Clever Hedgehog believes that one day soon, we will celebrate this special day together in a happy and peaceful Ukraine!
The meaning of Motherland?
Motherland or Homeland is the place where you were born and grew up. It’s where your family and friends live, and where you have lots of happy memories. Motherland is also about your language, culture, and the traditions you share with others. It’s the place where you feel safe, happy, and truly at home.
It is interesting that in some countries the word “Fatherland” is used instead of “Motherland”, but both have the meaning of the “parents’ land”, it is the native (parental) land, parental heritage. Love for the Motherland begins with love for parents.
Loving the Motherland means appreciating and protecting everything related to it, and trying to make it even better for all the people who live here.
Read what the pictures tell us
Think about whether a person can have two or more homelands.
How old is Ukraine?
Ukraine is a very old country. Its history began when the state of Kyivan Rus’ started, which became the biggest and strongest state in Europe. However, modern Ukraine became independent only 33 years ago, on August 24, 1991.
What is Independence Day?
Independence Day is like a big birthday party for the country! On this day, people remember the time when their country started to take care of itself without anyone else telling them what to do. There are usually parades, fireworks, and lots of fun activities to show how proud everyone is of their country. It’s a day for a country to celebrate freedom and being able to live the way you want.
The history of Kyiv begins with its founding year as 482, but the city may date back at least 2,000 years earlier.
Fun facts about Ukraine and its Independence Day
Clever Hedgehog has some interesting facts about this day. Let’s read some together!
1. The Independence Day of Ukraine was celebrated for the first time on July 16, 1991. The date was later moved to August 24.
2. A draft of the Act on the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was written in a regular school notebook.
3. The text of the Act consisted of 93 words, was typed on a typewriter, and fit on one piece of paper.
When a country becomes independent, it introduces new national symbols that represent its individuality.Ukraine has special state symbols as well:
Flag: The Ukrainian flag is blue and yellow. The blue represents the sky, and the yellow represents the fields of wheat.
Coat of Arms: The Ukrainian coat of arms is called the Tryzub, which means “trident.” It’s a special symbol that shows strong and rich Ukrainian history.
Anthem: The national anthem of Ukraine is called “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy ni slava ni volya” (“Ще не вмерла України ні слава, ні воля”) which means “Ukraine’s glory and freedom have not yet perished.” Listen >>>
What is incredible about my Ukraine?
How to draw a Ukrainian trident
The trident is an ancient symbol, pictures of it can be found across ancient Ukrainian lands. Its segments form the word «liberty» (воля).
Tags: I explore the world, Motherland, Independence Day of Ukraine, about Ukraine’s Independence Day for children, what is the motherland, symbols of Ukraine,
Clever Hedgehog’s Report on Olympic Games for Kids
Clever Hedgehog has visited the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, and he wants to tell you all about them!
The Olympic Games are a series of big sports events that happen every four years. Athletes from all over the world come together to compete in different sports like running 🏃♀️, swimming 🏊♀️, gymnastics 🤸♀️, and more. Athletes train for years to compete, and winning a medal 🏅 at the Olympics is one of the highest honors in sports.
History of the Olympic Games
The Olympics have been around for a very long time. The first recorded Olympic Games were held in ancient Greece in 776 BC in the city of Olympia. These early games featured primarily foot races 🏃♀️. The ancient Olympics continued for nearly 1,200 years.
The modern Olympic Games, inspired by the ancient tradition, were revived in 1896 in Athens, Greece. This event marked the beginning of the Olympic Games as we know them today.
The five Olympic rings – blue, yellow,black, green, and red – are the emblem of the Olympic Games. Did you know that these rings represent the five regions of the world – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania?
The Olympic Games are divided into the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. They feature different types of sports based on the season.
Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympics are held in the summer. They include sports that are best played in warm weather or indoors, like swimming, running, basketball, gymnastics, soccer, and many more.
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympics take place when it’s cold and snowy. They feature sports that are played on snow or ice, like skiing, ice skating, snowboarding, ice hockey, and many more.
The Team Ukraine 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES Results
The 2024 Summer Olympics, held this year in Paris, welcomed athletes from 206 countries. The United States sent the largest team of 596 athletes to compete in various sports. Ukraine participated with 156 athletes.
As for the medal count, the United States performed very well, winning 104 medals: 30 gold, 38 silver, and 36 bronze. Ukraine won 12 medals: 3 gold, 5 silver, and 4 bronze.
