If my children end up in some sibling folk-rock-fusion band in their teens, I’m so bringing out this photo.  At the tender age of 4 my daughter already writes some very creative lyrics.  And my son has fantastic rhythm, not that I’m biased in any way.  I recorded them both singing and playing during an impromptu lounge room concert recently, but I’ll save that footage for now.  It could come in handy down the track…!

Is music played in your home?

PS – Speaking of music, have you entered my Justine Clarke giveaway yet? Click here to read my interview with Justine and leave a comment to enter!

After observing the frog’s movements, and helping the kids to look at the frog’s

• shape
• colour
• markings
• feet

we decided he was probably a Striped Marsh Frog.  Marshies are common around here, and I’ve often heard their tok-tok-tok call on balmy nights.

My daughter really wanted to take the frog to kindy to show the other kids the next day, so we made the container a little more homely for our amphibious friend.  We talked about where the frog was found, and tried to recreate that environment in the container.  We added sand, sticks, leaves and fronds as well as a shallow dish of water. We also got busy catching any bugs we could possibly find in the garden to add to the container in case our friend was hungry.

I’m pleased to report that the frog traveled to kindy quite well.  I laughed out loud when my daughter told her class it was a… “Striped Marshmallow Frog!!”  The name stuck.

Once we brought Marshmallow-the-frog back home, we were eager to return him to his real home – our backyard.  While I love having the opportunity to show my children creatures up close, I think it’s also important for them to understand that it isn’t right to keep wild animals in captivity (without the right setup, at least).

We removed the lid from the container, and gently tipped it onto its side in a sheltered spot in the garden.  We poured the water out of the shallow dish and into the big container, and Marshmallow quickly settled into the puddle.

We then added the sticks and leaves to keep Marshmallow safe from swooping Butcher Birds and help him to relax, after being passed around a kindy class and ogled by 20 pairs of eyes!  We said goodbye to our frog, thanked him for letting us take him to kindy, then left him there.

And in the morning, when Marshmallow had hopped away and was nowhere to be found – the kids were pleased.  We’ll know he’s back when we hear the tok-tok-tok…

I had tossed around the idea of hanging some bunting inside the butterfly house, but then I discovered I had a bunch of these metal butterfly cutouts from a broken piece of jewellery.  Perfect!  My daughter wanted to hang them on rainbow ribbons, so we bought some 99c rolls of ribbon in a range of bright colours.  We also bought some jingly bells to add some sound to the colour.

My daughter threaded the ribbons onto the metal butterflies and I tied the knots.  Then we took them outside to hang in the butterfly house.  They look absolutely gorgeous!  A secret little rainbow of butterflies to welcome visitors to the cubby.  Sadly the photos don’t capture them very well, but hopefully they give you the idea.

By the way, it took me longer to find out what the tree is than it did to plan, photograph and write this post.  FINALLY I think I have an answer: Red Orchid Tree (Red Bauhinia).  It’s very common around Brisbane, and I’ve blogged before about using the leaves for leaf rubbings.  Anyone know if I’m right?!

Where have your kids been playing this week…?

So of course when I saw a bag of similarly sized, multicoloured glass stones at the local hardware store for around $5 I couldn’t go past them.  There are about 50 pebbles in the bag, ranging from clear stones through to blues, reds and browns.

Still under age two, my son enjoys putting the stones in and out of buckets and containers, and carrying them around.  He likes just transferring them from one place to another, tipping them out, loading them back up and moving to a new spot!  He also likes hiding them in the sandpit to “find” again.  My big four year old has been making patterns and pictures in the sand with the pebbles.  She has used them to decorate castles, write letters from her name and even make a path for the fairies to follow.

I love simple props for play that appeal to both boys and girls and can be used in different ways according to their level of development.  Oh, and I also love “toys” that are under $5…

What have you bought that has been inexpensive, yet precious to your kids?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the times we don’t let kids play outside.  Most schools here in Australia have a wet weather policy, and children stay inside during rainy lunch times.  At home I can, and do, let my kids play in the rain as you will know if you’ve read a few posts!  In some areas schools also have hot weather policies.  I remember when I was a child that if the temperature went over a certain point schools allowed kids to run through the sprinklers on the oval!  Sadly this is no longer common practice, due to stricter rules in schools and water restrictions in some states.

