Tuesday 17 August 2010
My little man watches his big sister construct all manner of creations with boxes, junk mail, scissors and glue. She can whip up anything from a bird to a robot in no time. The other day while watching her create some masterpiece, Mr-Almost-Two discovered glue. Glorious, magical glue.
I grabbed a junk mail catalogue and chopped out pictures of items he knows and can identify. Truck, shoe, camera, train, baby, guitar, ball…
This made it a great language learning experience as well as a fun fine motor activity. We talked about the objects as he pasted them on. He would babble:...
Tuesday 03 August 2010 -
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The kids and I inherited a large box last week. We tossed around a few ideas before finally deciding to turn our big box into a jungle cave. Vines were not negotiable, so I rummaged through the fabric box and found some long strips of green and brown fabric which did the job perfectly. I had visions of attaching leaves creatively, but the kids were keen to use them so I reminded myself it wasn’t actually my...
Tuesday 27 July 2010 -
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Music has a special place in our home, and I’ve shared before about singing together. We sing a lot, but we also have music in our house in other ways. You see SquiggleDad is a great guitarist. He doesn’t get to play much any more, but he still has an impressive collection of guitars. Classical, acoustic, electric, bass. I think around a dozen instruments all up. Except now the collection is growing…
If...
Monday 21 June 2010 -
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We decided to get Little Miss 4 a camera for her recent birthday. We researched toy cameras, but were disappointed with the range available. We figured there was no point getting her a camera that produced poor quality images, even if it was pink and sparkly or “drop” friendly. The whole idea is to be able to capture photos after all. So, we instead decided to give our most recently shelved camera...
Tuesday 08 June 2010 -
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My kids are right into swings at the moment. You see, we have inherited an old A frame swing set. Apparently it is doing the rounds of the neighbourhood and we are its third owners. The children in the house behind us grew up, and passed the swing set onto the family beside us. Now those children have outgrown swinging too, so the big blue A frame was passed up and over the tall wooden fence once again. We only...
Tuesday 11 May 2010 -
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A few weeks ago, in a rare moment of ebay browsing, I discovered this item. I bid on it and bought it!
It isn’t a shoe rack or pot plant rack (LOL) it’s an old Waldorf Playstand. New ones with soft curves in the timber and smooth finishes are quite expensive to buy, so I was delighted to score this second hand one for only $33. It has obviously been loved by children in the past, and I can see it is...
Sunday 02 May 2010 -
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“The SPORE Project is a worldwide effort developed by artist Doug Rhodehamel to promote awareness for the support of art education and creativity in day-to-day life. The project illustrates the importance of self expression, resourcefulness and creativity – specifically, how to look at one thing (a simple paper bag) and see what it can be instead of merely what it is. The project was created to build awareness,...
Tuesday 27 April 2010 -
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What do you see? A mess of snipped junk mail, or something more?
It’s a pond, silly!
Here, I’ll help you:
Frog, rocks,
lily pads, fish,
dragonfly, reeds.
See?
A whole ecosystem!
(With night time stars reflected in the water…)
When I stop looking with grownup eyes and start looking with toddler eyes this beautiful creation comes to life. It ceases to be a box full of junk mail and becomes the play...
Wednesday 14 April 2010 -
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I like my kids to play outside. I’m happy for them to get dirty. But let’s face it – I’m raising city kids. Activities like milking a cow, collecting fruit from the orchard or killing a chook aren’t part of daily life for us. Despite this I think it’s really important for city kids to understand where foods come from.
Here are three foods we have been talking about recently...
Tuesday 30 March 2010 -
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At a recent trip to the nursery I spotted a plant I had been eyeing off for a while heavily marked down. Something had been nibbling on one of its large, ornamental leaves but apart from that it was fine. What I didn’t realise was that I would be bringing the very-hungry-something home with us! The next day I noticed the second of the plant’s large leaves eaten, and by the following day the plant was...
