Sweet valentine

Valentines day is a difficult Canadian custom for me to get my head around.

Our first February in Canada:

 I get a list from our preschool teacher with all the kids' names, just prior to the big day. I think that's a lovely thing to have, and pop it on the magnet board next to my computer.

Valentines Day comes around, my 3 year old comes home ecstatic because he has received a Valentines card from every other child in his class! The penny drops... so that's what the list is for. But hang on a sec, isn't Valentines a lovers thing, for hopeful teens and husband under pressure? No, this will "follow him right through elementary school" his dear teacher informs me.

We did thank you cards that year. He wrote a big "thank you" and we made photocopies and handed them out the next school day.

The next year we were on the game. Did some painted heart stamps on paper and wrote the kids names. Luckily it was a small group. Its a lot of work for a 4 year old.

This year I've got two in "school".

My preschooler didn't want to make 20 cards. So he made one for the class to share. Bless. He came home with about 18 cards, plus chocolates. They also had a party with lots of cakes and other sugary items. So I still don't get it. A lot of the cards were store purchased and the parents had written names on them and helped their preschooler put them in all the kids' purpose made valentines bags.

We've had a bit more prep time for our kindy boy. This is his 3rd Valentines Day experience in Canada. His teacher told me she is still grasping the idea as well but she figured "if its a way for the kids to show their gratitude for each other then its a nice thing". So with the 15 photocopied cards we got from the teacher, kindy-boy carefully wrote all the kids's names and signed his own. Then he thought of a personal "I love you because..." message to write for every kid! I scribed for him. Thankfully he once again in a small class. A lot of work. But a beautiful activity to partake in. To be able to think of something nice to say about 15 other kids is truly a gift.

So if we are going to encourage (make) the kids celebrate Valentines Day.... please, lets make it meaningful.

a box of knights

Our knight collection needed a place to play. Correction, we had a cardboard box, and a some time to kill.

First I cut the box.
Then they painted.
Then they cut out pictures from the knight catalogue.
Finally we stuck and coated them on with modge-podge.

Its more than just a fun craft project. They spend ages studying the pictures, talking about the knights and their horses. It is used as a castle and a horse stable. Also, it doubles as a storage box for said horses and knights. I don't think we could have gotten better mileage out of a castle from the toy shop.

rice sack name game

I found this idea on another blog somewhere a few months ago. Apologies to the blogger, I cannot remember where I found it.

I have made one each for my little tribe. One rice sack for each letter of their name. Each set has a different fabric on the back so they can easily find their letters. Now they can practice putting their name together in the correct order.

The best bit is, we have been making up all sorts of great games with our new sacks. The latest game was a throwing one. You throw the sacks into a bucket or box. Then you collect all the sacks that went in and arrange them to make an interesting word. A great challenge for my 5 year old who is learning to read, for my 3 year old who is learning his letters and for little bubs who thought just enjoyed cheering and collecting the sacks and getting in the middle of the game. Priceless.

Card making

I insist now on the kids making all the gift cards for this family. Saves going to the shops for starters, but it also makes it more personal and encourages them (and me) to actually meaning and thought into the card instead of just writing some words on a purchased card.

Generally they have been the children's drawings on a piece of card. I simply add a border around the drawing to make it look a bit more special. Works really well.

Recently we had a wedding card to make so decided to up the effort a bit. It worked out better than I thought.

I cut out the heart for them and they covered it with fabric scraps and sparkly stuff. Then we stuck the end result on some card and tied it to another piece with that plastic twine stuff. They had fun anyway!

A four year old's tale

I have been meaning to try this for some time. I have just scribed my 4 year old's story as it evolved during play. Hard to keep up as I am not a fast typer so there are some gaps. And unfortunately I missed the start of the story. It was so nice to listen - really listen - to his imagination at work, with no editing or input from anyone else.

The story starts aboard Noah's arc. Some of the characters are already on board.

