Our adventures have three main characters.

First of all, Anselm. He was born in December 2012, to a couple of romantics and artists. We knew he was special before we even met him, and on closer acquaintance has earned the title of “our adventure buddy” or simply “budster“. That’s how I am going to refer to him in this blog. We like sharing experiences together; from a walk in the snowy forest to an art exhibition, from trying new ice cream flavours to throwing snowballs at each other. Budster brings fresh enthusiasm to all of our escapades because everything is new to him.

Budster is an inventor. He always makes games for himself and finds interesting uses for old things. His favourite toy is a hammer… One of them, anyway. Budster has about six hammers, and the number keeps growing. He is also a passionate book lover. You can find the list of his favourite books here. He also likes running around outside, watching birds and squirrels squabbling in the yard, splashing in puddles and the kitchen sink, and tinkering with odds and ends to create something previously unthought of. He is very fond of spending time with Daddy in his workshop.

My husband Jeffrey works from home. He turned the basement of our house into an armoury, and he spends days making armour for private collections and museums. Pros: he is always at home. Cons: he is always at work. All in all, we have a splendid time together, dine as a family twice a day, and if I need to tell him about some new achievement of Budster’s – like getting wet throughout after a particular enjoyable dishwashing – I just need to raise my voice to be heard over the hammering. Jeffrey is always here for me, and he helps to make my ideas for projects come true.

Finally, a couple of words about myself. I love to make toys and write. I have also been crazy about books since I was a little girl – of course, then mostly I read children’s books. When I got older and went to study English literature and Education in university, I found that children’s books were still my passion – I even wrote my thesis on them (Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and other coming-of-age stories for girls). I have since added books on childhood development and psychology to my reading list. I have a great respect for the era of childhood, and, watching my son and his friends, I find it thrilling to witness a human’s growing.

While I find many of the modern educational philosophies fascinating, I do not favour any in particular, preferring an eclectic approach. I believe in respect for children, no matter how small. Another priority is their safety and freedom – the possibility for children to explore the world unimpeded while in our care. I believe in reading a lot of stories together every day and surrounding them with good books. I want to make their childhood magical and vibrant with colourful puppet performances and mysterious shadow plays, camping trips and picnics at the lake, building fairy houses in the garden and inventing long-winded stories about the family of squirrels that lives in our oak tree.

Right now our family is settled in southern Ontario, Canada, enjoying the peaceful and picturesque countryside of the area with its endless orchards, vineyards and waterfalls – but Budster is the only native here. Jeffrey is from Saskatchewan, Canada, and I came here all the way from Russia. What luck that we all have met! We like to keep our lives fun by combining our diverse cultural and linguistic experiences.

We are happy share with you our projects and adventures! Read more about how this blog started here.

Thank you for reading!