Clever Hedgehog cheered for every Ukrainian athlete. Believe it or not, Clever Hedgehog likes to jump high, that’s why he especially cheered for Yaroslava Mahuchikh who won a Gold medal in the high jump.
We have created the form where you can leave your wishes for Clever Hedgehog. Type your wish in the form below, and it will appear on our website shortly.
June 1 is also International Children’s Day, a day that aims to show how important it is to protect kids from harm and make their lives better everywhere in the world.
As of 2024, there are approximately 2.2 billion children in the world. Unfortunately, not all kids have safe, healthy, and happy lives. Some even have no food to eat, not saying toys or books! About 2 million Ukrainian children have had to flee their homes due to war since February 2022. Many Ukrainian families still live in different parts of the world, while others are staying in Ukraine.
Clever Hedgehog hopes all kids will be safe and happy, no matter what. Keep dreaming big and never stop being curious and kind!
FUN IDEAS TO MARK THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER AND INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY
New Entertaining Short Stories in Ukrainian for Children
Embark on exciting adventures
This week, Clever Hedgehog is traveling to Hong Kong! His flight is 14 hours… Hope he can make it!
Clever Hedgehog loves travelling!
What about you? Does your family have plans to travel this summer?
Take Clever Hedgehog with you. Use this cut-out to get your own traveling Clever Hedgehog picture.
“What Time is it, Mr. or Mrs. Fox?” is basically a game of tag for 3 or more people that involves less running and adds counting practice. An adult should start as Mr. Fox (you can put kids in charge once they get the hang of it) and organize everyone to stand side-by-side in a line.
Players yell out “What Time is it Mr. Fox (Mrs. Fox)?” and Mr. Fox (Mrs. Fox) yells out a time, e.g. “It’s 7 o’clock!” and the kids take that many steps forward.
The kids must continue to take steps forward based on the time called out even if it means they are super close to Mr. or Mrs. Fox.
This continues until Mr. Fox calls out “Lunch time!!” and the kids try to race back to the start line without getting tagged by Mr. Fox. Got tagged? That person is the next Mr. Fox.
Hand Clapping Game 👏 “Double Double This That”
Read how to play “Double Double This That”:
All you need is a partner.
So once you’ve found your partner, sit down, facing them.
All you need to know is three motions: The first one is “double” – you clap both hands.
The second one is “this” – you face your partner and hit their palms.
The third one is “that” – with the back of your hand you’re going to hit the back of your partner’s hands.
So it’s going to be: Next time try it a little faster. Then try really fast.
Double, double, this, this Double, double, this, this Double, this, double, that Double, double, this, that
Tell Clever Hedgehog what your favorite thing is about being a kid!
Have your parent nearby and email us at storieswithcleverhedgehog@gmail.com with what your favorite thing about being a kid. You may be featured on Clever Hedgehog’s website!
Hey, kids! Did you know about World Vyshyvanka Day?
May 16is a special day when Ukrainians around the world celebrate traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts called “vyshyvankas“! On this day, we wear our beautiful vyshyvankas to honor our culture and heritage. It’s a day filled with colors, patterns, and lots of fun activities to learn more about Ukrainian traditions!
Clever Hedgehog congratulates you on World Vyshyvanka Day!
Let’s learn more about Vyshyvanka
Vyshyvankas, like pysankas (traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs), are two of the most well-known symbols of Ukrainian culture. From old times people used embroidery to encode their “destiny, dreams, and happiness” in the national dress.
This holiday is not tied to any religion and is not a public holiday. It is celebrated to emphasize Ukrainian culture in the everyday life of Ukrainians.
❓ Did you know when this holiday came to exist? ❗The idea arose from students and teachers from Chernivtsi National University in 2006.
Are you ready to celebrate the most special person in the world – your mom?
Hello, dear friends! Are you ready to celebrate the most special person in the world – your mom? It is the day to congratulate your mother, aunt, and grandmother too!
Clever Hedgehog is excited to announce a photo contest, where you can show your love and appreciation for your amazing mom!
Clever Hedgehog wants to say a big “hooray” to all the moms who are always there for their kids.
How to Participate
🌟 Step 1: Take a photo with your mom or capture a special moment you shared.
🌟 Step 2: Get creative! You can dress up, make funny faces, or show off your favorite activity with mom!
