Stamp, stampier, stampiest

Stamping turned out to be more interesting and creative than I had originally envisioned.

Dip and press can offer only so much fun though. As a stamp is a stamp is a stamp. The image is set, static and predetermined. B and Little Miss worked this out pretty quickly and found it more interesting to make their own marks with the stamps.

And I was really impressed.

The stamp paint pad offered another sensory option.

And with this, fingers danced.

Get many more ideas for playing here

Another neighbour

This neighbour welcomes me home.

He has a good laugh at us all, a laugh that grows into hysterics.

Then he leaves us, just as we are all smiling.

(Unlike this neighbour)

I love it when...

Children try their very hardest.

At lasts years sports day B tried so hard to win the race.

Not drop the egg, in the egg and spoon race.

Pull with all his might, in the tug of war.

And he also encouraged his other team mates to success.

It didn't matter who won.

At the end of the day I was so proud of how hard he tried,

and so was he.

Learning words

B is so brave. He has started going to a new school close to our new house. B has been amazingly adaptable. He says "My new school has transportables and it has stairs and I like it. The whole class is my friend."

B's enthusiasm to learn is remarkable, but his new school thinks his literacy skills are not up to (their) speed.  (They conducted several tests with him to gauge where he is at.) So to help his literacy development I have been doing some word activities with him at home. I am just trying to make words fun and interesting to him.

To learn some words groups we adapted an activity from here. With letters written on cut down post it notes and a word ending like 'ake' written at the top of the page. I asked B to make as many real words as he could by trying out the post it notes in front of the word ending. So B was able to make the words, brake, cake, make, rake, shake etc.

I was surprised by how much he enjoyed this game. His delight at discovering a real word when he sounded out the letter and ending together was priceless, he almost would jump with excitement.

To combine his love of learning with his love of eating I used a compete set of sight words or Dolch words from here and asked him to read each word for a piece of Nutrigrain cereal. He loved this and it wasn't difficult for him at all.

So to up the ante I then got him making sentences with a select group of words. At first he really enjoyed making nonsense sentences that didn't make any sense, he would crack up laughing as he read them out. 

But I persisted and eventually got him to make a sentence that worked...


But that just wasn't as much fun.

To have his new school tell me that B is behind in his literary development was a bit of a shock. I was extremely happy with B's reading progress and his previous teacher at the old school. The testing concerned me greatly as it felt like it was going to pigeon hole B. To me testing holds the underlying assumption that everyone develops at the same rate. Which any mother knows is not true. Children grow and develop differently. However I can hardly get upset about B now getting extra classroom help with reading and writing, we live in a competitive world after all.

But something I doubt B's test looked into was thinking.

My son has amazing thinking. B's attitude rocks. He is so creative and thoughtful, not just about his school work, but also about life, like thinking through consequences, developing theories on how things work, or coming up with inventions. Just this morning B told me he was going to invent a car that didn't need any fluids or even solar power. He said, "I'm going to invent a car that works on power like Daddy's watch."

Daddy's watch works with kinetic power.
Now that's a really clever thought....

Tea or coffee anyone?

There is nothing quite like a cuppa at a cafe. I believe that a cup of tea or coffee always tastes better if it's made by someone else. It might only cost you $3.20 and it is an opportunity to stop, take a small break and recharge your batteries.



















B loves a chocolate milkshake or will that be an apple juice?
Little Miss orders a baby chino and hopes it will come with a pink marshmallow.
I order a skinny latte to get a caffeine energy hit and justify the sugar I put in it with the skinny title.


There are plenty of cafes to go to, but our absolute favourite is The Green Room at 2 High Street in Willunga (reviewed here).



The Green Room has got 'kid friendly' nailed. For starters they have a fully fenced outdoor area. That's great in itself, but they also have a huge shady sand pit.

But that's not all, there are bikes to ride around, a veggie garden to explore and stepping stones to play with. But I also need to mention the inside, here you will find a special kids area with drawing easel plus table and chairs and very well stocked toy basket and board games to play.
















Visiting a cafe that considers the needs of the younger cafe set is so much more pleasurable for us parents. We get to enjoy our caffeine hit without worrying about our kids disturbing other customers. And it also means we will come back again and again. If you happen to be reading this and you work in a cafe, I implore you to consider the needs of your small customers.

NOTE: The Green Room has not sponsored or endorsed this content in any way, though that would be nice.

Seven

When you turn seven aparently you need to have a spaceship birthday cake. It needs to be the Liberator from Blakes 7 (for obvious reasons if you know us and the 1970s BBC Sci Fi series) and it needs to be 3D chocolate. Of course.

We pulled off something resembling all of that to the best of our ability, because we are amazing parents, but unfortunately I cant show you a photo.... so here is a picture of the real Liberator.

Impressive machine yes? Now just imagine that as a cake and you get the idea.

I cant show you a photo because B didn't have a birthday party. He had the family around to eat the Liberator cake, but that was not a party. There were no party games, no party decorations or party loot bags - so it wasn't a party. He didn't have a party because his behaviour over a number of weeks (school holidays) wasn't appropriate. It seems when you are nearly seven you might think it is okay to lie about lots of things, hit and spit on your sister and do lots of talk back showing little if no respect to the parents who bought you into this world.