This week though, it’s cold weather I’m thinking about.  We are in mid-winter, and though skies are big and blue, the temperature does drop in the mornings and evenings.  In the past I have kept the kids inside until the day warms up, then let them out to play.  But lately I have been questioning myself – thanks mostly to reading blogs about early childhood programs in really cold parts of the world.  (You have to jump over and read this post at Living in the Land of Chocolate, and you might also want to check out Active Kids Club.)

I don’t think we can expect children to tolerate extremes of temperature they are not accustomed to, but I do think they should be able to enjoy outside time in their home climate.  For my kids, temperatures range from about 10 degrees celsius in winter, through to around 35 degrees in summer.  When it rains it really rains, and we often get afternoon thunderstorms in summer.  Winter play means wearing lots of layers.  The days start chilly, but do warm up and beanies need to be replaced with sunhats.  What it doesn’t mean is staying inside with the heater on.  Summer play means sunscreen, hats and sun-safe clothing.  It also means drinking plenty of water, and playing out of the sun during the hottest times.  What it doesn’t mean is staying inside with the airconditioning on!  Ok, yes there are days when I use the heater in winter, and the air con in summer – but we don’t stay trapped inside and I always find the kids have more fun outside.

So this morning, I’m blogging outside while my kids play and the three of us are rugged up in beanies, skivvies, jumpers and boots.  There’s hardly a cloud in the enormous blue sky and I am reminded that in some parts of the world this is summer!  Time to put the kettle on, make us all a nice warm drink to wrap our cold fingers around, and enjoy it under the trees together.

my kids KNOW there is a possum in this tree in our backyard.

We haven’t seen the possum

but we have seen his scratches up and down the tree.

We haven’t seen the possum

but we have found droppings (scat) on the ground beneath the tree.

We haven’t see the possum

but we have heard him thumping across our corrugated iron roof.

And from the evidence we’ve collected

we think the possum will look like this:

{source}

Sometimes the evidence of an animal is easier to find than the animal itself!  This is especially true in our case as the common brushtail is not only nocturnal (awake at night) but also largely arboreal (tree dwelling).  In summer the possums often come right down onto our front verandah and the kids will get to see them as the weather warms up.  For now though, the evidence is probably all they’ll find.

The kids enjoyed solving this animal mystery, and I got to ask lots of lovely open ended questions like:

• what do you think this is?
• who might have made it?
• how do you think this happened?
• what kind of animal has been here?
• how big do you think the animal is?
• where do you think the animal is now?

What evidence of animals can you find with your children around your own home, even if you can’t find the animal itself?  Many animals leave great clues… trails, droppings, feathers, tracks, casings, cocoons, nests, food scraps and more.  Don’t forget to use other senses too apart from sight.  Can you hear any clues?  (Some birds are easy to hear, but incredibly hard to spot.)  Can you smell any clues?!  (You can often smell when there is a koala around!)

Help your kids to get hunting, and encourage their exploration and investigation with lots of great questioning.

]]> http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-outdoor/animal-evidence/feed/ 7 http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-indoor/toying-with-cameras/ http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-indoor/toying-with-cameras/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:27:59 +0000 SquiggleMum http://squigglemum.com/?p=3395 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 a new lease of life.  We specially ordered in new batteries, purchased a funky pink case and lanyard, and of course a photo album and cute frame.

As expected, she is absolutely loving it.  Here are some things she has been learning about while playing with her camera both indoors and out:

1.  Keep the lanyard around your neck.

2.  Smile, whether you’re in front or behind the camera.

3.  Keep your fingers away from the lens.

4.  Sometimes you need to try a different position to get the shot you want.

5.  Things look different up close.

6. Creative shots take time and thought.

7.  Keep your hands steady.

8.  Little brothers don’t stay still for long!

]]> http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-indoor/toying-with-cameras/feed/ 18 http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-outdoor/how-to-build-a-creek-bed/ http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-outdoor/how-to-build-a-creek-bed/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:13:14 +0000 SquiggleMum http://squigglemum.com/?p=3352 I’ve blogged about plans for it, tweeted about it and teased with facebook updates on its progress.  And though it still isn’t quite finished, I think it’s time to show you what we’ve done with our dry creek bed!

