Beached

After the coldest wettest winter in 16 years we are loving our first tastes of summer. When the temperature is above 25 degrees we have found ourselves at this beach

Or this beach

We have measured the reach of waves




















Designed and constructed structures

Snacked

Relaxed


Got wet

and then a bit cold

but still managed to jump for joy.

I love living in Australia.

Fire and knives

I see my job as a parent is to prepare my children for the real world, with all its dangers and hazards. For instance I would hate to raise adults that don't know how to prepare a meal for themselves. So when its dinner time I try to encourage B and Little Miss to help me. This not only involves them so they aren't fighting or mindlessly watching TV, but also gets them developing cooking skills, educating them about food and hopefully encouraging them to eat the meal when its ready.

Most food preparation is not light on fluffy stuff though, it usually involves fire and knives. Admittedly it goes against my instinct to give my three year old a knife, but when Little Miss chops up the red capsicum and tops and tails the green beans she learns so much. There's hand eye coordination, size and proportion, inside and outside, colours and contrast, plus the smells and flavours.

B loves to flip our sunday morning pancakes and he knows the pan is hot, he knows its a bit scary, but it adds to the thrill and learning, that fire is to be respected. Heat causes so many chemical reactions in the kitchen, pasta goes from hard to soft, an egg goes from runny to firm, a liquid batter turns into a pancake, pizza dough turns crispy. These are fascinating learning experiences for us. Yes, we have had near misses and B has cut himself on a sharp chef's knife, but as his skin repaired itself the lesson that knives can cut you has remained with him to this day. A lesson that teaches him to be careful, which is the best lesson of all.

Call me crazy if you like, but am I alone here? Do you let your children play with fire and knives?

Get into a world of play at childhood 101

If children ruled the world...

Just imagine what it would be like if children ruled the world

Streets would be for playing in

Laughter would fill your ears

Anything would be deemed possible

Time would be of no consequence

Having fun would be your occupation

And Father Christmas would come to town everyday

We had a really fantastic time at the Adelaide Christmas pageant. How wonderful it is to see the world through a child's eyes.

Panda meander

Ever since Lola (from Charlie and Lola fame) had informed Little Miss that Pandas were in danger she developed a thing for them. Well its more than a thing, its like she is a magnet to all Pandaness in our world.

"There's a Panda" she would cry, as we wait for a lift at a shopping centre. We would all look about searching for some kind of Panda looking animal somewhere, eventually finding a tiny plastic keyring Panda creature on someone else's bag. 

Admittedly we live in a city that has real Pandas so her cries are not totally crazy. No we are not in China, but our city Zoo has come to some complicated arrangement with China, so for the next ten years we have Wang Wang and Funi - real giant Panda's living with us. 

Now in the past I have not been a huge Zoo fan. The Zoo was a fairly sorry experience, with too many sad animals looking bored and cramped in old fashioned run down enclosures. Couple that with a boy, namely B who is not really into animals at all, or in the past walking more than 5 steps in a row, and you can gather that going to the Zoo with him was a memorable experience for all the wrong reasons.

But B has grown long legs, the Zoo has had squillions spend on it and Little Miss is persistently on about Pandas, so we thought there was never going to be a better time for a Panda expedition.

I gather the necessary equipment-

Husband

Children

Pram

Map

We check out the Panda's food while we wait in line

Little Miss doesn't enjoy the sound of the noisy monkey neighbours

But the noise and wait are worth it. This is Wang Wang, Funi was asleep.

Wang Wang eats sitting up like a human,

wanders around this way

and that way

then poses beautifully with my kids.

Time to move on, so B consults the map.

We spy the noisy monkeys through the lush foliage

Discover fluffy babies balancing

and underwater wonders.

See tall animals and short ones trying to be tall.

Time to check out the map again

We find animals to touch

and feed

and talk to.

 

Then make some Panda purchases and call it a very successful day.

Explore the world of child's play at childhood 101











Adelaide Zoo is open 9.30-5pm everyday including Christmas and is located on Frome Road in the city.

Food Face #8

Dribbling is something you eventually grow out of.

Cereal necklaces

Last week when Trish's comment suggested Cheerio necklaces in response to our pasta ones, we were all keen to give it a go. I also thought Nutri-grain might be suitable too.

I prepared some white cotton and big needles ready for an after school activity. I thought big needles would be a good lesson in learning respect for sharp poky things. They were also the only tool I had at hand that would go through the small holes in the Nutri-grain.
















Being after school for B, this did turn into an eating activity too

Little Miss concentrated hard on not hurting herself with the needle

B preferred the Nutri-grain over the Cheerios and varied the ways to thread it on.

He was also very keen to eat his finished necklace

Little Miss lost interest about 10 minutes into it, and asked me to finish it off for her. She did learn what the sharp end of the needle felt like on her finger, but no tears emerged. Maybe a bracelet would have been a better size for her concentration span. And she really didn't like getting her fingers all sticky. But I thought this was a fun activity that fed them along the way. It could be quite portable too.

Check out what other kids are playing at over on childhood 101.