🌟 Step 3: Tag us on your photo on Instagram or Facebook with #CleverHedgehog_contest or send your photo to us at storieswithcleverhedgehog@gmail.com with your name, age, and a short description of why your mom is THE best!
Contest Rules
🎉 The contest is open to all children who want to celebrate their moms!
🎉 Only one photo submission per participant, so choose your favorite picture!
🎉 Photos must be original and taken by you.
🎉 By sending us your photo, you agree and give permission to let Clever Hedgehog share it on his website and social media.
Awards and Honors
🏅 All participants will receive a special certificate of participation from Clever Hedgehog!
🏆 The top 3 winners will receive a special prize!
Submission Deadline: June 1
Get your cameras ready and let’s celebrate the wonderful moms in our lives! We can’t wait to see all the heartwarming and creative photos you’ll send us!
Are you ready to celebrate the most special person in the world – your mom?
This Sunday, May 12, 2024, will be extra special for us. It’s Mother’s Day!
Our mothers deserve to be loved throughout the year, but Mother’s Day is the time to show how their love and effort are special to us with family activities and gifts.
Clever Hedgehog wants to say a big “hooray” to all the moms who are always there for their kids.
On Mother’s Day, family members make sure their mother feels special and surprise her with gifts, take her out for dinner, or even cook for her at home.
Mother’s Day in Ukraine
A few years ago, Ukraine joined countries where this holiday is celebrated. Mother’s Day in Ukraine is celebrated on the second Sunday of May every year.
Finding a Mother’s Day surprise can be difficult.
Clever Hedgehog has some gift ideas for children to make Mother’s Day extra special
Hand-made Mother’s Day card
Hand-made cards are among the best gifts you can offer your mother this day.
Take a photo with your mom or capture a special moment you shared. Get creative! You can dress up, make funny faces, or show off your favorite activity with Mom!
Remember! – You can only send us pictures or videos with you. By sending us your photo, you agree to let Clever Hedgehog share it on our website and social media (with a parent/guardian permission).
Clever Hedgehog wants to congratulate the moms of Clever Hedgehog’s team. You are great!
Roberta Golinkoff
In addition to her groundbreaking research and esteemed career as a professor, Dr. Roberta Golinkoff is a caring mother. Her commitment to making a difference in the lives of Ukrainian children affected by the war reflects her compassionate and empathetic nature as both a mother and a renowned scholar.
Alisa Moldavanova
While Alisa is known for her expertise and leadership in academia, she is also admired for her role as a mother. Despite her busy schedule, she prioritizes her family and is deeply committed to their well-being.
Olena Smith
In addition to her professional achievements and contributions to the University of Delaware’s Geospatial Research community, Olena is also a dedicated mother. Born and raised in Ukraine, she brings values of hard work, community engagement, and a rich cultural background to her family life.
Olga Zhestkova
In addition to her expertise as a web specialist, Olga is also a loving mother. Olga always makes time for her family. Originally from Ukraine and now residing in Boston, MA, ensuring her daughter stays connected to Ukrainian roots and heritage.
Hedgehog Awareness Week is observed yearly on the second week of May. This year is observed on 5–11 May 2024. It was introduced by the British Hedgehog Protection Society (BHPS) in 2011. The week aims to highlight the problems that our beautiful hedgehogs 🦔 face and how we can all help to protect them.
Hedgehogs are endangered, which means the number of hedgehogs is falling. The main danger to hedgehogs is loss of habitat or places to live. They find it difficult to find places to make a nest.
Orthodox Easter 2024 is coming quite late this year – on May 5th. Some people in Ukraine and many other countries have already celebrated Easter on March 31.
Clever Hedgehog wants to tell you about recent events and his favorite Ukrainian Easter traditions – haivky and pysanky.
Easter Egg Hunt and Haivky event for Ukrainian kids
This year for the first time, Clever Hedgehog led a fantastic Easter Egg Hunt and Haivky event for kids at the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Delaware!
It was a day filled with laughter, fun, and community spirit, enjoyed by all: the children had fun running around the backyard of the church in search of eggs, after which parents joined them for singing and dancing special Ukrainian spring songs and dances – vesnianky and haivky.
Take a look at adorable photos of the fantastic moments we captured from this event.
What is Haivky?
You probably know what an Easter Egg Hunt is, but you may have not heard about Ukrainian Haivky.
For our ancestors, a new year used to begin with the awakening of Mother Nature from her winter sleep in the spring. Spring was greeted joyfully with songs, dances, and games.
