Czechmatediary

Igracek was a communist classic line of plastic toy figurines, which in the past could be found in every Czech/Slovak child’s toy basket. Supposedly a knock-off of the famous German Playmobil brand, Igracek was meant to educate kids about real-life professions, creating plastic figurines of doctors, nurses, mailmen, chimney man (no offense, but how many chimney men are still out there? I think I have seen like one in my whole life…) and so forth.

After the Velvet Revolution the Igracek company (Igra) went bankrupt since the Czech market was flooded with new and enticing foreign-made toys and only until recently Igracek became simply an expensive collectible. The new company Efko bought the rights to the brand, including the actual chemical recipe to make the mold used to make the original figurine.

Today’s updated Igracek is not bigger but it is definitely better: “The main change of the figurine was to give it new arms, with movable wrists. The arms used to be connected to the hands of the figurine, now the hands can be moved. (more…)

If you have not heard of those Czech tongue twisters, you have not lived your life to the full yet. It is truly an experience! My Czech Republic blog has them even recorded (in a fast and a slow motion) so you can get the real taste of those sounds! My favorite one is “Strč prst skrz krk”, meaning “Stick your finger through your throat”. I bet you burn few hundred calories just by repeating this one couple of times!

To listen to the recordings click here.

CZ: Je na case zopakovat si ceske jazykolamy a zlamat si par jazyku. Mam takovy dojem, ze kdyz si jich par zopakujete  nekolikrat dokola, tak taky par tisic kalorii zpalite. Ano, ano, odvolejte ‘gym membership’, sednete si pred zrcadlo, uvolnete si blicejove svaly a dejte se do jazykolamu!

Nahravky ceskych jazykolau jsou k mani na blogu My Czech Republic (kliknete zde).

Svěrák wrote a childrens’ song that talks about cherry earrings and my daughter and I like it very much. I have explained to her in  great detail what cherry earrings are and was impatiently waiting for the first summer months until cherries finally appear in the stores. Then Hahna could taste them for the first time in her life, but most importantly, she gets to wear the true cherry earrings.

Cherry earrings bring a whole bunch of memories for me. They are the true signature of a Czech summer. How else would you spend a perfect summer afternoon than by sitting high up in a cherry tree, crunching on those big and juicy cherries right off the tree? I don’t know how about you but we would usually end up eating way too many of them and then have an upset stomach.

Anyhow, when we purchased our first bag of this summer season, I was kind of disappointed. The cherries were not as crunchy as what I remember them to be from my childhood AND the distributor cut the pairs in half so there was NO WAY one could make cherry earrings out of them! By miracle, I managed to find ONE pair that was left intact and I victoriously presented it to Hahna. I then proceeded to put it on her little ear – it truly felt like a wedding ceremony – the moment felt so significant for both of us! (more…)

The American moms affirm the trust relationship with their babies through breastfeeding on demand, while some Czech parents do it by juggling their little ones in the air. What do I mean by that? They take a parent-baby course which is called “Baby flying”.  The mother (or the dad) hold on to the baby’s arms/legs and variously twist them in the air, all to the sound of loud, dancing music. The course instructor, Blanka Kolarova-Sudikova, claims that besides affirming trust in between him and the parent, baby-flying helps with other problems such as if the baby is colicky or too hyperactive.

This unusual course has had so far about 1,500 graduates and numbers are growing. Only the doctors don’t like it one bit. They say that it can simulate the so-called “Shaken baby syndrome”, which leaves a serious health defect on a baby. (more…)

Written by Bozena Nemcova (Brothers Grimm have a similar fairytale by the way. Since Bozena Nemcova was born 35 years later than the Grimm brothers, she may have been ‘influenced’ by their original story a bit ;0)

Once there lived a peasant with his wife in a little cottage. One day his wife said to him, “Life is so empty without children; I wish we had a little boy.” Soon her wish came true and she gave birth to a son. He was healthy and strong, but no bigger than the size of a thumb. Therefore they named him Tom Thumb (Paleček).

One day around lunchtime, said Tom, “Mother, pack some lunch for my father and I will take it to him.” Mother laughed at his idea since he was so little but did as he asked. He set off on a journey to his father’s field, taking a lunch basket with him. Since he was so small, it looked as if the basket was walking on its own. After a while of walking, he reached a stream. But Paleček was smart and knew what to do. He pulled out a wooden spoon out of the basket, put it in the water and sat in it like it was a boat. He pulled the big basket behind him and that is how he got across the stream.

