) set a new trend after discovering her own wet nurse was often drunk and 'made the bed stink of wine'. So, startlingly for such a grand lady, she began breastfeeding her daughter herself and started a high-society craze.

Doctors showed more support fro breastfeeding in the mid 19th century when they successfully campaigned against 'baby farming'. Many poverty-stricken Victorian women would deliberately conceive in order to gain well-paid work as a wet nurse, sending her own newborn to a baby farm - a kind of orphanage where the best hope would be for adoption (a long shot in super-fertile Victorian times) and most babies suffered neglect.

Photo credit Buzzfeed

Bottle-feeding became a more 'practical' alternative by the 1860 with the invention of formula and wet nursing gradually died out. Early formula milks were cow's milk, sometimes mixed with cream, water, honey or sugar in varying proportions. Formula was more 'more nutritious' and likely to avoid rickets.

Thankfully we've learnt a lot over the years about how best to care for babies, but strong views on how we feed our babies continue to cause debate. Perhaps it always will.

Natalia Vodianova via Instagram

Lucy Worsley's book 'If walls could talk: An Intimate History of The Home' is available as series and you can watch it via You Tube here.

Words Lucy Worsley

Monday 16 March 2015

Montessori

Srpsko-hrvatsku verziju pročitajte ovde.

Maria Montessori, who was born in 1870, was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Italy. She developed a teaching programme that enabled apparently 'ineducable' children to read and write. She based her ideas on the principle that the senses should be educated first, and then the intellect. According to her skills should be learnt not by endless repetition but by providing exercises that prepare the children to discover things for themselves. For example, learning to look develops into reading, while touching leads to writing.

“The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge. Our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his explorations of the world…” – Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori’s approach to education respects and encourages a child’s natural desire to learn. Montessori observed that, when given the proper learning environment and encouragement, young children will essentially teach themselves important concepts such as counting, sorting and learning the alphabet.

Five basic principles fairly and accurately represent how Montessori educators implement the Montessori method in many kinds of programs across the United States. These principles include: 1. respect for the child, 2. the absorbent mind, 3. sensitive periods, 4. the prepared environment, and 5. auto-education.

Respect for the child

On a first principle Montessori said that as a rule, however, we do not respect children. We try to force them to follow us without regard to their special needs. We are overbearing with them, and above all, rude; and then we expect them to be submissive and well-behaved, knowing all the time how strong is their instinct of imitation and how touching their faith in and admiration of us. They will imitate us in any case. Let us treat them, therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help to develop in them (Montessori, 1965). The crucial thing is to respect everyones right to have a choice, because when children have choices, they are able to develop the skills and abilities necessary for effective learning autonomy, and positive self-esteem.

The Absorbent Mind

Montessori believed that children educate themselves and wanted us to understand that children can’t help learning. Simply by living, children learn from their environment. Children are born to learn, and they are remarkable learning systems. Children learn because they are thinking beings. But what they learn depends greatly on their teachers, experiences, and environments. Montessori called it the Absorbent Mind because the young child seems to just soak up everything in his environment without even thinking about it. The fact that the child has a mind like this means that much emphasis must be put on education in the first six years of life, while the child learns with total ease.

Sensitive Periods

Although all children experience the same sensitive periods (e.g., a sensitive period for writing), them sequence and timing vary for each child. One role of the teacher is to use observation to detect times of sensitivity and provide the setting for optimum fulfillment.

A prepared environment

Montessori education seeks to provide the child with an environment ideally suited to his stage of development which allows him to respond to the inner call of specific ‘sensitivities’,and the freedom to act in accordance with the natural behavioural tendencies.

Auto-education

Children who are actively involved in a prepared environment and who exercise freedom of choice literally educate themselves.

The results of the studies showed that the children in the Montessori schools had the highest rate of peer interactions. The Montessori children’s interactions with their peers and their teachers were longer. This result showed that the Montessori children had more advanced social skills because longer interactions require more verbal abilities and cooperation from the children.

Their ability to work in a group was also related to higher levels of both self-efficacy for academic achievement and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning.

They were able to concentrate and focus on tasks for long periods of time and to self-manage their own learning. The children were also found to be confident, responsible, and hard-working individuals.

The children also showed significant development in the areas of number concepts, visual-motor integration, psycho-motor skills, and classificatory skills within the first year. After two years, the curriculum was found to be extremely helpful in further supporting the children’s development in visual-motor integration, psycho-motor skills, and matching and sorting skills.

Montessori materials invite activity. There are bright arrays of solid geometric forms, knobbed puzzle maps, coloured beads, and various specialized rods and blocks. All the materials in a Montessori environment are designed for maximum independence in the child. Everything, including a dustpan and brush, is child sized. Activities are laid out in an orderly way on easily accessible open shelves and the design of the materials make it easy for the child to identify, and gradually correct, any error.

Photo credits montessory.blogspot.com

One way to access Montessori is to incorporate it in the home, through introducing independence, freedom and grace into the family's routine.

Photo credit www.howwemontessori.com

Summa summarum

Take care of practical life and sensorial activities in the preschool years. Practical life activities for care of self, care of the environment, control of movement, and grace and courtesy help your child develop order, concentration, coordination, and independence. Activities to refine the senses give indirect preparation for later academic learning.

Give your child the freedom to explore indoors and outdoors – as long as your child is safe and using the freedom in a positive manner.

Give freedom to the child to engage in his own development according to his own particular developmental timeline.

Respect children thrive on accomplishments when they are able to complete real work with real tools and materials.

Note that rewards and punishments do not encourage the learning process. Learning should be its own reward. Often the “reward” lies is the completion of the task: a puzzle completed, a glass of water poured, a table set or a plant potted.

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Maria Montessori died in 1952. However, for more than 100 years, the Montessori method has educated millions of students throughout the world. It is estimated that there more than 5,000 Montessori schools in the United States and more than 20,000 in 110 countries around the world.

Sunday 15 March 2015

Hair accessories for girls

Srpsko-hrvatska verzija.

Photo credit Louise Misha

This post is inspired by our big love for hair accessories. They are becoming popular recently thanks to the spring and Boho trend fever.

These fairy-tale flower crowns from Louise Misha enthralled us soooo much. This brand's love for lace, pastels, delicious lemon tarts, banana lassi, summer evenings and most of all the fun of delving for old objects and the joy of finding little things along the way, led to the creation of one of the prettiest kids clothes lines of today.

Louise Misha

Our favourite when it comes to the flower hair crowns is the brilliant designer behind the brand Magaela. She is a real virtuoso of flower matching art. Her flower crowns are ideal for everyday occasions as well as for any celebration when you want to look extraordinary, graceful and unique.

You just need to choose the right crown and voila, the magic moment is created, whether it is baptism, birthday, garden party, dreamy family trip to the nature, or a special photo-session. Magaela has a huge offer of hair accessories for moms, too. Check out her shop here and find out more.

This one-of-a kind head-piece is created from selection of chains from vintage costume jewelry. The Vintage Mini is adjustable ranging in size to fit a baby, toddler or child. It looks like the most adorable Boho accessory for this season.