Ukrainianhaivky are traditional spring songs and dances, performed only during Easter.
Clever Hedgehog’s friends created the largest Pysanka in Ukraine
Pysanka is a special Ukrainian Easter egg 🥚 painted with different patterns and colors.
Now in Zhovkva (Ukraine), you can find the largest Pysanka in Ukraine.
The big Pysanka set a new record for Ukraine as the Biggest Pysanka made of smaller pysankas!
This Easter egg 🥚 is special: it’s more than 3 feet (1.5 meters) tall and it’s made up of 480 smaller Pysankas! Many local kids helped create this big Easter egg and embroidered each little egg themselves. It took three months to finish!
Galyna Prykuta, a talented artist, inspired kids and helped them create this beauty.
You can see this Pysanka in the central square of Zhovkva in Ukraine where it stands proudly, beautifully embroidered. This big Pysanka is not just a beautiful decoration, it is also a reminder of the festive days of Easter!
Ukrainian Spring song – Haivky song – Podolyanochka
tags: Orthodox Easter, Pysanky, Ukrainian Easter egg, the biggest pysanka in Ukraine, Explaining Easter to young children, Easter resources for parents and kids, Toddler-Friendly Easter coloring pages, haivky for Ukrainian kids, book about pysanky
This week, Jewish people around the world are celebrating a special holiday – Passover, also known as Pesach.Passover is one of the most important holidays in Jewish culture, marked by various traditions and customs that bring families together.
Passover is celebrated for seven days. This year the festival begins on sunset Monday, April 22, 2024, and ends in the evening of Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
Origin of the holiday
A long time ago, more than 3,000 years ago, there were people called the Israelites who were not free. They had to work very hard for people called the Egyptians with a king Pharaoh. But one day, a brave leader named Moses helped the Israelites escape from the Egyptians.
Passover is all about remembering this story of freedom and being thankful for it. Families get together, sing songs, eat special foods, and tell stories about how their ancestors became free. It is a holiday of rejoicing when Jews around the world remember their history and reaffirm their commitment to freedom, justice, and faith.
Preparation for Passover
The preparations for Passover typically begin weeks in advance, with thorough cleaning of homes and removing any leftover crumbs or boxes of crackers hiding around your home. This process, known as “spring cleaning,” symbolizes the removal of impurities and the renewal of spiritual life.
You can do a “Chametz-hunt” with your family, using flashlights or candles to search for any leftover crumbs or errant boxes of crackers hiding around your home.
Passover Dinner
Passover is one of the major festivals in Jewish culture. Imagine having a big family dinner with special food, songs, and stories. Passover is like that but with a special meal held on the first two nights of the holiday, called Seder.
People gather with family and friends to retell the story of the Jewish people leaving Ancient Egypt, read the Haggadah – a guidebook to the Passover evening meal (Seder), containing ancient texts dating back to old times, and eat symbolic foods in a particular order (the Hebrew word seder means “order”).
The Seder plate holds symbolic foods, including matzah (flat bread), maror (bitter herbs), charoset (a sweet paste), and a roasted shank bone, among others.
Families also gather for festive meals throughout the week-long holiday, enjoying traditional dishes such as brisket, gefilte fish, and tzimmes. In addition to the Seder, Passover is marked by additional religious observances, including special synagogue services.
Matzah plays a central role in Passover observance, symbolizing the rush in which the Israelites fled Egypt after the Pharaoh finally agreed to let them go.
There was no time to get ready or to wait. They had to leave in a hurry, so they didn’t have time for their bread to rise. That’s why during Passover, Jews eat flat crackers called matzah instead of regular bread. Throughout the holiday, Jews consume matzah in various forms, such as matzah ball soup, matzah pizza, and matzah brei.
The seder can’t end without finding the afikomen, a special piece of matzah that is hidden during the meal. Enjoy making an Easy Afikomen Bagwith the little ones, who race to find the hidden matzah.
The Four Questions for Children on Passover
The Four Questions are traditionally recited at the seder by the youngest child present. All four questions help answer one big question: Why is this night unlike all others?
On this night, why do we eat only matzah?
On all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs. On this night, why only bitter herbs?
On all other nights, we do not dip our herbs even once. On this night why do we dip them twice?
On all other nights we eat sometimes sitting and sometimes reclining. On this night, why do we all recline?
Find these question and their answers to practice with your children here
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