So here it is:

He helped with lots of stuff. He helped he helped with big stuff and little stuff. Where he sat at the front of the ship on the top deck facing away from his wife. The sir, he stood at the back of the ship humming to himself… Also another helper called cripper ripper who fixed the arc and stayed onboard. And also the naughty boys, also knights. One was a king and one was a knight. The knight lived on the train. Well just an engine. He sat on it. Every day his horse went for a ride. He sat alongside the water with the king and looked out to the dock, well he was at the dock, the dock was pretty close to it …..

[Some details about how it was chained up …I couldn't follow this bit very well.]

And then he would not fall off the train.

He found he had a couple more helped who stayed there. And on that ship, safe below, there was a mole from his hole. All sorts of stuff in there. He also had another one who looked a bit like him. Same sort of face nearly because that he was his brother. His name was called Shnoopy. And Shnoopy’s wife was called Moopy. On that ship he had a couple of bulls, brown bulls, and a donkey from the honkey. That dragon was heaviest of them all. And also a couple of rare cows and a horse from the morse and a camel from the hamel and another camel from the hamel and another camel from the hamel and a giraffe from the half and another giraffe from the half and koalas from the baalas and another donkey from the honkey and a bear from its hair another bear from its hair; a couple of roosters from the hoosters; a couple of lions from the hions. Tthese are all the wild stuff and these are all the farm stuff and the wild stuff are up here as well. A girl sheep from the heap. A boy sheep from the peep. A calf from the half of a calf. A couple of rhinoceroses from the poceroses. He had a pig from the hig, another pig from the hig [repeated 4 times]. An elephant from the pelephant [x3]. There we go and the big ship wheels. The big ship steals. Glides away. Only at first and then starts to healk. A little fell out and then safely again. The bad guys could go through the water … the boat was ahead of them guiding on barrels and streams. They got to it when the ship started to wobble. It wobbled out to sea. Noah’s arc was a fine arc it went to go all day … The ship went on watery shadows and streams over the sea to islands where noone has been. And it glided in and the train ship went to dock. Monster is the docker. He got the boat and he docked it. He got it docked. This is how monster docked the boat. He put his head in a special thing then put his tail through one of the windows and keeped it docked as they roared in … Fa fee fa fight they yelled as they jumped aboard. They had to dock their’s and they docked straight onto Noah’s arc and now came to them the king and the knight and that dragon … they started to get their swords ready to destroy it and they started to tear the wood and destroy it with their swords. Monster had an idea. I’ll throw those guys into the bin … And so they were caught. They would not get out. His idea was final helping. They were not coming back ever. “Hooray I’ve saved the ship” yelled monster. “The bad guys I caught them and I’m not gonna tell you how.”

The story goes on. But I was worn out from typing.

Diary of a Wombat

Jackie French's wombat is a favourite character in our household. He sleeps with our 2 yr old at night and his story is read regularly by the adults and more recently by our learning-to-read 4 yr old.

Today (while bub was being very unsettled - what was I thinking) 4 yr old and I decided to cut the story up and mix it up. Well - I decided. He was enthused.

So I laboriously cut out cardboard cards, wrote on all the words (not all the words from the story, just our selection) and then we had a great time putting it all together again. I'm glad he enjoyed it. Wasn't easy to do whilst holding bub and trying to get her to sleep .... Great activity for reading skills and learning days of the week.

Don't suppose you can see that so well. One day I will learn how to take better photographs.

muffins

Oh so yummy.

I had no intention of adding recipes here. But this is the easiest, quickest and tastiest thing I have ever made with the kids. We can't get enough of them!!

1/3 cup oil

2/3 cup honey/syrup or combination

3 egg yolks

2 ripe bananas

1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup oats

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 egg whites

• Beat oil honey & yolks until thick and creamy.
• Mix in mashed bananas.
• Sift in flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add oats. Mix well.
• Beat egg whites in separate bowl until stiff. Stir into mixture.
• Spoon into greased muffin tins until filled to top.
• Bake 180 C (350 F) for about 25 mins or until golden on top.