But he did get presents, we are not that cruel. And when you are seven your favourite birthday presents are Lego (no changes there) electronic devices and things you can fiddle with, like a model making kit, pin art, moneybox maze, solar powered car, and plaster block with buried treasure inside to discover. All of these great toys appeal to a seven year old's need to understand how things work and how stuff is put together and whats inside.

Unfortunately when you turn seven your behaviour is much the same as when you were nearly seven, but now Mum and Dad haven't got a birthday party to try and bribe you with, not that that even worked...I am trying to remember that my lovely first born baby boy is inside this seven year old B. A baby that needed his mother so much, but it appears as if there isn't much inside B at all, as he is often announcing,
"I am hungry."
To which I reply, "I am Mummy."

Despite the lack of a birthday party B has been really looking forward to turning seven. I asked him what he liked about being seven and he said,

"It's nice to be seven because you are tall."

Pants

Little Miss took the feminist movement back 100 years when she screamed cried and shouted,

"But girls only wear skirts and dresses, my friends wont like these jeans"

"But you liked them when you put them on, and its raining outside. Jeans are great for rain" Was my feeble attempt to combat her 3 year old peer group pressure. My mind was aghast I didnt expect this. I couldn't believe my little girl was so upset and worried about what her friends would think of what she was wearing. The jeans were covered in sequins for goodness sake.

Her crying continued, she wouldnt stop. I took a breathe. I saw two paths to go down;

 1) Say no to her and make her wear the jeans. The consequences I envsioned- Little Miss crying all the way to kindy in the car, her friends might say something cruel to her, or be really mean and not play with her. Little Miss might even go so far as wet herself to have a change of clothes. She might be in for a really tough day and only really learn that people are cruel, even your Mum.

Or

2) Say yes and let her change her outfit to a skirt. This way the crying would stop and Little Miss would be happy but then she learns that Mum gives into crying, but does listen and care about me.  Little Miss would conform to her peer group feeling acceptance and belonging. But Little Miss might learn its okay to be preoccupied about what other people think of what you look like.

What to do? Neither option was very appealing and time was ticking on. B was going to be late for school if I didnt get them in the car ASAP...

So what did I do?

I took her into her bedroom and chose a skirt for her to put on. The crying stopped. Little Miss was happy. But she received a lecture in the car about how she should NOT dress to please other people- only herself. Girls are lucky they can choose to wear all kinds of clothes. Boys in Australia only have pants and shorts. Boys in Fiji can wear sulus and in Scotland wear kilts. And everybody can wear whatever colours they like. Daddy has a pink and a purple shirt remember. But most important of all wear clothes that you like and dont worry about what other people think. Feel good about your own choices.

And it wasnt even 8.45am yet....

I Love...

Being Valentine's day, today we reflected on what we love in life...

Little Miss thought of her Daddy

And B thought of everyone

We made heart shaped "l love..." books and I tried to encourage writing practice.

Little Miss named all her friends, faries, rainbows because they are fun to draw, her brother and she also loves ballet dancing, and drawing.
B loves his family, having friends come over to play, drawing, playing at the beach, making stuff and surprises.

I can only hope their love remains so pure for the rest their lives.

Tales alive

There is nothing quite like discovering a magical world that you didn't even know existed.

During the school holidays my Dad and I took B and Little Miss on a picnic to Carrick Hill a historical house that I knew had sprawling gardens. Great for running around in and wearing out the kids I thought. What I didn't know was that they have a story book trail. We discovered the trail by accident as we explored the garden.

A gravel path lead us down to a hobbit-like house built into a bank. Little windows placed at a convenient height begged to be looked in. B's attempts to break in the door thankfully didn't work as we saw inside a gnome with a stash of wine! A sign suggested we lookout for a dragon, but find it we could not. Maybe the Hobbit had already slain it?

The path lead on down past a dry stone river bank with a pretty bright red bridge. We all happily trotted over the bridge but only once we were half way across it, discovered that this was in fact the roof of a green Troll's house. His bumpy hands gripped the bridge planks and threatened to grab our feet. Little Miss was most concerned.

So off our feet ran, past the bamboo forest and into a circle of grass. A sign suggested we look for a red breasted Robin bird, who guards over a key to The Secret Garden. Large gates loomed over us. We found the Robin perched atop a pole and the key was secured underneath him, stuck in a box. At this point we were unsure which way to go, should we venture into the secret garden, without the key? The gates were open after all, or should we continue along another path? For whatever reason we continued down the path. I remember B wanting to go into the secret garden, maybe he was feeling unwell or something...

We probably made the wrong decision as down the path we came across a giant spider web. Despite climbing it, B didn't find a spider until he looked high up into the sky. There was a lovely bronze pig there too, looking longingly for someone called Charlotte?

Further along the path we became completely surrounded by animals. A wolf thankfully helped us and pointed the way to a little home in the shade of some trees which we played in for what seemed a very long time. Then we realised we were being watched by all manner of exotic mammal. Some whom required a gift or two, maybe it was their birthday?

