Tuesday 25 May 2010
We’ve been hard at work on our plans for the back yard, and I promise to share progress on the dry creek bed soon. We’ve carted so many rocks up our steep slope that in the process we managed to break our wheelbarrow! Fortunately friends loaned us theirs to finish transporting the rocks. And the kids have had a wonderful time playing with them…
As adults we have often been conditioned to see things one way; the “right” way. Kids are much more open minded! They see objects not for what they are but for what they can be. These might look like upside down...
Tuesday 11 May 2010 -
26 Comments »
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...
Tuesday 04 May 2010 -
17 Comments »
After sharing the truth about our backyard I have been motivated to start transforming it into the garden we dream it can be. We decided to start with the digging area.
As you might remember from my last post about the yard, we didn’t really want a sandbox as such. Instead we opted to dig out an area which was already bordered on one side by rocks, and add rocks to the other sides. We found a triangular shaped...
Sunday 02 May 2010 -
18 Comments »
“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 -
14 Comments »
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 21 April 2010 -
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I’m a bit of a birder, and love teaching my kids about birds. We love watching them together, mimicking their calls, taking photographs and even feeding them some times. Since Thea’s five year old son tagged us for a kid-interview, I thought I’d ask my three year old about birds.
(Photos of Rainbow Lorikeets taken by my 3yr old with some Mummy-help)
What is your favourite bird?
Rainbow Lorikeets...
Wednesday 14 April 2010 -
14 Comments »
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...
Thursday 08 April 2010 -
25 Comments »
I was delighted and devastated all at the same time when the lovely Christie from Childhood101 made this comment on a previous post. (Click the image if you can’t read it…)
Delighted, because I think there is always beauty to be found in outdoor spaces and I’m glad I’ve been able to find snippets of beauty in our yard. But devastated, because I’ve made people think our backyard is something...
Tuesday 30 March 2010 -
20 Comments »
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...
Friday 26 March 2010 -
8 Comments »
You might have noticed the decrease in activity posts here at SquiggleMum this year. Now that my daughter is a big kindy girl, her world is full of indoor and outdoor activities when she is not with me. Her needs have changed. What she is desperate for at home at the moment is down time!
I have missed spending special one-on-one time with her though, so on the weekend we did a girly activity together. We had seen...
