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.

Egg Timer -pedagogics

In Finland using physical punishment has been illegal for a little bit over thirty years: no hair pulling, no flipping, no spanking... You are not to hurt you child physically at all. This law protects a child from physical abuse. However, parents need to set boundaries for children otherwise they will be in trouble when the kids reach puberty... 

Time out 

I use an egg timer: the three-year old get three minutes and the five year old gets five minutes time out when they need to re-consider their behavior. I put them to sit on a stool in the kitchen. I know there has been some debate whether "penalty bench" is harmful for a child. My opinion is that it is more harmful for the child if he grows up without any boundaries. It damages a child if he is not taught what is right and what is wrong when he is small.

There are some principles when using the time out method:
 1) Don't be harsh: the time must match the age of the child (3years old > 3minutes, 4 years old > 4minutes etc.)
2) After the time out, ask the child why she or he was punished.
3) Usually a child is ready for a hug after the punishment. Give it to her or him. They must feel that Mommy loves them still. The kids are different. My daughter has always needed reassurance after she has argued with me.

Toy out 

With my five-years old I have noticed that by taking one of her favorite toys and putting it somewhere where she can see it, but can't reach it, is actually more effective punishment than using a penalty bench. I usually tell her when she will be able to get it back. I must admit that I am quite soft and her toy has never been over night there. Hmmm... maybe I should apply the egg time also here.

Bath Time

I have also noticed that it is effective to use the egg timer when my son should finish his bath. If I tell him to come out, he refuses and starts arguing with me. But when I tell him that his bath is finishing soon, and I will put a timer to ring when it finishes, he has time to adjust and when the timer rings, he is ready come out.

How to keep in shape (or try to) at home

When I was a home maker, my husband and I used to go for a walk every morning with the kids. (My husband was studying at that time.) We stopped at two different play grounds so that kids could play. Our walks took two hours (the actual walking part took one hour). Also I used to attend an aerobics class at least once a week.

When I returned to work, keeping in shape has actually been more challenging. I just don't have time to go for walks or to attend exercise classes. I want to spend my free time with my family. The kids are too big to sit in a stroller for an hour (and too heavy for me to push them around). 

My solution has been a cross trainer, the 7-minutes workout and a program with stretching exercises. I use our cross trainer twice a week for 30 minutes while the kids watch kid's program from TV and I watch my favorite shows from the computer (at the moment my favorite TV show is Doc Martin). After that I do the 7-minutes workout and the stretching program. I have downloaded the exercise program to my tablet. I try to do the 7-minutes workout every evening. I got the idea after reading about it's effectiveness. I think that it really works. I started doing it last July. I almost always watch TV while exercising. Seven minutes every day is not much...

These are the programs that I use: 

http://www.7-min.com/

http://fitnessreloaded.com/apps/stretching-exercises-app/

Finnish Family Support

Thanks to Finnish family support system I was able to spend four year home with my kids and get paid for it. With my first born I returned to work when she was one year old, because her Dad was studying. She has a super-Dad. He took care of her while studying for ten months, so that we didn't have to put her to a day-care.

After our second child was born, I stayed home until he turned three years. If you are working before your maternity leave, maternity and parental allowance are fairly good amount of money (related to your salary). But when it comes to child home care allowance (after the child is nine months), allowance drops and it is a little bit more than "a pocket money".

This information is from Kela's internet page:

Maternity leave

Maternity leave starts before the child's estimated date of delivery. You start your maternity leave at least 30 working days (about 5 weeks) before the estimated date of delivery. If you wish, you can start maternity leave earlier, starting 50 working days (just over 2 months) before the estimated date of delivery at the earliest. You can choose yourself when to start your maternity leave. When you start maternity leave, Kela will pay you maternity allowance. 

Parental leave for mother or father

Parental leave starts after maternity leave. For the duration of parental leave, Kela pays 158 working days of parental allowance, which is just over 6 months. The child is about 9 months old when the parental allowance ends.

Paternal leave

The father can take the following leave after the child is born:

1. paternity leave for a maximum 54 working days
2. parental leave after the mother's maternity leave (the leave can also be shared with the mother, but you cannot take it at the same time).
3. child care leave after parental leave.
4. part-time child care leave if you return to work part time.

After parental leave

The child is about 9 months old when the parental leave ends. After the leave

1. the father can take paternity leave and receive an allowance from Kela. 
2. the mother, father or another carer may stay at home to look after a child under 3 years of age and receive child home care allowance. Kela will not pay an allowance for the home care of a child over 3 years of age unless there are younger siblings under 3 years of age in the family.

... and then there are more options if you return to work at this point. Which I don't recommend... My opinion is that it serves a child's best interest if his/her parent is his/her primary care giver  until he/she turns two years. If it is possible. Two first years are the most important years for kids' future development.

And what is this KELA? Supervised by the Finnish Parliament, Kela is an independent social security institution with its own administration and finances. The parliamentary supervision is exercised by a group of Trustees appointed by Parliament.