We started by digging out the path for the creek to follow.  We worked with the natural slope of the land and chose a spot for our creek to tumble over the rock wall at the bottom.

We decided lining our dry creek with pond liner would help the creek to “run” in wet weather (and also prevent weeds from springing up through it).  The liner wasn’t cheap, but we think the kids will have more fun with it.  Once the liner was down it was time to start bringing in the rocks.  Did I mention we live on a steep hill?!  It took my husband quite some time to wheelbarrow up a ute load of rocks!!

Once rocks were in we could take a trip to the nursery to choose some native grasses.  We chose some established plants from a larger nursery, and smaller (cheaper!) tube stock from our local Greening Australia nursery.  The kids loved helping to decide which grasses would look best in our backyard.

Our final addition (for the moment) was a bridge to cross over!  I was content to plonk two sleepers across, but my wiser other half made a simple bridge which is much sturdier.  The kids love trip-trapping over the bridge, and jumping off it into the sandpit.

And here’s the whole yard as it is at the moment!!  We’d like to add some smaller rocks in a similar colour to completely cover the pond liner, and mulch up to the rocks.  We’ll add more plants gradually.  I’d also like to add another wider “bridge” right at the top of the hill with a small water tank on it.  I can just see the kids turning the tap on from the tank of their own rainwater to run down the creek!  We’re pretty proud of it so far though.

We roughly spent:

• $130 pondliner
• $100 rocks
• $100 plants
• $40 sleepers
• $10 on snacks for hardworking Dad

• Total = $380

(You can also check out the costings for another dry creek bed over at Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning).

]]> http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-outdoor/how-to-build-a-creek-bed/feed/ 19 http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-indoor/we-play-with-swings/ http://squigglemum.com/activities/activities-indoor/we-play-with-swings/#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:39:21 +0000 SquiggleMum http://squigglemum.com/?p=3212 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 have a tiny patch of flat ground in front of the rock wall, and the swings take up the whole flat area, but the kids are delighted.

I loved watching my daughter take her knowledge of swings inside this week.  While her brother was napping I suggested she create something with a cereal box.  Look at what she came up with!  She did all the cutting herself, and punched the holes for the string.  I needed to tie the string on for her, and loop it over the curtain rod.

She was thrilled about pushing Buckingham (the teddy her Daddy bought for her while I was still pregnant with her… awww) but soon discovered a problem.  He fell out easily after one or two pushes.  I asked her how she would like to solve that problem, and she came up with a safety bar which you can see her attaching in the photo.

I love looking for opportunities to encourage independent problem solving through play.  I could have told her what we were going to make with the box.  I could have fixed the problem with the bear falling out.  I could have done a lot of things for her, but where would the learning be in that?

(PS – have you entered my Hi-5 Giveaway? Super easy to enter… 3 DVDs to be won!)

In the rain we love

• seeing how water changes the colours of rocks and bark
• collecting bucketfuls of water
• stomping and sloshing in gumboots
• listening to rain on our raincoats
• catching rainwater in our hands and on our tongues!
• seeking refuge under trees
• reading the signs in nature around us…

Ok, so I know you’re scratching your head on that last one!  Usually we don’t get long days of constant rain (though they do happen).  Here in Brisbane, we are more likely to get rainy patches that come and go.  I try to teach the kids to be observant.  We pay attention to the sky:  What do the clouds look like?  Which way are the clouds going?  Do we think those clouds have heavy rain in them?  How many minutes until it rains again? I also teach the kids to take note of the creatures around them.  Can we hear any birds at the moment?  What do you think the birds are telling us?  (Usually the birds are quiet when it is raining, but we hear them start up again when the rain has almost passed. )  Can you see any insects?  Are they going into their homes or coming out of them?

Asking these kinds of questions helps with the development of thinking skills, observation and making predictions.  I also hope it teaches my kids to listen to the world around them.

What are your kids learning while playing in the rain?