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• Mother’s Day events & parenting workshops
• Where to go on the Freedom Day long weekend
• Valentines Day Events
• Fear factor and fantasy parties plus Halloween events
• Swimming lessons & Heritage weekend events
• Spring fun coming up
• Madiba, you’ve done us proud.
• Preparing for exams, a letter to students
• ‘Go natural’ and make your own cleaning products
• Mid-term break with a difference
• Trick or Treat 101
• Escaping Halloween
• Double Trouble
• Spring thoughts…
• What makes a good friend?
• Roast butternut salad recipe
• Discovering Soweto
• Employing an au pair, the pros and cons
• Our African journey during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
• What an awesome weekend!
• The gift that keeps on giving
• My mom: a 9 yr old pays tribute
• My failure as a son
• Don’t let holidays hinder your child’s learning
• When the ex husband skypes the kids, a single mom dilemma
• Its the Pitts.
• My Family Christmas
• Presents and a 2 year old
• Making Xmas crafts with kids
• Halloween at the Zoo
• Left is right too…!
• Sharing and caring
• Chrissiesmeer, a weekend away
• Taking the littlest Haggard for his shots
• A single mom, two kids and a guy
• Halloween, past and present
• Halloween treats
• Two moms in a car park have a crazy idea
• Preparing for exams
• How much freedom should we give our kids?
• Over the mountains and far away
• Tips for taking good photos
• Buying birthday presents
• Spring is here – let’s get planting
• Wet Nose
• My son’s dream guest
• Over the ocean
• What’s it like living in Joburg with young kids?
• Green Parenting
• Easy Answers to Awkward Questions : New Parenting Book
• You cannot call on the Incredible Hunk
• HIV / AIDS – Questions about testing workers
• Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Glass
• Juggling two homes
• Reading Difficulties – how can you help?
• School Holidays
• Organising a birthday party
• Playful parenting is a way to enter a child’s world.
• Karate birthday party – Martial arts party ideas for kids
• Why can’t my kids fall asleep at night?
• The HELP AT HOME Mental Stimulation Course for Nannies
• Please let us be vigilant, and let us keep our children safe
• My daughter was almost stolen
• A cooking morning for my kids
• NEW COMPETITION LISTING & EVENTS
• MOTHER’S DAY AND MORE
• VANISHING INSECTS SERIES
• EASTER HOLIDAY EVENTS
• VICKY FRIEDMAN TIES THE KNOT!
• ABOVE AVERAGE HOME SCHOOLING CENTRE
• COLOURFUL FAMILY FUN AT MONTECASINO THIS EASTER
• THE SECRET GARDEN
• SINBAD’S STUNT SHOW SETS COURSE FOR GOLD REEF CITY THEME PARK
• DANNY THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD
• MARCH 09
• EXCLUSIVE BOOKS
• MOVIE SCREENING OF “FOOD MATTERS”
• HOLIDAY SUGGESTIONS
• JOZIKIDS Walks and Events
• JANUARY 09
• MELVILLE KOPPIES COMMITTEE WARNING
• DEC HOLIDAYS & XMAS
• NOV/ DEC EVENTS
• EVENTS & CAR JOURNEY
• NEW OCT LISTINGS & EVENTS (2)
• OCT /NOV EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
• NEW OCT LISTINGS & EVENTS
• OCT/NOV EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
• WHOLESOME FOOD AND HOMEMADE CRAFTS GALORE THIS SUMMER
• JOZIKIDS HOLIDAY CAMPS & EXTRA LESSONS
• AUG EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
• JOZIKIDS JULY-AUG EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
• JOZIKIDS HOLIDAYS PRIVATE & PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• JOZIKIDS WINTER HOLIDAYS(3)
• JOZIKIDS JUNE EVENTS
• JOZIKIDS HELP XENOPHOBIA VICTIMS
• JOZIKIDS WINTER HOLIDAYS(1)
• BEAUTIFUL CREATURES CONCERT BY TOPTOTS
• CREATIVE CRAFT EXPO 2008 4-6July 2008

by  Michael Marinus, an early thirties  dad of Megan(3) and James(1) who also works as a Chiropractor in Joburg You’ll find him on twitter @mikemarinus or visit his blog

We, like many South African families, live nestled away from the main roads and hub-bub of the city in a secure complex in the suburbs. This can, at times, be the cause of much frustration what with having to deal with body corporates and nosy neighbours, but it also allows for a safe environment in which our children can play, ride bikes and come 31st October, go trick or treating in the evenings without fear.