Makes about 12. Never enough!!

We just made our second batch. This time with just one banana and some strawberries. So good! It seems that you can be completely rough with measures and still get great result. Going to try apple & pear, and zucchini & carrot next time. MMmmmmmmmmm!!

Home made Father's day gifts

We were reading silly poems on the Robert Munsch website. Its like he handed out a licence to let the imagination lose. Writing without inhibitions. So we decided to write a poem for Father's day.

And of course, we also made dad's favourite cake!

My Dadda Went to Cricket

(by a special 4 year old)

My Dadda went to cricket,

it wasn't really wicket,

he soon batted but it wasn't a bicket,

My Dadda went to cricket in the car.

He soon bowled,

but it wasn't really old,

but then it was a bitter bitter cold.

It was really bit,

but it wasn't really what,

so it rita rita rita rita bot.

Mr Mr Mr Mr Tot!

Nature and string

On a recent holiday I picked up a large box of "craft stuff" from a garage sale for just $5. An amazing assortment of goodies which was just as fun to unpack as it has been to start using! Including a big bag of half used balls of wool.

So we just filled up a morning with pine cones, sticks and wool. 

It started off as a craft project compliments of Quince and Quire. Lovely scraps of wool wrapped around pine cones. And my big 4 yr old extended that to decorating sticks.

But little 2, being 2, got a bit distracted from the task at hand. And before too long we had a great game of fishing for wool (all you need is a stick and a box of wool scraps - who would have thought). Then of course we decorated ourselves with woolen wigs, woolen bracelets and lots of wool all over the room. 

What fun! And the best bit was the novelty of brooms and vacuum cleaners has not worn off. So the cleaning up was easy!

Simple distraction

We are quickly discovering that our angelic little toddler is really a cheeky monkey in disguise. However, as he was emptying my CD cabinet searching for music to "put on his ipod" (shudder - technology savvy two year old), I discovered an activity to fill up our afternoon and (hopefully) solve our little problem.

I found an old CD with a case and let the boys go crazy decorating it with old catalogue pics, scissors and glue (for the cover) and stickers (for the CD). They had a ball. 

I thought that all was solved until the "new" CD was quietly added to my CD cabinet. Do we have to make them a cabinet as well? 

But the craft was fun!

Hey diddle diddle ...

This was supposed to be for me to tell stories to the kids. But they have taken over. What a simple idea. Some felt and some glue. Perhaps some eyes would have helped... And now the boys are telling each other the story, moving the pictures around and recreating "Hey diddle diddle" to suit their own amazing imaginations!

Recycling for kids art

"There's no machinery at The Imagination Factory, and smokestacks don't pollute the air. Instead, we teach children and their caregivers creative ways to recycle by making art. The lessons and activities include drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, papier-mache, marbling, and crafts."

The imagination factory is a web site full of inspiration for using recycled materials for kids art. The skill level is a bit beyond my brood just yet. But what a great idea!

$1 road mat

Ok ... so we already had the plain green floor rug. But we weren't using it. The tape cost about $2 for the whole role but we only used half of it! And the options are endless.

Credit for the idea goes to Ridgeway Preschool!

101 uses continued

Those empty thread reels we were exploring are slowly getting decorated and set to work in all sorts of construction ...

101 uses

I just picked these up at an amazing little shop that sells unwanted items from "over 100 different local industries, diverting safe, useable off-cuts, discards, misprints and over-stock from the land fill". I think they are empty reels from thread.

My intention was to use them for art projects with the kids.

They have so far been used for balancing balls, role play telescopes, rolling (very fascinating as they curve), stacking into towers, hiding small toys and trumpets. The art projects will come later - apparently they are going to have doors cut to make tents.

I am constantly amazed by the creative minds of kids!

Check out urban source more inspiring materials.

Thanks J for the insight and the experience!