When Tom reached the field he started to shout, “Father, Father, I have lunch for you!” The peasant did not hear him but he saw the moving basket. He lifted it up and to his surprise, he saw his little son. While his father was eating lunch, Tom Thumb climbed into a bull’s ear, yelling commands at the bull and that is how he was plowing his father’s  field. He plowed so fast that he did more work than his father. (more…)

The local hospital in Ceska Lipa is in a big trouble. A father of a newborn child has filed charges against this institution for negligence, since his wife gave birth to their first-born right into a toilet bowl. How could this happen?  The 23-year-old expecting mother was admitted with stomach pains. After an agonizing night without any help from the hospital staff, she had decided to relieve herself in the bathroom and..uppsss…out came a baby! The poor kid has now a big bruise on its head.

CZ: Nemocnice v Ceske Lipe to v dnesni dobe nema lehke. Otec jednoho novorozenete totiz podal trestni oznameni proti teto instituci a to proto, ze mistni porodnici pry zanedbali peci. Jeho 9 mesicu tehotna zena prisla do nemocnice s hroznymi bolestmi ‘zaludku’. Nikdo ji v nemocnici nezkontroloval a nastavajici maminka trpela celou noc v krecich. Pote odesla na toaletu, aby si ulevila, a – splouch! – a na svete bylo miminko! Uhodilo se do hlavicky a na pamatku z toho utrpelo velkou bouli.

Source:

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127490

http://www.lidovky.cz/zena-v-nemocnici-porodila-na-zachode-pribuzni-vini-personal-pq5-/ln_domov.asp?c=A100426_182924_ln_domov_ani

Kids in America start going to school way too early. A five-year-old kiddos were still in diapers just 3 years earlier! Children of that age should be playing with their toys, enjoying their childhood and not learning how to read and do math problems.

I went to  first grade when I was almost 7 years old and I turned out just fine, so what’s all this rush about? The thing is that this early school fever is contagious. The Czech Republic started to accept 5-year-olds into their first grades this year, however, the interest was not high. Both parents and teachers think these children are just too young for school. “They have problems with speech, mostly with pronunciation”, says one of the first grade teachers. Even the Czech child spychologist, Vaclav Mertin, claims that children at 5-years-of-age should be educated in some way but they should not be going to school just yet. (more…)

When were were back in the Czech Republic the last time my cousin asked my husband: “Why did you guys get married if you weren’t pregnant?” We gave him kind of a blank stare back, not knowing how to respond. For love? Isn’t that usually the reason why do people get married? But according to  the Ceske Noviny newspaper 59% of Czechs  did get married because of their offspring. What is interesting is that 70% of those who participated in the poll think of an ideal family as having 2 children – no more, no less. This has been a wide spread thought for quite some time, say  the statistical analysts. (more…)

Lenka, also known as Slovak Mama, recently came out with a brilliant service-oriented website called “Postaram sa” (I wrote about it here). The English version is now available which means that it is now accessible to everyone who desires a foreign caretaker. This is what her website says:

‘Foreign Language Sitter was created to assist people who provide services in child care, senior care, pet care, housekeeping, and tutoring and who speak a foreign language. This site is for families that want their care taker to speak the same language that is spoken in their home or want to teach their child a foreign language.’

So if you are looking for a Czech/Slovak babysitter or any other caretaker check it out here!

My husband was recently telling me about his childhood arrow. When he was about 7 years old he found out that Santa did not exist and that just scared him tremendously. I tried to think of a time when I found out that Jesus does not bring us presents (for those who don’t know, it is Jesus who traditionally brings Christmas presents to the Czech and Slovak children). But I just can’t remember….I remember writing him letters and putting them behind the window so that he sees it when he is flying around and I remember bragging to the kids at school that I had seen Jesus’s feet as he was flying out of our window on Christmas Eve.

Here is a question for you:

CZ:  Pred nedavnem mi manzel vypravoval, jak vlastne zjistil, ze Santa neexistuje. Bylo mu asi 7 let a hrozne ho to zranilo. To me privedlo na myslenky, jak jsem vlasnte  zjistila ja, ze mi Jezisek ve skutecnosti neprinasi darky. Vubec si na tuhle epizodu meho zivota nemuzu vzpomenout; jenom si pamatuju, jak jsem mu psala dopisy a pak jsem je davala za okno, aby je pri jeho litacich pochuzkach videl…..taky si pamatuju, jak jsem se detem ve skole vytahovala, ze jsem na Stedry vecer zahledla jeho nohy zrovna kdyz vyletaval oknem z naseho obyvaku.

Mam tedy pro vas otazku:

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