I love it when...

Little Miss and B show love to each other.

It might be a morning cuddle, a happy greeting hug after school, a thoughtful gesture or simple hand holding. It really touches me that they care deeply for each other. 

Their relationship is constantly going to change as they grow up, I can only hope that these days of taking delight in each other lay a strong foundation for the future. Whatever happens in their relationship, at least  they will always have their parents in common.

Lipgloss

At a recent school fete B very kindly bought Little Miss a roll on lip gloss. She really really loves it, and is constantly rolling it on.

And she does a really thorough job.

Maybe because its runny like paint or because its container is roll on, she had the idea to draw with it. I fought my instinct to say "No" and went with it...

I love how the paper went translucent and you can see type through the page. I was also impressed with her zig zag drawing, showing great control.

 With one painting finished it was time to put on more lip gloss.

 

Then she kissed the page

To make lovely lip prints, and signed the work off with the letter 'L'.

But that wasn't all, she then made it into a paper fan.

I love this little girly girl so so very much.

Visit here for other play ideas.

Monsters

Inspired by these library books, which we had to read and reread again and again

We got to making some monsters from our crafty box

The great thing about monsters is that they are whatever you want them to be...


Doilies, pink tissue and purple paper got Little Miss thinking.

And brown paper bags and satay sticks inspired B.

Amazing monsters!

Find out what other kids are playing with at Childhood 101.

For Sale

We are selling up and moving on. It's time for change. Our home for the last 12 years has been polished, painted and styled so that it looks amazing, but is not really our comfortable lived-in home anymore. It's a show home out on display and ready for sale. Toys and kids stuff are not in every room, the junk and dross of life is gone, no tea towels, no files of paper, no dirty dishes, no lego under the couch, no shampoo bottles, no crumbs on the counter, little hand prints are removed from the windows, each and every room is sparse and clean. And until its sold, that's the way it has to stay.

Needless to say living in a home on sale with two small children has its challenges. I have caught myself saying,
"Dont touch the walls, eat over your plate, don't use the white towels, get your hands off the window."

Despite their mother turning into a cleaning machine B and Little Miss have been fantastic. They love the idea of moving, and they are most adaptable. They particularly loved the idea of moving into a house with other kids toys in it. I had to explain we didn't leave our stuff behind and neither did the people in the other house. A conversation about house fittings soon deteriorated though as I couldn't explain to B why the dishwasher stayed, but the fridge comes...


Why would we do all this? When we bought our inner city house we were a couple, as we are now a family, our little plot on inner city land is just too small. We have made do as best we can, a sandpit and water feature have been great entertainment. A gravel driveway has been paved for ball games and bikes, we have even put in tiny areas of imitation lawn to keep little toes happy, but there comes a time when you have to face facts. As much as we love this house and its location, we are all longing for more space. A real garden that we can grow vegetables in, space for a trampoline, or even a pool, trees to climb, a real lawn to run on. Our new house has all of this and much much more.

Exciting times are ahead...

Take a walk

B has been asking to walk to school. Often.

We live about 2.5kms from school. That doesn't sound far, but its about a 30 minute walk depending on how long your legs are.

Since spring is finally here, (Yeah!) one fine afternoon I walked up to collect him so he could walk home with me. It's a gentle downward walk home so I though that would be a good start for him, and we wouldn't have to worry about getting to school on time.

We held hands for a while

He happily carried his school bag

We window shopped

And noticed things we had never seen before

He got thirsty and hungry here

So we refuelled

Back on the move we did road safety

And took a short cut

B found this

He made some noise

And finally ran for home

Not only was this a healthy active way to get home it was great for B to get to know his neighbourhood and experience the details that normally whizz by. He felt a real sense of achievement at home, as well as feeling tired, but not tired enough for bed of course.


Find out what other parents are playing with their kids at Childhood 101.

I love it when....

My kids are fast asleep

The conflicts of the day are forgotten

Any tears have dried up

There they lay, trusting in the dreams of tomorrow.

Where you came from

We are really loving the book 'Where you came from' by Sara O'Leary. It deals with that dreaded childhood question "Where did I come from?' with imagination, humour, and poignancy. The illustrations are also very engaging and delicate.

B's favourite is
"Your father made you in his workshop. He carved you out of wood. It took weeks. And we loved you just like you were a real little boy."

Whereas Little Miss prefers,
"The fairies brought you. It must have taken dozens of them to lift you, because they were so small and you were so big."

Check it out here.

Coloured Rice

Changing plain old rice into bright exciting colours sounded like a lot of simple fun.

I used zip lock plastic bags, regular white rice, food colouring and hand sanitiser.

We just put the dry uncooked rice into the zip lock bag added a few drops of food colouring and a squirt of hand sanitiser. Then we zipped up the bag and  the children did the shimmy shake. (Make sure those zips are well and truly done up.)

Before their eyes the rice changes colour.

I only had a small range of food colouring, yellow, green and red. After we did a bag a of each B was keen to see the colours mixed. We did a bag with green and yellow and got a nice lime green, and we achieved a pretty orange with red and yellow. B really wanted to find out what colour would be made with all the colours mixed together, so we got a beautiful rainbow, um sorry, I mean brown too.




















We had to let the rice dry before playing with it.

I thought glue (PVA) painting then rice sticking might be a natural progression.
Little Miss was happy with that. Note that I tried to contain the rice inside a tray. It kind of worked.

But B had other ideas. He wanted containers to put the rice in, then added other things to it, like big stones and small rocks. He put lids on the containers then he decorated them saying that they were from different places. I think this originated from school. In class they released a helium balloon, called Charlie into the sky and now it is travelling around Australia. The kids have received messages from Charlie. He is really getting about enjoying Sydney and Uluru.

I can't remember where I saw this colouring rice activity (if it was you, thanks and let me know) Making coloured rice was really easy fun and a little magical. There are heaps of other great activities for kids (and their parents) at childhood 101.

Where land meets sea

Big vistas to swallow

Explore


Discover little details

Feel textures

Smell (if you dare)



















Be surprised

Investigate life forms


Watch survival

And journey home

Find out what other children around the world are experiencing at Childhood 101