My wife and I found ourselves completely unprepared for this when the knock came on the door the year we moved in. “Trick or Treat” cried the ragtag bunch of miniature Batman’s, Princesses and Ben 10 lookalikes crowded around our front door shoving and jostling for position. We looked at each other in dismay and sheepishly ended up fishing in our wallets for coins and raiding the pantry for Safari dried fruit sticks.  That was, in our ignorance, all we had to offer.

This resulted in groans and half-hearted thank-you’s as they bustled out of our driveway shaking their heads in disbelief and comparing the contents of each other’s Pick ‘n Pay packets.  It has taken a hearty sweet collection and much convincing in the following years to entice them back to our door at Halloween and not have them scowl at us as they cycle past our house till Christmas.

Since having children of our own we have become more in tune with events like Halloween and now try our best to fill their baskets with ‘lekkers’,  sending  them home to their parents high on sugar for a night of no sleep, sore tummies and multicoloured vomiting.  Just what we would expect other parents to do to our kids.

This year my kids will be old enough to join in the fun and I am looking forward to haunting the complex along with them and all the mini Frankensteins, Wondergirls and hopefully the odd, proudly South African, Tokoloshe. Maybe we will even meet some new neighbours, one or two of whom I’m secretly hoping will be as unprepared as we were and the Scrooge McDuck title can eventually be handed over.

I encourage all parents to go pumpkins out this Halloween and share in your child’s and all the other children’s make-believe magic. Even if it is an American tradition, why not embrace it with South African style by dressing your little one up as Liewe Heksie while you do your best Johan van der Walt impression complete with teeth?  So give up an old sheet to transform your little angel into a growling ghost or use that tacky 70’s shirt taking up space in the back of your cupboard to complete his Austin Powers transformation!  Get involved and who knows, you might just look good in Superman leggings!

by Sine Thieme, a writer and mother of four who is new to South Africa and busy chronicling her experiences on her blog, Joburg Expat.

The golden leaves are waving in the crisp autumn air, little feet are scurrying onto porches lined with jack-o-lanterns, cries of “trick or treat!” are echoing through the neighborhood… Actually, that seems to be other people’s Halloween fantasy. Let me come right out and make a confession: I really do not like Halloween! I don’t like dressing up, I don’t like buying costumes, let alone sewing them, I’ve had to force myself to show enthusiasm going to the pumpkin patch to help the kids pick their pumpkins, I don’t like decorating the house, and most of all I hate all the candy coming home, on a weeknight to boot, when it seems like our goodie bags are still full from Valentine’s Day.

Imagine my delight about moving to South Africa: I’d finally be rid of having to deal with Halloween! But to my horror, I’ve since learned otherwise. Trick or treating seems to be the great new thing in all neighborhoods around us. What’s more, South African kids don’t seem to get the “or” part of “trick or treat” – from what I’ve heard, you end up dishing out candy and having your house vandalized. As every year, my kids are scheming what they’ll be this time, and trust me, it’ll involve brand-new gear. So not only am I looking at another round of trick or treating, I have the additional challenge of finding costumes and pumpkins and whatnot in a place I can’t even find apple sauce and chocolate chips!

But the good news is that at this time of year Joburg evenings are mild and balmy, so at least we’ll be strolling down the street in short sleeves, beer in hand, meeting some of our new neighbors while thinking of our friends back home who are breaking out the mittens and ski coats and freezing their butts off.

by Sine Thieme, a writer and mother of four who is new to South Africa and busy chronicling her experiences on her blog, Joburg Expat.

by  Michael Marinus, an early thirties  dad of Megan(3) and James(1) who also works as a Chiropractor in Joburg You’ll find him on twitter @mikemarinus or visit his blog

I remember being asked about two years ago if I had kids. “Oh yes,” I replied “I have a daughter”. “You don’t have kids, you have a kid” the guy replied.  I was a bit taken aback by this and was left wondering how someone could make this distinction, if you had gone through the trials of the first six weeks, run the gauntlet of dirty nappies and midnight feeds how could someone say just having one child somehow puts you in another category.  It doesn’t, of course, but the difference between a house with one and a house with two or more children are vastly different situations and the arrival of my son has raised some interesting challenges for me as a father.

When two parents are in charge of one child, you get breaks. Necessary little five minute ‘time-outs’, which I used, to compose myself and return to the calamity with calm and enthusiasm.  For dads like me who do not have built in maternal instincts and just want to problem solve, it is important to be able to take step back and assess if problems need to be solved or left alone. When baby number two arrived all bets were off. We were both in there, hammer and tongs, feeding one, bathing the other and passing each other by.