What a wonderful way to spend the day.























Carrick Hill is located at 46 Carrick Hill Drive off Fullarton Road, Springfield. Check website for opening hours and special events.

Neighbours

Over the years I have found that you have to tread carefully with neighbours. I think it's best to have a kind of distant respect for eachother and leave it at that. Being too chummy and then becoming close friends can be somewhat over the top and invasive to your privacy and at the other end of the scale becoming nasty life long enemies through the wall can be miserable, not to mention scary for everyone. In the last 20 years or so we have had our fair range of neighbourly relations.

In one house that was an old maisonette with a common middle wall, we had a pair of girls living next door who we dubbed 'The elephants". They weren't large in size at all, but they seemed to trample up and down their hallway that adjoined ours with an excessive amount of thudding. We never figured out what they were doing. (I suspected it was elephant exercising) And we never found out their real names. That particular home was our first together and we had a retired couple on the other side with the surname Bunney. Unlike the Elephants the Bunneys were ideal neighbours, casually friendly and very generous. We were struggling uni students at this time and the Bunneys took it upon themselves to occasionally give us some little luxuries that we greatly appreciated. Mr Bunney was very generous with his wine collection and Mrs Bunney often gave us tickets to movie premiers or invites to gallery openings where we could drink more free wine.

The worst neighbor we ever had was at our previous home. Now that I am rid of him I realise how great it is to live without him. When that house sold onto an owner occupier I was quietly pleased, but I shouldn't have been. In walked this young animal man and with him, late night noisy parties during the week, huge rubbish issues and very annoying parking hassles.

It is with great pleasure that I have found our new neighbours to be both friendly, welcoming, generous and very very beautiful.

What words would you use to describe your neighbours?

Oranges

I have an abundance of oranges at the moment so thought the kids could make some clove oranges.





















I made some of these years ago by simply pushing whole cloves into an orange. I think I might have rolled the orange around in orris root powder, but that is a very vague memory. I think orris root helps with preserving smell maybe? I found one of my old clove oranges at the back of a cupboard in our recent house shift and couldn't believe how small it had shrunk. It still smelt delicious though.





















But things don't always go according to plan. It was tough work for little fingers to push the cloves into the oranges so I admit I had to help and then eventually take over. Little Miss wanted a happy face so that's what we worked on. I didn't have any orris root powder so I don't know if our orange friend will stay scented. (The back of the orange is completely covered in cloves so they can do their preserving work.)



B decided he didn't like the smell of cloves and wanted to make orange juice instead. I was happy to get rid of 6 oranges for one glass of juice. Only B didn't even like the stuff. He told me that it was meant for Daddy anyway. So Daddy had to down a glass of fresh juice as soon as he walked in the door from work.

Not such a bad greeting home.

For some wonderful play ideas visit childhood 101

400 boxes and a funeral

A door has closed.
My Mum has died.

If I write it down and say it often enough, it will help it sink in. I shouldn't really be surprised. We were all expecting it. But not even knowing it is going to happen prepares you for the numbness, shock and pain of death, when it really does happen.

I am so proud of her. She made such a gallant effort to overcome the cancer that Doctors originally said would get the better of her in six months. Her courageous battle with Multiple Myeloma had lasted over 12 years. She was so determined to beat the cancer. She got to meet her 5th Grandson, B and 1st Granddaughter, Little Miss. She walked me into the garden at my wedding, she travelled and lived every good day to her fullest enjoyment. She really did beat that nasty cancer.

Her funeral was beautiful. She would have been overwhelmed by it. There were so many people there, us kids and Dad all managed to speak and got everyone crying and laughing. (This is what I said)

I miss her so much. And am finding to very hard to face each day without her around.

But a door has opened.
We have moved house.

400 boxes, the furniture, pets, pot plants, children and adults have all been relocated. It still feels like we are on holiday in someone else's house. The new house is all the things that the old house wasn't.  New house is large where old was small, old house was really old 1890s yet renovated where the new house is 1960s un-renovated. New house had a huge garden where old house only had a deck. Old house was inner city, new house is in the suburbs. New house has a view where old house looked in on itself. It's a big change, but we are all loving it.

I particularly love the ever changing view, the space, a practical family friendly floor plan, fresh air, garden and wildlife.

We are going to have lots of good times here, I know it, even though I carry around a closed door in my heart.

Packing joy

We have sold our house. Yeah!
Now its time to pack up and move on. And you know what that means?





Boxes, lots and lots of boxes...

And you all know that boxes simply equal joy to children. They immediately see all kinds of possibilities. Just like in this book.

Building bliss

Working together

The finished digs

Enter here

Oh and don't forget to add a little pink.
















Since we are moving house I am getting to play about with boxes too. (Not that I find it so pleasurable.) Sadly I am not sure when I will be able to post next, so I hope you all have a very healthy and happy Christmas and I look forward to connecting up with all my blogging friends in the new year.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog.


Check out what other kids are playing at over on childhood101