Toddlers

Beach Holiday (and Toddler Tips)

We took a spontaneous long weekend away to the Sunshine Coast, which is only an hour from home for us.  All four of us really needed the time away from everything, we shared some lovely moments on the beach together: The boys learned about water and waves. We explored the rock pools (one of our all time favourite family activities). We discovered new and interesting creatures: hermit crabs, fish, molluscs… and...

15 Places to Find Fine Motor Fun

While I’m away at the Australasian MOPS Conference, the super-lovely Christie from Childhood101 is guest posting for me: Sometimes as parents we are in a rush to help our children conquer the ‘big’ milestones, like learning to read and write.  In our haste we sometimes forget about spending time working on the smaller steps which are just as important for our children to master along the way.  Just...

Justine Clarke – In Concert

What an exciting day!  For the kids, I mean.  Not only did we get brilliant seats at Justine Clarke’s Great Big World concert, but we got to go backstage before the show to meet Justine!! (Just one of the perks of being an Aussie mummy blogger, and it probably helped that I have reviewed and given away copies of the Great Big World CD and DVD as well as interviewing Justine online.) Justine is an absolute delight...

Self Talk

Mr Almost-Two is enjoying putting pairs of words together at the moment, often featuring the word ME. Every time he falls over, which is quite often given that he is an almost two year old boy, he says “Alright me?“  Then he picks himself up and carries on with whatever he was doing. It never fails to make me smile. As a mum, I fall down sometimes too.  It wouldn’t hurt to take a moment and ask “Alright...

Big Boy Bed

As I write this post I have two sleeping kids – in their BEDS.  We dismantled the cot today, and my not-so-baby-boy is fast asleep in his big boy bed.  So far so good.  The only sound I’ve heard is snoring! We talked a lot about the transition, so he was very well prepared for the move and very excited about it all.  He loves his new jungle quilt and striped sheets, he loves climbing up and down himself,...

Do You See What I See?

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...

Mum's Stuff

I’m not precious about stuff.  Stuff gets old, stuff gets broken, stuff gets lost.  It’s all just stuff.  I’m usually quick to say, “Never mind.  No big deal…” to the kids when accidents happen.  Usually.  Not this time.  I could have cried. There are very few things in our home which are solely mine, and my laptop is one of them.  It got a special mention in my 100th post,...

Hi-Tech Play School

If you visit my blog regularly, follow my tweets or read my facebook updates you’ll know I’m a Play School fan.  A big one.  Partly because after more than 40 years on Australian television screens it remains the #1 program in the hearts of Aussie mum and kids – and partly because I secretly wonder if I’ve missed my calling in life by not being a presenter. Yesterday the show opened with regular...

My Little Postman

There once was a boy who loved to post. He could post anything, anywhere. He posted things in the bin and the toilet and the dishwasher and the laundry basket and the sink. He posted through the verandah slats and out of windows. The boy’s mother made him a postbox so that he could post sensibly, but the boy was not interested in sensible. He was interested in interesting. It’s interesting to post necklaces...