Having one child is much like getting a pet while having two is like going for your zoo-keeping license and not all animals get treated the same way. As a father I did not expect my parenting style to differ so greatly between my two kids. My daughter runs rings around me while my son generally brings at my inner disciplinarian and my wife finds it the opposite way around. This is also true for friends of ours and they too worry that they are not giving their children equal attention or love. Men want men to be men, women want girls to be little darlings and hence we bring up a generation of daddy’s little angels and mommy’s boys.

My wife and I may not agree on all fronts when it comes to parenting but we both agree that the leap from no children to one child, as life altering as it seems at first is not as great a leap as from one to two. From finding friends to babysit, to late night dual coughing fits it can be quite a shock to the system of someone who thought they knew it all.  But however difficult it may be, you now have two beaming faces smiling up at you in the morning and two sets of laughs to melt your heart. The good completely outweighs the bad and when you make it out of the mists of the first few months of ‘double trouble’ and you look down to see two little friends holding hands and trying to push each other over a pot plant  you realize that you don’t know what you did without them.

by Heike Taschner,  foodie, fond gardener, loves spending  time with her 4 yr old in the garden, making large sculptures and cooking home grown veggies. Owner of Spiced Coffee Restaurant at Ludwig’s Roses

When I think of Spring, I see little shoots, red and soft, peeping from each pruned rose bush;  fresh little leaves forming, getting ready to spread out and soak up the sun rays.  I count the few days left until the farm BURSTS with colour, exhibiting fields of blooming roses.

I see the Egyptian ducks returning to the dams and shortly after, feathery little ducklings swimming in rows behind their mommy Jemimah duck.  The veld grass turns green again and the horses are let free to roam.  Butterflies emerge and are symbolic of the lightness and joy that Spring brings with it.

As a child I remember getting up with ease to go to school when Spring returned. I fondly reminisce about our school Spring Day festival and my father making us the most magnificent rose garland haloes. I remember friends being envious of the rose crown, not knowing how heavy it was to wear, and teachers hoping that they were the favourite who would receive the halo as a gift after the festival.

Today I made a boutonnière for my son to wear to the kindergarten Spring Day. He proudly wore his bright orange rose pinned through his shirt button hole. We have also planted some seeds in a mini hot house on our window sill and we look closely each day if one or two of them have sprouted.  Alexander helped mix in some compost and peanut shells into our new garden beddings and chose colourful perennial plants at a nursery close by.  We also made sure to pick some plants that attract butterflies to the garden.

During the cold Winter my 4 year old and I kept ourselves busy indoors with creative projects -pasting and painting, cutting and gluing, reading and colouring. Now that it is warmer and Summer is on our doorstep he spends hours outdoors, riding bicycle with his dad; swinging, playing hide-and-  seek with his friends. He also had his first swimming lesson of the season.

The time of warm soups and stews is over, making way for experimenting with home grown veggies and herbs. The warm, Spring days also lend themselves to taking the family on an occasional weekend trip to an animal farm, park or to the zoo to learn something new.

Pack a picnic basket, your hat and some sun block and enjoy a day relaxing and watching Spring unfold.

Jayshree Sita, mom to 2 gorgeous, lively kids, Amishka 9yrs and Vishen  5yrs.  She traded the glamorous life of a chartered accountant to become a teacher. She’s also an aspiring writer and artist who is passionate about self-development and keeping her family happy.

I have just put the phone down after chatting to a wonderful friend and began to ponder, what makes her so wonderful? I don’t see her too often because we are both very busy with our own families and work, and we only chat telephonically about once a month. We know each other since we met as nursery school moms outside the school gate about 5 years ago.  So, how do I conclude that she is wonderful?

Well, she is extremely honest, open and sincere. She shares things directly from her heart, and trusts me to be caring in my response.

In our conversations, she listens with patience and attention and always has an encouraging, if not inspiring word for me.

When we chat, the topics may be simple, but there is a great depth of reflection on our life experiences. For example, we talked about her little boy who got very ill and had to be taken to hospital. Thankfully he is now better. What she shared with me was how this experience made her reach deep inside herself to connect with herself spiritually.  This led to my sharing my own recent need to find my spiritual strength and how I am faring on this journey.

She has a truly optimistic perspective on her life and the world, despite the fact that she has experienced many hardships in her life.  Warmth and good cheer are her constant companions.

She gives me motivation and moral support to follow my dreams.  I cherish her sincere words of support, which are like life-giving rain to the seeds of my dreams. She inspires me to be a better person.

