I love spring

My son found ants. He suggested that
he would take some to be his sleep buddies.
I don't think so! 

Our kids love to be outside now when it is warmer. I enjoy watching when they explore the nature. My daughter plans to catch a squirrel, so that she could have a pet. My son hunts ants to have some new sleep buddies. They can again bike and jump in a trampoline. They go digging to a ditch that is running on the back of our yard. They simply enjoy it all and so do I. I could spend hours and hours gardening. It offers me a flow experience that makes me to forget all my worries and fills my heart with joy.

The Finns wake up every spring. We come out from our houses like bears out of their caves. We may have not seen our neighbors for months and now we have change to chat again. (Or if we have seen them, we have hardly talked to them, because it has been too cold to stand outside chatting.) We are transformed into more talkative and cheerful nation. 

 I love spring! 

Looking forward to the summer when we get to go swimming... 

Public health care and how it works in Finland

Medical Consultation

We live a few minutes away from a health care center. If we needed to see a doctor urgently, we would give a call to the health care center and make an appointment for the same day. Usually they give a specific time when to come. Because doctors see more urgent cases first, you may wait in the waiting room over your appointment time. In urgent cases nigh time you must contact the hospital in a city near by.

With less urgent cases, you will get an appointment within a few weeks.

If you or your child need to a specialist, your local doctor sends you to a specialist to a private clinic. You make your appointment yourself and you don't need to wait for a long time to see a specialist. 

How much it cost to see a doctor in Finland? You pay 15-30 euros per visit. Children are free of charge. 

I must admit that we are luckier than most Finns, because the health care is very well arranged in our town: many services are bought from private clinics. In some other places you may wait for long time to see a specialist in a public health care. 

Even though the public health care is not expensive, many parents take health insurances for their kids, before they are born. The main reason is that they want to be able to take their child to a private clinic when needed. Our both children had insurances during their first year. Just in case. After that we changed their health insurances to accident insurances. 

Dental Care

Our kids get invited to see a dentist almost every year since they are one year old. For children (under 18 years old) these appointments and treatments are free of charge. The dentist will check their teeth and give advises. They want to prevent holes. That actually saves money. Generally Finnish kids should have good teeth if they remember brush them every morning before breakfast and evening before going to bed. And of course: they must remember to a take xylitol pastille after eating something. You probably didn't know that Finland kids are given a xylitol pastille in their day-care center after lunch?

Maternity Clinic

During the early state of your pregnancy you make an appointment to a maternity clinic. You will have an appointment about once a month during your pregnancy and if needed more often. You will have at least two ultrasounds to check how your baby is developing. All this is free of charge for you. 

When your baby is born he or she will have an appointment every month for the first six months and after that every other month until he or she is one year old. During the second year the check ups are twice a year and after that once a year. And again: you pay nothing for this service (except taxes!) 

Kids' programs in Finland

It is recommended that children should not watch television or play with a computer/tablet more than one hour per day otherwise it start impacting negatively on their cognitive skills and learning. For sure, it is difficult to stick to this rule. Especially if Daddy is the one keeping them company...

What kind to TV -programs Finnish kids watch

Pikku Kakkonen is a program for small children. It comes from television every day: during weekdays at 5.00pm-6.00pm and on Saturday and Sunday in the morning. Our kids don't watch it every day. During weekends I don't want them to start their day by watching television. If they start their day by watching Pikku Kakkonen, there is no time left for other programs (DVDs) or time on tablet. 

Our kids love watching kids's music programs. This is their favorite song at the moment: Frööbelin palikat: Robotti rock. 

Games

Our kids have a tablet where I have down-loaded games for kids. This tablet is made especially for kids and it has an in-built timer (Kurio tablet). Both kids have their own profile which they can use half an hour per day. However, our kids don't use the tablet every day. The older one uses it maybe once a week. I have found Lola Panda games good and educational. 

Indoor swimming pool

Our family went swimming yesterday. I took our daughter to ladies' dressing room and my husband took our son to men's dressing room. (Children that are under 7 years old can go to either side with their parent.) My son usually loves to go to sauna before going swimming, when my daughter doesn't enjoy sauna as much (all indoor swimming pools have saunas in Finland). Yesterday there were several adults who had tattoos. My son was wondering loudly to his Dad that is it allowed to draw to skin.

Visiting a Finnish indoor swimming pool might be an awkward experience for a foreigner at first. Women and men are not using the same dressing rooms, showers and saunas. However, you must undress before going to shower and to sauna. There are no curtains where you could hide yourself from others. You are not allowed to go to sauna wearing your swimming suite, because it is not hygienic.

When a child turns five, he or she is able to attend swimming classes to learn swimming. We call it "swimming school". Because there are 187 888 lakes in Finland, swimming is a useful skill and it can safe lives. I am going to sign up my oldest one for swimming lessons for next summer. She is very enthusiastic to learn to swim.

The most enthusiastic parents attend baby swimming lessons with their babies (3 months and older). I regret that we didn't. It would be easier for a child to learn swimming if she had not lost that reflex that every newborn baby has that they don't breath underneath water.