I admire her as a woman who is progressive, yet has respect for the traditions of the past. She values her family greatly and always has time for the elderly as well as the young ones. She is a successful self-made business woman, and also has a wonderful partnership with her husband. She is devoted to her children, yet balances her needs to be an individual. She is both glamorous and humble.  She is extremely intelligent and worldly wise with an amazing knack to connect deeply with most people. She has used this strength to carve herself a very strong niche in the business world.  All these qualities make her a wonderful role model to those around her, and I would love my daughter to be influenced by her as a very special “Auntie” figure.

Mostly, she makes the time to actually talk to me, and have a conversation that is meaningful, despite having lots of other things demanding her attention.

Before our conversation this afternoon, I was feeling a bit under the weather and just feeling myself sorry. But now, here I am writing this reflection which is making me feel pretty awesome and special wonderful  friend!

provided by Matthew Ballenden, dad to Isabella & owner of the Fresh Earth Food Store, an organic health store and vegetarian restaurant with a great online store. Visit their website to find out more.

Salads are full of essential vitamins, iron, anti-oxidants, protein and good lipids, essential for maintaining a good nutritional constitution and alkalinity. Salads are a great way to get the required nutrition into your body that helps prevent hay fever. Hay fever sufferers are almost always very acidic and research has shown that by alkalizing your body with raw, healthy salads that have a great variety of ingredients, will help alleviate the symptoms.

How to make the roast butternut

1kg Butternut diced into 3cm block
15g Sage
10g Himalayan rock Salt
10g Olive oil

Method for making the butternut

Add all ingredients to baking tray mix up and bake.
Bake at 160 degrees for
Make sure the butternut is still firm but with nice colouring.

Salad ingredients

50g Mixed baby lettuce washed and dry
8g Rocket washed and dry
25g Mixed sprouts mustard seed sprout, sunflower sprout
10g Spring onion chopped
100g Roasted butternut
5g Toasted almond flakes
60g Avocado cubed same as the butternut
5g Alfalfa sprouts
60g Cucumber sliced and halved
60g Feta Cheese or Gorgonzola cheese
45ml Herb Dressing

Make sure the baby lettuce and the rocket is washed and dry Assemble lettuce in a pile add the mixed sprouts (mustard seed and sunflower seed sprouts)

Drizzle with herb dressing
Add the cucumber
Add the avocado
Add the butternut
Add the Cheese
Now garnish with the sprouts and flaked almonds

Browse through other healthy recipes on from Fresh Earth Food Store

by Sine Thieme, a writer and mother of four who is new to South Africa and busy chronicling her experiences on her blog, Joburg Expat.

It is 8:30 on a Saturday morning, and our family of six is ready to go on our first tour of Soweto. Rather than setting out on our own, we have chosen Themba Tours (R450 per adult for a half-day tour, kids half price), partly because of the convenience of a personal guide, but also, I admit, because “going into Soweto” has such a dangerous ring.

After a bit of a mix-up over our pickup location – as relative newcomers to South Africa we’re still saddled with a lot of Western impatience over the concept of “African time” – we are finally moving along the highway in a white minibus. Loyd, our guide, treats us to a quick history of Soweto, where he himself has lived all his life

Our first images of Soweto could not be further from what I expected (I’m not sure what I did expect – shootings? Road blocks? Burning cars?) This part, the “wealthy” section, looks very middle class – tidy houses, walled in, lush gardens. We drive by a high school, pretty playgrounds, a sprawling shopping center. All the more striking is the contrast when we arrive at our first stop, the Elias Motsoaledi squatter camp. Lean-to shacks crammed haphazardly together as far as the eye can see, patches of red, dusty dirt, no vegetation other than a few gray leaves winding around a fence post here and there. We begin walking, first to a preschool, then a typical family’s .home. What strikes me is how tidy everything appears. It has to be, with such little space. The nursery school houses stacked chairs, alphabet charts, and books, just like you’d expect. But you can tell that everything is scratched together by the grace of God, and we happily make use of the donation box. The home we visit is equally small (two beds are somehow enough for this family of eight), and only when I’m squashed against an ancient refrigerator that serves as cupboard do I realize there is no electricity in the entire camp. Stoves and lights are fueled with paraffin, and outside water taps and toilets have to be shared throughout the community.

Further stops include Regina Mundi Church, where many political meetings were held when they were officially banned during Apartheid, the Hector Pieterson Museum, and a quick sampling of Soweto cuisine at a restaurant selling kotas, also called bunny chow.

Our trip comes to an end with visits to Mandela House in Orlando West (where Nelson Mandela and his family lived from 1946 into the 1990s, now restored into a museum) and The Shack, a local shebeen or pub.

All in all, it was a very worthwhile trip. Our guide was excellent and offered a wealth of information and personal history. I hope that the kids will retain bits and pieces of it, if only to see what privileged lives they lead. Soweto is definitely not the cesspool of poverty and crime one might imagine, and instead offers a lot of history and a sense of community seldom found in our suburban estates. We felt completely safe at all times and I would have no reservations about going back on our own. For a more detailed version of this article, please visit Joburg Expat.

By Marion Smith, mom of 4 boys, the youngest her 15 month old twins.  After working as an au pair for 7 years both locally and abroad, Marion established her own agency called Aupairs Exclusive which is where she works now when she’s not being a mum.

If you haven’t quite decided whether or not to employ the services of an Au pair, then this list of advantages will surely help to convince you that there are far more advantages than disadvantages when making this important decision.

ADVANTAGES:

DISADVANTAGES:

Deciding to employ the services of an aupair should not be a decision that is taken lightly and it is suggested that parents thoroughly investigate possible candidates, should they decide to go ahead.

by Kecia Rust, a mother of 3 and a low income housing policy specialist.

Our family decided to take the benefit of the one month holiday and travel overland to Kenya. At first, we were worried that we were missing the greatest show on earth by leaving Johannesburg on 12 June, and we were certainly wistful about our leaving as the vibe really began to take off.

But we didn’t want to miss the chance of such a long winter holiday- a perfect time to explore the countries to the north of us.

We’ve now travelled through Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya.

We’ve tracked rhino, paddled on the Zambezi, visited amazing game reserves, climbed on ancient rocks, snorkelled in Zanzibar, and had a wonderful time.

Its been a great family holiday.

All along the route, we caught whatever soccer matches we could. We even watched a match while paddling along the Zambezi! (We pulled over at a pub en route to watch). At every place, the people we met asked us why we had left South Africa, now when everyone else was coming to visit! People were amazingly friendly. They commiserated with us in our sadness that Bafana Bafana didn’t make it to the second round, and cheered with us as we watched and hoped for Ghana thereafter. Everyone had multiple teams they were supporting. In Zanzibar we heard children singing “waka waka… Its time for Africa”.

Everywhere, people are playing soccer: boys and men, some girls too. They play with regulation balls as well as balls made from plastic bags. In Malawi, you can buy balls made with string from the rubber tree, stripped by children surreptitiously at the rubber plantation. Also in Malawi, I watched children play a game of modified fussball on the beach, with sticks and shells. My son Reuben has had such a great time playing pick up matches with local boys or men. Reuben is only 6 years old but he loves soccer and was thrilled to find more people to play with. Everyone loved our vuvuzela and asked to have a try at blowing it.

So I don’t really feel like we missed the world cup. We had a very different experience. But it was still a great celebration of a beautiful game, and a beautiful continent.

By Jacqui Janse van Rensburg who has lived in Johannesburg all her life. In her 42 years she has been a daughter, a sister, a wife, a girlfriend, an employee and is a CFO, but at last she can celebrate being a MOMMY! You can find her on twitter @JaxJvR

Saturday I got some time out from being MOMMY! for a few hours! My bestie, Lynne, had her birthday brunch in the gardens at Broadacres in Fourways! How awesome to sit with such fantastic women, we laughed, giggled, gossiped, even cried a little, then laughed some more!

It amazes me that at this time in my life I have managed to surround myself with such dynamic women! Women who are just so fabulous that I honestly WANT to spend my morning chatting to them. And we are so different. Some are married with no kids, some are married with 2 kids, already grown up and out of home, and some are divorced and still hunting Mr Right, some are dating Mr Right Now. But all are comfortable to be who they are.

Sunday I dragged my bored husband around the shops, looking for new shoes for my baby boy, and once again, I am reminded about how quickly he is growing up. I grabbed a pair of shoes off the shelf, thinking they were huge, and should last at least 6 months. Got home and wrote his name in them, ready for school this morning. But much to my horror, I could not even squeeze them on his rather alarmingly large feet! At 2 years old he is wearing shoes that would fit his cousin, who will be turning 4 in July! oh dear!

Which day did I enjoy most this weekend? Being the Girl-out-on-the-town, swilling back champagne and orange juice, or pulling a pre-teen, bored husband, and tantrum toddler around the shops? Well, I’ll leave that one to you to answer.

I will end off saying, God bless my bed! it is heaven on earth!